295 Final draft

The Emperor’s Babe takes place in a time that is different yet with seeming similarities to our own time. The novel deals with class and how different classes are treated. However, the question of perception is just as important and not nearly as well discussed by many of the readers. Considering that the book was published in 2001, this idea should be explored because the similarities are even more prominent between today’s society and the society in the book. If the question of perception is not explored an entire section of the novel will not be easily understood. Therefore, the ideas of this novel, and particularly the similarities the society has to the modern day are best explained through Zuleika’s perceptions of her various situations.

This novel directly compares and contrasts the London of the early 2000s with Londinium of the past, but everything is colored through the narrator’s eyes. Zuleika’s perceptions adjust how the reader views the society and situation in which she finds herself. The beginning of the novel is seen through something like childhood innocence. She describes running through the streets of Londinium with her best friend. Even as she describes the streets as being dirty enough to have her return home “itching with flea bites and jigger foot…” there is still some sense of fun throughout the first section (page 10). This changes distinctly when she is married to her husband who rapes her. From that point onward, her perceptions are clouded by fear, at least for part of the novel. She references, “…it was my first night/ in the Kingdom of the Dead,” which clearly shows that she was afraid and that she possibly compared her situation to that of Persephone (29). After this scene Zuleika becomes more withdrawn and feels trapped. However, once she starts her affair with the Emperor, her perception of Londinium is colored yet again. Her idea of the society in each of these three main stages would have been vastly different from when the novel was written in many ways and similar in others.

While the London Evaristo shows through Zuleika is a town on the very outreaches of an empire, she also shows that with enough money, the upper class could still have elaborate homes. Even these homes however, did not save the wealthy from experiencing the weather, especially as the wealthy build their homes in the style of their counterparts in the capital of Rome. Seeing as many viewed London as a bland town that had nothing to recommend it, the idea of following the capital makes sense. Zuleika describes the house she must share with Felix during the winter, “‘Great for British winters,’ I once replied, / as snow fell on to the frozen fountain,” sarcastically describing how the want of the wealthy to emulate the ‘fashionable’ leads to them not adapting to the very different weather and terrain of London and England (65).

Evaristo writes the novel in such a way as to show how station can affect perceptions, since Zuleika switches classes throughout. The very first part is like an introduction and gives insight into the character as she is throughout most of the book. The very beginning before she is married off suggests that she is content with her life and that she enjoys being a rapscallion. Yet, even here, there remains a scene of London that is somewhat terrifying. “Our thanks? To raid his store one night, / find his great, black, rigor mortis self,” describes the time that she and her friend found a dead body in a shop (12). There is no description of how long the body was there, and things like this do still happen today, but this scene was disturbing, especially since both Zuleika and her friend Alba are young in this section. She avoids her family after realizing that her father basically sold her to the man that wanted her as a wife.  After her forced marriage and rape Zuleika becomes dissident and somewhat listless until one day she leaves her house and security detail to visit others. She becomes less listless before she begins to become worse and worse, clearly disliking herself and her lot in life. “I am becoming a spectre, I think…” references how she gets through the first year of her marriage (34). She is afraid of being left alone, but also of having Felix return from trade. This is understandable considering that she could not be any older than twelve when she is married off. However, she manages to adjust her perception slightly to deal with this fact, and when she is gifted with a couple of slaves and finally visits her friends, she becomes a bit happier. “I would have more days out on the town,” she says at the very end of a part of section two, after spending a day with one of her friends (50). Yet even with this section, immediately afterwards comes a section where she meets her husband’s sister and her self-doubt begins again. But, she does gain the two slaves, who start out wild, but as Zuleika muses, “…I hope they will become—/my devotees,” (56). However, once Zuleika begins the affair with the Emperor the novel picks up and becoming more romantic and brighter. Zuleika’s words also focus on the Emperor and not on herself as much. “my Libyan, my lover-to-be,” focuses specifically on her description of the Emperor (130). This again addresses her change of perception. Zuleika’s choice of language to describe the people she comes into contact with help the reader to decode how she might feel about London as well, because feelings towards others color her perception of the general world.

