Halt, J.B. Crodin Laceguages Seki Forum Bx g fest 198.2) 258. DECEPTION OR SELF-DECEPTION? ‘THE ESSENTIAL AMBIGUITY OF BORGES’ “EMMA ZUNZ” “mma tangle apart from other cuentos by Borges in having a female protagonist, anPAppears at fret sight to differ aloo in telling, what ie ‘cuentially « story of success rather than — as is 60 common in Borges cone of fulure and frustration. ‘The usual critical approach to “Emma Zana” is to wee it us deveribing how a Jewish girl from Buenos Aires learns that her father, Emanuel Zunz, has committed euicide in lonely exile in Brasi after scrvipg privon sentence for a robbery of which he waa innocent, tho {true culprit being Aarén Loewenthsl, Emma's present employer. Resolving to punish Loewenthal and avenge her father, yet not wishing to go to prisos herslIf, Emma — who, significantly, works in a “él jos” — woaves fan ingeaious plot. She sacrifices her virginity, posing aa a prostitute and ivingietwll to u Scandinavian snilor whose ship is to leave harboas tna few hours) next she yisite Loewenthal on a pretext, shoots him with the Pistol she nov» he keeps in a drawer, and then telephones the police to inform thom’ that “ha ocurrido una cosa que es incretble. ... Bl setor Loe. vwouthal me hizo wenir con’el preterto de la huelga. ... Abusé de mi, lo mate . ."! There follows « familiar Borgesian situation, exemplifying man’s fendeney to interpret reality incorrocty: in a reversal of the usual ending ‘of a crime story, the police are deceived, though not it sooras by a criminal Proper as in “La muerte y Ia brijula”, for Emma hae apparently been on instrument of divine or pootie justice, punishing a wrongdoor with whom human justice had failed to deal: La historia era inerefblo, en efecto, pero se impuso a todos, tustanialnente ora cert. Vordadero eral tono de Bara ke verdadero el pudor, verdadero el odio. Verdadero también ora el ultraje que habia padecido; s6lo eran falsas las circunstenciae, la hare y uno o dos nombres propios. (66-6) Emma's plan dors not, of course, turn out absolutely as she had intendsd ito: the encounter with the sailor is a horrific experienco for her, and Emme cannot but think that “su padre le haba hecho a su madre la cosa horritle que a ella ahora le hacian” (62-3). ‘This is clearly vory ironical as her memoriee of her late mother had until then been vague and it was with her father, ‘after whom she had been named, that Emma had sympathised and identifiod, As he kills Loewenthal there ie thus some confusion of motive: Emma ‘Punishing « man for what another man hae done to her, and her viotim dic», ‘not ao much for the crime he is believed to have committed aa for an offense ‘of which he is innovent: “Ante Aarén Loewenthal, méa que ls urgencia de venger © eu padre, Emma sintié la de castigar el ultraje padeoido por ello. oe, € Hantey Zenniky E 20 SIS Ne podia no matarlo, después de con minuciows deshonra” (64). In addition, ‘he fails to kill Loewenthal with a single bullet as ahe had planned. and fg to shoot him threo times; she is unable alao to denounce him and force hiss Pontess before aquecting the trigger. Howover, her disgust reaultng from the lose of her virginity. though leading her to despatch Loowenthel iv a ‘sty and unsatisfactory manner, gives a greator air of conviction to le sevortion that he had raped her (‘‘Verdadero era el tono de Emma Zune, i rnadere ol pudor, verdadero el odio” [65.6)), and at the end of the story its possible to aoe her as having on the whole carried out her plan wuccen: fully: Loowenthal is doad, her fathor is avenged, and Emma has got off Autre, wince the unwitting accomplice who alone could prove her sory {aleo is by now far out to sea on the Nordetjérnan, Such, then, is the usual interpretation of “Emma Zunz” as the story of fpitarenful quest for vengeance and poeti justice. Crties concur in ecing Emma 4 an intelligent if strange woman with right on her side, and Loo’ fathel e0 0 criminal whose fate is largely merited. Ronald Christ, for instance, callo Emma's plan “‘briliantly