Angel Voices

Question One (Parker):
In Dorothy Parker’s “The Waltz,” the narrator, who is simultaneously the main character, accepts a man’s request to waltz and dances with him even though she does not want to. She makes this clear when she says, “I don’t want to dance with him. I don’t want to dance with anybody. And even if I did, it wouldn’t be him.” To refuse his offer, however, would have been impossible. She is obliged to accept because such were the social norms of the time. She knows this. She says, with a mixture of self-deprecating humor and irony, “What can you say, when a man asks you to dance with him?...There was nothing for me to do, but say I’d adore to.” And while she accepts his invitation politely and assures him that she is having a delightful time throughout the whole dance, she thinks to herself, “Ah, now why did he have to come around me, with his low requests? Why can’t he let me lead my own life?...There was I trapped. Trapped like a trap in a trap.” This shows that she feels entrapped by the social conventions that strip away her identity and force her to be led through her own life. When she states, “And here I’ve locked in his noxious embrace for the thirty-five years this waltz has lasted,” it becomes clear that the waltz is representing more than just a dance; it is representing marriage. It is representing life. In both, the male is given the leading role. The woman must passively follow. She has no control over anything, not even her own life, and there is nothing she can do about it because that was just the way things were. To attempt to break this pattern would have earned her the title of being unreasonable, radical, unstable. Parker’s own life lacked stability and control; she married and divorced multiple times and relied heavily on alcohol. Towards the end, when the orchestra is finally finishing up, she has in her ears “a silence like the sound of angel voices”—indicating that Parker believes the only release for the pains of being a woman during this time period is death. This idea is supported by the fact that she was, in fact, suicidal.

Question Two (Parker):
In “The Writer’s Audience Is Always a Fiction,” Walter Ong states that writers must fictionalize their audience and give their readers specific roles. He says a reader “has a well-marked role assigned him.” This is true in Parker’s work. Her readers are “cast in the role of a close companion of the writer…The writer needs only to point, for what he wants to tell you about is not the scene at all but his feelings.” This applies to “The Waltz,” which lays a heavy focus on the reflections, feelings and emotions the narrator goes through during the dance. Parker uses a double-voice throughout her story. Her first voice is that of a polite, obedient, conformed woman who does and says everything she is supposed to. This is the voice she presents to the outside world, where she must hide her true self in order to survive. The second voice is much more personal. It reveals her true persona, and is reserved only for her readers. This usage of double-voice gives the reader a sense of intimacy with the narrator. It also makes it easy for the reader to identify, understand and sympathize with her. The fact that she can get readers to empathize with the narrator is of critical importance. This would mean that were men to read the story, they would find themselves understanding and siding with the narrator—a woman. It would allow them to see just how few rights women really have and how cruel it is for them to be so limited. Her use of double-voice allows her to create a very sympathetic character who is clearly intelligent enough to feel her misery and pain and knows she can’t do anything about it. This seems to be one of the main reasons why Parker wrote this story and why she chose to give her narrator a double voice.