The Divided Self in Jean Rhys’s Good Morning Midnight

A Review Article
by
Marwan M. Abdi

Course; Studies in Modern Novel

Introduction

The relationship between psychology and literature has been one of the controversial
topics tackled by many critics throughout history. Sigmund Freud as the leading figure in
the realm of psychiatry has acknowledged that every artist in a sense infuses some of his
psychic desires and suppressed wishes into his work (cited by Bressler, 2011, p.123).
This idea during the early modern age was acknowledged by many modern movements

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such as the surrealists who valued the subconscious dreams and the repressed desires
over the objective reality that is comprehensible only through the senses. This interest in
the psychological drives of the writers which is represented through the characters in any
artistic work of fiction, later on was tackled by psychoanalytical critics. With the
emergence of the feminist movements many feminist critics try to take advantage of such
psychological theories in order to develop a new field of psycho-feminist analysis.
Leading figures such as Julia Kristeva, Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray, tried to
elaborate on the dilemmas of women from a broader perspective which tried to trace the
roots of trauma back in the very hidden and suppressed desires of victimized women. The
following paper is going to examine three articles which basically deal with the concept
of trauma that is basically represented through a divided self or a fragmented identity in
Jean Rhys's Good Morning Midnight.

Rationale

Throughout history always concepts such as Hysteria and Madness have been primarily
associated with women, but the feminist activists during the morning age have tried to
challenge this long-term patriarchal mindset. Through the scientific approaches these
critics try to reevaluate and reconsider the traumatized characters in works of female
writers throughout history in order to highlight the biases of the male dominated systems
throughout different phases of the human’s history. I believe such studies have to be
taken into account even during the contemporary era, since the male dominated and the
Sexist perspective of many societies still is one of the crucial concerns of the feminist
activists. Therefore, dealing with the concepts of trauma of the women in modern and
postmodern literature texts, could be a very significant step towards raising the awareness
of the Nations in every context.

Research Approach

Being a feminist text and dealing with the sufferings and the dilemmas of woman, Jean
Rhys's works I believe could be best analyzed and evaluated through, the Psycho-feminist
and Marxist approaches, since these approaches primarily deal with the marginalized, and
exploited women in any historical context. Also, the cultural politics and some
poststructuralist approaches would be employed in this analysis in order to highlight the

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research methodologies and the thematic representations of the selected articles in this
study.

Review of the Articles

Creole Errance in "Good Morning, Midnight" by Erica Johnson

As it is clear from the title of this article it is concerned with the Creole identity, which is
a hybrid state of identity in which the individual cannot belong neither to the Periphery
nor to the Centre. In the postcolonial sense the metropolis which belongs to the colonizer
and the periphery which belongs to the colonized. Erica Johnson in this paper draws
attention to the novel's protagonist who suffers from a fragmented identity and goes
through a nonending search for home and family. As Johnson argues, Sasha the
protagonist of this novel is a homeless since she is not able to merge with the new
situations in Europe and lives in a diaspora or an in-between state, which is detached
from the past and the present.

In this way the general framework of the paper is laid down by the author, that is,
a focus on the fragmented identity from which the protagonist of the story suffers from.
When the relationship between place and on the identity is a very outstanding theme that
is handled by this article. In this novel, as Johnson argues a variety of creole elements
are infused into the text in order to suggest that the heroine’s alienation and estrangement
from her homeland is the result of colonization of her homeland by the white people. This
identity crisis as the paper suggests, was basically due to a mixture of various European,
African and Asian cultures in Sasha's home country which caused the indigenous people
an identity crisis. This fragmented identity is a very dominant theme that resonates
through the story which basically deals with Sasha's journey of self-discovery. The
colonial undertones of the story that are reflected through references to character’s search
for a true self in European countries, I believe could be developed more through works of
famous postcolonial critics such as Antonio Gramsci who basically deals with concepts
such subaltern and hegemony which I believe could be usefully integrated into the
structure of this paper. (Bressler, 2011, p. 176).

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 The concept of time and space and dislocation is another significant aspect which
deals with protagonist's ambivalence towards the cultural context in Europe. I believe,
this sense of dislocation could be explained in terms of Diaspora and theories related to
the migrants, who were displaced by force and unwillingly moved to the Metropolitan
State. This gave them a sense of being uprooted and not belonging neither to the past nor
to the present. Then, diaspora, I believe could be a very enriching argument when added
to the paper.

