Robyn’s Blog

Before I get into the title of this blog, I want to just say that I do own one Thomas Kinkade painting that I received for my conformation, and I thought it was rather uncanny that Dr. Campbell mentioned that even Kinkade’s paintings express a certain “yearning;” because the quote below the painting that I have in my room at home says;

“As the deer yearns for the river, so yearns my soul for thee, oh Lord.”

Anyway.  What we talked about in class today about Jennie being one and the same as the portrait of her and the fuzzy line between the representation of Jennie and the actual Jennie reminded me distinctly of The Oval Portrait by Poe.  As an artist paints a young woman in this story, the clearer the painting gets, the less alive the girl appears, until when the artist finally produces the perfect painting representation of the girl–she is dead.  Jennie is certainly hazy enough to begin with–and after the painting of her is complete she basically vanishes from Eben’s life.  Her existence as a painting is more important to Eben then her existence as a person.

Does Eben love Jennie as a person, or as a subject for his painting?  At first glace, one might think that Eben loves Jennie herself.  However, all Eben ever thinks about is Jennie in relation  to art.  The first thing Eben does after meeting Jennie is to sketch her.  Then he waits around for her to come back so he can do a portrait of her.  When she arrives in his apartment, he cuts the small talk to an absolute minimum, saying, “well–I’ve been waiting for you.  We’d better begin” (61).  Jennie is excited and bouncing around and having a grand old time and Eben doesn’t care at all.  When she is trying to talk to him during their lunch break, he gets grumpy at her and says, “But we’ve got work to do, and if you’ve finished with that last bit of milk, we might begin” (64).  He hurts her feelings and cuts her down to the point where she just concludes, “I won’t talk any more” (65).  Eben was “too busy to try to explain; and besides, it did the picture good” (65).

When Eben is finished with the painting, Jennie does not respond to him and seems to be asleep.  Instead of being concerned, Eben goes down the hall to “freshen up.”  When he returns, of course Jennie is gone.

And who can blame her?  Is that the treatment one is supposed to expect from a “soul mate” that everyone seems so convinced that they are?  It sounds horrible to me.  Eben cares about his art–not Jennie.  Jennie is a tool, an inspiration for his own artwork.  He uses her and then he’s finished with her.  He is left to worship a painting, a mere representation of Jennie.  Or maybe the painting is Jennie, maybe that’s all Jennie ever was.  I hope for Jennie’s sake that she is a mere creation of Eben’s imagination, because if she’s really his soul mate, it would really suck to have such a self-absorbed cold indifferent soul mate like Eben.