Student Question
Why didn't Herzog marry Ramona in Saul Bellow's Herzog?
Quick answer:
Herzog does not marry Ramona because he is deeply obsessed with his past, which he cannot or will not let go. Ramona represents a potential new future, but Herzog is unable to accept this break from the past. His fixation on past relationships and events, such as his letters and obsession with Madeleine, indicates his preference for confronting his past rather than moving forward, reflecting Bellow's exploration of modern life's potential emptiness.
Moses Herzog is a man obsessed with the past. He is unable to conquer this obsession and, most likely, he is unwilling.
Ramona offers Herzog a new and fresh future, even though she might also offer some complications having to do with her own past. Nonetheless, Ramona can be seen as representing a break from the past and this is a break Herzog cannot accept.
Examples his obession are many. Herzog's letters, his fixation on Madeleine, and his impulses to visit his family are all evidence of this need to maintain the past and even bring it back.
For Moses Herzog, a disastrous confrontation with the past is preferable to a break with that past. This may be true for a number of reasons, one of which is Bellow's interest in the (potential) emptiness of modern life.
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