Analyse af Rachel Cusks 'After Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac'

To give up a person you love is hard, but in the end you can’t let go of the person who mean the most to you. In this short story the reader gets an insight in a man’s life and feelings for his son, when he tries to achieve an unfaithfully trust to another woman and therefore he is also close to sacrifice his own son for this woman.

The story is told from a first person point of view. The narrator of the story, Alan, is the central character. This point of view makes the reader more intimate with the narrator, and the story would be completely different if it was told from another point of view, or from another person’s point of view.

Sally, the wife is portrayed very cruelly. Sally is portrayed as weak and she seems mentally ill because of her inability to be with her child. She says to him: “You’re a good man, Alan” (lines 121-122), when he returns, even though he has treated her terribly. If the story had been told from Sally’s point of view, she would have our sympathy and she wouldn’t seem so cold towards her son and husband and the story would probably be about unfaithfulness, depression and loneliness instead of the themes it has.