“One day, a lovely woman brought the emperor a revolving circus operated by midgets. The midgets acted all of the tragedies and many of the comedies. They acted them all at once, and it was fortunate that Tetrahedron had so many faces, otherwise he might have died from fatigue. They acted them all at once, and the emperor, walking round his theatre, could see them all at once, if he wished. Round and round he walked, and so learned a very valuable thing: that no emotion is the final one” (Winterson 52)
This part of the novel, while discussing the author’s childhood, shows the struggle that she has even in her youth to come to terms with the person that she is. Obviously, her sexual identity plays a large role in her life and how she views the people around her. During her childhood, however, religion became a huge factor in the way she acted publicly at school and the way she views her mother, the main perpetuator of religious belief in the household. In the novel so far, Jeanette’s mother’s personal beliefs latch onto Jeanette’s, whether its about the neighbors, the way she interprets school assignments, or who she spends her time with.
The concept ‘that no emotion is the final one’ could easily apply to the contradiction between Winterson’s sexuality and her mother’s parenting, specifically in connection with Christianity. Winterson may have made the allusion to the Bible to show how she really came to realize her sexuality and other intimate things about herself that really make her who she is. In the way that the Bible influences her mother’s life, her mother influences her. Her mother has clearly found a lot of purpose through religion, and Winterson could have found her purpose through discovering the many intricate parts of her identity that’s separate from her mother’s, like Tetrahedron’s many faces.
I understood the story of the Tetrahedron’s many faces differently. I thought about it as the many “faces” that Jeanette may have to put on in front of her church congregation, mother, and class room. Although she does believe what she is taught from church and her mother, she still has doubts and still “performs” for her mother to a certain extent. The performance is an act of survival and she must make sure that she is safe. This made me think of Sedgwick’s piece about survival as a queer identified person and how society reinforces heterosexuality. As a result, it makes it difficult for young people to come to terms with their sexuality.
This excerpt regarding the tetrahedron was one of my favorite portions of the reading and I really enjoyed your interpretation of the tetrahedron. I interpreted the tetrahedron as being representative of the authors own experience. Living in a highly religious household, Winterson was forced to hide her true identity in a variety of ways. While abiding by her mother’s deep religious values, Winterson would have to switch between her many faces in an effort to deceive her mother. This variety of “faces” and deception they produced she utilized enabled her to gain acceptance from her mother who would have otherwise been unaccepting. These faces hid her until she was able to come to terms with her own identity.
I like your idea of connecting Terahedron’s faces with Jeanette’s identity. When reading this part of the novel I interpreted it in a similar way. Like Terahedron having many faces, Jeanette does too. Jeanette has to put on a different face depending on the environment she is in. She has a face for school, a face for home, a face for church, and a face for when she is with Melanie. All of these faces look different and say different things depending on where they are and who they are with.