Model of Andrea Doria

The Model of Andrea Doria is a completed ship model built by Louis Creed, representing one of his hobby phases and serving as a domestic object that reveals his character, his relationship with his wife Rachel, and the thematic tension between order and chaos that pervades the novel.

Identity and Background

The Model of Andrea Doria is a finished ship model, one of several large cruise ship models Louis Creed constructed during a phase of his lifelong hobby. It was completed just before the Creed family left Chicago for their new home in Ludlow, Maine. Louis had worked his way through various modeling phases over the years—World War I airplanes, war machines, realistic guns, and boats in bottles—before moving on to the big cruise ships. The Andrea Doria model, along with models of the Lusitania and the Titanic, sat on shelves in his university office, while the Andrea Doria itself was displayed on the mantelpiece in the family's living room.

Life and Plot Trajectory

The model appears only as a completed object, not as an item that undergoes change or destruction within the story's timeline. It is mentioned in the context of Louis's hobby history, which began when he was ten years old with a World War I Spad model bought by his Uncle Carl. The Andrea Doria model represents the culmination of his cruise-ship phase, which was then succeeded by a phase of building classic cars, including a 1917 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The model's presence on the mantelpiece in the living room marks it as a permanent fixture of the Creed household, a piece of Louis's personal history brought from Chicago to Maine.

Key Actions and Objectives

The model itself performs no actions; its significance lies in its existence as a completed object. It represents Louis's capacity for sustained, methodical work and his need for a controlled, orderly creative outlet. The model is a product of his neat and methodical nature, a trait explicitly noted in the narrative. It stands in contrast to the chaos and irrationality that increasingly invade his life after the family's move to Ludlow.

Relationships and Conflict

The model becomes a subtle point of tension between Louis and Rachel. Rachel regards Louis's hobby with a "wifely indulgence that held, he supposed, some elements of contempt." She believes, even after ten years of marriage, that he will eventually "grow out of it." Louis suspects this attitude may partly stem from her father, Irwin Goldman, who has always considered Louis an unsuitable match. The model, therefore, is not merely a pastime but a symbol of a fundamental difference in how Louis and Rachel perceive the value of his private, ordered world. Louis himself reflects that his hobby phases end abruptly—he simply stops wanting to build one type of model and moves on to another—and he wonders if he will one day wake up and put all his models in the attic.

Change and Ending

The Model of Andrea Doria does not change or end within the story. It remains a static object, a testament to a completed project in a life that becomes increasingly defined by unfinished, catastrophic events. Its permanence on the mantelpiece contrasts sharply with the violent and irreversible changes that befall the Creed family. The model's existence as a finished, orderly creation stands as a silent rebuke to the chaos that ultimately consumes Louis's sanity and his family.

Narrative Role and Evaluation

The Model of Andrea Doria functions as a character detail that deepens the portrait of Louis Creed. It illustrates his need for control, his methodical nature, and his private world of order and completion. The model also serves as a domestic object that reveals the subtle, unspoken conflicts within his marriage. More broadly, it embodies a thematic contrast: the human desire to create order and beauty through patient, rational work versus the irrational, destructive forces that the novel suggests are always lurking just beyond the boundaries of that order. The model, like Louis's other completed projects, represents a small, fragile victory of human craft over chaos, a victory that the novel's events will ultimately overwhelm.