Cosmopolitanism and Tragic Silence 139Faunia’s dairy farm, in which he became engrossed in observing the
two lovers, he refers to the spectacle as taking place on a “stage with
two leading actors and [... a] chorus of cows” (p. 46). Of course, the
“chorus” here refers to the Greek chorus, a collection of performers
and actors integrated into the cast that conveys to the audience the
mood and direction of the play—in this instance, the “audience”
constitutes Zuckerman and the reader. But what is of greater interest
is the reason why this scene appears to strike Zuckerman as particu-
larly tragic: the “enamoured old man watching at work the cleaning
woman-farmhand who is secretly his paramour [... is] a scene of
pathos and hypnosis and sexual subjugation” (p. 46). The source of
“pathos” here, that most essential element of tragedy, is Silk’s unre-
mitting desire for Faunia, which brings him both disgrace (Delphine
Roux uses the fact that Faunia is socially vulnerable to smear Silk
as an unscrupulous sexual predator) and death (Faunia’s psychotic
ex-husband, Les Farley, kills the couple in a jealous rage).
T h i s e m p h a s i s o n d e s i r e b r i n g s S i l k ’ s s t o r y — o r a t l e a s t Z u c k e r m a n ’ s
presentation of it—directly in line with the Greek tragic tradition in
that it depicts the emotion as, in the words of Terry Eagleton, a
“merciless, inhuman quality, as a sort of natural catastrophe which
suddenly rears its head and knocks you sideways [... ] a sickness or
affliction to be lamented as deeply as death, and from which death
is often the only exit.”^41 Desire is therefore in this sense a universal-
izing trait of the human subject, which cuts through socialization
and reason.
However, while desire is certainly embedded in Silk’s hamartia,
I contend that it is the character’s silence—his inability to speak
freely—that brings about his ultimately tragic end. Indeed, it is
Silk’s reticence and enigmatic lifestyle that serve as perhaps the most
compelling aspects of the narrative. Not only does he refrain from
telling Zuckerman of his African American heritage (the latter only
discovers this by chance), but we also learn that Silk has kept the
secret from his family and colleagues for decades. Just how such “dis-
honesty” has affected the psychology of this intelligent and complex
human being therefore comes to present an intriguing question. In
itself, the silence must have been a source of great personal anguish
as it would have forced Silk, a proud and expressive individual, to lie