contrived" while for Haren, “Erama, esecho, f vengarso del culpable, trazs un plan que después lleva a cabo friamente, con le rigurosa precision del autémata””* Wheelock states that Emma tales ‘erenge “in her own name und right upon the man who stolo money ard caused her futher to be wocused and oxiled and finally to commit a fm Alazraki, ‘imma Zune’ ov la historia de una venganza”, even though “ol primer motivo que impulss a Emma a ose vongansn cede & un motion uiterior que emerge del relato como un inesperado doble fondo”. Alasrek isclear thet although her method involves undergoing “‘un oprobio no menes terrible que ol sufrido por au padre”, Emma does carry out an “ecto de iuuticia”.* According to Sturrock, “Emma Zunz . . . avenges the death of her father (which is in fact suicide) by murdering her employer... She will frame Loewenthal just ae he framed her father,” ‘The above views offer a perfectly valid interpretation of “Emma Zunz” fom which I would not wish to dissent in any way. However, I feel that ‘hisis not tho only possible approach to the story, and Tintend to demonstrate "we are faced with a cuento which is complex rather ‘dan simple in ite narrative structure, and in which various readings of equal fnlidty coexist.” “Emma Zuns” no more admite of a single “correct” {aterpretation than does life itself, and may thus be taken as a convenient ‘tmmbol of the ambiguows nature of reality ae it appears to Borges. In “Emine Zunz” Borges employs one of his favourite motifs, that of the search or quest; this takes different forms in his cuentos, but one should tote that frequently tho fulfilment of the quest is accompanied by a ciroum- tance which completely negates the achievement, 60 that suocees is linked with disaster. In “El Sur”, for instaneo, Dahlmann defines his personality ts that of @ man of courage and a “truo” Argentine, yet this ie offset by the Pomibility that he docs so only at the moment of his dat whether intee ao 260 uospital or actually ight with w compadrito. Hludil in “Kt milageo *" completen his literary masterpiece in his mind and w split scoond later is excented by tho firing-squad; the narrator of “El inmortal” achieves his goal of eternal life on earth only to find that it degenerates into infinite ted- the wizard in “Las ruinas ciroulares” triumphantly creates « phantom to serve hix god, yet leurns with horror soon afterwards that he too is phantom, unreal ereature existing poly a8 another's dream; in “La casa de Asterién” the Minotaur at at eneon hers his longd-fr liberator and redoomer Thess, and immediately mects with death at his hands [This motif of what I would call the “worthless success" occurs in two other Gintos which, like “Emma Zun2", have links with the detective thriller: in “El jardin de senderos que se bifurean"” Yu ‘Twin evolves an ingenious means of informing Berlin thet ‘the British ammunition dump is at Albert, yet his method involves shooting the innocent scholar who has explained Yu Tsiin’s old family mystery, and leads to hiv own execution; the sinologist Stephen Albert brilliantly solves 1s muze-novel, and is at once murdered, while Madden ec officer apprehends Yu Twin a few weconda too late to proveri-him killing Albert; Yu Toiin’s success, it might be added, brings ‘about the botabardment of the ammunition dump, but the result — » mere five days’ delay to the British offensive — hardly justifies his death or that of Albert. Likewise Lonnrot, the over-intellectual detective of “La rmauerte 'y la brijula”, cleverly tracke down his mysterious quarry, yet his triumph is empty since hw haw in fact: movely been following # trail of clues planted for him by his enemy Scharlach, a trail that leads him into a fatal trap. Faced with such examples as these, one cannot exclude the possibilit ‘that Emma's plan may aleo be both successful and yet totally valueless, that she has sncrificed her virginity, ehot Loewenthal and fooled the police tono purpose, failing to achiove the vengeance and justice which she desired. Her stratagem may