Sasha’s otherness, as Johnson argues like a trauma hunts her throughout the story and this
is reflected through various stages when she resists a sort of identification with any
European nationality. This suffering was worsened due to her French, British and
Caribbean identity which makes her to calls herself a country-less individual; a woman
who is suspended between multiple socio-historical and cultural contexts. The
relationship between identity and language is another significant aspect that this article,
discusses through Jacques Lacan’s theories of ‘symbolic order’ and identity. Slippages in
language and her shift from German to Caribbean language for instance, is noted by the
writer to highlight her fragmented identity. I believe a very short discussion of Lacan
theory of individuals going through a development from ‘mirror phase’ to ‘symbolic
stage’ would have made the argument clearer and more accessible to all readers.

Sasha’s encounter with Mr. blank is one of the significance episodes of the novel
which is brought as an example of her marginalized status in the face of a male
dominated and white authority. Here in this context, she is described as not only being
devoiced but also in terms of being lost in a space that is unfamiliar to her. In this way as
article argues, Rhys highlights the protagonist’s failure to find her place in the
metropolitan system’s-imposed language and identity.

After considering time and space, the article draws attention to Sasha’s
association with her past and her Caribbean life, in order to highlight the nature of her
isolated state of mind and body. Bringing quotes from the novel, makes discussions and
arguments of the paper so clear and comprehensive, which is an aspect I found so
informative and helpful. In order to conclude the paper’s arguments Johnson quotes
Bhabha to comment on the Metropolitan discourse and the Metropolitan authority, which

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symbolically throughout the story creolized and hegemonized the heroine of the story.
Alluding to Emily Dickinson's poem Good Morning Midnight which is used as a basis for
book’s title, Johnson wraps up her discussions stating that Sasha in this novel represents a
colonial migrant who suffers from displacement and search for home in a dark context
that is the male-dominated metropolitan context.

"New Words, New Everything": Fragmentation and Trauma in Jean Rhys by

Maren Linett

This concept of identity crisis which was tackled by the former article only from the
colonial and postcolonial perspective, basically dealt with the fragmented identity in
terms of being detached from home and homeland. This fragmentation of the Self, in
Maren Linett’s article is discussed in a different sense, primarily from a psychological
perspective. This work from the very beginning establishes the paper’s major concern
that is the relationship between the fragmented style of the novel and the fragmented
identity of the protagonist. It also implies that a psycho-feminist analysis would be the
major approach for analyzing this novel's protagonist, who suffers from a post-traumatic
disorder. Very clearly the writer goes on to state her argument that is; what strategies are
used by the novelist to portray the traumas of her protagonist? In other words, this
paper’s focus is going to be on the character’s marginalized and powerless state and her
psychological fragmentation. A very significant aspect of this article was raising the
arguments and discussions through various vantage points of different critics which is a
style adapted throughout the whole article. In this introductory part, the writer also
compares Rhys to other novelists such as Joyce and Woolf in order to highlight her
rejection of the linear form of narration. This strategy by the writer is considered as a sort
of challenging and undermining the authority of the dominant discourse of the white, and
male-dominated systems.

After this introduction and stating the arguments Linett, focuses on the concept of
hopelessness as one of the major aspects of trauma, i.e., a fragmented psychology,
traumatic memories and a sense timelessness. Here, from the outset we can sense that this
study is going to be a comprehensive psychoanalytical study of the causes of the trauma
in a narrative work. A fragmented psyche, which sometimes called dissociation, is simply

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explained as state of surrender when the traumatized individual escapes from the present
context mentally. Examples are brought from the text, for instance, when Sasha tells a
French man that she can abstract herself from her body. This approach of discussing a
concept and after that giving examples from the text to clarify is a technique that I
noticed in this paper fully developed, since after every discussion the writer goes on to
bring a lot of quotes from the novel to elaborate on the ideas. Moreover, the article
differentiates the psychoanalytical criticism from the cultural criticism, in terms of
dealing with fragmentation. In the latter one, as Linett argues, fragmentation is primarily
associated with selfhood and Sasha is a very good example who has lost control of her
fragments. This is very clearly represented through her reluctance, and her total surrender
to her sexual desires.

