The Time of Indifference is a novel written by Alberto
Moravia and published for the first time in 1929.
This book talks about the bourgeois Ardengo family. Mariagrazia Ardengo, a widow, has two children: Carla and Michele. Moreover, she has had a lover, Leo Merumeci, for 15 years.
The latter
became her lover because he wanted to take over her estate. Now, Leo has
achieved his goal, so he wants to break up with her. Therefore, he wants to marry
Carla.
Carla is
tempted to do it because she desires to change her life. Indeed, she feels
trapped in an empty and fake life. She attributes to her mother the majority of
the faults of this situation. For this reason, Carla wants to take revenge.
However, Carla
hesitates to accept Leo’s marriage proposal, since she feels compassion toward
her mother. Mariagrazia is constantly afraid of being alone. For this reason,
she is too jealous of her lover Leo. This jealousy makes her very childish.
Furthermore,
Mariagrazia does everything to save appearance. Doing that, she lives in a
“fake world”. She tries to hide their disastrous economic situation, because
she is afraid to be considered poor.
“There was silence again. The older woman’s fear became vast and
overpowering; she had never wished to know anything about poor people, not;
even to know any of them by name, she had never wished to admit the existence
of people whose work was laborious and whose lives were dreary. <<Their
lives are happier than ours,>> she had always said; <<we are more
sensitive and more intelligent and therefore we suffer more than they do.>>
And now, lo and behold! all of a sudden she was forced to mingle with them, to
swell the throng of the poor and wretched.”
Instead,
Michele is a teenager stuck in his indifference. Because of this, he is not
able to feel anything. Therefore, he is forced to pretend his emotions. This
situation makes him suffer a lot, since he wants obstinately to feel something.
He would settle for any emotion, rage too.
“All these people…know where they’re going and what they want, they have
a purpose and so they hurry along, they’re tormented, sad, happy, alive, while
I…I have nothing…no purpose…if I weren’t walking I’d be sitting down; it makes
no difference”
Through The Time of Indifference, the author
wants to show us the insincerity of middle class and aristocracy. They would do
everything to save appearance since, for them, it is more important than
anything else.
The main
theme of the book is the indifference,
which especially midlle class people feel.
The fake world, which they live in, makes them insensitive to everything.
Because of this, Michele is forced to pretend his rage toward Leo, his love
toward Lisa and his compassion toward his mother.
ALBERTO MORAVIA
Alberto
Moravia, pseudonym of Alberto Pincherle, was born in Rome on 28th November
1907 from wealthy family.
Still young,
he became ill with bone tuberculosis. Because of this, he was not able to go to
school, so he started to write.
In 1925,
Moravia began writing his masterpiece, The
Time of Indifference, which he published in 1929.
In addition,
he worked on film scripts, but, because of his Jewish origins, he could not
sign them with his name due to the racial laws of 1938.
In 1941,
Moravia got married with Elsa Morante, a great Italian writer.
On 8th September
1943, he was forced to escape from Rome since his name has included in the list
of the people to be arrested and deported. Therefore, Moravia and his wife hid
in Sant’Agata di Fondi. They returned to Rome after the war.
Then, he
founded the magazine NuoviArgomenti, where
he took care of the editorial with Pier Paolo Pasolini.
In 1960,
Moravia published Boredom winning the
Viareggio Award.
In 1962, he
divorced Elsa Morante, and moved in with another great Italian writer, Dacia
Maraini.
From 1979 to
1983, he was a member of the Selection Committee at the Venice Film Festival
and special envoy of the Corriere della Sera.
From 1984 to
1989, he was a member of the European Parliament.
On 26th September
1990, Alberto Moravia was found dead in his home in Rome.
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