Page 338 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories

Notes the Trick is an Evil one, but later on it will be a Good one, providing a way to the Magic Key for
the Bulgarian bride. Arrest and attempted escape of Ugarte. Action movie. Laszlo and Ilse. The
Uncontaminated Hero and the Femme Fatale, both in white-always; clever opposition with the
Germans, usually in black. In the meeting at Laszlo's table, Strasser is in white, in order to reduce
the oppo-sition. However, Strasser and Ilse are the Beauty and the Beast. The Nor-wegian agent:
spy movie. The Desperate Lover. Drink to Forget. The Faithful Servant and his Beloved Master.
Don Quijote and Sancho. Play it (again, Sam). Anticipated quotation of Woody Allen. The long
flashback begins. Flashback as a content and flashback as a form. Quotation of the flashback as a
topical stylistic device. The Power of Memory. The Last Time I Saw Paris. Two Weeks in Another
City. Brief Encounter. French movies of the thirties (the station as Quai des Brumes). At this point
the review of the archetypes is more or less complete. There is still the moment when Rick plays
the Rough Diamond (who allows the Bul-garian bride to win) and two typical situations: the scene
of the Marseillaise and the two lovers discovering that Love Is Forever. The gift to the Bulgarian
bride (along with the enthusiasm of the waiters), the Marseillaise, and the Love Scene are three
instances of the rhetorical figure of Climax, as the quintessence of Drama (each climax coming
obviously with its own anti-climax). Now the story can elaborate upon its elements. The first
symphonic elaboration comes with the second scene around the roulette. We discover for the first
time that the Magic Key (which everybody believed to be affordable only by money) can in fact be
given only as a Gift, a Gift that rewards Purity. The Donor will be Rick. He gives the money (free)
to the Bulgarian couple, and he gives the visa (free) to Laszlo. Actually there is also a third Gift,
the one Rick makes of his own desire, sacrificing himself. The receiver of this gift is the
uncontaminated Laszlo, for (and please notice) there is no gift for Ilse, who in some sense, even
though innocent, has betrayed two men. By becoming the Donor, Rick finds Redemption. No one
impure can reach the Promised Land. But Rick and Renault redeem themselves and so can reach
toward the other Promised Land-not America (which is Para-dise), but the Resistance, the Holy
War (which is a glorious Purgatory). Laszlo flies directly to Paradise because he has already
undergone the Ordeal of clan-destinity. Moreover, Rich is not the only one to make a sacrifice: the
idea of sacrifice pervades the whole story, from Ilse's sacrifice in Paris when she aban-dons the
man she loves to return to the wounded hero, to the Bulgarian bride's sacrifice when she is
prepared to give herself to help her husband, up to Victor's sacrifice when he is resigned to see Ilse
with Rick in order to guarantee her safety. The second symphonic elaboration is upon the theme
of the Unhappy Love. Unhappy for Rick, who loves Ilse and cannot have her. Unhappy for Ilse,
who loves Rick and cannot live with him. Unhappy for Victor, who understands that he has not
really kept Ilse. The interplay of unhappy loves produces various twists and turns. In the beginning
Rick is unhappy because he does not under-stand why Ilse left him. Then Victor is unhappy
because he does not under-stand why Ilse is attracted to Rick, or when it happened for the first
time. Finally, Ilse is unhappy because she does not understand why Rick makes her leave with her
husband. These unhappy loves are arranged in a triangle. But in the normal adulterous triangle
there is a Betrayed Husband and a Victorious Lover, while in this case both men are betrayed and
suffer a loss. In this defeat, however, an additional element plays a part, so subtly it almost
escapes the level of consciousness. Quite subliminally, a hint of Platonic Love is established. Rick
admires Victor, Victor is ambiguously attracted by the personality of Rick, and it seems that at a
certain point each of the two plays out a duel of self-sacrifice to please the other. In any case, as in
Rous-seau's Confessions, the woman is an intermediary between the two men. She herself does
not bear any positive value (except, obviously, Beauty): the whole story is a virile affair, a dance
of seduction between Male Heroes. From now on the film implements the definitive construction
of its inter-twined triangles, to end with the final resolution: the Supreme Sacrifice and the Redeemed
Bad Guys. Notice that, if the redemption of Rick has been set up or foreshadowed quite early on,
Renault's redemption is absolutely unjusti-fied. It apparently comes only because this was the
final requirement to meet, on the part of the movie, in order to be a perfect Epos of Frames.
30.2.4 The Archetypes Hold a Reunion
Casablanca is a cult movie precisely because all the archetypes are there, because each actor
repeats a part played in other occasions, and because the characters live not the "real" life of

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