Who’s Side to Take?

In Moore’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors: A Guide to the Tenor of Love”, the question of, “who do you side with?” proves to be a very difficult one. After reading and discussing the story, I find myself unable to side with either Trudy or Moss. Both characters seem to be in the wrong and in the right at different times in the story. They both handle the situation pretty poorly as they are unable to listen or communicate with each other very clearly. I found it interesting (on a literary basis, of course) to watch their relationship suffocate until both parties decided that they needed space, for better or for worse.

First, we have Trudy. Now, since we are only given Trudy’s perspective, it’s hard to know if we reading her true character. But, based on what we are given, I can see that she is extremely paranoid. She accuses Moss of cheating because he is coming home late from play rehearsal and is unable to believe his denial (although, to her defense, his answers tend to be very cryptic). When talking to Bob, she states, “look Bob. I’m no idiot. I was born in New York City. I lived there until I was four. Come on. Tell me: Who’s Moss sleeping with?” (112). It is clear that Trudy has experience with people sleeping around, whether or not it happened to her or it that it happened a lot when she lived in NYC, so I suppose she may not be wrong to be suspicious. In any case, as stated above, Moss does give the most cryptic answers when Trudy asks him if he is cheating on her, leading us and Trudy to believe that he’s hiding something. She asks, “Moss are you having an affair with a sheep?”. To which he responds, “I’m a king, not a shepherd, remember? You’re acting like my ex-wife”. So then she asks, “Are you having a regular affair? With a person?”, to which Moss responds, “You’ve got to stop this” (100). Initially, Moss cracks jokes when Trudy questions his faithfulness. But, when she asks again, he just tells her to stop, pushing the topic aside. Whether or not Moss is having an affair or not (which I’m pretty sure Moore left it ambiguous on purpose so the reader is forced to decides if he’s telling the truth or not), he is not handling the situation very well. When initially asked, Moss never directly says “no” to Trudy’s questioning, he always just tells her to stop or jokes around about it. This gives off the impression that Moss is hiding something, which in turn just makes Trudy even more suspicious and paranoid. He doesn’t set her straight, he jumps around the question, making him seem more guilty, even if he is really telling the truth.

Moss can’t see that Trudy fears loneliness. She doesn’t want to let Moss, or even the cat, go because she is afraid that they both won’t come back to her. We see an example of how loneliness can affect someone in “How to Talk to Your Mother”, where Ginnie is forced to talk to her appliances because she has no one in her life to talk to. If Moss leaves, and the cat doesn’t come back, Trudy will have no one. At the moment, since Moss refused to talk to Trudy, she decided to converse with the cat. But, if the cat also runs away, all of Trudy’s social connections will have deserted her. She will be alone and unsafe. (Although she will have Bob, assumably, so I guess it wouldn’t be so bad). Because of this, I tend to sympathize with Trudy a little bit. Only because she is trying to ask if she and Moss are alright, and all Moss does is brush her concerns off and continue doing what he’s doing. But, like I said, Moss isn’t totally in the wrong.

Moss is a man gasping for some fresh air. He is being suffocated by his girlfriend, who can’t see to trust him, and also by his job, to which he has to work long hours in order to make it work. He feels like he’s going crazy, working on a play that he, at times, isn’t even totally on board with, and then he comes home to find his girlfriend talking to their cat, using funny names, as if it is more than a cat. He feels frustrated that, Trudy won’t let the cat have a breath of fresh air, which is similar to his situation. She keeps the cat trapped in doors, not letting it experience the world. She is unable to trust it, so she keeps it boxed in, unable to explore what the world has to offer. As Moss states, “you’re being my wife. Things are repeating themselves” (108). Assumably, Moss’ previous marriage ended because his ex-wife didn’t trust him. She suspected him having an affair of some sort and she became too paranoid for Moss to bear. I suppose Moss is just that kind of guy that people can’t seem to trust. He finds himself in the same situations where no one will believe a single word he says, even if it is the truth.

So, although I find myself leaning towards Trudy when it comes to my sympathy, I can see both sides of the argument. Honestly, I thought things were 50/50 until the last entry of 12/21 where Trudy admits that she and Moss aren’t safe and that she fears for what the future holds and if he or their cat will ever return to her. In order to comfort her, Moss whispers that things are okay, but Trudy admits that “things grow fuzzy around the edge like a less than brilliant lie” (116). In this relationship, Trudy doesn’t know what the believe. She feels like everything Moss says is ambiguous and confusing. He hates her and he loves her. He is unable to be clear and direct, leaving Trudy constantly immersed in a dense fog of confusion. Because of this, Trudy is unable to find the truth in what Moss says. She doesn’t even know the state of their relationship at this point because Moss refuses to disclose that kind of information. Instead, he comforts her, making her become more dependent on him for support, which would in turn, make it even harder on her if he were to leave her. There’s just something in Moss’ character that makes him seem untrustworthy and shady. He is unable to clearly articulate his true thoughts and feelings, which leaves those around him confused and constantly feeling misled.