The Iguana and The Siren

In both Ortese's The Iguana and Lampedusa's The Professor and The Siren, a main character encounters a supernatural creature that is fantastic. Both Daddo and La Ciura face challenges in coping with this creature because it is difficult to figure out if the creature is even real or not. In addition, both the Count, Daddo, and La Ciura come from upper-class, wealthy families and once they encounter the iguana and the Siren, they are awe-struck and confused. When Daddo, a confident count in search of real estate, discovers that the figure he had thought was an old woman was actually an iguana, Ortese describes, “Daddo’s surprise was tremendous. He had taken her for a shrunken old woman, but he was looking at an animal!” (Ortese 17). La Ciura experiences the same sort of surprise when he is relaxing on his boat and a Siren appeared, described as mystical and enchanting, her smile “was the first of the spells cast upon (him)” (Lampedusa 78).

Time is distorted for both Daddo and La Ciura and they face difficulty in differentiating eternality and time. In the end, Daddo ends up dying and sacrificing himself for the iguana, seeing her beauty despite her green, animal-like body. La Ciura’s fate brings him to a similar death, as he apparently falls into the ocean, most likely going to be with the Siren and sacrificing himself for love, and his body is never found. The similarities between the fantastic stories of the iguana and the Siren are evident when comparing how these creatures affect the male characters in each story.