Christian Sanchez states that Bellocq’s Ophelia is a story of regret led by desire for money. I argue that money does not fully lead Ophelia to prostitution but rather she made a conscious, thought-out decision to join the brothel to escape her violent past.
Trethewey stresses Ophelia’s sophisticated nature throughout the collection of poems, whether it is through language or structure. Ophelia does not try to justify her decision; she merely states it was necessary in order to survive. Ophelia makes this commitment because she wants the survival necessities a life of prostitution would give her if she escaped her current, violent life. She grows up in a life of rape and abuse, and escaping to the brothel would in turn provide her with a roof, food, and care. Having thought-out this decision, Ophelia writes to her friend, Constance, “I alone / have made this choice” (Trethewey 15). Ophelia tells her friend to not worry about her as she has had ample time to think about her decision. Money only plays a minor role in her choice to work in a brothel. The constant flashbacks of her childhood where they make her feel as she is “in the dream where [she has] run, again, / into the tobacco barn at the back end / of the plantation […] The man who comes wears a carnival mask, / and [she is] the grinning nigger / on whose tongue he places a shiny coin” (23). Ophelia’s nightmares reveal her abusive past, not her poverty. This leads me to believe she ran to the brothel because she wanted to escape her abusive life, not to earn money. I believe that Sanchez’s statement “Ophelia’s turn to prostitution is not only based on her limited options, but also on the fact of the universal need for money” is false (Sanchez). I agree that Ophelia needs money, just as anyone does, but I do not think that it was her reason to turn to prostitution. If Sanchez’s claim were the case, I do not believe Ophelia would choose to leave the brothel.
Another example why I believe money did not drive Ophelia’s decision is seen in her choice to leave the brothel at the end of the story. Ophelia tells Constance her “purse already swells” just after a few days of work, so why would she leave (15)? I argue that she leaves because she knows her life will get harder and harder the longer she stays here. The contortionist Ophelia mentions in the Vignette represents life in the brothel: “the contortionist in a sideshow—how / he could make himself small, fit / into cramped spaces, his lungs / barely expanding with each tiny breath. / She thinks of her own shallow breaths” (47). Her life in the brothel resembles the act of a contortionist, bending smaller and smaller with less and less breath, slowly suffocating until immobilization. Her life has become this act of control, which is why she decides to leave. Ophelia knows if she continues to work at the brothel she will die. This same type of educated decision is what drove her to the brothel in the first place. This thinking shows that survival instinct drives Ophelia, not money.
This is definitely very true Leo. Ophelia is definitely trying to run away from her past life and find comfort in another in her own life. She is needs ways to survive and money just happens to be a part of the many necessities she must have. Your evidences are greatly backed up with detail.
I’m not sure if I would say that Ophelia’s “grows up in a life of rape and abuse.” That seems to overstate the case to an extent. And more to the point, I think you might go a bit too far in saying that Ophelia doesn’t need money all that much. It’s a blog post that you’re writing so you don’t have to give the person you’re responding to as much credit as you might in a paper, but if this were a paper, I’d want you to go a bit more subtle with your argument.