Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Tibor Tóth: The Golden Cradle: Philip Roth's Revision of the Golden Bough Tradition

displaying the secrets of the conflict between life and art can not create the desired series of'detached,' free variations of the quest. The dilemmas he himself creates overwhelm Tarnopol since he is not in possession of a valid interpretation of freedom. While Tarnopol locates his difficulties in defining his identity as a free, creative individual in the context of the intricacies of literature, Spielvogel doesn't accept the identification of the respective problems in the fictional artist's problems. He declares that the sources of Tarnopol's confusion are his women and the psychoanalyst explains the situation on the basis of the Oedipal complex. "As he saw it [...] I had cultivated a strong sense of superiority, with all the implications of'guilt' and 'ambivalence' over being 'special'" (M L. A. M. 217). The example is typical of the replacement of Tarnopol's definition of the search for freedom by pleading theoretical interpretations that render his interpretation fluid. Thus Spielvogel undermines Tarnopol's thesis that he could attain a certain degree of freedom through the proper observation of his problems with art and women. However enraged he is, Tarnopol accepts Spielvogel's Freud-based authority when trying to define the sources of his problems with women and thus he loses authority over nearly all aspects of desire and cannot define his search for freedom in either sexual or artistic terms. His loss of authority stems from too much dependency on the past (literary, psychological influences: Tolstoy, Flaubert, Freud; childhood), in most of the cases based on misinterpretations and undermining the stability of his understanding of free will and consequent free action. High Art and childhood are interpreted as the ideal, as the embodiment of perfection, to which any attempt to achieve freedom should make reference. Thus Tarnopol ignores his own status and is constantly attempting to assume authority over the other, the woman, in the name of perfect intellectual and sexual harmony, the ideal spiritual and physical environment for creativity. Because he always projects his desire for freedom on the above dimensions, he has to experience the inadequacy of his attempts, as they don't match his projections of the ideal and do not formulate 'useful' conclusions that he could profit from. He cannot articulate freedom because of his strong commitment to the search for the ideal, 123