Tarvin 1
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“BABYLON REVISITED”
Text used: Ann Charters, ed. The Story and Its Writer, 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2003. pp. 505-20.
I. TITLE
1. There are two basic Biblical connotations of ______:
a. That it represents any city ofdecadence.
b. That it is a place ofexile or entrapment.
2. In this story, Charlie J. Wales’s “Babylon” is ______, France, of the late 1920s, acity representing Charlie’s past ______.
3. It is also a city of exile since not only is his ______held from him there, but also some ghosts from his past come back to haunt him, thwarting his chances of reclaiming her.
4. Although ______tries to revivehis integrity and start again, every street he travels in Paris reminds him of his reckless ______.
5. Charlie comes to learn that giving up a ______problem and making ______do not necessarily regain him his honor, symbolized by his daughter’s name, ______, or add up to restoring a seriously “dissipated” character: He “suddenly realized the meaning of the word ‘______’—to ______into thin ______: to make ______of something” (508).
6. As an old citizen of a symbolic “______,”bit by bit, Charlie is overwhelmed by his_____, from which he cannot ______.
II. THEME
1. The central theme is how the ______affects the present.
2. For Charlie, the past was the time when he irresponsibly threw away “______-franc notes” (508) in an unsuccessful effort to forget everything he really cared for—his wife and his ______.
3. He was trying to believe that not only snow but every other reality of life could be made to disappear simply by paying some money: The “______of [1929] wasn’t ______. If you didn’t want it to be ______, you just paid some ______” (519).
4. The new Charlie concludes, “In retrospect it was a ______” (516). He believes that he has put that horrible______behind him.
5. However, it is that past which returns to haunt him in the intrusion of ______Schaeffer and Lorraine ______, in essence, ghosts from a past which Charlie cannot ______.
III. PLOT
1. The story is circular since it begins and ends withCharlie ______sitting in the ______Bar, the oncefabulous center of American dissipation in ______, contemplating the irredeemable past with its terrible meaningless, irresponsible fun.
2. BEGINNING (SECTIONS 1 and 2): SECTION 1: This theme of the influence of the past on the present is responsible for the muted echoes of the past at the ______Bar—the familiar names from the list of a year and a half ago, the details about ______Fessenden, that “______fellow” (506), who has become what Charlie just missed becoming, or the “______” (homosexuals) whom “nothing affects” (506).
3. It is at the Ritz that Charlie tells why he has returned to Paris: “to see my little ______” (506).
4. The significance of his leaving his ______-in-law’s address for a man named ______(505) hits near the end of the story when the drunken Duncan ______and Lorraine ______show up to sabotage Charlie’s chance of reclaiming his ______from his already embittered sister-in-law, ______.
Inadvertently, Charlie sabotages his campaign to get ______from his sister-in-law and her husband by leaving their address for ______with the bartender ______.
5. It is this sense of the past which dwells with Charlie during his ride through the Paris of “______-red, ______-blue, ______-green signs,” on the “______majesty”of the“Place de la ______” (506).
This is the magnificent Paris that the Charlie of1929 had never seen. He concludes that “I ______this city for myself,” and that he woke up and found that “______was gone, and __ was gone” (506).
6. Honoria, along with ______and ______Peters, is then introduced. She is living with these relatives of Charlie’s dead ______. Marion’s disapproval of his past is seen when she seizes on Charlie’s chance comment that he was in a ______that afternoon (507).
7. His statement about “character”suggests thatCharlie has really changed: “He believed in ______. . . as the ______valuable element. Everything else ______” (508). For instance, to show that he has cured himself of his alcoholism, he ritually tests his control over it by taking “one ______every afternoon, and ___ more” (507).
8. Postponing until another day “the discussion of what they knew had ______him to Paris” (507), after dinner Charlie leaves and takes a sober and disenchanted tour of the decadent section of Paris he had known so well in 1929, the ______, where “the catering to ______and waste was on an utterly ______scale” (508).
This visit shows his desire to confront his ______(to show that Montmartre no longer has any ______to him).
9. It is during this walk-around when we find out that something Charlie had done in the Paris of 1929 had caused his ______to be taken from him and his ______to have “escaped to a ______in Vermont” (508).
10. SECTION 2: The next day Charlie takes Honoria for ______at a nice restaurant. It is here (509) that his full name, Charles __. ______, is given. (The initials C. J. may be intended as an inversion of the Biblical initials J. C.)
