T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

the action focuses.,3 N W LifP is an academic novel projecting the powerstruggle of an English Department in a technologically oriented~chool. Levin is no stranger to suffering when he arrives atcascadia as Encjlish jnstr'uctor. His love affair with PaulineGilley, the Composition Director's wlfe, progresses at herinstigation. His Sexual adventures on campus remind one of theremark that "Right now to be both Jewish and a Professor ismore erotically dangerous than to be Richard Burton" (Daniels1965,26) Levin silffers wlth Paullne in her gurlt over herinfidelity, he suffers for his own disloyalty. He suffersbecause she lives with Gilley and goes home from parties withhlm, and because he cannot call her his own.To begin with, Levln 1s a vlctlm of wrong choices. Heseeks physlcal love In Laverne - a waitress, Avls Fllss hiscolleaque, Nadalee - a student and Pauline his colleague. Whatbegins as an act of adultery with Pauline ends as aninseperable bond. In the beglnnlng Levin avoids Pauline out offear of getting involved. But eventually he takes upon himselfthe burden of Paul~ne and her two adopted children at the costOf hls career. As Mandel remarks: "He(Lev1n) has moved from sexand a waitress ; sex and hls colleague Avls, sex and hisstudent Nadalee, sex and Pauline Gilley to Pauline minus sex,to self-sacrifice for the Idea of love"(1970.263) Jonathan