conceivably involve faults far moro serious and fund- mental than the minor flaws of her momentarily forgetting her father as the kills Loewenthal, and mismanaging certain details of his “execution”; ‘at noveral points in the story we do indeed find suggestions that possibly (but only possibly) Emma not only deceives the euthorities st the end of ‘the story but has been deceiving herself from the very start, her self-deception ‘taking the form of believing firstly that her father was innocent and Loew. \ jenthal guilty, and then that her father’s desth wae really suicide. ‘There is, after all, no reason why Emma Zunz should be any less prone. ‘than the police — or the rest of mankind — to misunderstand reality and ‘act upon false assumptions, and reminders of the essentially misleading (Cotttars ofife abound throoghout the story: Emma herself ems to be nervous ‘of men and to have a mild, gentle personality, yet she turns out to be capable of giving her body to a stranger and shooting her employer in cold blood; Locwenthal is deceived by her falee assertion that she wishes to visit him to information about @ strike at the factory, and the sailor from the 261 Hordstjérnan takes Emma to be 0 prostitute although she in not.* Laww cnthal himself, his eyes concealed behind dark glasses, is like Emma an ‘ambiguous, not to say a hypocritical character: “era, para todos, un hombre serio; para sus pooos intimos, un avaro" (63); he has recently mourned “con decoro” the death of his wife, “pero el dinero era su verdadera pasién’ (64) Hore and elsewhere — aa when the shooting does not go quite ax Ex te reader is alerted to the pomibilities of error and confusion et everything in life, however trivial. JEven the simple business ‘name oan involve misunderstanding, as Emma discovers when she enrols at the sports club: “tuvo que repetir y doletrear su nombre y su apellido, tuvo quo festejar lan bromas vulgeres quo comentan la revis- ‘oi6n” (60). ‘The opening sentence of “Emma Zuna”, with ite date and personal names ‘and other details, is misleedingly clear nd precise: “El eatoroe do enero de 1922, Emma Zunz, al volver de la fébrioa de tejidos Tarbuch y Loewenthal, hallé on ef fondo del zaguin uns carta, fechads on el Brasil, por la que supo quo su padre habia mucrto” (68). ‘The remainder of the paragraph, however, ‘ereates a mood of vagueness and uncertainty:? Emma is confused by the ‘appearance of the letter —tho stamp and type of envelope are no doubt familiar from letters sho has received from her father in Brazil, but “Ia inguiet6 Is letra desconocida” (60). ‘The letter ia described rather imprecisely ss comprising ‘‘nuevo 0 diez ineae borroneadas” (69), and informs her that her father (who hae taken « falee identity and is known as Maier), has died of an accidental overdoee: “habia ingerido por error una fuerte dosis de ‘ronal (69). ‘The letter comes from a fellow-resident of her father’s pensién, but Emma cannot determine whether his name is Fein or Fain; either epelling suffices, of course, to suggest the English word “feign”, with ite implications of fiction, inauthenticity and deception. Fein/Fain himself does not know ‘that his lotter to “Maior'’s family will in fact go to the dead man’s daughter: “no podia saber que se dirigia « la hija del muerto" (59), ‘What does emerge from the opening paragraph is that Emma is explicitly informed thut hor father's death was sooidental; she has naturally no means of verifying this, and various interpretetions of the statement are poeeiblo: itmight be absolutely true, or her father could have killed himself deliberately while contriving the ciroumstances in such o way as to mislead — just aa Bmms does later over Loewenthal’s death; ogain, he could simply have takon his lifo without intending to give the impression of accidental death which othero received; it is conceivable aleo that his death was obviously tuicide but that the authorities (or simply Fein/Fain) invented the accidental overdose in order to spare the relatives from suffering too