The Emperor's Tomb
...ety. No longer did the wealthy have the most money and no longer could the narrator sit around and do nothing all day. He is forced to get up early and work something that he is not used to doing. He is forced to abandon the traditional idea of society and adopt a new trade in order to support his wife and mother. Even as the lives of others went on in the new world, the Trotta name is forever lost. “Where could he go now, he, a Trotta?”(Roth pp.157) War cost the narrator love and tradition. The love of his life, Elizabeth, no longer loves him, but Prof. Frau Jolanth a wealthy woman of arts and crafts. Even after giving Elizabeth the one thing that she truly desired, a child could not keep tradition in tact. Elizabeth can not let go of this woman even after proclaiming her love for the narrator. She vigorously tries to end her relationship with Prof. Jolanth, but can not seem to let her go. Even the narrator, after returning from war questions whether he loves Elizabeth. The narrator goes as far as to question the legitimacy of his marriage to her saying “Elizabeth was not even my wife by the letter or the spirit of the civil law.” (Roth pp. 106) Many questions run through his mind as he prepares to meet with his wife and her new tag-along friend. “It was then that he made the discovery that we only experience briefly, that we quickly forget, and are more volatile than any other creature on earth.”(Roth pp.106) It is not until sitting in the café waiting for Elizabeth to arrive that he relates his experiences to her. He can easily forget the war, imprisonment, Vyatka and the journey home, but he can not understand what she means to him in context of the loss of his friends Joseph Branco, Manes Reisiger, Jan Baranovich his home and ultimately his entire world. In the end, the cost of love was greater to both Elizabeth and the narrator. As soon as the word of war spread, the power of an empire was threatened. Soldiers graciously go to war rich aristocrats and return poor nobody’s without a name. Those who returned from war were not anxious about the new life that awaited them. No longer is the Emperor the supreme ruler or the aristocrats the influential of society. In a matter of minutes the wealthy become ordinary people. With their money earned valueless, most took to arts and crafts to attempt wealth again. Those in society who possessed education and other skills flourished. The conclusion of the war brought with it the end to their empire. As the empire changed, so did its inhabitants. Those aristocrats like the narrator who either refused or felt that they could not change would be left in the dark. The way of society became accept less power or go down with the poor. Most who found themselves out of a position of power decided to compromise themselves and try a new trade in hopes of preserving their standard of wealth. Even the narrator adopts a new trade and eventually turns his home into a pension in hopes that his family would be able to maintain its wealthy status. The narrator unwillingly starts a pension and adopts a new trade. When forced to mortgage his home several times, he realizes the impact that this new way of society is having on everyone’s life. It soon becomes apparent that without its power, the Trotta name would become nobody’s in a new society. When a call to arms was issued young men across the Austria-Hungarian Empire quickly joined knowing that “a pointless death was better than an aimless life.”(Roth pp. 46) The narrator with his strong sense of national pride was surely afraid to die but just realizing that he “was capable of dying” (Roth pp. 46) for his country meant more to him than fighting for no cause at all. The conclusion of the war brought with it new views of the nation and pride. Some, like the narrator, refuse to let go of their old views of the empire. As Austria-Hungary begins to divide those who live there are also divided and forced to change their definition of a nation....