The Man Who Never Returned From War: Considerations on Trauma Theory and History in Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier

This paper aims at analyzing the effects of trauma and history in Rebecca West‟s novel The Return of The Soldier (1918) and, more specifically, how men and women got equally affected by trauma in the First War. Chris Baldry returns from the battlegrounds affected by shell-shock disorder and his traumatic amnesia prevents him from recollecting what his life was like before the War. The three women living in his house (his wife, whom he no longer recognizes; Chris‟s ex-lover, Margaret, who still loves him, and his cousin, Jenny). In fact, Chris‟s debilitated mental health comes as a shock to the three women in his life. The drama lived by these three women grows out of proportion as the psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson, intervenes in favor of recovering his patient‟s “complete case of amnesia” and leads a trial-like interrogation of Baldry‟s pre-war life. Their confessions generate hostility, but, rather than dividing the group of women, they promote reflection on the frailty and vulnerability of men. In symbolic terms, the house where the three women live represents a kind of “laboratory” from which they observe war and formulate their views of it. Through the complex psychological interplay among the women living under the same roof, war is shown from the “home front.” It may also be said that the three women act as listeners and, in so doing, they may offer considerable help towards Chris‟s possible recovery. KeywordsEnglish Literature; First World War; Women War Writing; Trauma Theory. Rebecca West published The Return of the Soldier in 1918, the same year that the First World War ended. Although she described her experience of the war as passive, 1 her novel brings insight to the feeling of distress by noncombatants, more remarkably, women. The consequences of war affected society as a whole: The monster of twentieth-century total war was not born full-sized. Nevertheless, from 1914 on, wars were unmistakably mass wars... Even in industrial societies so great a manpower mobilization puts enormous strains on the labour force, which is why modern mass wars both strengthened the powers of organized labour and produced a revolution in the employment of women outside the household: temporarily in the First World War, permanently in the Second


Rebecca West published
The Return of the Soldier in 1918, the same year that the First World War ended. Although she described her experience of the war as passive, 1 her novel brings insight to the feeling of distress by noncombatants, more remarkably, women. The consequences of war affected society as a whole: The monster of twentieth-century total war was not born full-sized. Nevertheless, from 1914 on, wars were unmistakably mass wars… Even in industrial societies so great a manpower mobilization puts enormous strains on the labour force, which is why modern mass wars both strengthened the powers of organized labour and produced a revolution in the employment of women outside the household: temporarily in the First World War, permanently in the Second World War. 2 Not only does this passage reinforce the idea of the war effects on women, who willingly or not joined the labor force, it also relates women"s job insertion from 1 See Higonnet 122. The editor recalls that "West found her passive experience of the First World War more terrible than that of the Second; she later commented ironically, "because there you were, not in much danger."" 2 Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: 1914-1991. (New York: Vintage Books, 1996 44-5. 1914, simultaneously with the First War. In addition to Hobsbawm"s premise of mass labor mobilization, it is my assumption that the psychological impact of war trauma was equally felt by all those involved in war, men, women, and children. The war affected the lives of both civilians and non-civilians alike. The idea of a tragedy that affected everyone"s lives is present on the first page of West"s novel. The narrative begins by describing the dead son"s story and how Oliver"s death affected Chris (his father), Kitty (his mother), and Jenny (his aunt, the narrator), equally. Jenny describes how she and Kitty would constantly revisit the baby"s bedroom, which remained intact after five years from his death, and the painful memories caused by this habit: And along the mantelpiece, under the loved print of the snarling tiger, in attitudes that were at once angular and relaxed, as though they were ready for play at their master"s pleasure, but found it hard to keep from drowsing in this warm weather, sat the Teddy Bear and the chimpanzee and the wooly white dog and the black cat with eyes that roll. Everything was there except Oliver. I turned away so that I might not spy on Kitty revisiting her dead. 3 The description of the baby bedroom"s animal motif suggests the image of an unanimated forest, whose inhabitants have suddenly been abandoned by their keeper. It suggests that the entire family, who fell into a lethargic state afterwards, felt the traumatic experience of abandonment.
