Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 18 features a performance of Lydia’s play and describes Pat as possibly being “the best actor [Claire has] ever seen” (295). Pat’s ability to amaze the audience comes from his vulnerability, or nakedness, on stage. There is a focus on Pat as naked at two different times in the play: once in the beginning when he is literally naked and again at the end, when he asks if he is too late to see his mother and he “[conveys] even more nakedness than in the first scene” (297). Pat is willing to show his previous moral failings rather than cover them up. He deliberately takes part in the play because “it would be harder…to watch someone else play him at the peak of his self-absorption than it would be to play it all out again himself” (313). He knows that the average actor could not give a convincing portrayal of what he used to be, so he takes on the role and is humbled. As Chapter 21 shows, Pat’s chief concern is “those days when he imagines getting just a wee bit higher” (333) and performing in a play that shows his weaknesses helps keep his ego in check as he demonstrates the destruction brought about by his ego. Chapters 18-21 depict a Pat that is completely different from the Pat in Chapter 8, showing that people can change over time.

Walter ends the scene by stating that the audience feels “the accidental, cathartic discovery of oneself” (298). By this, he means that the play unintentionally granted certain audience members like Claire and Shane a better understanding of themselves as they sympathized with characters who resemble them. Claire identifies with Lydia since both characters are long-suffering girlfriends, while Shane identifies with Pat since they are both failed artists who, at some point, failed to show the women they love appreciation. Walter’s use of the word “catharsis” to describe Claire and Shane’s feelings references the Aristotelian idea of catharsis, or the purging of the emotions through art. According to Aristotle, tragedies allow for either the release of emotions or a kind of change in emotions that points toward renewal or restoration. Since the play leads Claire and Shane to understand themselves and alters their desires to the point of wanting to amend their lives, they have been renewed in a sense. Therefore, Walter’s use of the word “catharsis” is fitting.

In Chapter 19, Pasquale makes the decision that splits his life into “the life he would have and the live he would forever wonder about” (308) when he chooses Amedea and Bruno over Dee. This moment is pertinent because it highlights Pasquale’s nobility and newfound courage and shows how desires can change over time. In this way, the moment strengthens Walter’s characterization of Pasquale and stresses the malleability of desire. It also disrupts the romantic expectation that Pasquale, the actual leading man of Beautiful Ruins, will choose to pursue his love interest. However, Pasquale later admits that Dee played a role in his change of heart. According to him, “Such irony, how could I be a man worthy of your love when I had walked away from my own child? That is why I went back” (336).

Chapter 20 portrays Debra fighting back her feelings regarding death and being “at peace” (314) as she deteriorates from cancer in the 2010s. Her opinions on her mortality in the 2010s do not resemble her opinions in 1962. While Dee feels as though she never truly appreciated the present and lived a meaningful life in 1962, 2010s Debra can say that “most of the time, she IS at peace, HAS led a great life, IS happy her son has returned” (314). She decides to “just let [the cancer] run its course” (315) as though death no longer frightens her. At the same time, she—like Dee in 1962—wants more time to be alive so that she can savor the present and die with as few regrets as possible. Dee’s reflection on death at the beginning of Chapter 20 demonstrates her complexity as a character and plays into the theme of time and regret.

In addition to providing a glimpse into Dee’s consciousness, Chapter 20 features a conflict between Pat and Michael Deane. Michael Deane wants to buy Pat’s life rights and, in a sense, own him so that he may exploit him. In 2008, Pat would eagerly offer his life rights up to be famous, but he refuses to do so in Chapter 20. He also refuses to be seen, one of the things he longs for in Chapter 8, as shown by his destruction of Keith’s camera. After years of desiring fame and fortune, he wants to live a quiet life and not worry about people bothering him about being Richard Burton’s son. Like his mother, he “[refuses] to live in the eyes of others” (56), especially those who would potentially watch Keith’s footage to see “Richard Burton’s train wreck of a son” (321).

Chapter 21, the final chapter of the novel, details what happens to the major and minor characters. The chapter initially focuses on Michael Deane, who pitches “a love story” (325) to financiers. Michael Deane’s decision to produce a love story runs counter to his previous actions and thwarts readers’ expectations until Michael Deane reveals that the “love story” is actually “a secondary cable immersion reality show called Rich MILF/Poor MILF” (326). Michael Deane’s interest in sordid material and the id does not diminish; he does not grow as a character even after he promises to stay away from Pat and Debra. The chapter ends with Pasquale and Debra on a romantic vacation in Italy. Here, Walter thwarts expectations again by leaving the question of whether Pasquale and Debra get together open for interpretation.