What It Is
Gengè is the name Dida uses for her husband, and also the doll she built with that name: a good-natured, foolish man, with tastes and feelings that are not those of Vitangelo Moscarda and that he could not change without becoming, for her, a stranger she would no longer understand or love. He is, of the hundred thousand Moscardas of the novel, the only one with a proper name, and the one the narrator says was truly loved (ch. XII of Book II). "Usurer" is a title the town gives; "dear Vitangelo" is a form of address from Quantorzo; Gengè is a name for use at home.
Where It Appears
In ch. III of Book I Dida calls him Gengè every minute, bringing him household news while he wants an hour alone. In ch. VIII of Book I one of the conclusions of the first Book is that he has begun to understand why she called him that, and the explanation comes in Book II. It is in ch. XII of Book II that the name takes on the meaning of a doll: Vitangelo understands that Dida knew her Gengè better than he did, because she built him.
Ma sfido ch’ella conosceva quel suo Gengè più che non lo conoscessi io! Se l’era costruito lei! E non era mica un fantoccio. Se mai, il fantoccio ero io., I dare say she knew that Gengè of hers better than I knew him! She had built him herself! And he was by no means a puppet. If anything, the puppet was me.
From there he draws the rule he sets himself, as a calculation and not as a matter of respect:
Se io non volevo che Dida mia moglie andasse a cercare in un altro il suo ideale, non dovevo toccare quel suo Gengè., if I did not want Dida, my wife, to go looking for her ideal in another man, I must not touch that Gengè of hers.
In ch. VI of Book III, when he asks Dida what his profession is, she answers by calling him Gengè, and he understands that he is a usurer to others and a fool to his wife. In ch. II of Book V he curls up voluntarily into the role of Gengè, so that the act of eviction passes for the whim of a harmless fool. In ch. VI of Book V he sees the "dear Vitangelo" of his fatherly Quantorzo residing in him just as Dida's Gengè does:
E poichè erano due a vedermi entrare, mi venne la tentazione di voltarmi a cercare l’altro che entrava con me, pur sapendo bene che il “caro Vitangelo„ del mio paterno Quantorzo non solo era anch’esso in me come il “Gengè„ di mia moglie Dida, and since there were two of them to watch me come in, I was tempted to turn and look for the other who came in with me, though I knew very well that the "dear Vitangelo" of my fatherly Quantorzo was not only in me too, like the "Gengè" of my wife Dida.
In ch. VIII of Book V, hurt by her laughter, he refuses the doll at the top of his voice:
Finiscila tu, col tuo Gengè che non sono io, non sono io, non sono io! Basta con codesta marionetta! Voglio quello che voglio; e come voglio sarà fatto!, stop it, you and your Gengè, which is not me, not me, not me! Enough of that puppet! I want what I want, and it will be done as I want it!
In ch. I of Book VI, shut in his bedroom, he says he is no longer Gengè or a usurer, and at once asks what he has inside:
Se non avevo più occhi per vedermi da me come uno anche per me? Gli occhi, gli occhi di tutti gli altri seguitavo a vedermeli addosso, ma ugualmente senza poter sapere come ora m’avrebbero veduto in questa mia neonata volontà, se io stesso non sapevo ancora come sarei consistito per me. Non più Gengè. Un altro. Avevo proprio voluto questo. Ma che altro avevo io dentro, se non questo tormento che mi scopriva nessuno e centomila?, did I no longer have eyes to see myself as one, for myself as well? The eyes, the eyes of all the others I went on feeling on me, but equally without being able to know how they would see me now in this newborn will of mine, if I did not yet know how I would exist for myself. No longer Gengè. Another. That was exactly what I had wanted. But what other thing did I have inside, if not this torment that revealed to me no one and one hundred thousand?
In ch. IV of Book VI he offers his father-in-law the professions of doctor, lawyer, professor, and deputy: a more respectable Gengè. In ch. V of Book VI he understands that his father-in-law fled because he would take away his son-in-law:
Non poteva ammettere, lui, ch’io gli levassi il genero (quel suo Gengè ch’egli vedeva in me, chi sa come) dalle condizioni in cui se n’era stato finora, cioè da quella comoda consistenza di marionetta che lui da un canto e la figlia dall’altro, e dal canto loro tutti i socii della banca gli avevano dato., he could not admit that I should take from him his son-in-law (that Gengè of his, whom he saw in me, heaven knows how) out of the conditions in which he had stood until then, that is, out of that comfortable consistency as a puppet which he on one side, and his daughter on the other, and in turn all the partners of the bank, had given him.
In ch. VI of Book VI he calls Dida a doll and concludes that no new Gengè could be born from the old one. In ch. IV of Book VII he hears from Anna Rosa that Dida takes him for a fool and that, outside her life with Gengè, she is another woman, but he tells himself that with Gengè she was not pretending.
What It Means
Gengè is Identity made by another person and lived as if it were natural. The symbol shows that the image others have of us is not a disguise of ours; it is a person who exists for them, and who can be loved. That is the sense of the jealousy in ch. XII of Book II, in which Vitangelo sees Gengè, and not himself, in his wife's arms.
Gengè is a character in the sense of someone with a fixed existence: he has fixed thoughts, feelings, and tastes, and Dida speaks to him as one speaks to a person. The difference is that Gengè lives in Vitangelo's body, and that is why the comedy turns into horror: a character does not need a body, and Vitangelo cannot hand over his own without handing over the doll along with it. That is why what he asks for, in ch. V of Book VI, is to leave with another body and another name, leaving Gengè to the others. The symbol can be read in two ways. In one, it is the form of love, and Dida loves him truly; in the other, it is the form of convenience, and the father-in-law, the daughter, and the bank partners live off him. The text supports both, and the question left open is whether the love a doll receives is any less love.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Identity, Appearance and reality, Madness.
- Themes in the work: Identity, Appearance and reality, Madness.
- Characters: Dida, Vitangelo Moscarda, Quantorzo, Anna Rosa.
- Related symbols: the nose, from which the wife sets out to call him, and the mirror, in which Vitangelo looks for another who is not this one.