Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Seize the Day is the title of the collection of three short novellas and a one-act play by Saul Bellow that was published in 1956. It was his fourth book and the title novella (Seize the Day) was adapted into a film by the same name in 1986. Seize the Day was republished as a single short novel in 1958. The novel's theme is the well-known American Dream based on Materialism sans emotional and spiritual values. The ultimate American Dream is to succeed in life—mostly by becoming rich. However, the Dream is not reachable for everyone and the novel explores how the pursuit of it can destroy a person. The novel explores failure, suffering, deception, isolation, and the idea of Care Diem (Celebrate the Present).
Characters of Seize the Day:
Wilhelm Adler or Tommy Wilhelm is the main character. He is married, but his wife and children are living apart from him. He asks for divorce but his wife Margaret declines divorcing him and keeps demanding more money to raise their two boys. His mistress Olivia is fed up with him because he cannot get a divorce and marry her. While Wilhelm is a Jew, Olivia is a Catholic and finds it distressing to be sleeping with a married man, and encourages Wilhelm to get divorced. Wilhelm is a failed actor while his father, Doctor Adler is a successful and famous physician who is now retired. Wilhelm seeks financial help from his father but Doctor Adler refuses to help him because he disapproves of his ways and scolds him for his failures and slovenliness. Wilhelm Adler has no stable source of income and to pay Margaret and get a divorce, he continues borrowing money and betting in the stock market. He is knee-deep in financial troubles. Dr. Tamkin is a supposed psychologist who impresses Wilhelm and gains his trust. Wilhelm continues to invest money in the Stock Market on the advice of Dr. Tamkin who suggests investing in lard and rye will prove to be profitable. However, Dr. Tamkin proves to be a fraud. Maurice Venice is a photographer and talent scout who met Wilhelm when he was a young college-going student. Maurice found Wilhelm very handsome and advised him to try acting in Hollywood. But when Maurice took a camera screening test of Wilhelm, he found that Wilhelm was not photogenic and advised him to drop the idea of acting. However, Wilhelm was convinced that he would succeed as an actor but he failed. Catherine is Wilhelm’s sister in her forties. Like Wilhelm, she is also a struggling artist and seeks monetary help from her father. Dr. Adler declines helping Catherine too because he believes she is not good at painting.
Summary of Seize the Day:
Wilhelm Adler is a middle-aged married man in his forties who is living in a luxurious residential hotel in Manhattan called the Gloriana. Many other retired people in the Jewish community live in the same hotel, however, Wilhelm Adler isn’t retired, nor does he have any stable means of earning. He is the son of a very successful and reputed physician Doctor Adler who is now retired and who also lives in the same hotel. Wilhelm had a bright future but he committed some mistakes in the past that have ruined his present. During his college days, he met Maurice Venice, a talent hunter and photographer who encouraged him to try acting in Hollywood. However, after the screening test, Maurice warned him that he tests poorly on camera and he must stay away from acting. Wilhelm ignored his advice and dropped out of college to pursue acting in Hollywood.
After wasting many years, he ended up in a sales job and got married to Margaret with whom he has two sons. However, he is not happy with Margaret and is having an affair with Olivia who works with him. Olivia, being a Catholic insists that he should get a divorce and marry her before they may consummate their relationship. Margaret isn’t willing to divorce him and continues to demand more money for the upbringing of her sons. Wilhelm was expecting a raise and promotion as an executive in the firm he works for. But one of the executives of the company promoted his own son-in-law in place of Wilhelm. Wilhelm felt cheated and disrespected, and in anger, he resigned from the firm. Now, he has no source of income while he is spending the limited money he got after his wealthy mother’s death.
Wilhelm decided to try his luck in the stock market so that he may gain some big amount by the help of which he may get a divorce from Margaret.
He has made acquaintance with Dr. Tamkin, a psychiatrist who also lives in the same hotel. Wilhelm is impressed by Dr. Tamkin for his knowledge of the stock market, and thus he trusts Tamkin to invest his last dollars in lard but that proves to be a failure. He hopes the stock of lard may go high, but for the time being, he is worried since he has no more money.
Wilhelm asked his father for financial help but Doctor Adler refused to help him out because he didn’t approve his ways. Doctor Adler does not respect Wilhelm, considering him slovenly and a failure in his work and marriage. Doctor Adler and one of his friends Mr. Perls warn Wilhelm not to trust Tamkin and laugh at Tamkin's dubious credentials as a doctor of psychology and his tall tales of inventions.
Doctor Tamkin has taken control of Wilhelm’s money and invests it as per his wishes. Dr. Tamkin invested a big amount of Wilhelm’s money in lard which didn’t work well for Wilhelm.
When Wilhelm goes to meet Dr. Tamkin to discuss his financial troubles and if there are any possibilities of profits in the stock market, Dr. Tamkin tells him that he should not worry too much because it won’t help him anyway. He takes Wilhelm to the brokerage office to see how the investments are going. Some prices are down, but others hold steady. Tamkin explains that he recently invested some money in a hedge of rye, and this should offset some unexpected losses. Wilhelm wonders why he continues to trust Dr. Tamkin while his investments never turn out profitable.
At the brokerage office, Tamkin notices that the price of rye stocks appears to be going up. Tamkin feels enthused and takes Wilhelm for lunch. They talk about Margaret and Olivia and Dr. Tamkin tells Wilhelm stories of his patients. It seems just about everyone has a strange mental issue if Tamkin is to be believed. Wilhelm wonders if anything Tamkin says is true. Growing impatient, Wilhelm insists they leave for the brokerage office. Tamkin assures Wilhelm he can't lose money, as modern technology pulls money out before prices drop too low. Tamkin leaves Wilhelm with the expensive lunch bill before excusing himself temporarily. Despite his financial troubles, Wilhelm is forced to pay for the expensive lunch. He goes back to the brokerage office to check the stock market and gets shocked when he sees that the rye price dropped abysmally, and now there is nothing left. He realizes that Tamkin has wasted all his money. He tries to seek him so that he may blame him for his losses but fails to find him.
Wilhelm is now penniless. He goes back to the hotel and asks his father again for some help. He asks his father to cover up his rent for this month but Doctor Adler refuses and sternly tells him that it is time when he either should go back to his home and live with Margaret or get a job. Wilhelm hardly has any choice. He calls Margaret but she is not interested in his troubles. She doesn’t want him to return home unless he returns to the sales job.
Wilhelm is heartbroken. He finds it too disrespectful to go back to the same job that he resigned. Moreover, he is not sure he will get that job back. Sorrowfully, he goes to Broadway where he notices a funeral parlor. He thinks he just saw Dr. Tamkin at the funeral parlor and rushes towards him to catch him and blame him for his losses. However, Tamkin notices him coming towards him and scuttles away. As Dr. Tamkin vanishes in the crowd Wilhelm is left in a line to view the open casket. Seeing the dead man before him makes his feelings of despair and shame swell, and he begins crying loudly. The other funeral-goers wonder who he is.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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