11. The past comes intruding when ______Quarrles and Duncan ______chance on them. Charlie ______to give them his hotel address, knowing they represent a past he wants to put ______him (510).
12. At the intermission of a theatrical show, ______tells her fatherthat although the Peters are kind to her she wants to ______with him.
13. Her confession makes his heart leap: “he had wanted it to ______like this” (511).
This is the INCITING MOMENT, the point early in a story where the reader knows the problem of the story. Herewe realize that Charlie has come to Paris not just to see his daughter, but also to get her ______. We ask the question, “Will Charliebe able to put his ______behind him (that is, regain his lost honor) and get his daughter ______back?”
14. MIDDLE (SECTIONS 3 and 4): SECTION 3: During the second scene at the Peters’ apartment, Charlie presents his case for regaining ______authority over his own daughter. He had sent a ______to them the month before, broaching the idea of his regaining Honoria (512).
15. ______still opposes giving up the child, bringing up again Charlie’s drunken past. Charlie’s answer inadvertently mentions his dead wife ______, a reference which enrages ______.
16. Marion makes reference to that “night you [Charlie] did that ______thing” to Helen, the night, Marion contends, that he had “______[Helen] out”during a snowstorm (513).
17. Charlie says that when he gave Marion guardianship of Honoria, he was in a ______. Marion again hints that she thinks Charlie was “responsible for Helen’s ______” (514), but her husband ______protests, “I never thought you were ______for that” (514).
18. Helen died of “______trouble” (514), Charlie maintains, not of the near ______which, he later admits to himself, she did contract that night of the ______when she was unable to get into their home (515).
19. Marion finally agrees that they will let Charlie take Honoria with him to ______, where he works (514).
20. As Charlie makes his way back to his hotel, he “felt ______” (515), but in his hotel room he is “______” (515) by the memory of Helen and of that night. Again the ______intrudes, at that moment when Charlie is happiest.
21. He recalls, “Helen whom he loved so until they had senselessly begun to ______each other’s ______, tearit into ______. On that terrible ______nightthat Marion remembered so vividly, a slow ______had gone on for hours” (515).
22. Charlie remembers how at the party they were attending Helen had “______young Webb,” presumably to make Charlie jealous.
After a public argument, Charlie had left the party.
“When he arrived home alone he turned the ______in the lock in wild ______. How could he know that [Helen] would arrive an hour later alone, that therewould be a ______in which she wandered about in slippers, too confused to find a taxi? Then the aftermath,” her near “______,” and their reconciliation which itself was only “the ______of the ______” (515).
23. Wistfully, Charlie dreams that the dead Helen wants him to get ______back (515)
24. SECTION 4: The next day Charlie finds out that ______wishes to retain the guardianship for a while longer, but that Charlie can take ______to ______with him (515).
25. At his hotel Charlie finds a pneumatique message from ______, forwarded from the ______Bar. She says she wants to meet him “for old ______sake” (516).
Digressive Note: What spelling error does Fitzgerald make here? “For old time’s sake” should be “for old ______.” By the way, this error occurs in the first edition of the story supervised by Fitzgerald. In all subsequent editions I have examined, I have yet to see it corrected. This possessive mistake occurs frequently in the writings of other authors.
26. Charlie concludes that he has put that part of hislife which ______represents behind him. “In retrospect it was a ______” (516).
27. He decides not to answer her and is glad that she does not know his ______address (517).
28. Charlie arrives at the Peters’ apartment for dinner, at once noticing that ______is now totally reconciled to his getting Honoria.
However, as he, Honoria, the Peters, and the Peters’ children are talking before dinner, ______and ______, both drunk, barge in (517).
29. Careless, irresponsible, uncalculating—nevertheless, they had tracked down with drunken cunning the Peters’ ______, which Charlie had left at the Ritz Bar in section 1 (505), and had tracked Charlie there: “Charlie was astounded; unable to understand how they ferreted out the ______address” (517). “‘I didn’t tell them to come here. They ______your name out of somebody’” (518).
They come like ghosts out of the ______which Charlie was hoping would not be resurrected against him.
30. This is the CLIMAX, for it shows that Charlie cannot ______his ______, which seemed doomed to find him out. Believing that if Charlie has such friends asthese he is not reliable, ______leaves the room, and ______knows that he has lost ______(519).
31. END (SECTION 5): Charlie is back in the ______Bar. Its owner Paul comes over to speak with him. The language of their conversation has a symbolic meaning for ______because whilePaul is speaking about finance and money, Charlie applies the financial terms to ______and love.
