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F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
“BABYLON REVISITED”
I. TITLE
1. There are two basic Biblical connotations of _____________:
a. That it represents any city of decadence.
b. That it is a place of exile or entrapment.
2. In this story, Charlie J. Wales’s “Babylon” is _______, France, of the late 1920s,
a city representing Charlie’s past _________________.
3. It is also a city of exile since not only is his ____________ held from him
there, but also some ghosts from his past come back to haunt him, thwarting his
chances of reclaiming her.
4. Although _____________ tries to revive his integrity and start again, every
street he travels in Paris reminds him of his reckless _______.
5. Charlie comes to learn that giving up a ____________ problem and
making _______ do not necessarily regain him his honor, symbolized by his
daughter’s name, _________________, or add up to restoring a seriously
“dissipated” character:
He “suddenly realized the meaning of the word ‘________________’—to
______________ into thin _____: to make ___________ _____ of
something.”
6. As an old citizen of a symbolic “_______________,” bit by bit, Charlie is
overwhelmed by his _______, from which he cannot __________.
II. THEME
1. The central theme is how the ____________ affects the present.
2.
For Charlie, the past was the time when he irresponsibly threw away
“_______________-franc notes” in an unsuccessful effort to forget everything
he really cared for—his wife and his ___________.
3. He was trying to believe that not only snow but every other reality of life could be
made to disappear simply by paying some money: The “__________ of [1929]
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wasn’t ________ _________. If you didn’t want it to be ________, you just
paid some ___________.”
4.
The new Charlie concludes, “In retrospect it was a _______________.”
believes that he has put that horrible ________ behind him.
He
5.
However, it is that past which returns to haunt him in the intrusion of
__________ Schaeffer and Lorraine ______________, in essence, ghosts
from a past which Charlie cannot ________.
III. PLOT
1. The story is circular since it begins and ends with Charlie ________ sitting in the
________ Bar, the once fabulous center of American dissipation in
__________, contemplating the irredeemable past with its terrible
meaningless, irresponsible fun.
2. BEGINNING (SECTIONS 1 and 2): SECTION 1: This theme of the influence of
the past on the present is responsible for the muted echoes of the past at the
_________ Bar—the familiar names from the list of a year and a half ago,
the details about _________ Fessenden, that “________ fellow” who has
become what Charlie just missed becoming, or the “_____________
___________” (homosexuals) whom “nothing affects.”
3. It is at the Ritz that Charlie tells why he has returned to Paris: “to see my little
_________.”
4. The significance of his leaving his ___________-in-law’s address for a man
named ________________ hits near the end of the story when the drunken
Duncan ____________ and Lorraine ____________ show up to sabotage
Charlie’s chance of reclaiming his ______________ from his already
embittered sister-in-law, ____________ _________.
Inadvertently, Charlie sabotages his campaign to get ______________ from
his sister-in-law and her husband by leaving their address for ____________
with the bartender _______.
5. It is this sense of the past which dwells with Charlie during his ride through the
Paris of “________-red, ______-blue, _________-green signs,” on the
“______ majesty” of the “Place de la _______________.”
This is the magnificent Paris that the Charlie of 1929 had never seen. He
concludes that “I ___________ this city for myself,” and that he woke up
and found that “______________ was gone, and __ was gone.”
6. Honoria, along with ____________ and ____________ Peters, is then
introduced. She is living with these relatives of Charlie’s dead _________.
Marion’s disapproval of his past is seen when she seizes on Charlie’s chance
comment that he was in a ______ that afternoon.
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7.
His statement about “character” suggests that Charlie has really changed: “He
believed in _____________ . . . as the ______________ valuable element.
Everything else ________ _____.”
For instance, to show that he has cured himself of his alcoholism, he ritually tests
his control over it by taking “one _________ every afternoon, and ___ more.”
8. Postponing until another day “the discussion of what the Peters knew had
____________ him to Paris,” after dinner Charlie leaves and takes a sober and
disenchanted tour of the decadent section of Paris he had known so well in 1929,
the ________________, where “the catering to ________ and waste
was on an utterly ____________ scale.”
