Laura's Betrayal In 'Flowering Judas'

Laura's Betrayal
The first paragraph of this story establishes the tension that is developed in the remainder of the story. It reveals Laura's apparent dedication and self-sacrifice in contrast to Braggioni's exploitation. It is important to notice the off-putting description of Braggioni, as well as the way that Laura avoids situations with him, staying away from home as late as she can and then unwillingly enduring his presence. This tension between two ways of life is developed throughout "Flowering Judas." Gradually we recognize Laura as a character whose spiritual betrayal is far more profound than the revolutionary leader's corruption.
Braggioni's name suggests his nature; He "bulges marvelously in his expensive garments," his mouth
She did this first by refusing his offer of love and then by delivering drugs to him that he uses to commit suicide. She has betrayed the children she teaches, even though she tries to love and take pleasure in them, they "remain strangers to her." More importantly, perhaps, she betrays herself by rejecting "knowledge and kinship in one monotonous word. No. No. No," and by disguising her sexual coldness as earnest revolutionary idealism. Laura is afraid and unable to live life; she is "not at home in the world." It finally makes her, a "cannibal" of others, and a "murderer" of herself. Laura's revolutionary activity is unfulfilling. She takes messages to and from people living in dark alleys, attends fruitless union meetings, and ferries food, cigarettes, and narcotics to sad, imprisoned men. She also "borrows money from the Roumanian agitator to give to his bitter enemy the Polish agitator." When she eats the "warm, bleeding flowers" of the Judas tree in her nightmare vision, she symbolically participates in an act of betrayal. Laura lives as if she is dead. Her ideals, however, remain intact, though she must sometimes struggle to maintain them. Her own taste requires fine handmade lace, a revolutionary heresy. She is still significantly engaged by the faith of her childhood. Although she is still caught between her revolutionary sympathies and the sympathies of her own past. She finds the experience visiting the