The Magician's Assistant

“It was, in a way, the end of Sabine.”

Sabine is introduced as being so intimately tied to Parsifal that her identity is called into question when he dies. Without Parsifal, Sabine is no longer an assistant, both in the domestic and the professional sense. A part of Sabine dies with Parsifal, which emphasizes their deep connection.

“She was the last stop for all of the accumulations and memorabilia, all the achievements and sentimentality of two lives, and one of those lives should not have come to her in the first place.”

This quote characterizes Sabine as the caretaker of Phan and Parsifal’s memory, love, and life. When they die, she is literally left behind in life, just as she was metaphorically left behind in love. In this context, Phan’s memory, presence, and influence in Sabine’s life are less welcome to her than Parsifal’s, which emphasizes the complicated nature of their unconventional family.

“In the fullness of life Sabine had been jealous of Phan, jealous that Parsifal had found someone else to love so much. Jealous because she had wanted that for herself and so understood. What was Sabine, then, but an extra woman, one who was inevitably dressed in a satin body stocking embroidered with spangles?”

Phan and Parsifal’s love mirrors Sabine’s love for Parsifal. However, there is an inequality in their love, as Sabine’s love is unrequited. Sabine and Phan are two parts of one whole because they share the same love for Parsifal. This quote emphasizes that dynamic, and it also characterizes Sabine as an objectified person who fulfills a role that does not quite fit her nature because she is dedicated to maintaining a performance (or, in the case of her marriage, a family).