A story is defined as a fictitious tale and it is no coincidence that Tretheway chose to name the town in Bellocq’s Ophelia Storyville. Though the description of the setting reminds the reader of a fairy tale, what occurs behind this story book façade is far from it. Aside from the obvious fictitious story, the name of Storyville reflects Ophelia’s desire to live the life of someone else.
When prostitutes are selected and used for their services, all of their human qualities are ignored and they are objectified by the customer. Ophelia is forced to go by a name other than her own, pose as if she is a mannequin, and bleaches her skin white. She is pushed deeper into the role of a fictional character as she hides who she truly is.
Ophelia also tries to hide her past and start anew at the brothel. She attempts to become a new person but her memories haunt her and prevent her from doing so. She wants “freedom from memory” so she can “then be somebody else, born again,” but cannot (Tretheway 24). Ophelia wants nothing more than to forget her past and move on with her new life, but her memories of her father and her cotton-picking days follow her.
She also cannot bear to remind herself or Constance about the horrifying things she has seen. Ophelia prefers to omit these experiences from her memory and writing, pretending that they never happened and are but a story. She writes to her friend, “And then there are those, of course, whose desires I cannot commit to paper” (Tretheway 18). What she has done is so unbearable, that she chooses to keep it a secret and act as though it happened to the character she plays, rather than herself.
Life at a brothel has the power to cover up a prostitute’s true self. Ophelia attempts to do this by erasing her memory, changing her name, and acting as someone she is not. Ophelia poses for a photograph, “Now I face the camera, wait for the photograph to show me who I am” (Tretheway 21). She tries so hard to cover up whom she once was that she loses sight of who she has become. She records her quest to bury her true identity and become but a character in a story.
There is no doubt Ophelia wishes to live the life of someone else. The images of horrible scenes haunt her memory. Many different characters control the lives of these prostitutes. The girls should look into the clients’ eyes and mold themselves into something the men desire. The photographer, Bellocq, also controls their fate. He can easily manipulate them into whichever pose her wishes. He shows Ophelia “how easy it is / to shatter this image of myself, how / a quick scratch carves a scar across my chest” (Trethewey 42). The photographer not only controls her and the picture’s destiny, he cab also leaves a permanent mark on Ophelia’s face by a simple scratch across the film. This action reveals how easily limited these girls truly are.
Ophelia was portrayed as someone she was not in her photographs. The camera was used to expose certain aspects of her life while covering others. Her true identity was never expressed in her pictures. I agree that she relied on the camera to help her determine who she really was.
Rebecca, while I’ll agree that the name Storyville is evocative, you’ll find that it’s not a fictitious place. And while you’re right that she doesn’t tell Constance everything that she has seen and done in her time in the brothel, is it because it is unbearable? To what degree has she chosen what she’s doing and is fine with what she’s doing?