Love and Lust in Giovanni’s Room Essay Example

sex with her. When Hella announces that she is returning, David wants to prove to himself that he is straight and thus has sex with Sue. He does not want to see her again, but only befriends her for his personal gain. He does not want to set eyes on her again, which compounds his lust.

David’s relationship with Giovanni is only lustful. Despite Giovanni being distressed after being fired from Guillaume’s bar, David leaves without notice to be with Hella for three days. David also does not communicate with his family, apart from when asking money for their marriage. David ends their relationship with Giovanni despite the latter being in distress, which shows that he does not care about him. His reasons for ending the friendship are that he cannot sacrifice his manhood to be with another man.
Giovanni is also seen to be full of lust more than love. In his recounting of how he met with Guillaume, he states that the two had dinner only because Giovanni had a free meal. Thus, their friendship is only as a means of obtaining, without companion or love in it. Giovanni’s love for David is also not true, as he does not seem concerned about Hella, David’s girlfriend. In their encounters, the two always have sex, which points more to lust than love. Giovanni is jealous of the relationship between Hella and David, which shows that he wants David all to himself.

It is hard to blame Giovanni for agreeing to be used by richer men such as Jacques. He is an attractive man in poverty and thus he knows no love apart from selling his body. David

remembers him saying that “he does not wish to have sex with anything else apart from the body” (Baldwin, Part 2, 11). His body has undergone a lot of suffering, so he only wishes to make love with it. The love that he knows does not go beyond the body and thus amounts to lust. His face is always in anguish when others are not looking, and he hopes that the lovemaking will remove the pain.

Giovanni’s character highlights the lack of real love and care in the world and leaves the reader asking whether he is to be blamed for the lake of lust inside him. His body and soul are looking for healing through love, and he is unable to find it even through his friendship with David since the latter has his personal problems too. In the end, Giovanni is executed which sets his soul free from his pain. Despite being cynical about life, Giovanni, unlike David, has come to accept that he is a homosexual and become comfortable with it. However, his love for himself as a homosexual is compromised since it is coupled with his hatred towards women. Giovanni seems to be a character that is capable and willing to love, but the present circumstances do not allow him. Most likely, his anguishing past that is never revealed creates the last obstruction block to his freedom.

Ellen shows true love to David when he reprimands his father for not setting a good example. David’s dad is an alcoholic who thinks he is turning his son into a real man. Later, David takes to drinking and has an accident while driving. Ellen’s love

is shown in that he cares for David, and therefore, she tries to defend him from his father’s negative influence. She wants him to turn out as a good man, and not a ‘real man.' The caring and loving nature of Aunt Ellen is also seen when she moves in so as to assist in taking care of David after the death of his mother. David does not like her much due to her domineering presence in moral issues discussions. Despite her being very loving, some characteristics of lust can also be seen in her in that she aims to control those that she loves. She is a moral teacher and David despised her for that. She also overdid her makeup, probably for the possible reason of attracting others to her (Baldwin, part 1, 26). Apart from her caring for David, the other possible reason for reprimanding his father was to have him close to her and control him (Baldwin, part 2, 48).
Guillaume is a man full of lust, as he forces Giovanni to have sex with him so that he can retain his job at the bar. Guillaume sees his employees as sex tools to pleasure himself. At the time of hiring for his gay bar, Guillaume agrees with Giovanni that he would not sleep with him, but becomes jealous of the relationship between David and Giovanni. It is this jealousy that makes Giovanni lose his job (Baldwin, part 2, 17). Guillaume is not interested in employing Giovanni, but only lusts for him. He sees Giovanni for the first time in a theater and immediately falls for him. His character is pitiful and disgusting

in that he has to pay young boys to sleep with him. He is unable to control his desires and instead lets them control him.

In conclusion, through the windows to the souls of David, Giovanni, Ellen, and Guillaume, Baldwin can engage the reader in an adequate discussion of love and lust. Even though love is shown to be rare, it is seen to exist side by side with its more dominant counterpart, lust. Love is seen to be very necessary for healing people like Giovanni, but it is always confused with the more seemingly lucrative concept of desire that sees people as a means and not as an end. In the ultimatum, the passion is also seen to be cyclic and systemic, which makes it very hard to blame any of the characters for their behaviors. It's clear that the only source of healing can be from within, where real love is found in abundance. This can only be realized through being open with oneself, something which the characters in Baldwin’s masterpiece are unable to do.

Works Cited

1. Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.