The Floating Opera

Capt. Osborn and his friends lounge outdoors in their daily routine. They’re consumers, producing nothing themselves as they grumpily watch the world move along: “The life of Cambridge passed by and through them like sea water through an oyster’s gills: they strained from it what nutrition they wanted as it passed, digesting people and events with a snort or a comment, but they never moved from their position” (112). Everything the old men observe, they have a cantankerous remark about.

Todd takes a seat beside the men. The hearse Todd saw earlier drives by. The men gossip about who died, unable to come to a definitive answer. Capt. Osborn changes the subject, telling a story about sailing and navigating the ice of a freezing lake. The same dogs from before appear, and they try mating in front of the men. One of the men nudges the male dog with his foot, helping him mount the female, and Capt. Osborn scratches at the dogs’ ears while they have intercourse. The men laugh and haw. Todd chuckles too, then goes about his day, while Capt. Osborn and the other old men continue to snort and comment about life in Cambridge. 

Todd recalls his childhood. His mother died when he was seven. Maids helped raise him, but he was largely left by himself. Todd rarely tested his father’s authority and was able to go about his life as he pleased. At seventeen, Todd’s sex life is lackluster. He meets Betty June, a poorer girl, whose liveliness draws the attention of him and his male classmates. Betty is indifferent to the high school boys, as she’s deeply in love with Smitty Herrin, a young man in his late twenties. She pines for Smitty, but he doesn’t acknowledge her. Betty confides in Todd, and the two become close. They don’t become physically intimate, but Todd feels Betty helps him lose his innocence, introducing him to more adult problems: “A lucky virgin, I, to fall into those meager arms and pathetic problems; what she took from me, I lost with pleasure” (119).

Betty comes over daily. The two become physically intimate, but they don’t have sex. Todd, initially indifferent to Betty and Smitty’s relationship, now pines for Betty, and hates Smitty. Betty comes over again, crying, devastated—Smitty has been secretly married for a year. Todd shakes her, choosing to be aggressive. He drinks some bourbon, lets Betty cry, then makes more physical advances. He instructs her to undress, which she does, and she tells him to take her upstairs. They have sex in his room, and, after, Todd sees their naked bodies in the mirror. Their reflection makes Todd laugh uncontrollably, thinking of their animal nature: “Nothing, to me, is so consistently, profoundly, earth-shakingly funny as we animals in the act of mating” (124). Todd’s laughter upsets Betty, and she promptly leaves, never to return.

Todd joins the Army. Smitty is killed in combat, and his wife remarries. Betty goes into sex work, first in Cambridge, then in Baltimore. Todd remembers seeing her again but waits to tell the reader that story. He admits the way he acted with Betty was heartless, but he still hasn’t changed his stance on sex. Whether its crabs, dogs, or beautiful people, seeing intercourse is hilarious to him. 

Todd encourages the reader to break their habits occasionally; it helps a person feel free. Proving his own point, he reaches Dr. Rose’s office, breaking his habit of avoiding the doctor. He remembers being in the Army, where he was first diagnosed with a bad heart, and the doctor encouraged Todd not to keep his condition a secret. Todd planned on telling his father, but when his dad encouraged him to take a long vacation, then go to college, Todd didn’t see the point in burdening his dad with his ailment. Todd told his father he would go to college, then law school, and hoped to work for his father’s law firm afterward, which filled his dad with joy.

Todd goes to John Hopkins University. He joins a fraternity and partakes in reckless partying and debauchery, but he also studies. He graduates, surprised that he didn’t die from his bad heart, and attends University of Maryland Law School. He reads the law and loses weight, dwindling to 145 pounds, and starts to experience abdominal pain. His friends invite him out for a night on the town, and he accepts, believing sex might help his pain. Drunk and in pain, Todd goes to a brothel with his friends, tumbling over in agony. A sex worker approaches him; it is Betty June. She smiles, placating Todd. They go to a room and Todd collapses onto a bed, then holds Betty: “If six years of prostitution had changed her at all, I couldn’t see how. I remember wishing I were entirely sober and painless so that I could appreciate the grotesque coincidence of my meeting her, and also talk to her coherently” (134).

Betty massages Todd with rubbing alcohol. He asks if she knows Smitty is dead, but she doesn’t respond. Todd starts to apologize for how he treated her when they were younger, but Betty pours all the rubbing alcohol on Todd then attacks him with the bottle. Todd defends himself but is cut up and down his arm. People storm in, and the bouncer kicks Todd out. He makes it to a hospital and learns he has an infected prostate. As he recovers, Todd decides he is done living his life this way. He’ll adopt a new stance, a saintly one. Todd’s story jumps back to his doctor’s appointment in 1937. Dr. Rose examines him, and Todd insists that the results of his physical be withheld until tomorrow. Dr. Rose offers to remove Todd’s infected prostate. Todd remains noncommittal, and leaves, distrustful of Dr. Rose’s surgical prowess. 

Todd reflects about his treatment of Betty. Thinking back, he isn’t entirely sure it was her at the brothel, because he was drunk. When he laughed after they had sex as teenagers, he wasn’t laughing at her but at the situation. Still, he sees how that incident would impact her time as a sex worker: “—but she had my laughter in her ears to remind her, every time she unhooked her one-piece gown for a new customer, that there was something ludicrous about her and about what she was doing” (142-43). Considering Betty’s interiority, Todd understands her fury and why she attacked him when he reentered her life. He was foolish for not knowing Betty would lash out when they saw each other at the brothel; her puckered smile hinted at her devious intent.