This visit shows his desire to confront his ________ (to show that Montmartre
no longer has any _______ to him).
9. It is during this walk-around when we find out that something Charlie had done in
the Paris of 1929 had caused his _____________ to be taken from him and his
_______ to have “escaped to a __________ in Vermont.”
10. SECTION 2: The next day Charlie takes Honoria to ____________ at a nice
restaurant. It is here that his full name, Charles __. __________, is given.
(The initials C. J. may be intended as an inversion of the Biblical initials J. C.)
11. The past comes intruding when ______________ Quarrles and Duncan
_____________ chance on them. Charlie _______ to give them his hotel
address, knowing they represent a past that he wants to put ___________ him.
12. At the intermission of a theatrical show, ______________ tells her father that
although the Peters are kind to her she wants to _______ with him.
13. Her confession makes his heart leap: “he had wanted it to ___________ like
this,” that is, that she, not he, broaches the idea of living with him.
This is the INCITING MOMENT, the point early in a story where the readers
know the problem of the story.
Here we realize that Charlie has come to Paris not just to see his daughter, but
also to get her ________.
We ask the question, “Will Charlie be able to put his _________ behind him
(that is, regain
his
lost honor) and
get custody of his daughter
________________?”
14. MIDDLE (SECTIONS 3 and 4): SECTION 3: During the second scene at the
Peters’ apartment, Charlie presents his case for regaining ______ authority over
his own daughter. He had sent a _________ to them the month before,
presenting the idea of his regaining Honoria.
15.
_______________ still opposes giving up the child, bringing up again
Charlie’s drunken past. Charlie’s answer inadvertently mentions his dead
wife ________, a reference which enrages _____________.
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16. Marion makes reference to that “night you [Charlie] did that _____________
thing” to Helen, the night, Marion contends, that he had “___________
[Helen] out” during a snowstorm.
17.
Charlie says that when he gave Marion guardianship of Honoria, he was in a
___________________.
Marion again hints that she thinks Charlie was “responsible for Helen’s
_________,” but her husband ___________ protests, “I never thought
you were ______________ for that.”
18. Helen died of “____________ trouble,” Charlie maintains, not of the near
________________ which, he later admits to himself, she did contract that
night of the _____________, when she was unable to get into their residence.
19. Marion finally agrees that they will let Charlie take Honoria with him to
______________, where he works.
20. As Charlie makes his way back to his hotel, he “felt ________________,”
but in his hotel room he is “_______________” by the memory of Helen and
of that night.
Again the _________ intrudes, at that moment when Charlie is happiest.
21. He recalls, “Helen whom he loved so until they had senselessly begun to
__________ each other’s _________, tear it into _________. On that
terrible ____________ night that Marion remembered so vividly, a slow
_____________ had gone on for hours.”
22. Charlie remembers how at the party they were attending Helen had
“__________ young Webb,” presumably to make Charlie jealous.
After a public argument, Charlie had left the party.
“When he arrived home alone he turned the ______ in the lock in wild
________. How could he know that [Helen] would arrive an hour later alone,
that there would be a _______________ in which she wandered about in
slippers, too confused to find a taxi?
Then the aftermath,” her near
“______________,” and their reconciliation which itself was only “the
_____________ of the ________.”
23.
Wistfully, Charlie dreams
_____________ back.
that
the
dead
Helen
wants
him
to
get
24. SECTION 4:
The next day Charlie finds out that ____________ wishes to
retain the guardianship for a while longer, but that Charlie can take
______________ to ____________ with him.
25. At his hotel Charlie finds a “pneumatique” (pneumatic message) from
_____________, forwarded from the ______ Bar.
She says that she wants to meet him “for old ________ sake.”
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Digressive Note: What spelling error does Fitzgerald make here? “For old time’s
sake” should be “for old ________ _______.” By the way, this error occurs in
the first edition of the story supervised by Fitzgerald. In all subsequent editions I
have examined, I have yet to see it corrected.
