ATDTDA (21): Nights out here on the masegni, 580-582

[Paul Nightingale]

If the previous section ended with Dally, the new section opens with her
"switch[ing] her own day around to accommodate" Hunter's new interest in
nocturnes. There is a back-&-forth nature to their relationship: he draws
her out of herself (576), in the process becoming quite voluble (577-579),
and then she reasserts herself (579-580). This is not to say they are
engaged in a power struggle: neither character is asked to surrender
independence. 

As previously he recalled Merle for her, so here does talk of Venetian light
recall American light, her childhood and Merle (581), the paragraph drifting
away rather than closing ...

Furthermore, on "all those small, perfect towns ..." etc, cf. Lew's take:
"As the evening crept across the valley ..." (174-175).

The "secret and tenebrous city" (581) that Dally discovers, complete with
"rat-infested labyrinths", recalls Hunter's explanation of "the labyrinthine
principle" (575). As "this ancient town progressively settl[es] into a mask
of itself" (581), one might recall Dally's own attempt to withdrew into
disguise (575-576): this emphasises the rapport she has felt with her
surroundings since first arriving in Venice (eg, "an upswelling of the heart
she must struggle to contain", 568). Hence, "[s]he is much more comfortable
working nights ..." etc, in spite of "the night predators" she has to deal
with (581). Hunter is absent from these passages, nowhere in evidence when
she deals with Tonio or contemplates the cost of seduction. She considers
"the element of fear" (582), interrupted by Hunter's alternative, painterly,
take on the Venetian night, one that appears to align him with tourists. His
suggestion that she leave with him goes unanswered; and the section ends
with a simple statement of his remaining. Their relationship is one that
seems to thrive on difference.