The main character of the
story is Trysdale who is trying to understand the causes of his unsuccessful courtship. The Cactus is the 3-d person narration
that provides an objective rendering of the principal character’s thoughts and
actions.
The events take place in a
small “bachelor apartments” during a very short period of time. At the
beginning the author gives a very interesting interpretation of the notion of
time that appears to be relative. The word is written with a capital letter that
puts emphasis on the importance of the notion.
Then we meet the main
character who is thinking over his life while taking off his gloves. He is
accompanied by his old friend that will play a very important role at the end
of the story.
Trysdale mind is occupied with
the retrospect of the last few hours where he sees his beloved getting married
to another man. He is suffering and trying to find the answer why everything
has turned to be so tragic. And here he gets an insight that his own vanity and
conceit gave way to despair.
“Shaken rudely
by the uncompromising fact, he had suddenly found himself confronted by a thing
he had never before faced — his own innermost, unmitigated, arid unbedecked self. He saw all the garbs of pretence
and egoism that he had worn now turn to rags of folly.” That self appears to be the antagonist of
the story and Trysdale becomes conscious of the dark side of his personality
and seeing no other reason concludes that his vanity can be the decisive point
in their
estrangement. At the same time, the author rouses the readers’ curiosity
as to why the affair could not work.
The lady-love is portrayed
with every conventional “feminine grace”- modest, childlike, worshipful and
sincere. Describing their relations O. Henry touches a problem of the roles
that a man and a woman play in the life of each other. It is she who places him
on the pedestal and invests him with the great number of pathetic attributes.
She contributes to the growth of his vanity and egoism. And he takes such
attitude for granted not showing his real essence.
Just when the readers begin to
accept Trysdale’s version of the probable cause of disaster, the narrator slips
in bits of conversation about Trysdale’s empty boasts of linguistic competence
in Spanish. Only one hint is provided, that, possibly this particular case of
vanity was the source of Trysdale’s eventual crisis: “He did not feel the prick of the thorn that was to pierce him later.”
The next part of the story
allows this metaphor of thorn to develop through a detailed account of the
arrival of the cactus bearing only a tag with a strange botanical name. The
final revelation comes at the end when the Trysdale’s friend conveys the
meaning of the name “Ventomarme”.
It was worth a dozen love letters. However,
Trysdale’s ignorance kept him from understanding the inviting message “come and
take me”. The damage was complete when this ignorance was coupled with conceit.
The final sentence puts the
readers into a perplexing situation, despite the apparent humour of it. Now one
feels sympathetic for him. The error of judgement on the part of Trysdale is
not difficult to locate. He gives preference to pride not love and eventually
loses both.
