Self-pity and the Seamstress

Throughout our lives, hopefully, everyone will have at least one revelatory moment invoked by some sort of artistic display, painting, novel, poem, verse, scenery, etc. The gloomy painting, “Bordando el Manto Terrestre,” moves Oedipa into a moment of intense self-reflection. Almost like a mirror, she is faces the truths within her life when studying this painting. The frail, golden haired women are so helpless as they spin away for the world around them. Oedipa considers herself perverse for having this intense, pitiful moment; but I believe it a necessary beginning to change. She was obviously unhappy with her current state of life, as she describes herself being captive in a tower like Repunzel. As humans, we are innately complex and dysfunctional at some level. We desire to move from this state to simplicity, clarity and functionality and I believe relieving change begins with a act of self-reflection. At the end of chapter it reads, “…she may fall back on superstition, or take up a useful hobby like embroidery, or go-mad, or marry a disk jockey. If the tower is everywhere and the knight of deliverance no proof against its magic, what else?” This feeling of the tower in her life having the magical ability to entrap her without a notable way to escape, places her in the seat of these seamtress. She cries knowing her current state and feeling helpless to move out of it. I believe her feeling of self-pity and helplessness just perpetuated this intense feeling of entrapment. I asked myself, “Why does she feel unable to change the course of her future? Why does she only face this issue head on and find the true solution?” Although, there was not a true resolution to the mystery surrounded around her ex-boyfriend, I was glad to see Oedipa taking some sort of active steps towards unraveling the mystery.