Images and memories, as a very dominant aspect of the novel constantly haunt
Sasha throughout her life. This aspect by article is considered as another reason that has
troubled and fragmented the protagonist’s psyche. In order to elaborate on the nature of
these images in individual’s memories the article quotes critics’ views on the nonlinear
and nonstructured form of these subconscious desires. The article also draws attention to
the autobiographical aspect of the novel and suggests that Rhys who was Haunted by
such fragmented memories tried to write down those hunting memories in the form of
Novels, in order to cure herself from those traumas. In order to associate the character’s
traumas with those of the writer this article uses a lot of biographical data and personal
letters from Jean Rhys to suggest that the character’s traumas are actually a
representation of writer’s fragmented self.

Referring to the science of biopsychology and the theories of Sigmund Freud, this
article also suggests that trauma is not limited by any time limits. This is idea is
represented through the character of the novel when she goes through a lot of dreams,
nightmares, flashbacks, etc., and other incomprehensible experiences that torture her. The
ambiguous nature of Sasha’s dreams is representing through a quote from the text, which
Linett, analyses one of Sasha's dreams in which the man with bloody face, is interpreted
as both her dying son and her father. The timeless nature of trauma, also is represented
through the painting, which links past and present with the future. This aspect is

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explained through some of the biographical references to the Jewish Russian artist whom
Rhys met in France. This painter advised Rhys to project her traumas and psychological
disorders through her art of writing. Within the novel this function of art that is able to
link past with the future is exemplified through the very powerful gaze of the character in
the painting which draws Sasha back to her past memories. This outstanding image, by
the writer is explained as a symbolic representation of writer’s attempt to get herself free
from the burden of the past through writing her own story and ending it the way, she
desires. This therapeutic aspect of the art, I believe could be discussed more through
theories related to this concept and through comparing with some postmodern works of
literature, such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved, in which the female characters in the story
who suffer from the suppressed memories of the past try to face those memories, through
re-staging and re-narrating their story of life (Krumholz, 1992, p. 444).

I believe intertextuality and some references to similar works of literature that

deal with the concept of trauma could make this article’s argumentations more
comprehensive and informative. Even using Northrop Frye and Carl Jung's theory of
archetypal criticism, could be employed to deal with the concept of trauma in this novel
in a universal sense, as it has been tackled throughout the twentieth century by various
writers of different colors.

The articles ending discussions focus on Sasha's act of a sexual surrender when
she gradually decides to submit herself to her fate. This section of the article compares
James Joyce's character, Molly in Ulysses with Sasha to note that her repeated ‘yeses’
stand for her ultimate surrender and her helpless acceptance of her traumas. This hysteric
character's attitude reminds the reader that, although the novel’s fragmented style
sometimes portrays the chaotic psyche but at the same time it is a medium used by the
novelist to represent the unspeakable conditions of a fragmented self.

"Yes, It Can Be Sad, the Sun in the Afternoon": Kristevan Depression in Jean
Rhys's "Good Morning, Midnight"

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Similar to the former article that was basically concerned with a psychoanalysis but from
a feminist perspective Kristin Czarnecki's article primarily adapts the theories of Julia
Kristeva, the leading French psycho-feminist theorist to Jean Rhys's Good Morning
Midnight. Basically, the work is a structured through a comprehensive introduction to
Kristeva’s theories and correlating those theories to the textual analysis. From the very
beginning the writer introduces some interconnected concerts such as psyche,
womanhood and language which are some of the core principles in the aforementioned
literary critical Theory. Introducing the individuals’ psychosexual development which are
basically dealt with in Kristeva’s ‘Black Sun’, the writer highlights the fact that woman's
depression is basically due to their sense of loss for getting back to the pre-imaginary
order in which they felt oneness with their mother.

After this introduction, a number of pages of the article are dedicated to

Kristeva’s theories which is useful especially for those readers who are not familiar with
such a feminist interpretation of women's psychology. Concepts such as matricide, chora,
are used to explain that child has to go through a process of negation and matricide, and
by rejecting her mother gradually becomes independent. But sometimes some children do
not go through this process and that's why they suffer from a constant lack and sense of
loss which is originated from their desire to get back to the pre-symbolic order. This
results in a disturbed psychology, since the child who has not been able to go through
matricide (directing hatred towards her mother) as a result internalizes that hatred and it
leads her to depression and melancholia.

