THE TUNNEL OF A MURDERER
CONCLUSION
Through the analysis made on The Tunnel, we have found that the precepts that emanate from the existentialist philosophy, which serve as the genesis of the plot, find a correlate in the obsessive psyche that the protagonist is manifesting with increasing intensity throughout its development.
From the beginning, Juan Pablo Castel reveals himself to us as an individual with a problem that finds its basis in existentialism. "The central or dominant `motive´ in The Tunnel is the basic solitude and incommunicability of man, central elements of Sábato's worldview literally embodied in the novel" (Coddou: 1966, 151).
But we have also had to keep in mind that, from this metaphysical base, the narration advances by presenting us the psychopathological path through which the protagonist transits.
Sábato's novels can not be interpreted satisfactorily by resorting only to the existentialist perspective: many important issues are not fully understood while not taking into consideration the dense thematic of the psychopathological, especially in relation to the male protagonists (Seguí: 1992, 69).
However, we will see difficulties if we try to define the moment in which Castel ceases to be a representative subject of contemporary man portrayed by existentialism, to show himself as an insane individual who is driven by the designs of madness. This delimitation is equivocal because, as we have been able to discern at the beginning of our work, metaphysics and psychology coexist nourishing one of the other both in their historical evolution, as theoretical elaborations of human thought, as in the dispute that is fought concrete way in the singularity of a soul. Thus, the existential anguish in an individual with certain psychological characteristics could derive, perhaps with a certain naturalness, towards madness and crime.
Let us clarify that it should not be interpreted in any way that it could be the existentialist conception in itself that explains the psychopathology of an individual. In this sense, it is worth keeping in mind the warning of Viktor Frankl:
There is no psychopathology and, much less, a psychotherapy of the conception of the world, but, at best, a psychopathology or a psychotherapy of who professes that conception of the world, that is, of the concrete man whose head produces the conception of the world in question (1978, 31).
In the specific case of the protagonist of The Tunnel, we have seen that the solitude and isolation in which he is immersed respond to a combination between what is his concrete and authentic way of standing in front of the harsh reality and a psychology that strips naked certain narcissism that leads him to look with contempt at the rest of the people. With the advance of the story we have also observed his tendency to reason excessively each situation, each of the acts of others, each word uttered; characteristic that we consider key to understand the progressive alienation that will suffer.
But the trigger would be María Iribarne or, rather, the idea that Castel is formed of her when he meets her. It is that, for him, she is the only person who manages to understand him and, consequently, who can save him from his state of lonely anguish. Thus, Castel is revealed to us guided by a yearning for the absolute that translates into an attempt to relate to Mary in a full way, both spiritually and physically. His obsessive behavior is then concentrated on her. And, as it could not be otherwise, his attempt at absolute union is frustrated; but Castel, taken by the excessive judgments that he emits and by the meticulous logic that he applies, attributes the fault of that frustration to María. Finally, his insanity becomes evident when he confers to his reasonings and deductions the value of certainty, or of unquestionable truth, which ultimately leads him to commit the crime.
The final confinement of Castel in an asylum reveals itself to us as a metaphor of his own conscience, confined as it is in that perfectly logical construction as narrow and empty of hope. Because hope is the domain of those who do not live in tunnels, of those who belong to the wide world without limits who persevere in their absurd and indifferent career towards nothingness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY CONSULTED
BOOKS
• CHESTERTON, Gilbert Keith (1998) Ortodoxia, México: Editorial Porrúa
• FATONE, Vicente (1962) Introducción al Existencialismo, Buenos Aires: Editorial Columba
• FOUCAULT, Michel (1968) Las palabras y las cosas, una arqueología de las ciencias humanas, Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores
• FRANKL, Viktor Emil (1978) Psicoanálisis y Existencialismo, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica
• FREUD, Sigmund (1991) Obras completas (Volumen 15) Conferencias de introducción al psicoanálisis, Buenos Aires: Amorrortu Editores
• LAMANA, Manuel (1967) Existencialismo y literatura, Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina
• SÁBATO, Ernesto (1964) El escritor y sus fantasmas, Buenos Aires: Aguilar
• SÁBATO, Ernesto (1985) El túnel, Buenos Aires: Seix Barral
MAGAZINES
• BARRERO PÉREZ, Óscar (1992) “Incomunicación y soledad: evolución de un tema existencialista en la obra de Ernesto Sábato”, Cauce, Revista de Filología y su Didáctica, 14-15: 275-296
• CODDOU, Marcelo (1966) “La estructura y la problemática existencial de El túnel de Ernesto Sábato”, Revista Atenea, CLXII, 412: 141-168
• FERREIRA, Ana Paula (1992) “El túnel de Ernesto Sábato, en busca del origen”, Revista Iberoamericana, LVIII, 158: 91-103
• RODRÍGUEZ MARTÍN, María del Carmen (2005) “La angustia existencial: sendero hacia la locura”, El Catoblepas, 41: 15
• SEGUÍ, Agustín (1992) “Los cuatros sueños de Castel en El túnel de Ernesto Sábato”, Revista Iberoamericana, LVIII, 158: 69-80
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
• Fendrik, Silvia (1999) “La lógica de lo irracional” (interview to René Major) [on line], Suplemento Cultura de La Nación.
Available in: http://www.lanacion.com.ar/214687-la-logica-de-lo-irracional
• Sartre, Jean Paul (1946) “El existencialismo es un humanismo” (conference) [on line], Weblioteca del Pensamiento.
Available in: http://weblioteca.com.ar/occidental/exishuman.pdf