32. Paul speculates that Charlie “lost a lot in the [1929 stock market] ______,” but Charlie answers that “I lost everything I wanted [his wife and child] in the ______.” Paul inquires, “Selling ______,”that is, selling his stocks before they reached their height, and Charlie answers, “Something like ______” (519). “Sell short” means either “to sell stock not yet owned” or “to underestimate the value of something.”
33. At this point, Charlie’s past “swept over him like a ______” (519). The “______of ______-______wasn’t real ______. If you didn’t want it to be ______, you just ______some ______” (519).
34. Charlie calls the Peters and finds out the news he expects, that Marion will not considering his taking Honoria “for ______months” (520).
35. Charlie shows how strong his “______” is (look back to page 508) because, despite the blow, he still refuses to take another ______, having already had his ______-a-day maximum.
36. He tries to console himself by saying that he would send Honoria “lots of ______,” but adds “angrily that this was just ______” (520), the implication being that he had lost everything by putting too much faith in things and money, instead of love and ______.
37. He wonders if “they” will continue to “make him pay ______” and is certain that “______wouldn’t have wanted him to be so ______” (520).
38. It is a “wailing” ______. ______at the story’s end.
IV. CHARACTERS
1. PROTAGONIST: Charlie, of course, is the protagonist. The story stresses the responsible person that Charlie has become during his time of recovery in ______. He has become even ______than he was before he lost his money in the stock market crash of 1929.
2. He has acquired a belief in the value of hard work, of discipline, as is shown in his one-a-day ______ritual, and of character “as the ______valuable element” (508).
3. At the center of Charlie’sfeeling is his overwhelming ______for his daughter, Honoria: Her name suggests “______,” which in a sense Charlie is also trying to regain.
4. Honoria, in turn, prefers to live with her ______rather than continue in the home of the ______.
5. ANTAGONISTS: The two women, Marion ______and Lorraine ______.
6. Charlie is trapped between two feminine extremes: The rigidly neurotic ______(her last name is based on the Greek petros, ‘rock’)with herfalse stability, and ______(her first name is a “cross,” which ironically Charlie must bear, and her last name suggests “______”), with her slightly shabby frivolousness.
7. ______exults in respectability and responsibility, while ______is the embodiment of disrepute and irresponsibility.
ANSWER KEY
I. 1. Babylon.
2. Paris; decadence.
3. daughter.
4. Charlie; past.
5. drinking; money; Honoria; dissipate; dissipate; air; nothing out.
6. Babylon; past; escape.
II. 1. past.
2. thousand; child.
3. snow; real snow; snow; money.
4. nightmare; past.
5. Duncan; Quarrles; escape.
III. 1. Wales; Ritz; Paris.
2. past; Ritz; year; Claude; dandy; strident queens.
3. girl.
4. brother; Schaeffer; Schaeffer; Quarrles; daughter; Marion Peters; Honoria;
Schaeffer; Alix.
5. fire; gas; ghost; pink; Concorde; spoiled; everything; I.
6. Marion; Lincoln; wife; bar.
7. character; eternally; wore out; drink; no.
8. brought; Montmartre; vice; childish; past; allure.
9. child; wife; grave.
10. lunch; J Wales.
11. Lorraine; Schaeffer; refuses; behind.
12. Honoria; live.
13. come; back; past; Honoria.
14. legal; letter.
15. Marion; Helen; Marion.
16. terrible; locked.
17. sanitarium; death; Lincoln; responsible.
18. heart; pneumonia; snowstorm.
19. Prague.
20. exultant; haunted; past.
21. abuse; love; shreds; February; quarrel.
22. kissed; key; anger; snowstorm; pneumonia; beginning; end.
23. Honoria.
24. Marion; Honoria; Prague.
25. Lorraine; Ritz; time’s; times’ sake.
26. Lorraine; nightmare.
27. hotel.
28. Marion; Lorraine; Duncan.
29. address; Peters’; wormed; past.
30. escape; past; Marion; Charlie; Honoria.
31. Ritz; Charlie; family.
32. crash; boom; short; that.
33. nightmare; snow; twenty-nine; snow; snow; paid; money.
34. six.
35. character; whisky; one.
36. things; money; family.
37. forever; Helen; alone.
38. Charlie J. Wales.
IV. 1. Prague; richer.
2. drinking; eternally.
3. love; honor.
4. father; Peters.
5. Peters; Quarrles.
6. Marion Peters; Lorraine Quarrles; quarrelsome.
7. Marion; Lorraine.