Nicole S.

Castro I-BS Psychology

LIT 14: Section R21 Short Paper 1

UNWITTINGLY TANGLED: Thematic Tensions in Jules Supervielle's "The House Surrounded" The dramatic dialogue in Jules Supervielle's The House Surrounded focuses on the meaning of our existence and how we are indifferent about it, along with how we are indifferent to the existences of others. The dramatic situation is fairly simple; a man inside his house is conversing with certain elements in nature (the mountain, the woods, the river, and the star). He is asking them, one by one, to "come in", to keep him company, for he is alone, as is implied when it is stated that he is writing in the "shelter of four walls". This can be taken literally, with shelter meaning "house", but it can also be taken as a figurative device to amplify the loneliness that the man is feeling. There is no other living presence in the house with him, so he is calling out to the elements to assuage his loneliness. Unfortunately, they do not care about him at all. The first three elements refuse his invitations by saying that they are too busy "extendingspreading outand flowing". They are too preoccupied with their activities in the vast world around them. To them, the man is an insignificant existence not worth paying attention to. From the dramatic situation itself do we see the first thematic tension: man vs. nature. The original idea is that man is superior over nature because he can tame the latter. But in this poem, nature proves to be superior to man in two ways. First is that nature is freer than man. The former is part of the vast world, with the mountain endlessly trying to reach the heavens, while the woods and the river are continuously spreading out and flowing across all parts of the globe. As they do these things, man can only stay in his four walls; confined by the very shelter which he built. He cannot be as adventurous as the elements for fear that he may starve, freeze, and eventually die if he were to go on such an endless journey. Second is that nature lives longer than man, as verified by the river when it states "Who cares for people who walk away on their legsthey leave and they will return the way they came." As long as no sudden disasters occur, nature will continue to live, whereas for man, death is inevitable.

The second, and perhaps most important thematic tension is presented by the final element/addressee: the star. We have already established that man is beneath nature in terms of hierarchy, but the star makes us realize that there is another hierarchy within the different forms of nature themselves. From common knowledge, we assume that the star is superior to the first three elements because it is in the heavens (remember that we connote heavenly bodies as closest to the divine beings), but the star's line: "Trembling, I hang by a thread; I cease to exist if no one thinks of me", blatantly debunks our assumptions. In one sense, it reveals itself to be ironically weaker than the other elements. It is constantly trembling because it knows that it can easily fall at any given time, unlike the mountain, the woods, and the river who are all deeply embedded on the earth. The star must rely on unseen forces in order for it to retain its orbit. In another sense, its existence is even weaker than that of man's, who is already supposedly weaker than nature. Man may be mortal, but as long as he makes contact with others, he exists. It is not the same for the star. The star, alone as it spins on its own orbit, will not be remembered if no one thinks of it. With the exception of the sun (a star with an obvious function), most stars do not have planets to give light to, meaning that the only possible purpose they have left is their connotative value to grant wishes. But if man does not make wishes upon it, then the star serves no meaning; therefore, it does not exist. This evaluation stems from two ideologies in mankind: one, that life means nothing when one has no purpose, and two, that we can only truly exist if others preserve us through their memories. To put it simply, existing means a lot more than "being there", and this cannot be fully done unless we entangle our existences with others. The man, who is the first-person narrator in the poem, allows us readers to put ourselves in his shoes; to embody his loneliness and realize that we are searching within ourselves for answers to the meaning of our existence. We are beings who live in our own little worlds or "houses"; too confined by our petty concerns. Yet, there are many existences around us, who only become apparent in our time of loneliness.