Popular Culture Review Vol. 3, No. 2, August 1992 | Page 11

The Limits of Narcissism

to others. And this is not the only occasion when we see the quiet
influence of Judy in his life. Even when he is doing what he is most
proud of, acting as a Master of the Universe who is wired into the
flnancial power of his firm, he feels a tingle of guilt for his elation
over his own and his firm's success. Even in moments of intense
professional satisfaction, he thinks of Judy's likely response:" .. .Judy
has always had his number. She looked down on him .. . . Yet, back
there in the cocoon of their early days together in the Village,
Sherman had validated her claim. He had enjoyed telling Judy that
while he worked on Wall Street, he was not of Wall Street and was
only using Wall Street. He had been pleased when she condescended
to admire him for the enlightenment that was stirring in his soul"
(72).
Yet another influence on Sherman's conscience is his father, a
once powerful partner in a prestigious law firm. Although Sherman
frequently reflects with pride on his status as the son of "the Lion of
Dunning Sponget," on the aristocratic chin that he has inherited from
the older man, on the respect accorded him on being his well-known
father's son, he also realizes that his father would approve neither
of his infidelities nor his way of life. Reflecting at one point on the
astronomical cost of his apartment, he realizes that his father would
be appalled, "wounded at the thought of how his endlessly repeated
lessons concerning duty, debt, ostentation, and proportion had
whistled straight through his son's skull" (57). While these values
may not be entirely evident in Sherman's narcissistic musings, the
lessons have surely remained behind, and he will have cause later to
call upon the reserves that both his father and Judy have planted in
his conscience.
That conscience is forcibly awakened following the accident
that will lead to his downfall, and yet, Maria Ruskin, his mistress
and co-conspirator in not reporting the accident, has, for a time, the
opposite effect on his conscience than his father and wife have had.
Troubled by the idea that he naight have hurt a young man, Sherman
wants to go to the police with information about the assault and
subsequent accident, and Maria mockingly dissuades him, arguing
that their social position makes them vulnerable—an argument that,
in light of the current political climate in New York, proves all too
true—and that what has happened has no moral significance since it
involved self-defense. "Two niggers tried to kill us, and we got