The Floating Opera

Todd and Capt. Osborn attend the Floating Opera. Hundreds gather around the docked showboat to buy tickets or catch a glimpse of the theatrics. Todd sees Harrison, Jane, and Jeannine, but they don’t cross paths. Other people from town board the ship as well, and Todd and Capt. Osborn find seats in the ship’s theatre. The entertainment begins. Bands play, Capt. Adam hosts and makes jokes. An actor man recites lines from Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage,’ he declared, ‘and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts . . . .’” (234-235). The actor recites numerous Shakespeare plays for a long time, too long for the audience. They throw pennies, but he keeps performing. Todd admires the actor’s resilience; this will be a test to see if acting is a mask for this man, or a key part of his personality. Next, there is a minstrel show, then various singers, followed by a renowned imitator. Capt. Osborn continues to be entertained. Meanwhile, Todd slips away.

Todd finds the tanks of acetylene gas and turns them on, pumping gas throughout the showboat. He lights three kerosene lanterns nearby, which will soon set off a massive explosion. Todd returns to the theatre and waits for the ship to explode: “My heart, to be sure, pounded violently, but my mind was calm” (243). Todd thinks about all the people he knows sitting around him. Their deaths will mean nothing in the end. The show rages on, the audience engaged in the theatrics. Music blares, and there is a controlled explosion on stage. Smoke plumes, but nothing more. Everyone is okay, and the show ends. 

Todd apologizes to the reader that nothing dramatic happened. He is an imperfect communicator, and he wanted his story to end softly, like how it began: “Say what you wish about the formal requirements of storytelling; this is my opera, and I’ll lead you out of it as gently as I led you in” (246). Todd helps Capt. Osborn from his seat. Todd’s plan failed, but he isn’t sad or happy. He could throw himself into the river, but why bother, he asks himself.

Todd and Capt. Osborn run into Harrison, Jane, and Jeannine. They exchange small talk about the show and go their separate ways. Todd informs the reader that over the proceeding years, their friendship fades. They speak rarely, although Harrison sends Todd’s law firm a fifty-thousand-dollar check after they win his inheritance case. The Macks travel across Italy, then settle outside Baltimore. Todd keeps track of Jeannine’s social life in the papers but doesn’t speak to her.

Todd takes Capt. Osborn to his room. The elderly man offers him whiskey, and Todd suggests inviting Mister Haecker. He goes to Mister Haecker’s room but there is no answer. He opens the door and finds Mister Haecker in his bed—dressed in black, a bottle of sleeping pills nearby, and an annotated copy of Hamlet. Haecker’s pulse is faint, but present, and Todd notifies the hotel manager. Todd believes if Haecker survives, he won’t believe so adamantly that being old is a good thing. Todd proves to be correct. He informs the reader that after Haecker recovered, he went to a sanitorium and successfully killed himself a few years later. Todd returns to his room and notes the changing weather outside. Before going to sleep, he adds an additional note to his writing: “V. There’s no final reason for living (or for suicide)” (250). 

All Todd needed to change his mind about killing himself was to let his plan play out. He thinks his story could end on an emotional note but confesses he didn’t feel motivated by emotions during the events of his story. He has experienced highs and lows, but he looks back at his life analytically: “To realize that nothing makes any final difference is overwhelming; but if one goes no farther and becomes a saint, a cynic, or a suicide on principle, one hasn’t reasoned completely. The truth is that nothing makes any difference, including that truth” (251).

Todd continues writing. He believes he’ll likely live his life the same way he did before he planned on committing suicide:

It occurred to me, for example, that faced with an infinitude of possible directions and having no ultimate reason to choose one over another, I would in all probability, though not at all necessarily, go on behaving much as I had thitherto, as a rabbit shot on the run keeps running in the same direction until death overtakes him. (251)

He might even try to blow up the Floating Opera again, but probably not.

Todd thinks back on the letters he wrote to his father. If he wants to understand why his father committed suicide, he must understand why he himself didn’t. He has a lot more to write, and might not ever finish, but is content knowing that. Todd remembers the results of his physical will arrive the next day. Regardless of the results, he feels he has time. Todd prepares for bed, happy, full of ideas, and he sleeps soundly despite a raging thunderstorm outside.