This possessive mistake occurs frequently in the writings of other authors.
26. Charlie concludes that he has put that part of his life which _________
represents behind him. “In retrospect it was a _______________.”
27. He decides not to answer her and is glad that she does not know his _________
address.
28. Charlie arrives at the Peters’ apartment for dinner, at once noticing that
_______________ is now totally reconciled to his getting Honoria.
However, as he, Honoria, the Peters, and the Peters’ children are talking before
dinner, _____________ and ___________, both drunk, barge in.
29.
Careless, irresponsible, uncalculating—nevertheless, they had unearthed
with drunken cunning the Peters’ _____________, which Charlie had left at
the Ritz Bar in section 1, and had tracked Charlie there: “Charlie was
astounded; unable to understand how they ferreted out the _____________
address.” “‘I didn’t tell them to come here. They ___________ your name out
of somebody.’” They come like ghosts out of the ________ which Charlie was
hoping would not be resurrected against him.
30. This is the CLIMAX, for it shows that Charlie cannot ___________ his
_________, which seemed doomed to find him out.
Believing that if Charlie has such friends as these he is not reliable,
____________ leaves the room, and ___________ knows that he has lost
_______________.
31. END (SECTION 5): Charlie is back in the __________ Bar. Its owner Paul
comes over to speak with him. The language of their conversation has a symbolic
meaning for _______________ because while Paul is speaking about finance
and money, Charlie applies the financial terms to _______ and love.
32. Paul speculates that Charlie “lost a lot in the [1929 stock market]
___________,” but Charlie answers that “I lost everything I wanted [his
wife and child] in the _________,” the period preceding the market crash.
Paul inquires, “Selling _________,” that is, selling stocks not yet owned, and
Charlie answers, “Something like _________.”
To “sell short” has both a financial and a familial meaning here: “to speculate
fraudulently by selling stock bought on credit” (finances) and “to
underestimate the value of something” (family).
33. At this point, Charlie’s past “swept over him like a ______________.” The
“_________ of _____________-______ wasn’t real __________. If you
didn’t want it to be ________, you just _________ some _____________.”
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34. Charlie calls the Peters and finds out the news he expects, that Marion will not
consider his taking Honoria “for ______ months.”
35. Charlie shows how strong his “______________” is: Despite this blow, he still
refuses to take another __________, having already had his ______-a-day
maximum.
36. He tries to console himself by saying that he would send Honoria “lots of
____________,” but adds “angrily that this was just __________,” the
implication being that he had lost everything by putting too much faith in
“things” and “money,” instead of love and _________.
37. He wonders if “they” will continue to “make him pay _____________” and is
certain that “_________ wouldn’t have wanted him to be so __________.”
It is a “wailing” ___________ __. _________ at the story’s end.
IV. CHARACTERS
1. PROTAGONIST: Charlie, of course, is the protagonist, the character of the story
who wishes to do something.
The story stresses the responsible person that Charlie has become during his
time of recovery in _________.
He has become even __________ than
he was before he lost his money in the stock market crash of 1929.
2. He has acquired a belief in the value of hard work, of discipline, as is shown
in his one-a-day __________ ritual, and of character “as the ___________
valuable element.”
3.
At the center of Charlie’s feeling is his overwhelming __________ for his
daughter, Honoria: Her name suggests “__________,” which in a sense
Charlie is also trying to regain.
4. Honoria, in turn, prefers to live with her ___________ rather than continue in
the home of the ___________.
5. ANTAGONISTS: The two women, Marion _______ and Lorraine __________,
oppose the protagonist Charlie.
He is trapped between two feminine extremes, both of whom manifest aspects of
his dead wife ________:
The rigidly neurotic __________ ________ with her false stability (her last
name is based on the Greek word petros, meaning “rock”), and ____________
______________ (her first name is a “cross,” which ironically Charlie must
bear, and her last name suggests “____________________,” with her slightly
her slightly shabby frivolousness).
6.
_____________ exults in respectability and responsibility, while
_______________ is the embodiment of disrepute and irresponsibility.