Buy essay on The Importance of Infidelity in The Shadow of the Sun by A.S Byatt

The Shadow of the Sun is the first novel by Antonina Susan Byatt which was published in 1964. The novel tells a story of Anna Severell, a young girl who starts her study at Cambridge. Anna is a daughter of famous novelist Henry, as she calls him: “distant and largely unknown father” (Byatt, 12). All Anna’s life becomes a struggle to gain self-respect and prove that she is not only the daughter of her father but also a valuable personality as well. The theme of infidelity becomes an important instrument which helps the author to deliver her message to the reader.
Infidelity is an important theme of the novel. It helps to clear the relations between the characters and to explain their attitudes. The theme of infidelity is closely connected with the theme of jealousy. There are several perspectives the author uses to shed light to the theme of jealousy. Anna, the protagonist of the novel is jealous of the success of her father because this success deprives her of normal father-daughter relations and makes her own career choices more complicated. The title of the novel is very symbolic. Anna feels herself in the shadow of her famous father and the author makes an attempt to describe the kind of life children of celebrities have. Anna looks for different ways to express herself. She feels it will be difficult for her to gain high position and honors of her father and she tries different ways to show that she is also an interesting personality. Anna is expelled from school because she runs away without telling anyone about it. Her actions look like a protest of the naughty child who wants to attract parents’ attention. Finally Anna makes a decision to prove that she also has talents. The friend of the family, Olive Canning spends summer in the Severells’ house with his wife and Oliver does a lot to help Anna with study. Oliver not only helps Anna with study but also gives her advices about her life and relationship with her family. Oliver advices Anna to leave her family house to escape the influence of her father. Oliver even wants to take Anna to London as their substitute daughter but this plan never comes true. The second part of the novel describes Anna’s life and study at Cambridge. Anna still tries to find her place at the Cambridge community but she has problems there. The situation becomes even more complicated when Oliver, her father’s friend, comes to Cambridge and they start relationship with Anna. Oliver’s infidelity to his wife and his sexual relations with Anna discover new character traits of the protagonists. Relaitons between Anna and Oliver are not romantic. Sex becomes the only thing which unites them. Anna wants to prove something to herself and the world around her and she does not think about the consequences of her actions. Margaret is jealous and hurt when she realizes that she looses her husband but she can not help this. Margaret got used to follow the will of her husband and she becomes absolutely helpless when he makes things which destroy their family and hurts Margaret.
Twisted plot and complex feelings of the characters for the novel make it a very emotional and interesting reading. Byatt sets interesting and scenes and puts her characters to the situations where they experience marginal feelings and emotions. Enviousness, jealousy and prohibited love help the author to explore human reaction to difficult life situations. The theme of infidelity and sexual relations help the author to discover the inner world of her characters. She uses very intimate details in order to make the readers understand feelings and emotions of her characters. The author’s language is rich and allusive. Byatt uses language, metaphor and color in order to pass feelings and attitudes. The author shows struggle of Anna, the protagonist of the novel, for her identity. Some critics believe that the novel has autobiographical ground and that Byatt describes her own reltioship with her father. The author herself refutes such a reading of her novel. As she herself states in the preface of her novel: “Henry Severell has little or nothing to do with my father… Henry Severell is partly simply my secret self” (Byatt, ix). At the same time Byatt does not reject the fact that the novel contain autobiographical data. This data is presented not in the characters and relations between them, but rather in the landscapes and setting. The description of the Anna’s native town resembles the description of Sheffield where Byatt grew up.
Caroline, Henry’s wife is depicted as a woman totally concentrated on her family and her husband. She does everything possible to shield her husband from any routine duties and any things which may distract him from his writing. Unfortunately, Anna feels that she also becomes one of the things which may distract her father’s attention and her mother makes everything possible to escape this. Relations between Anna and her parents become one of the reasons of her love affair. Anna does not feel good at home.

