The Tennis Match

The fictional tennis match at the heart of the novel, between the poet and the artist, is symbolic of the wider political and military conflicts going on elsewhere in the novel, from the machinations in the Roman Catholic Church, to the Spanish conquests in the Americas. The author expresses his frustration that, when reviewing accounts of significant historical conflicts, “in every game the bad guys have the advantage and that is too much to bear” (205). The author symbolically rights this historical wrong by giving the advantage and the ultimate victory in his fictional tennis match to Caravaggio, a provocative talent and iconoclast, in opposition to the violent, vengeful, and homophobic Quevedo.

Tennis / Ball Games

Tennis and ball games in general are symbolic of the possibility that human beings are capable of competing with each other in a forceful and visceral manner without resorting to...