balcony, peering through his handmade telescope at the vibrant life bustling in the streets below.

Instilled with wariness by his mother, Jonathan suppresses all natural desires, even those of the heart. Rosalie, by Madame Rosepettle's intention, visits him, hoping her real-life presence would highlight her supposed moral failings, turning him away from her—and women entirely. But Jonathan is drawn to Rosalie, and despite his crippling fears, he musters the courage to express his interest, imploring her return.

In their subsequent meeting, however, chaos ensues. Rosalie embarks on a brazen seduction, enticing Jonathan towards Madame Rosepettle’s bed. When she confesses to her prior exploits, confirming Madame Rosepettle's warnings, Jonathan silences her with her own skirt, entombing her beneath his hoarded stamps, coins, and books.

Madame Rosepettle
Madame Rosepettle, a woman of extraordinary eccentricity and immense wealth, stands as the peculiar matriarch to Jonathan and widow to the late Albert Edward Robinson Rosepettle III. Presumed to be in mourning, she dons somber black attire and carries her husband’s coffin along her travels through the Caribbean, accompanied by her son and an eclectic collection of possessions and pets.

From the very beginning, one cannot help but sense the commanding presence of Madame Rosepettle. She embodies a terrifying caricature of the "Ugly American" tourist, issuing fierce orders and menacing threats that send a shiver through the beleaguered hotel bellboys, all struggling to ferry the Rosepettle's peculiar belongings into their opulent suite. When the Head Bellboy musters the courage to challenge her blatant disregard for his authority, she swiftly reduces him to a submissive servant, reminding him that she is the "Tourist," the bearer of wealth, and the one whose demands must be met.

Madame Rosepettle's iron grip extends to her son Jonathan, whose life she attempts to mold within the confines of their hotel suite. She meticulously orchestrates his activities, permitting him to indulge in reading, playing with stamps and coins, and tending to her exotic pets: a pair of carnivorous Venus flytraps and a silver piranha named Rosalinda. As she endeavors to shape Jonathan for some ambiguous future greatness, she inadvertently transforms him into a fragile, timid creature riddled with insecurity. In essence, she epitomizes the archetype of the overbearing mother gone wild.

Moreover, Madame Rosepettle is the quintessential emasculating woman in a frenzy. She views romantic love between men and women as a disease requiring eradication. Her favorite nocturnal activity is to stroll along the beach, contemptuously kicking sand over couples embracing beneath the moonlight. When Commodore Roseabove makes romantic overtures, she chillingly suggests she might accept his affections—if only he were willing to literally offer his heart on a platter. In a candid revelation, she confesses to having spent but a single night with her husband, an unattractive man she wed at twenty-eight, still a virgin. Her scorn extinguishes the Commodore's ardor as she expresses utter disdain for the simplistic male gender, whom she manipulates and derides as nothing but fools. She even admits to relishing the role of executioner, having murdered her husband, whose corpse she keeps in a closet like a grim trophy. The terrified Commodore, with his grand yacht, is fortunate to escape her clutches alive.

Madame Rosepettle's relentless mission is to shield her son from the distasteful entanglements of sex. To quash Jonathan's growing fascination with Rosalie, she hires the girl to visit him, convinced that Rosalie will inevitably expose herself as nothing more than a harlot. Yet, this revelation does not come immediately, and Jonathan's interest in Rosalie only intensifies. Madame Rosepettle's suspicions find some validation when Rosalie later attempts to seduce Jonathan, openly admitting to past promiscuity. Despite this, Rosalie exhibits a spirited defiance that challenges Madame Rosepettle's rule, though the encounter ends tragically when Jonathan inadvertently suffocates her. In the aftermath, Madame Rosepettle demands explanations for the deaths of her beloved pets and the unsettling scene of Rosalie's body, now entombed beneath a cascade of stamps and coins.