Largo Desolato: Philosophy and Love
...lationship means anything to Leopold seeing the way that he treats her. The first time Lucy enters the play, Leopold asks her how life is and she replies “Depressing.” Leopold then asks “Why’s that?” Lucy says “Loneliness.”(9). Leopold then quickly changes the subject. He knows why she is depressed and lonely but he doesn’t want to have to deal with it. Leopold seems to be scared of how people view him, that people are saying bad things behind his back. For this reason he tries to keep people from knowing about his relationship with Lucy. But when the two are alone together he shows much more affection than when there is company. While the first and second Chap’s are taking Lucy away, Leopold shows that he cares for her by telling them “Don’t touch her!” (26) He then tries to fight them off by throwing books at them. He also attempts at telling her why he doesn’t show affection toward her. He says “I prefer to say less than I feel rather than risk saying more”(12). His use of words are just twisting and stretching from reality. He looks at everything from such a philosophical point of view that he expresses none of his own feeling. Scene six really throws out the idea that Leopold has any feeling for Lucy. In this scene Marguerite shows up at his door and is greatly obsessed with his work. Leopold gives her drinks of rum and he tells her about all of his problems. After a few drinks and Leopold explaining how worthless he is, Marguerite feels that she can give him back the meaning of his life. She says “Yes! You have given me back the meaning of my life, which is to give you back the meaning of yours! I’ll save you!”(53). “I’ll give you back strength – courage – self-confidence – joy – appetite for life”(54). This is very similar to the way Leopold and Lucy started their relationship. Lucy describes how their relationship started as a way to “put you back together emotionally! – That would open a door to new life!” Leopold is showing here how he really feels about the people around him and that he feels as though he can just use women for his own pleasure. He gave no thought about Lucy before becoming extremely close to Marguerite. It seems as though Leopold has just forgotten about Lucy or he really just has no regard for her whatsoever. After looking at the ways in which each of the women act towards Leopold at different times in the play, there seems to be a cycle that Leopold goes through with each of them. Towards the end of the play, Lucy seems to begin to treat Leopold very similarly to way Suzana does at the beginning of the play. When Lucy says “No Leopold, you’re no broken wreck, you’re an ordinary bullshit-artist- you’ve had enough of me and now you want to get shot of me.”(25). She is beginning to see what Leopold is all about. Suzana already knows what Leopold is all about; she treats him poorly because she has seen the way he is, in an intimate relationship. Suzana always has some snappy remar...