Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Other Duel” is the story of a battle between two enemies that is literally fought to the death. However, “The Other Duel” is not just a story of revenge but a comment on the violent nature of humans. Both Cardoso and Silveira do not spend their last moments on earth pleading with their executioners - death is not the imposing force on these men but failure to prove themselves is.
Borges truly captures how far a person is willing to go to maintain their pride during the final scene when he states “As he fell, Cardoso stretched out his arms. He had won, but he likely never knew that.” (Borges 142). It is absolutely revolting that Cardoso would spend the final seconds of his life trying to put to rest a life long battle with Silveira. While this final scene seems grotesque, it is simply a display of the emotions that every human being feels at one point in their life. Everyone can identify with feelings of pride – we are naturally inclined to be somewhat competitive. Borges taps into these emotions by allowing Cardoso to win the duel. By the end of the story, the reader wants to feel disgust for Cardoso’s actions but is actually quite taken aback by how clever he proves to be. Cardoso knew that if he could somehow win the duel he would leave behind a legacy that would prove greater than anything Silveira could leave behind. Through one simple action in the final moments of his life, Cardoso created a lifetime of legacy. Cardoso may have lost his life, but he won immortality and if Borges makes one point abundantly clear in “The Other Duel” it is that we all want our story to be told – we all want to use our story to become immortal.
1 comment:
Heather, you capture the essense of that line in a wonderful and succinct way. Bravo!
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