The protagonist of the story, Sasha suffers from such a depression, since she is a
character who has failed in marriage and has been neglected by many including her
mother, and this makes her to internalize those vengeful feelings. Unlike the former
paper, this article alluded to a lot of similar novels, such as Austen’s Emma and Stephan
Zelli's Quartet to clarify the complicated nature of the fragmented psychology of the
traumatized characters. This intertextuality I believe to be an aspect that makes the reader
go through other references for future comparisons and researches. Czarnecki quotes
Kristeva to draw attention to the traumatized individuals’ melancholic and isolated

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nature, which makes them so sensitive and emotional and to become imprisoned by their
emotions.

Using the theories of Kristeva, which the author considers as a revision of Freud
and Lacan' Oedipus Complex, she elaborates on the depressive women who has not been
fully developed in terms of psychosexual development, and tries to compensate for her
Mother's loss, in a sort of husband that stands both for her mother and a partner. This is
seen through Sasha, who considers men such as Enno, as nobody, pathetic and
disgusting, but at the same time she cannot dissociate herself from them.

The majority of the traumatized individuals express themselves sometimes

through abnormal behavior that is caused by their irrational thoughts and sometimes
through an irrational language, but many of them become introverts and go into a
position of numbness and withdrawal. This silence and state of passivity by some critics
as the article highlights, is considered to be the voice of resistance that could be
represented through the writings of such woman. This is very evidence in this novel
which is punctuated by a lot of gaps and silences on the part of the protagonist. The
unspeakable thoughts and emotions that are encoded in-between the lines of the work I
believe could be studied in a sort of comparative study with Margaret Atwood the
Handmaid's Tale which deals with the traumatized woman, who have been unvoiced and
suppressed by the society. In Atwood's metafictional novel, similar to this work the
protagonist tries to express her very genuine thoughts and emotions but acknowledges
that, writing (language) is not a perfect medium for conveying those abstractions, that's
why Many of her ideas are kept in-between the gaps and have to be decoded by the
reader. Hence a comparison between the two works, I believe, would make this analysis
more comprehensive and informative.

Another feature of the melancholia which is highlighted in the paper is the

emotional breakdown and the unstable emotional shifts which sometimes are represented
through ecstasy or despair. Sasha is a very oversensitive character who goes through a lot
of depressive alternates, i.e., sometimes behaving totally normal and sometimes an
becomes an introvert being dominated by her seconds self.

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 This divided self and the conflict between her past and her present is very clearly
represented in two examples in which she in counters Mr. Blank, who stands for the
dominant discourse of white men. In this section a very strong emphasis is laid upon the
significance of language for the traumatized. Here, Sasha who is not able to express
herself in a normal language tries to get her psychological burden alleviated through an
internal monologue, (an inner language). This language that sounds to be irrational by
critics is considered as a sign of schizophrenia, through which the patient tries to
overcome the ordeal and panic through a compilation of various languages. In terms of
Kristevan psychoanalysis this irrational language could be a representative of sounds that
were there at the very beginning of any individual’s life when they were in the mother's
womb. Although they are meaningless, but they have a very special musical quality and
are imbued with emotions. This kind of reference to the irrational language, again recalls
Toni Morrison’s Beloved since within this novel, the characters who try to exorcise the
bad spirits and to face a suppressive authority use a every irrational language that only
has an emotional and therapeutic effect, which is similarly found here in Sasha’s case.

The conception of language which at the beginning of the paper was associated
with psyche and the womanhood, here in this part is brought into the forefront of
discussion and it is represented as a phenomenon with a subversive potential. Sasha, for
example, uses language in order to challenge Mr. Blank, although a monologue and
inward but it has a very symbolic and therapeutic significance.

Similar to the former article that end it with Sasha’s surrendering both her soul
and body, this article's leading argument is the time that Sasha embraces Commis. This
event is represented and paralyzed from multiple critics’ perspectives who have
interpreted the ‘yeses’ of the ending as signs for Sasha’s attempt to assert herself; to
subvert the patriarchy; and to decrease her anxiety, but the writer includes her own
analysis which is basically from a Christian perspective. Here she concludes that Sasha’s
final act symbolizes her ability to get adapted and her capacity for learning and getting
engaged in a society. At this point, the protagonist does not merely write down what has
dictated by the society, rather she tries to recreate and remake her own life through her
own stories. Although she is threatened and devoiced by a male authority, but she tries to

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make a new language for her new story which has its own rhythm and music. Although
she could not render her story of life in a way that is acceptable for all people, but she is
able to transcend all the previous failures.

