Mikkel Christensen Randers Statsskole, 2.

e 30-11-2010

After Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac

If a father should choose between the platonic love there is between him and his child

and the amorous love between him and a woman, then what would he choose? It

would be a seemingly impossible task to complete and an even more impossible

choice to understand. On one hand there is nothing greater than the unconditional

love a parent has for its child where one is loved despite of whatever flaws one

may have. It is based on blood relations which are strong enough to withstand

even the most difficult conflicts and because of that it doesn’t need constant

attention and kind words to maintain. On the other hand the more passionate and

romantic love is one of the fundamental human needs. This love can only be found

in adult relations and need more care-taking and preserving which is also why it

can be short-termed. Both kinds of love is highly important and choosing one over

another can be heartbreaking. The main character Alan, in Rachel Cusk’s “After

Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac”, is forced to make this decision and almost ends

up leaving his wife Sally and his son Ian for another woman. It is therefor very clear

that the theme of the short story is: sacrificing one love for another, because this

is eventually what Alan does.

The story takes place in present-day London where Alan, who is also the

narrator in the story, lives with his wife Sally and newborn son Ian. Alan’s life

before and right after his son was born was very common. He lived a normal life

until his son was born and his wife started to suffer from postpartum depression

which forced him to take care of his son on his own and leave his job. He started

to take his son around London and one day he stumbles upon an art gallery. The

beautiful art fills him with the feeling that there is a whole other side of life he had

yet to discover. Everything from his “past life”, except Ian of course, bores him

and he feels ashamed of everything he has done. His job, his wife, his friends and

his conversations are all dull and trivial compared to the new world he has just

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discovered. This may indicate that Alan’s friends and surroundings may not have

been the most intellectual nor sophisticated and this doesn’t fit his new form of

lifestyle. He then meets the German art history teacher Gerte who fits his new-

found way of life perfectly. Alan describes Gerte as well educated, delicate and

beautiful and she is also described to be the opposite of Sally. Alan indirectly

portrays his wife as unintelligent, rugged and ugly which clearly shows that there

isn’t much love in that marriage. I also think that this explains why he doesn’t feel

like he is his wife unfaithful, when he clearly is, because infidelity is when you are

unfaithful to a loved one. In this case there is no loved one because the love

between Sally and Alan is gone. Alan is madly in love with Gerte which soon

develops into an obsession. Gerte on the other hand only shows interest in Alan

when he tells her about how deeply he loves his son Ian which makes her realize

that there is some competition. At the end of the short story where Gerte forces

Alan to choose between Ian and her, she is deliberately competing with Ian. Not

because she was truly in love but because she was testing Alan’s love for her.

Alan’s son Ian loves his father unconditionally and he is the one the whole

story revolves around, or the one causing all the chaos, even though he doesn’t

have a say in the storyline. Ian is reason why Alan stumbled upon the art gallery in

the first place and that is why Alan calls him his “passport”. Alan also loves Ian

more than anything in the world and he will do anything possible to protect him

and give him a good life. Alan seems to be smothering his son with love and i think

the reason for that is the experience he had as a little boy where his mother

forgot him on the bus. This have caused him to never make his son feel like he felt

and to constantly remind Ian that he loves him. Another thing is the way Alan

separates his son from his wife along with his old life. I think it is because of Alan’s

new negative vision of his life. He doesn’t want his son to be exposed to the

“bad” things in Alan’s previous life but rather encourage him to make better

decisions in the future. I also think that Alan is afraid that Ian will some how

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remember that his father actually left him and chose another love. Alan is afraid

that Ian can look inside him and read what he has done which can be seen in the

first part of the story. I believe that it is also the cause of his nightmares where he

dreams about not being a great father and not being there for his son.

It is very clear to see the symbolism in the story and that it is basically a re-

write of “The Binding of Isaac” from Genesis 22 in the bible. Very similar to

Abraham Alan chooses to give up his son for the sake of love. The characters in

the story also have the same initials as their biblical counterparts which means

that Alan is Abraham, Ian is Isaac and Gerte is God. This could be a quincidence

but i think Rachel Cusk did this on purpose so that the biblical aspects was more

evident. Much like Abraham, Alan is left with the guilt of being ready to sacrifice

his own son for the sake of love and on top of that he is also the only one left

with the heartache because his great love for Gerte wasn’t reciprocated.