34
P.ARTISAN REVIEW
they will go on to assure me that, if I knew workingmen and peasants
better, I wo·uld be of the same opinion. I do not believe them. For:
"As for tlv.lt working class, suffering ·and oppressed, upon which
you
have founded your own well-being,-not to realise that it is you wlzo
have
made it what it is, that is the thing which to me is so monstrous. You
/z{llJe stupefied, debased and defiled the members of it; and yet, you
hm;e
the au·dacity to say, Look how unclean they are!-Only give them the
means to get the filth off, to lift their heads, to get a little instruction anJ
to take their place in the sun, and we shall see as to that. What it
is
possible for them to becomc,-that is the thing that matters. And thai
is what strikes fear in you. For you know v ery well that their 'inferiorit1'
is an imposed one. Th eir backs are bent now-you keep them bent; but
only let them drau• themselves erect (although that is not EVer to be
expected of
YOU),
and then, and only then, you shall see what it is
the1
have in them."
Persephone has looked into the Narcissus' cup, has beheld that "urr
familiar world," and she says:
How could I, after this,
Laugh and sing with you, care-fr ee,
Now that
1
h{llJe beheld, now that I know
A suffering people's longings, how they wait'?
0 grieving populace of s!ta.Jes, ye draw me.
To you, I go.
..
The plight of t he proletaire, as Gide sees it, is not inaptly symbol·
ized by the Danai:des, those· daughters of Danaus condemned forever to
draw water in perforated urns. For-
I-!
ere nothing ends,
But each relentlessly
Pursues, pursues and bends
For things that slip an.J flee.
Yet, they are "not unhappy"; that is the tragic part:
Hateless and loveless, without pain or desire,
We know no other fate
Than to begin again, uncompmsate,
Life's senseless mimicry.
Persephone is warned that she is there "not to take pity," but to ruk:
Hope not that thou canst be of help.
