sponsibility in the affair. In this way, Peter is absolved from any wrongdoing; he is swept away in the young woman’s emotions. His shallow pain only serves to make him feel that he is not the one to blame.The young woman excuses Peter by finding a parallel between Peter and the chauffeur of the Archduke. They are both static characters with little dimensionality, and yet they both play a vital role in their respective tales. The young woman notes that the chauffeur had “lost his way”(149), much like Peter lost sight of his marriage and duty to his children. The woman does not blame the chauffeur, defending his actions and giving him a ready excuse. “Do not think that the archduke’s chauffeur was merely careless…he was, I imagine, in a state of shock, fright, and confusion” (149). In this way, the young woman shows that she sees Peter as an innocent party, driven to infidelity by the inordinate affection. His marriage “was ripe for unhinging” (150).Inordinate affection is an all-consuming lust that clouds judgment, making one ignorant to consequences and surroundings. Peter complains that Princip’s footprints in the sidewalk are obscured by the rain, in much the same way that his lust for the young woman obscures the importance and pain of his wife. The inordinate affection that the young woman feels begins to wear off, starting a downpour, which is unstoppable until its inevitable conclusion. The rain continues to drive the storyline, forcing the woman and her lover to dine in a restaurant, under the scrutiny of the public eye. Under the watchful stare of the waiters, she finally sees herself as others do. “In a world which for once…was finally full of young men, unslaughtered, what was I doing with this man with thinning hair?” (150) Here the pieces fall into place, and the woman realizes that she is selfish in her pursuit of a married man. The...
