Miss Temptation by Kurt Vonnegut is a fascinating short story about a bit-part actress named Susanna, who is poetically beautiful and stands in stark contrast to the Puritan setting of the village. Her expression of her sexuality is too much to bear for Norman Fuller, who channels her fear and inferiority complex into an overly moralizing attitude. The story criticizes baseless beliefs about the commodification of sexuality and challenges notions of objectification of women.
Miss Temptation | Summary
The story begins with Susanna; she is living in a small village while performing in the community theater one summer. She is described as a temptress, who is beautiful and seductive. She sleeps half the day before going for a barefoot walk through the village. While she is polite to everyone, she only speaks to Bearse Hinkley, the elderly drugstore pharmacist. Hinkley sells her the newspaper every day before she returns to her rented room.
One day, Susanna is buying her newspaper when she is interrupted by Corporal Newman Fuller, who has just returned from Korea. He questions her about the way she walks, like a temptress. Susanna is an actress by profession, so she does not understand when he calls all American women “greatest actresses”. He doubles his sarcasm and blames her that women like her make men like him feel lonely. He storms off, and a shaken Susanna runs back to her room over the firehouse.
As Norman eats dinner with his widowed mother that evening, he sulks saying he has not reconnected with any of his old friends and plans to go to divinity school because of an experience. He goes on to talk about Susanna. That night, Norman joins Hinkley as he walks to the firehouse. The two sit together, and Hinkley tells him that Susanna has not left the firehouse and skipped her show. Norman is pleased to hear how his berating has affected her.
The next day, at noon, all the villagers including Hinkley await Susanna’s arrival, wondering if she will emerge from her room. Norman arrives too, but the two are surprised when a truck arrives and starts moving Susanna’s belongings. Norman begins to rant about Susanna again, and Bearse accuses him of being afraid of the girl. The two start arguing, and Bearse tells Norman to deliver Susanna’s newspapers to her, to which he agrees.
Norman goes to her room and finds Susanna dressed conservatively, her room bland and boring with no trace of sensuality that he had imagined. He admits to her that he did not mean to chase her away, to which she explains that she had been up all night imagining conversations with him and that now he has no right to comment about her appearance. She confronts him and says that she has always been commented upon because of her beauty, only because men were jealous that they did not have a chance with a woman like her. Norman claims that people need to have money to be with someone like her, to which she says that all they need to do is “be friendly”.
She insists that Norman must walk with her to redeem her in front of the whole village. She changes back into her sensual clothes and takes his arm on the street. Norman is shaken as Susanna walks with him, insisting that he smile to show he is not ashamed.
Miss Temptation | Analysis
Vonnegut employs a humorous tone throughout the story to establish how overly moralizing about sex and sexuality is not only silly but also harmful. The fear people have of women expressing themselves is rooted in fear and jealousy, even resentment. Norman resents all American women as they have always rejected him; he berates Susanna not because of his genuine disregard for sensuality but because he has never been able to be with someone like her.
Vonnegut primarily explores the absurdities of curtailing women’s sexuality and rendering it soulless, which is nothing but an objectification of women. He paints Susanna as a pastoral woman; her sexuality, however, is treated as a commodity and a sin. He begins the story itself with a critique of the state of Puritanism, that it has “fallen into such disrepair” that no one is convinced that Susanna’s sexuality might cause them misfortune.
Miss Temptation | Theme
The primary theme in Miss Temptation is the theme of sexuality, which creates an imbalance of the sexes in society. Norman is resentful of all American women for their rejection of him and treats sexuality as plastic and sinful. Vonnegut satirizes the Puritan fear of sexuality, much like Nathaniel Hawthorne does in his works. He suggests that people’s moralizing tendency is a mere social construct, not biological or natural apathy. Norman emotionally stunts Susanna; she too, is affected by these social constructs. Everyone internalizes such treatment of taboo topics in society.
Bearse Hinkley fills in for the role of a voice of reason. Calling delivering the newspapers a “Christian thing to do”, he takes a dig at Puritan beliefs claiming that going to Susanna and owning up to the wrong Norman did is the right thing to do after all. He recognizes that his self-righteousness and resentment are masks of fear of sexuality itself.
Miss Temptation | Character Sketch
Susanna
Susanna is the main character in Miss Temptation and is an actress living in a nearby village to her summer theater. She is very beautiful, and her presence is tempting to many men in the village.
Bearse Hinkley
Bearse is an old pharmacist at the drugstore who sells the New York Times to Susanna every day. He defends her dignity when Norman Fuller accuses her of his moralizing attitude.
Corporal Norman Fuller
Norman Fuller, just returned from his tour duty in Korea, is a man who is attracted to Susanna, but accuses her of being a temptress. His moralizing attitude is a mask of fear and resentment from being rejected time and again. Through his character, Vonnegut criticizes baseless Puritan attitudes to sexuality.
Literary Devices
1. Metaphor: Metaphor is employed in the following statement(s)- “her skin was the color of cream”, “Susanna, the golden girl of a thousand tortured daydreams”.
2. Simile: Simile is used to describe Susanna’s appearance- “her lips were like a lyre”.
3. Ironic: While describing Susanna’s beauty, Vonnegut uses irony to make the passage sound like a knight’s courtly love. This style goes in tandem with the Puritan setting of the story, which Vonnegut seeks to criticize.
In conclusion, Miss Temptation is a profoundly poignant story of Susanna, whose beauty becomes a threat in a society drenched in Puritan values. The Corporal’s deep insecurity of not deserving the woman or feeling inferior to other men makes his attitude a deeply moralizing one towards her when it is merely a mask. With the gaunt emotions that Vonnegut deals with in the story, Miss Temptation is a fine literary piece that voices how women’s sexuality is objectified in society.