Conclusion

The articles that studied in this Review Article, are unified in a concern for the oppressed
and the marginalized women in a male-dominated system. Although their approaches
sounded to be different but they all focused on the concept of fragmented self or a
divided self that is basically caused due to some psychosexual disorders. Johnson's article
which focused on the creole identity, was different from the other two papers, because it
mainly applied a postcolonial approach to the text and was basically concerned with the
spatial displacement and characters longing for home. This paper employed the
postcolonial theories, but it also referred to some feminist and psychoanalytical
approaches at the backdrop of analysis. I believe research in such a kind of field could be
better developed through application of theories of diaspora studies from Homi Bhabha,
since the diaspora studies are basically concerned with those complicated psychological
disorders that are the result of subordination to colonizer's cultures.

The second and the third articles by Linett and Czarneck, were similar in in terms
of the critical approach that they applied to the novel. Both focused on a feminist reading
of the book, while taking advantage from the psychoanalysis theories.

I believe Linett's approach was more applicable since she based her arguments on
the various critics’ views with a feminist and psychoanalytical background, while
Czarneck narrowed down her research only on Kristevan theories. I believe her research
with the limited dimension is very useful for those scholars who plan for projects on
Kristeva and her theories in psychoanalysis. This article’s intertextuality was an
outstanding quality since it used a lot of other literary texts as references and as a sort of
comparison for the sake of clarification. Explaining every new concept in details and
developing the idea through examples from the novel is a quality that make this article so
informative. In spite of the complicated ideas related to psychology but the way examples
were arranged from the text made everything there to be clear. This paper’s focus on the

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symbolic order, and the way woman can break through the symbolic order and assert
themselves in the society is a every significant aspect of this paper, and I noted that, from
this perspective the novel could be compared to many postmodern texts of feminist
narrative which deal with women, language and psychology. In this respect the theories
Kristeva and Jacques Lacan’s theory of symbolic order mixed with insights from the
French feminist critics, would be somehow a preferable approach for any future feminist
studies.

Maren Linett's paper is a very well organized and resourceful since, for tackling
the issue of traumatized woman she founded her research on many of the famous feminist
critics who are considered to be the seminal figures and postmodern literary Theory.
Focusing on the concept of musical aspect of art was another significant aspect that I
found in the second and the third article. I believe a kind of comparative research could
be conducted in terms of writing-cure and narrative-cure, which were adapted by Antonia
Ehite, who is well known for therapeutic writings. Although the three articles basically
focused on the fragmented nature of the women from different perspective, but I believe
more attention must be paid to the therapeutic aspect of feminist novels, due to the fact
that, writing could be used as a medium for expressing the suppressed desires, fears and
subconscious psychosexual drives. Through expressing those latent dreams and desires,
individuals would become balanced and healthy and as a result it would lead to a
balanced society. For this reason, I believe similar to the achievements of the African
American writers such as Plath and Morrison who employed their oral tradition for cure-
narratives, the future studies in the field of trauma could take advantage from their
tradition of writing. That is to say writers and researches can incorporate the traditions of
talking-cure and narrative-cure in their projects to play their role in alleviating pains
inflicted upon nations throughout different periods of history.

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References

Bressler, C., 2011. Literary Criticism; An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Boston:

Longman.

Czarnecki, K. (2009). "Yes, It Can Be Sad, the Sun in the Afternoon": Kristevan Depression
in Jean Rhys's "Good Morning, Midnight". Journal of Modern Literature, 32(3), 63-82.
Retrieved January 22, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25511819

Johnson, E. (2003). Creole Errance in "Good Morning, Midnight". Journal of Caribbean

Literatures, 3(3), 37-46. Retrieved January 22, 2021, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40986142

Linett, M. (2005). "New Words, New Everything": Fragmentation and Trauma in Jean
Rhys. Twentieth Century Literature, 51(4), 437-466. Retrieved January 22, 2021, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20058781

Milne., 2009. Literary Movements For Students.USA Gale Cengage Learning.

Krumholz, L. (1992). The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison's

Beloved. African American Review, 26(3), 395-408. doi:10.2307/3041912

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