‘Everything Grew Larger Than Life in the Steamy Hothouse of Darwin and the People Were No Exception.’ How Important Is Place in This Novel?

Peter Goldsworthys Maestro demonstrates the importance of setting in understanding images such as the protagonists Paul Crabbe and Eduard Keller. Written in a retrospective narrative from Paul Crabbes point of view and how the settings of awkward Darwin, suburban Adelaide and hypocritical capital of Austria affected him. Upon moving from Adelaide to Darwin, Paul today falls in love with the city of booze, blow and blasphemy. Darwin is the backcloth to the ignorant addiction Paul develops and feeds his heightened sense as a steamy and lush hothouse.Totally different from Adelaide, Paul thrives in the unseasoned setting, as his character develops. Paul meets Keller, the Maestro in Darwin and is fascinated by the first impression Keller leaves upon him. The formal white suit Keller wears contrasts with the Swan, the dark and fooling hotel he inhabits, symbolising Kellers alienation in Darwin. Described by Paul as a type of monastery a place for placation, Darwin and the Swan pr ovide an insight into the Maestros character.To Keller, Darwin stages the social and cultural isolation he craves as atonement for the crimes he believed he had committed. Kellers history affects him so thicksetly he was changed by it, and to Paul he is merely a Nazi. Upon reflecting, Paul found it strange to realise how more than he came to love the man, depend on him from his first impressions. As a larner Keller taught Paul incomplete lessons of music and life that Paul comes to sorrowfulness not appreciating. On Pauls final night in Darwin he goes to the Swan with the intention of saying goodbye to Keller and then brush with his girlfriend Rosie.Kellers acceptance of Paul as an important embark on of his life is symbolised through the new chair and table he has purchased for Paul, finally ready to share his mysterious history. However, Paul doesnt realise the confessional for what it was and with the aflame(p) sexual present overwhelming the past he leaves behind his abject reader. Kellers past and transition in nature from a romanticist virtuosos to strict teacher is shown through music and his descriptions of Vienna. After the Nazis rose to power, Keller describes the dance palace of Vienna being turned nto the experimental laboratory for the end of the world demonstrating that Kellers own world ended along with his love of Vienna. Kellers love for his wife Mathilde gave him rubato, and that extra belittledness that Paul could never achieve. However, it buoyed his assurance and belief of his own invulnerability which prevented him from realising the danger his Jewish family were in, in Vienna. To Paul, Vienna represents a European city of culture and music but to Keller it is a reminder of his lost family and regretted choices.Vienna is also the cause of Kellers disbelieve and suspicion of beauty, as he says never trust the beautiful is something Paul, as a young and naive man, cant understand. Keller describes Vienna as a veneer, hiding the hypocrisy within in an attempt to teach Paul the lessons he had to learn through awful experiences. Paul and Kellers natures are contrasted by Goldsworthy in Maestro and their similarity is what causes Keller to endeavour to teach Paul.The confessional that Paul snubbed, a privilege that he failed to realise through selfishness and sensual addiction, was Kellers explanation and he told Paul this as he called reveal I tell you this, not for me, but for you. Pauls rejection of the deep connection he shared with Keller is something he would come to regret as he strove to defy the limits of perfection Keller had shown him. When Paul leaves the setting of Darwin to attend school, he takes an arrogance that let him believe Keller had taught all that was in his power to teach. In comparison to lush Darwin, Melbourne and Adelaide are mundane and suburban and perhaps symbolise the direction Pauls future will take, as he rejected Keller and the incomplete lessons he strove to teach. Pa ul realises he cant bridge the tragic gulf between talent and genius in his travels of Europe as he ignored Kellers advice of a little hurt now, to save a wasted life. Vienna is a city of culture and music to Paul and the setting is important in understanding how he differs from his mentor, the Maestro.The settings of Goldsworthys Maestro are important in understanding the history and context of each character and their actions. The settings are material in the novel as they contrast the characters to their surroundings and develop message such as Kellers chosen isolation in Darwin. all(prenominal) place in the novel symbolises differences and similarities and Goldsworthy positions the reader to observe the way the character understands and interacts with their surroundings, be it Darwin, Adelaide, the Swan or Vienna.