Character Analysis Anthony Patch
Anthony Patch, the protagonist of the novel, is a great example of a person suffering from unconscious narcissism. He is a man whose mind is constantly preoccupied with self admiration and his activities serve no better purpose to him than underpinning his greatness.
On the very first page of the novel we are told that Anthony ''thinks of himself rather an exceptional young man, thoroughly sophisticated, well adjusted to his environment, and somewhat more significant than anyone else he knows''1. Anthony's background demonstrates his sophistication and significance as we are told that he is a former student of Harvard and that he is the grandson of the famous multi millionaire, Adam J. Patch. His grandfather is ''a reformer among reformers''2 …show more content…
The incident takes away his primary source of empathy, but it is questionable whether the mother was ever capable of giving enough empathic responses to Anthony. According to Anthony's recollection, his mother appears rather narcissistic;
''She was a lady who sang, sang, sang, in the music room of their house on Washington Square - sometimes with guests scattered all about her, the men with their arms folded, balanced breathlessly on the edges of sofas, the women with their hands in their laps, occasionally making little whispers to the men and always clapping very briskly and uttering cooing cries after each song - and often she sang to Anthony alone, in Italian or French or in a strange and terrible dialect which she imagined to be the speech of the Southern Negro''.4
The mother definitely loved to be surrounded by people who admired her talent. Receiving compliments became so crucial to her that she even sought attention from her son when there was no other audience available. In her mind she sounded like 'the Southern Negro', but to Anthony it was nothing more than 'a strange and terrible dialect'. Anthony refers to her as 'a lady' rather than a mother, which implies that the two were not particularly close to each
On the very first page of the novel we are told that Anthony ''thinks of himself rather an exceptional young man, thoroughly sophisticated, well adjusted to his environment, and somewhat more significant than anyone else he knows''1. Anthony's background demonstrates his sophistication and significance as we are told that he is a former student of Harvard and that he is the grandson of the famous multi millionaire, Adam J. Patch. His grandfather is ''a reformer among reformers''2 …show more content…
The incident takes away his primary source of empathy, but it is questionable whether the mother was ever capable of giving enough empathic responses to Anthony. According to Anthony's recollection, his mother appears rather narcissistic;
''She was a lady who sang, sang, sang, in the music room of their house on Washington Square - sometimes with guests scattered all about her, the men with their arms folded, balanced breathlessly on the edges of sofas, the women with their hands in their laps, occasionally making little whispers to the men and always clapping very briskly and uttering cooing cries after each song - and often she sang to Anthony alone, in Italian or French or in a strange and terrible dialect which she imagined to be the speech of the Southern Negro''.4
The mother definitely loved to be surrounded by people who admired her talent. Receiving compliments became so crucial to her that she even sought attention from her son when there was no other audience available. In her mind she sounded like 'the Southern Negro', but to Anthony it was nothing more than 'a strange and terrible dialect'. Anthony refers to her as 'a lady' rather than a mother, which implies that the two were not particularly close to each