much. Despite what the letter actually rays, Emma for her part concludes that her father thas really committed suicide — “Iloré haste ol fin de aquel dia el suicidio de Manuel Maier quo on antiguos dias felices fus Emanuel Zunz” (60) — the reader must surcly hear in mind the possibility that she,‘ mistaken €Seiten es 262 Significantly, perhaps, ax Emma site weeping and brooding on her father’s death, darkness is gathering around her. ‘We now learn that six years proviously her father, jailed for theft, had ‘sworn to Emma that he was innocent and that the thief was really Loew. centhal. Emma, then a child of twelve, had no way of checking this acouse- tion, but she apparently believed it jist a she now chooses — once again without definite proof sto disbelieve the statement that hor father had died accidentally. Liko-he letter, this accusstion against Loewonthal can be interpreted in more than one way: Emma's father could be telling the ‘ruth, of eourse, but he could equally well be lying, trying to put blame on fan innocent man as his daughter does more spectacularly later, when she frames Loewenthal for her “‘repe”; Loewenthal would thus be doubly inno-» cent, innocent of rape but innocent also of the theft for which Emma decides ‘that he rust dio — one must remember that Emma does not in fact denounoo him and extract from him confession as she had planned, #0 that there is no actual confirmation of his alleged guilt. Thero is also the possibility that Emanuel Zunz is innooent, but mistaken as to the identity of the real thief, sincerel¥ adeusing Loowenthal when the culprit is in fact an unknown third party — theke seems ng reason why Emanuel Zunz. should be less capable ‘of misinterpreting a situation than so many other characters in Borges! work, ineluding Emma heruelf. It is possible to wee Enttna Zunz ao successfully carrying out « plan to punish a criminal and avenge an innocent man wrongly condemned and driven to suicide, but it is equally concoivable thet her actions are based ‘upon mistaken assumptions which lead to a pointless sacrifice of her honour ‘and the shameful death of an elderly man guilty of no orime savo avarice. ‘This interpretation would bo supported by Borgee’ use of ambiguous language when he tells us that the fact that “Lowenthal no sabia que ella vabia” gives Emma a “sentimiento de poder” (60); Emma's reflexion later that her plan will enable her to enjoy “el sabor do la viotorin y de In justicia” (61), in another hint that her apparent triumph may be completely illusory. This cuento is thus more complex than has generally been supposed, and it in complicated further by the fact thet it is not possible to bo‘certain that Emma is totally convinced of her father’s innocence and Loowenthal’s guilt. She might be convinced, but one must note that she tells nobody of her father’s accusation, not even her best friend; one reason could be that “quick cereia que ol eereto ora un vinculo entre ella y el aueente”, but another is Fehuia la profana ineredulidad” (60), which could imply that sho herself has some doubt as to the truth of her father’s statement. In thie context one might seo as significant the remark by the narrator that Emma's encounter with the sailor and her killing of Loewenthal were “une ‘acoién en Ia que casi no ereyé quien la ejecutaba” and constituted a “breve ‘eae que hoy la memoria de Emma Zunt repudia y eonfunde” (62). = {Beams in lees than convinced by her father’s protestation of innovoneg i Wf Piers OED ha ”/ : I and her plan involves a degree of play-acting more extensive than the retonce needed to get an interview with Loewenthal, to pass herself off at ‘prostitute and to trick the police. Consciously or unconsciously, Emma could. Ere pe, oma nny am characterised by routine work in a factory, insipid meals ("‘preparé una sopa de tapioca y unas legumbrea” [61] ), and an absence of excitement and {80-1}. That Emma, like Dahimann in “El Sur”, hankers after excitement, Gita Be nn Su nt we re rt tc on nov tarde” (60}), and her possession