John Barth's "Echo": the story in love with its author

Abstract

The emblematic quality of "Echo" derives its force from the double meaning of the word "self reflection" from both its concrete and its abstract connotations. In Barth's story, this double meaning serves to relate content and form and to establish an ironic tension between them: the encounter of mythic Narcissus, the story's protagonist. with his concrete self reflection - his image in the pool determines the content of the story; and his abstract self reflection - his search for self knowledge - provides the story's form. This ironic tension is embodied in the ambivalent nature of the complement to Narcissus, the nymph Echo, who appears as both character and voice.