A Travelers Romance

CountrysideIn Shirley Hazzard’s novel, The Evening of the Holiday, the main character, Tancredi, is not really developed into a full-fledged leading man. Rather, Hazzard uses Tancredi as a means to explain the omnipresent theme of romance while traveling.

Tancredi’s relationship with Sophie is somewhat a tragic one. After just losing his wife and children to divorce, Tancredi slowly falls into a rebound relationship with Sophie, a young English woman who is in Italy visiting family.

I feel like Tancredi fell completely in love with Sophie but in reality she could never reciprocate these sentiments because she needed to return to her life in England. With this reality lingering in the back of Sophie’s mind she could never truly fall in love with Tancredi.

When Tancredi visits Luisa, Sophie’s aunt, she says something to him that stood out to me. Luisa says “You wear a new suit almost everyday eventually perhaps, you will find one that is just right for you” (p.27). I think that this quote is noteworthy because perhaps the way Tancredi dresses is symbolic of his social life. Tancredi feels like he finally found the love of his life in Sophie but their love could never grow strong because she must return to her life in England. Perhaps the suit is a symbol for the women in Tancredi’s life. He “wears a new one each day” because he consistently chooses the wrong women. Tancredi fell in love with Sophie but Sophie never really felt completely comfortable with him. Luisa could possibly be using this analogy in order to tell Tancredi that Sophie is not the right woman for him. Perhaps this is her sly way of telling him that he should move on from her and will one day find the right woman.

At a point in the novel, while on a drive one night, Sophie notes how out of place she felt with Tancredi. Sophie wonders “What am I doing here, on this road, with this man, these sights, this language? (p.43). This realization comes as a reminder to the reader that Sophie is not a native Italian and she will one day soon have to return to her home. Sophie notes the different things that make her uncomfortable in this foreign place. She even states that she would rather be a tourist. Tourists in a way have allies in the other tourists of that place, whereas Sophie, who is labeled as a traveler, feels alone. When a foreign traveler begins to mingle with the natives, they can suddenly feel swept up in the culture and gain an uneasy and perhaps unfamiliar feeling.