24 pages • 48 minutes read
Roald DahlSkin
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1960A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Drioli
Drioli, the protagonist, represents the common man who suffered the most as a result of war. He changes from being a fun-loving person, excited at the chance to celebrate a successful day of work with friends, to an empty, lonely individual who moves along without a true purpose. Unable to work and reduced to begging for survival, Drioli represents the lowest class. This shift in status causes the desperation that seals his fate.
A significant event in Drioli’s life is becoming a living canvas. Though this symbolizes a unification of the physical (the body) and the abstract (art), it also represents Drioli’s investment in his friend’s talent; he believes in Chaim Soutine’s vision so passionately that he is willing to carry his art on his back forever. When Drioli finds Soutine drinking alone, he joins him, and they quickly bond over their shared upbringing in Russia. This bond speaks to their shared otherness in a foreign country, but Drioli expresses genuine appreciation of Soutine’s work, regarding it as marvelous. Though Drioli is, ironically, later denied access to Soutine’s art, he is the first to support the artist.
The tattoo also provides Drioli with an ultimate expression of ownership over Josie, perhaps an unconscious response to Soutine’s numerous passes at her. Drioli uses Josie’s name to persuade Soutine: “Drioli knew he only had to mention his wife and the boy’s thick brown lips would loosen and begin to quiver” (8). He makes the proposal after a series of inappropriate exchanges, such as Soutine asking Josie to run away with him. Drioli does not respond with anger to these advances, as he considers Soutine a “boy.” By requesting the portrait of Josie on his body, however, Drioli exerts a passive display of dominance. However, the tattoo ultimately leads to Drioli’s own Dehumanization and Objectification by upper-class art dealers. His implied murder illustrates Drioli’s failed attempt to traverse The Great Divide.
Chaim Soutine
Soutine is known for little beyond his art. He is a flat character with limited traits. A sullen and brooding person, the artist is far from home: a Russian from Minsk living in France. His unhappiness, noted three times in his opening description, is his main characteristic. He cannot afford to eat, is unable to sell his art (though ironically, it is later worth millions), and is lonely. To counteract this misery, he makes advances toward Josie. To have a wife signifies a version of happiness, though he must settle for using Josie as a model for his art. To this extent, Soutine enjoys Josie in a superficial way, representing his limited pleasures in life. She poses for his paintings but will not do so nude. She converses with Soutine but will not leave Drioli to marry him.
Soutine becomes the subject of objectification when he disappears from Drioli’s life. Between the wars, Drioli learns that “a dealer had taken him up and sent him away to Ceret to make more paintings” (13). This transaction suggests Soutine is like the art itself: One can acquire and exploit him. Soutine’s death, in 1943, is revealed by a plaque in the art gallery. In the story’s present, only his art remains. Just as Drioli is separated from his skin, Soutine is separated from his art, and others profit from his work.
Josie
Josie, Drioli’s wife, represents objectification. Her role develops through Drioli and Soutine’s treatment of her and her lack of agency in the story. She is frequently referred to as “the girl” or Drioli’s “wife.” While Drioli uses Soutine’s attraction to Josie as a persuasive tactic, the male characters do not consult her. Her voice is unheard, and her reluctance is ignored. The men determine that she will be used as the subject for Drioli’s back tattoo.
Josie has little effect on the story. Her death during World War II is briefly mentioned in Drioli’s memories. While her absence contributes to Drioli’s woes, it is not conveyed as a separate loss. These details develop the objectification of her character. Though Josie remains in the story as the tattoo on Drioli’s back, the image is an interpretation rather than an exact replica: “It was a mood rather than a likeness, the model’s face vague and tipsy” (13). As such, Josie represents both the commodification of the male gaze in a patriarchal society and the dehumanization that results from war.
Related Titles
By Roald Dahl
