The Surrogate Summary

Words: 1307
Pages: 6

The Surrogate,” by Tessa Hadley tells the story of 20-year-old, Carla, and how she falls in love with one of her college professors. To some, this story may seem like a cliche version of a schoolgirl fantasy. As we continue to read more, taboo events develop, evoking a deeper meaning as the intriguing notion of human desire and selfishness starts to play a role. Even some forbidden questions start to become apparent. So why is it that we consume ourselves with fantasies of unattainable ideals? Why is it that if we ever get a chance for these fantasies to become a reality we still don’t feel fulfilled? This story at first glance to some might seem to be just about a young woman and her infatuation with her college professor, but it also opens …show more content…
From the beginning, we can see Carla has such an infatuation with her college professor Patrick Hammett. She didn’t just take one class with him, but all of the ones he taught. She even stated point blank, “I took all his classes; I made him my interpreter of the whole world,” (2). For her, just taking his lectures wasn’t enough; she needed more. She needed him in every aspect of her life. It’s unclear whether she actually enjoyed what he was teaching or if she was just trying to fill the void of always wanting more from him. This does become clearer when Carla mentions a poem he read in his 17th-century poetry class called “The Exequy.” After hearing him read it, she wanted the meaning of it to be deeper than what it was. To her then, the poem was Patrick. It was all the passion and lust she felt for him. Later, when she is older, it is revealed that the poem was about death and despair, something she said she knows nothing about. By using her older self as the interpreter of the poem we can see that 20-year-old Carla’s mind was so rooted with the desires she had for Patrick that she wanted the poem to mean something more to her than what it was. This was just one way Carla’s urge for needing more comes into play. As the story goes on this need for Patrick begins to overtake her