Today’s perception of London is as a metropolitan center. It is seen as a city on par with New York, Paris, and Rome. In addition, London is the capital of the United Kingdom, a direct contrast to the backwater town that was part of the Roman Empire. London is the heart of Britain and was the capital of a very large empire for a number of years. Now, London is no longer a forgotten city on the edge of an empire. Instead, it has become a thriving metropolis that caters to people from around the world who travel or make their homes there. Today people see London as a place to travel to, a place of higher learning, and a place to retire. This outlook echoes how the Romans would have viewed Rome, and how capitals have been viewed throughout history. Rome was the center of a huge empire and was seen as the center of the West. London is not seen today as the center of the West; however, it is seen as an important place for Western culture.

 This dichotomy is interesting in another way when considering the modern slang used in Evaristo’s novel and when the novel itself was written. Evaristo wrote the novel in this time period, where London is a major player in the world, but manages to create the scene of London that would have been more appropriate for the Roman times. The modern slang is not used for the descriptions of London, but instead appear to be used when Zuleika becomes frustrated or something important happens. When Zuleika is talking to her father when her family is over for dinner she thinks “Oh, sod off, you fucking wanker,” when her dad asks her about having a child (86).  Previously she was thinking about how her tutor in Greek literature told her she could not write poetry and now is talking about this to her father. Since her father is not listening and is instead focused on the idea of her having a son, Zuleika shows her frustration in this way. This colors her perception of her father and to some extent the class that she was originally. This changes her ideas about the class structure in Londinium which affects how she views the world. Her modern slang also changes how the reader views her, because it clearly denotes a point where she is angry or trying to rebel against the education that she was forced into. This is obvious from the gradual increase in modern language and decrease in Latin in the novel as it gets closer to the end. Zuleika seems to adapt the language to herself which create an easier distinction for the readers of her changes in perception.

This use of modern slang leads to the easy digestion of the material and creates a perception for the readers that directly correlates to the character. Readers can only experience London through the eyes of the character, which does also bring up the question of if Evaristo had chosen another character through which to discuss London, how that might have changed the reader’s perception. This choice of main character allows the readers to see how someone whose station changes and whose perception is massively affected by those around her could give a description of her life that provides a commentary on the time period. The modern slang occurs throughout the novel at turning points in scene like when she is talking to Alba and thinks “I was the It Girl,” which refers to her having a gilded life, one that looks like she has everything but that she actually hates (99).This gives the readers direct insight to how Zuleika feels and thinks about her situation through language to which they can relate. In addition, some of the modern slang could more accurately describe both Zuleika’s condition and feelings than non-slang. Yet at the same time there is a break every so often where Evaristo brings in Latin words or phrases, underlining more emphatically the time period in which the novel is taking place. Again, these phrases underscore important parts of the novel including when her father is selling her to Felix. In a way this dichotomy of modern slang and Latin phrases also brings in the idea of London as somewhat of a rebel. Essentially, even though the Roman Empire had built London, and Latin was a language spoken by the wealthy and powerful other languages were still spoken by a majority of the population. This dichotomy could also signify London today, as a place where many cultures mesh on a daily basis, like the modern slang and Latin phrases are meshed in this novel.

Just as Zuleika’s perception of London changed based off of her experiences, so too, does the modern interpretation of London change based off of experiences. This is a fundamental condition of the human psyche, which makes Evaristo’s novel all the more compelling.  The choice to use free verse instead of writing in prose also affects how the reader perceives ancient London. This choice means that the reader has to first dissect exactly what is being said before even considering looking into the thoughts behind the words. This could also be seen as a metaphor for London. The reader can look on the surface and see one version but has to look deeper to find what is truly being said before they can extrapolate exactly what is London.

Throughout this novel there are clear dichotomies in the word choice and descriptions of city, especially when in comparison to society today. These differences are highlighted by the changing perception of Zuleika, who affects the reader’s perceptions of Londinium given that she narrates the novel. The similarities and differences are not always completely clear cut, but the reader’s perception of London is colored by their situation much like Zuleika’s perception of Londinium is colored by her perception.

References

Evaristo, Bernardine. The Emperor’s Babe. New York, Penguin Books, 2001.