of a picture of the silent-film hero Milton Ese ono et ont he re big hn mem ne wn be a gd ec nt i ne a te a se ta ob te ‘Thero is thus much more to “Emma Zunz” than the comparati unclear as do the facts of her father’s death, his alleged innocence, Loew- wie et aes at ae mn ep oie tr of te hg “referir con alguna realidad los heohos de esa tarde seria dificil y quizé Is memoria de Emma Zunz repudia y confunde” (62). The episode with the tailor is described merely as @ “desorden perplejo de sensaciones inoonexas: sin deed my ton pi ann Tse) a romano ai ea [a calle Liniers” and that “nos const que ess tarde fud al puerto” (62); after that, we have hesitation and uncertainty: wees ars Eel vt mint on264 certainly manager to meet sailors from the Nordsljdraan which he rned i to wail in w few hours, but the details of the mecting are not wholly clear: “de uno, muy joven, temié que le ingpirare alguna ternura y ‘opts por otro, quizé mis bajo que elle y grosero, para que la pureza del horror no fuera mitigada’” (62); the nationality of the sailor is as uncertain ay hiv appearance, sinee he could bo either a Swede or a Finn (63). Like many other cuentag by Borges, “Emma Zuna" ie concerned with the difficulty of understar lity and of even describing it, and the iasues of deceit, self-deception, confusion and inauthenticity are fundamental to the ‘entire story from wtart to finish and do not emerge solely from the deception ‘of the police in the concluding paragraph as Sturrock, for instance, euggeste.® Emma has either punished a oriminal or killed an innocent man; there is no way of telling for sure. She may have acted upon premises that are quite correct or'utterly and disastrously mistaken; she may be motivated by a sincere wish to avenge her father (whether or not he was actually blameloas and really did commit suicide), or she may be obeying more complex yearn ings, perhaps not fully conscious, for escape from a dull life and for a taste of excitenibht and notoriety. What is certain is that the fascination of this story is much Yiminishedif we seo it as having only one possible interpreta- tion; Borges’ ceaders —liko so many of his characters, including Emma Zunz herself — steed always to beware of imposing « single, simplo oxplana- tion upon something essontistly beffiing, multilayered and problematical. J.B. Hau, Swansea NOTES 2 Jorgo Luis Borges, Hl Aleph, seventh edition (Buonos Aires, 1967), p. 65. Sub- ‘sequent page references are given in the taxt of thie article. +R. J. Christ, The Narrow Art. Borges" Art of Illusion (New York-London, 1960), es nuatron sosond edition ada oa rc. Wales Pie Mymater 4 op np a tin taal anon, 1000 7 Alera Versions inrina, rfc EL epje somo mada sutras tran ano de Bo lab, WT cpe i aa Wik garde ee af rovral of roles, nedotaly, ay or ay EE oven ee Eee cs IF a owe cun ar ode tho sue Base epicure ce ae ahaa “Strode Paper Tiere he deal Flaon ef Jaye ue Bogs (Oster, Wh pp 6,08 Bors "orth mali vroture of “El But we fr iatance J.B. Mal, “Borg (0 arn" denen unt brrecnl Hons snd HO might Be eddod thes pronation, involving a i dos the appearance of lve ut no te oaty Of, i an ombiguows eat € (Buencs Aires, 1968), p. 167. In fast “auggenta (200 above). (Of Motif and Symbol im the Short Stories 30. Luis Flares, , 265 uoortanty found at A similar way of establishing « mwod of confusion and y i La’ muorta'y le bras Uh hotel where Yarmulinaky Io eiutdered ove Bin vr enunry wives watrs are, paradoxically. yolow ae deer andy hotel foalf haa festuros in common with a nanatorium, a Prison and e broth. Tho ital aro mine in each case. loaned and romantisied this would of eourse more horny outrage af nme Zana i porptratd, om the rong af th susual conshsin, agent tha adventurous ompuranm whe or saree hn eats crs with he erouneantal Svions Berger's Tela cogs ne ssh entortn fp ep 00, The pum wel pat but te See eee nik fe cic of ledcobeuroonsmpcant mats fa me ls of-University Collage, Aberyetwryth, for his halpful ‘tile. “1 am grateful to Mr Te. ‘comments on the Brat draft of th