The Professor and The Siren

Kendall Weinert

Masterpieces of Italian Literature

The Siren Blog Post

11/24/13

The Professor and The Siren

In the story The Professor and The Siren, by Lampedusa, the main character Paolo hears a story from a friend of an interaction with a mystical creature. His friend, the senator, explains and brags about this interaction, thinking that he is now better than everyone else. Paolo does not believe that the senator is better than everyone else. He believes that the senator is being very arrogant. Paolo states, “Pride is preferable to false modesty.” (Lampedusa, 64) In the short story, Paolo would rather have someone who has a lot of pride in themselves than someone who is telling a lie about their past.

Paolo believes that the senator is stretching the truth in his story about the siren. “I felt the senator was rather over-doing it.” (Lampedusa, 64) By the senator over-doing it with his story of the siren, the senator believes that he is in fact above others. After telling Paolo the start of the story of the siren, he insists on paying for his coffee. This is something that may not be looked at as something out of the ordinary, but in this case it is the senator trying to show off and insist that he is above Paolo.  Another instance where Paolo tries to show that he is above others is when he tries to show Paolo the letter he received from the Rector of the University of Columbia. This letter was “inviting him to join the Committee of Honour for a congress.” (Lampedusa, 71) From the senator trying to show off this letter he is again doing everything in his power to try to not only make Paolo jealous, but to be sure that Paolo knows that he is not as good as the senator is. Another way that the senator tries to make Paolo feel as though he is less that him is when Paolo saw the senator laugh for the first time. This was not a laugh that one would expect. It was a laugh to make Paolo feel worse about himself. “For the first time I had known him I saw the senator laugh…’so this is the theatre of your grubby ruttings.’” (Lampedusa, 72) Here the senator is trying to show that he has better belonging than Paolo. He is trying to make Paolo feel bad once and for all. The senator believes that he is above all and should have some sort of superiority to everyone whom he comes across.