The Elusive Form: The Use Of Female Characters In "Naked Nude"
Thesis and Outline:
Thesis: In his picturesque short story, "The Naked Nude", Bernard Malamud uses
the female characters to develop, enact, and resolve Fidelman's epiphany and to
bring about the protagonist's final, artistic self-understanding.
I. Introductory paragraph--statement of thesis.
II. The prostitutes
A. in contrast to Fidelman's initial idea of the artistic nude
B. "maybe too many naked women around made it impossible to
draw a nude"--establish basis of conflict within Fidelman III.
Teresa
A. flat, static character--functions totally as a touchstone for
Fidelman
B. provides Fidelman's first turn towards ...
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the reader
a lesson through coinciding elements of beauty and comedy. Venturing away from
his usual, inner-city Jewish element, Malamud tackles new challenges of subject
and setting in his novelistic collection of short stories, Pictures of Fidelman .
Malamud develops his protagonist through a series of six, interrelated short
works, each of which may function entirely independent from the others. In "The
Naked Nude," for instance, Fidelman comes to a new, artistic maturity through
his attempt to copy the famous painting "Venus of Urbino" by Titian Tiziano.
Malamud's recurring theme of self-knowledge through suffering permeates this
short work. Scarpio and Angelo, as primary antagonists, provide the bulk of
this suffering for Fidelman. It is his own mental captivity concerning the
female nude, however, that gives cause for Fidelman's eventual epiphany asan
artist and as an individual. His relationship to the women in the work shapes
his ability to capture the form of ...
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from the distasteful
prostitutes, Fidelman doesn't see the true nature of her physical beauty. He
sees only her "extraordinary flesh that can turn body into spirit" (Malamud
323). Any natural physical beauty present in the prostitutes escapes the
copyist, as he embraces form over fact and the inherent spirit over the actual
body.
Teresa, the "asthmatic, hairy-legged chambermaid" (Malamud 319),
provides Fidelman's first turn towards artistic self-awareness and towards
capturing the elusive "Venus of Urbino." She is a flat, static character,
functioning solely as a touchstone for Fidelman to compare the naked and the
nude. After fudging his first attempt to enhance her form, he ...
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The Elusive Form: The Use Of Female Characters In "Naked Nude". (2006, November 21). Retrieved October 31, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Elusive-Form-Use-Female-Characters-Naked/55914
"The Elusive Form: The Use Of Female Characters In "Naked Nude"." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 21 Nov. 2006. Web. 31 Oct. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Elusive-Form-Use-Female-Characters-Naked/55914>
"The Elusive Form: The Use Of Female Characters In "Naked Nude"." Essayworld.com. November 21, 2006. Accessed October 31, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Elusive-Form-Use-Female-Characters-Naked/55914.
"The Elusive Form: The Use Of Female Characters In "Naked Nude"." Essayworld.com. November 21, 2006. Accessed October 31, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Elusive-Form-Use-Female-Characters-Naked/55914.
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