buy essay

Here Byatt explores one more aspect of jealousy. Anna is jealous of her own mother because she prevents her from normal communication with her own father. Caroline wants to create all necessary conditions for her husband to create his novels but she tries to hard and becomes the cause of distancing of Henry and Anna. Anna is jealous not only of her father’s success but also of her mother who shares this success by helping her father with all kind of routing work and excluding Anna from the family. In addition, Caroline become the incarnation of female roles Anna detests so much. Caroline never makes any attempts to realize her self in other spheres except for domestic work and serving to her husband. From the one side Anna, the protagonist of the novel, is jealous of her mother because she limits her communication with her father, but from the other side Caroline becomes a constant reminder for Anna. Caroline shows the picture of life in the shadow of the sun. She does not have her own ambitions and all her life becomes overshadows by the talent and brilliant career of her husband.
Anna does not want to follow the path of her mother and to become a shadow of her husband. She starts an affair with a married man and starts sexual relations with him in order to prove that she is different from her mother. Anna resembles her father by her ambitions and unusual perception of the world, but she does not want to become his pale cope as well. She wants to find her own place under the sun and all her struggle is directed in order to find her own position in the society and in life in general. Anna is also unsatisfied by the female models presented in the contemporary society. She wants to achieve something by herself and not to be a maid of her husband. Unfortunately her contemporary society did not give women much freedom to realize their ambitions. Anna thinks that sexual freedom may restrict her personal freedom and make her more independent. In addition to the example of her own mother, Anna observes the relations of the Cannings, the friends of their family. Anna may observe how Margaret, the wife of Oliver Canning who is absolutely submissive to her husband. Margaret can not express her likings freely and she hides female magazines because her husband believes them to be a sing of bad taste. Margaret wants to help Anna to look like real woman and tries to change Anna’s clothing style which consists of jeans and t-shirts to more elegant female clothing. For Anna this female and elegant style becomes a symbol of submissive female role in the society and she clothes becomes one of her attempts to show her protest against female roles accepted in her contemporary society. Same as Margaret blames Anna for “male-like” dressing style, Anna mocks Margaret’s clothes which resemble the clothes of the Barbie doll. For Anna such clothes becomes the symbol of weakness and unability to confront different challenges of life. During the work to the beach Margaret becomes absolutely helpless when she had to climb the rough terrain in order to get to the beach.
Anna believes that Margaret cuts a ridiculous figure in her “a cotton sundress, rose and white striped with a full skirt and petticoats” (102). Both female figures Anna observes in her close surrounding make her detest female roles she has to adapt in her further life. Anna is tired by doubts and fears because she can not find the way for self-realizations. Her career opportunities are overshadowed by the success of her famous father and her vision of family life. Anna does not know how to find ways to realize her rich artistic potential and turns to any opportunity to prove herself, her parents and the reset of the world that she deserves for recognition and appreciation.
Relationship between Oliver and Henry become one of the reasons Oliver starts an affair with Henry’s daughter. Relations between Oliver and Henry contain the component of jealousy. Oliver is a young critic who writes scholarly criticism to Henry’s works. Henry and Oliver are friends and from the one side Oliver is disappointed by his role of his friend’s critic but from the other side he is jealous of great success of his friend. He admires the talent of Henry but at the same time he realizes that he can not reach such kind of success. Later the relations between Oliver and Henry are complicated by Oliver’s affair with Anna. Some critics believe that Oliver’s actions may be regarded as an attempt to hurt Henry by starting an affair which may spoil the reputation of Henry’s daughter. Oliver feels envious and jealous of Henry’s success and he chooses indecent way to revenge him. Oliver’s dialogues with Anna during their summer stay at the house of the Severells show his attitude to Henry. Oliver persuades Anna that she has to leave the house of her parents in order not to stay in the shadow of her famous father. Oliver speaks about Anna but in reality this monologues are address to him as well and he speaks about his own desire not to be in the shadow of his famous friend and to reach his own success. By the end of the novel Anna is put in front of difficult choice. She has to decide her future life pass. She has to decide whether to stay with Oliver, or to take marriage proposal from the partner who would be suitable according to social standards. She has also another variant which is to try to find her own way in life without counting on men and parents. The author leaves the ending open and the readers get an opportunity to make their own predictions about Anna’s future choice. The last lines are rich with imaginary, typical for Byatt’s novels: “Greyness, and remembered brightness, things done and things to do; one had to contain them, and continue somehow… ‘Let’s have a drink,’ Oliver said. ‘We’ve a lot to discuss” (Byatte 298). The readers get an opportunity to make their own conclusions based on their perceptions of the novel and the protagonist.
The novel explores human relations in their complexity and unpredictability. The theme of infidelity is explored from different perspectives. The theme of jealousy is also an important theme of the novel. First of all the jealousy is presented in father-daughter relations. Anna, the protagonist of the novel, is jealous of her father’s success and wants to find her own way in life. Anna is also jealous of her mother who restricts her communication with her father Henry. Anna feels lost and powerless when she compares herself with her famous and charismatic father. She can not compare herself to his literary genius but at the same time she can not have normal communication with him because he is too occupied with his literary work. Another type of jealousy is presented in the relations between Oliver and Henry. Oliver, young critics has to write critics to the works of his older friend Henry. Oliver feels jealous because he knows that he will never be able to reach this level of popularity because he does not possess such literary gift as Henry does. Love affair between Oliver and Anna become the reason of pain and jealousy for all participants of the affair. Margaret, Oliver’s wife feels jealous and lost because she looses her husband and all her life positions when Oliver starts and affair with Anna. All the characters of the novel have to come in terms with their negative feelings and to learn to build normal human relations. Anna, the protagonist, has to make her complicated choice in the end of the novel and this choice will determine all her further life.

Works Cited

Byatt A.S The Shadow of the Sun, Harvest Books,1993.
Ashworth, Ann, ‘Fairy Tales in A. S. Byatt’s Possession’, Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 15, 1994.