Cosmopolitanism and Material Ethics 89Whereas the characters’ first exchange reflects the Magistrate’s
unambiguous sympathy (“It is cold and late to be outdoors,”) the
successive interactions reveal more ethically questionable sen-
timents (p. 27). Although he still appears to be acting upon the
sympathetic motives we have seen him exhibit, his actions toward
the woman become increasingly imbued with an air of authority.
After having her brought up to the privacy of “his rooms,” he asks
her to “show me what they have done to your feet” (p. 29). While
the imperative, rather than interrogative, mood of this utterance
advertises a discrepancy in power (it is unequivocally an order), the
inclusion of the subjective plural pronoun “they,” while demanding
to see the results of her torture, indicates a somewhat paradoxical
attempt to dissociate himself from the very authority that he him-
self represents.
Indeed, such an impossible position of simultaneously holding
and repudiating power appears to cause many of the verbal exchanges
he has with the woman to become riddled with contradictions. The
conflicted state of mind that develops in this instance is further
illustrated by the highly ambiguous statement that follows in the
exchange: “This is not what you think it is” (p. 29). The labored tone
of this utterance, charged with self-consciousness and more than a
little self-doubt, suggests that it is directed as much toward himself
as it is to the girl. The remark also presents an important point of
reference in the narrative, adding introspective texture to the char-
acter’s later moral reflections. In one such moment, he mulls over the
motivations for taking in the girl: “I wanted to do what was right,
I wanted to make reparation: I will not deny this decent impulse”
(p. 88). However, benign as these impulses may have been, his
authoritative position within a highly unequal social order condemns
their expression to those of domination and control. Almost uncon-
sciously, he finds himself drawn to the woman’s body, developing
an obsession with ritualistically cleaning her feet and body (p. 30).
This ceremonial performance, to which he attaches almost spiritual
significance, resonates with the similarly cathectic ceremony with
which Joll tortures his “barbarian” captives. Evoking what Foucault
labeled the “ceremonial of punishment,” the Colonel uses charcoal