Olympia's Look

Based on Vreeland’s portrayal and on my interpretation of this short story, I understand Suzanne Manet’s personality as intensely loyal and straightforward. Although she knew of all Edouard’s other relationships and lusts for the different models he painted, still she remained by his side. Not only this, but the story portrays her as forgiving when she follows through with the auction of all his paintings to gain more popularity for Edourd’s work, through the pain she must endure to have the works copied and further engrained in her mind.

A passage that I found interesting from the text that supports my assertion about who Suzanne Manet is takes place during Edouard’s funeral when Degas said, “He was greater than we thought.” To everyone else at the funeral this comment served as a tribute to Edouard’s great artistic ability and his public image to his close friends. To Suzanne this comment serves as a biting reminder of how well he tried cover his flirtatious and deceitful actions with the other women that she competed with for his affection.

Another passage that I felt captured Suzanne’s emotion and her feeling for the relationship between herself and Edouard describes the pain associated with the role she followed during the days of Edouard’s painting. “It was a bit unnerving – the paintings come to life, the painter dead.” She was forced to see the continuous stream of other women in lasting memory, depicted on the canvas while her tie to her living husband broke away. “After all, that was her place, Suzanne Manet, the wife.” And “A dutiful wife, an acquiescent wife would carry out her husband’s wishes even if they were contrary to her own.” These quotes cause me to think that the Suzanne Manet described in the story did not exert her own free will, and only reacted to the forces and events in her life as they came to her (primarily those brought about by her husband and not her own actions).

In comparison to the short story of “The Yellow Jacket,” I find the writing to be of similar style. Both stories allude to different details of the characters’ lives without simply telling them to the reader. An example of this in “The Yellow Jacket” is when Vreeland talks about the paint on the potato. Without an analysis and background knowledge of the painting community of the time in which the story takes place, readers cannot understand the full meaning of what she writes. There is another level to her writing than what appears in a general scan over the text. I feel that this is a major strength of the writing, slowly leaking out interesting details to those who decide to look for them, instead of just giving them freely without any effort.

Similarly, “Olympia’s Look” is written in a style that does not provide all of the details up front. Personally I would say that Vreeland does not use the method as well as in “The Yellow Jacket” because the first few pages of “Olympia’s Look” are confusing to follow through the choppy dialogue. On the contrary, this writing technique also helps to keep the reader searching for more details and makes them more likely to see subtly written bits of information.

Throughout reading “Olympia’s Look,” I developed a few questions about the characters in the story, primarily whether Suzanne really stood by completely faithful during all of their marriage, and if so I wonder how Suzanne would describe her emotions if I could ask her today what it takes to remain married to someone so blatantly unfaithful as Edouard. I can only imagine.