Paul’s strange attraction to Baxter Dawes
Baxter Dawes is a broken man: sick, poor, abandoned by his wife, jobless, and accepting charity even from Paul, his adversary. Yet, Paul regularly visits the sick man and later invites Clara along to spend a day at a cottage with Baxter and himself. Can we understand Paul's behaviour?
Paul’s relationship with Miriam is a failure, ostensibly through sexual incompatibility, but more likely through Paul’s reluctance to commit wholeheartedly to a woman other than his mother. The novel is cryptic regarding the failure of Baxter’s relationship with Clara. Both Paul and Clara seem unable to sustain an intimate relationship. The parallels are intriguing. Just as Paul behaves harshly and unfairly to Miriam, Clara has good reason to be ashamed of her behaviour towards Baxter, who seems as fully committed and faithful to Clara as Miriam is to Paul. Suffering an indefinable angst, Clara rejects Baxter as Paul does Miriam.
I suspect Paul is attracted to Baxter, like a moth to flame, owing to the perspective that Paul gains on his teetering relationship with Miriam. Paul pities and is fascinated by Baxter, whose predicament has much in common with Miriam’s. In finding resolution (if only temporary) for Baxter’s marriage, Paul happily unloads Clara but, sadly, sheds little light on his own troubled relationships...particularly that with his departed mother.
Paul leaves us with a note of sour optimism.