Todd wonders how the situation could have played out differently. Why couldn’t he and Betty have found their run-in humorous? Or maybe, seeing Todd in pain, Betty could have been content to earn some money by simply giving him a massage? Todd isn’t trying to be defensive; sometimes, what others find obvious escapes him. Other times, he perceives what others don’t: “On the other hand, things that are clear to me are sometimes incomprehensible to others—which fact occasions this chapter, if not the whole book” (144). 

After his doctor’s appointment, Todd goes to lunch at a confectionery, which is run by a judge who only serves cold meals. More posters for the Floating Opera are plastered about. Todd greets the judge and suddenly remembers he has the information he needs to win Harrison’s inheritance case, but he doesn’t mention it to the judge. Todd feels indifferent about the money and doesn’t know if Harrison has earned it yet: “For one thing, remember that I was a fairly thoroughgoing cynic at the time, especially concerning money; also—nothing cynical about this—I believed Harrison was undeserving of the money unless he overcame his former weakness” (146). Todd wants the money to mean nothing to Harrison before he wins the case.

Harrison joins Todd for lunch, visibly upset. He mentions the letter Todd left for Jane earlier that day: Todd suggested Jane show her nude body to Capt. Osborn before he dies. The idea is outrageous to Harrison. Todd retorts it’s all in good fun and that Jane agreed, but only if Todd went to the doctor, which he just did. It’s completely up to her now, Capt. Osborn doesn’t know anything about it. Todd watches Harrison eat, enjoying a rich man eating sloppily. Harrison complains about work, siding with neither the union workers nor his administrative employees. Todd enjoys seeing Harrison becoming more cynical.

Harrison tells Todd that Jane will drop off Jeannine to see the Floating Opera later that afternoon. Todd completely forgot, and he worries how his forgetfulness might affect his decision to end his life: “This was a serious matter, for it could be taken as a sign of nervousness, of apprehension at my decision to destroy myself that day” (148). The men finish their lunch and go their separate ways. On the way out, the judge asks Todd about Harrison’s inheritance case. Todd lies, saying there’s nothing new to report. Todd exits, feeling more inclined to win the case for Harrison. 

Todd enjoys the warm weather; it is a pleasant day to end his life. He passes by more posters advertising the Floating Opera, then enters the lobby of the Dorset Hotel. Todd contemplates his friendship with Harrison and Jane. After they distance themselves from Todd in 1932, Jane learns she’s pregnant. The Macks want a baby, but not knowing whether it is Todd or Harrison’s child creates tension. In the end, they have the baby, regardless of the who the father is. Jane gives birth to a daughter and they name her Jeannine Paulsen Mack. The Macks take their baby home and Jane fears Harrison won’t love their child: “Jane especially feared this about Harrison, and Harrison about himself. But as it happened they quickly to to their daughter—” (155). Jeannine doesn’t look like Harrison or Todd, which comforts the Macks. Time passes, and Harrison and Jane’s anger toward Todd wanes.

Harrison Sr. dies in 1935, during the Macks and Todd’s estrangement. Harrison knows he’ll need Todd’s legal advice and, slowly, the three reconcile. They all get drunk at the Mack’s house and go upstairs to tuck Jeannine into bed. All three adults admire Jeannine in her crib, and the sentimentality of the moment disturbs Todd: “Ah, reader, the thing was gross, sentimental; and yet I was moved, for with the Macks these sentiments are sincere. They are simply full of love, for themselves, for each other, for me” (159).

Later, Jane visits Todd. They agree they don’t love each other, and that neither wants to hurt the other. Todd is offput by the theatrics of the moment, but when Jane gets into his bed, their affair resumes. They continue sleeping together spontaneously for the next few years. Todd’s undiagnosed health problems causes him to be occasionally impotent, which steadily increases over time. Todd and Jane continue seeing each other despite his impotence, and Todd remarks Jane is the finest woman he’s ever slept with. 

Mister Haecker visits Todd. The retired principal looks pale and unwell and struggles to articulate himself. They discuss their conversation with Capt. Osborn that morning—about appreciating the final years of one’s life. Todd admits he pities Mister Haecker the most of all the elderly people at the Dorset Hotel; Haecker tries so hard to look forward to death, but he is scared. Haecker disagrees, but Todd argues Haecker’s defensiveness is another façade: “Had he been sincerely angry I’d not have objected, but his anger was another of his wardrobe of masks” (166). Todd finds Mister Haecker tedious. Haecker grows disgruntled because Todd, despite also living alone, doesn’t want to engage in friendly conversation.

Their dialogue moves to the topic of suicide. Todd believes suicide is acceptable, so long as it doesn’t interfere with one’s religious beliefs. Mister Haecker, while not religious, retorts that it is better to be alive than dead, no matter what. Todd argues that death is neutral, whereas life can be unhappy. Todd isn’t outright telling Haecker to kill himself, he is stating that it’s an option everyone must consider. Haecker, distraught, moves to leave, claiming life has intrinsic value. Todd denies the man’s claim: “‘Nothing has intrinsic value,’ I remarked, as coolly as though I’d known it for years, when in fact that fundamental notion had just occurred to me, between licks” (169). Haecker exits. Todd wonders if the man’s opinion will change, then decides it doesn’t matter to him either way.