The dead son"s episode is presented in the first and in the last chapters, a landmark event that both prompts and interrupts the plot, suggesting a parallel between the dead baby and his wounded soldier father"s homecoming. Chris Baldry"s appearance is pale and wornout, and his mental state is affected by delusions and introspection, caused by the war. He somehow resembles a ghost. Chris"s traumatic amnesia, as a symptom of shellshock disorder, leaves him in a state of suspension, in a kind of limbo. It seems as though he is "possessed" and that causes estrangement to the women in the house. Such reaction appears recurrently in cases of post traumatic stress disorder and, according to Cathy Caruth, this happens because "… the event is not assimilated or experienced fully at the time, but only belatedly, in its repeated possession of the one who experiences it. To be traumatized is precisely to be possessed by an image or event." 4 Chris"s mind is constantly urging him to return to the traumatic battle scenes he experienced during the War, not to return to Baldry"s Court or to Monkey"s Island Inn, for that matter. 5 Yet, the three women feel apprehensive because he is not able to verbalize how he feels. In fact, what Chris has experienced in war, and many other trauma victims share that as well, is an "impossible history", that is defined by Caruth as follows: "The traumatized, we might say, carry an impossible history within them, or they become the symptom of a history that they cannot entirely possess." 6 In fact, Chris"s debilitated mental health comes as a shock to the three women in his life: his wife, whom he no longer recognizes; Chris"s ex-lover, Margaret, who still loves him (and vice-versa), and his cousin, Jenny, who "suddenly was stunned with jealousy." (56). The drama lived by these three women grows out of proportion as the psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson, intervenes in favor of recovering his patient"s "complete case of amnesia" (70) 3  and leads a trial-like interrogation of Baldry"s pre-war life. Their confessions generate hostility, but, rather than dividing the group of women, they promote reflection on the frailty and vulnerability of men. It is also suggested that the women who were previously supported financially by Chris would have to find jobs in order to maintain themselves, the house and, possibly, Chris, given his ill state. Jenny reveals the discrepancy of what was expected from a soldier in terms of social behavior by early twentieth-century women, and what she actually witnesses based on her cousin"s misery. First, she compares the nightmares she had of her cousin on the battleground to the view of war she had from war films: Of  8 Either for education or propaganda, British authorities used films to construct the public"s view of the First War. As much as the narrator seems impressed with the vividness of these film scenes, she comes across an even worse realization as she wakes up from her nightmares, which makes her change her views on war. She seems to speak for her British comrades as she ponders that: And when I escaped into wakefulness it was only to lie stiff and think of stories I had heard in the boyish voice of the modern subaltern, which rings indomitable, yet has most of its gay notes flattened: "We were all of us in a barn one night, and a shell came along. My pal sang out, "Help me, old man; I"ve got no legs!" and I had to answer, "I can"t, old man; I"ve got no hands!"" Well, such are the dreams of Englishwomen today. 9 What seems to be a joke at a first glance reveals itself as a nightmare of mutilation. The "dreams of Englishwomen" are, in fact, women"s awakening to war"s 7 9 West 6. most tragic face -meaning that their men would not necessarily return from war as heroes, if ever.
About the film passage in West"s novel, Das calls our attention to the writer"s choice of the word "softly" in "on the war films I have seen men slip down softly from the trench parapet…" (6) It reveals, in his words, that "it was the palpable substantiality of the falling bodies that troubled the mind." (231), suggesting the author"s familiarity with the frailty of men in the trenches and how her writing evokes "bodily senses, particularly touch, [which] defined the texture of experience in the trenches and the hospitals, and how they inform and shape war writings." 10 Hynes observes with admiration how the novel"s narrator "compose[s] her vision out of secondhand images, though she does so vividly." (212), referring to the precision of details she used in order to describe the film, as well as to the views on war formulated by a woman of the time. 11 In symbolic terms, the house where the three women live represents a kind of "laboratory" from which they observe war and formulate their views of it. Through the complex psychological interplay among the women living under the same roof, war is shown from the "home front." It may also be said that the three women act as listeners and, in so doing, they may offer considerable help towards Chris"s possible recovery. Many trauma scholars have vindicated the importance of having a community of listeners. Anne Whitehead claims that: "The multiplicity of testimonial voices suggests that recovery is based on a community of witnesses. Through the compassionate sharing of the story, trauma resolves itself into new forms and constellations." 12 As the women listen to his story, they may help him symbolize his "impossible story", remember who he was and come to terms with his traumatic experience. This is made possible once compassionate listeners, whose attitude is the reverse of the violence that the traumatic event has inflicted, aid trauma victims by willingly listening to them. Another trauma critic, Leigh Gilmore, ponders that: "Trauma lacks an other who will return the story without violence to the speaker by listening to it carefully." 13 The three women, despite their perplexity towards Chris"s traumatic amnesia, seem to show empathy for his condition. Kitty, in Penelope"s fashion, has not abandoned the wealthy property built with her husband"s hard work while he went off to war. Regardless of the three women"s dispute for Chris"s love, as the housekeeper, she is the one who exerts greater power in Baldry"s Court. Instead of procrastinating suitors, she handles the husband"s cousin and his mistress, with mastery over both. 10  Another mythical analogy can be made with Margaret, Chris"s ex-lover, and the only recollection his traumatic amnesia has not deleted. The way in which she rescues him from his nightmare may be compared to that of a Valkyre, who saves a warrior in a desperate attempt to withdraw him from the battleground and lead him towards a nearest version of the Walhalla. The novel was written by West during the bombings of the First War, approximately a year after the Battle of the Somme. West"s interest in this battle is also referred to in the novel by the homonymous film she sees. The novel by Tolstoy, in analogy to the war, was likely to be the War and Peace series (1865-1869).
The narrative is set in medias res. The story starts with Jenny recollecting the day her cousin headed to "Somewhere in France." (3) and she "recalled all that he did one morning just a year ago when he went to the front." (7). Frank Baldry, Chris"s cousin, writes a letter to Jenny describing his meeting with the already amnesiac Chris at a hospital in Boulogne, referring to the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, in Northern France, where the Battle of the Somme took place. The year they meet coincides with the Somme Offensive: "He turned very pale and asked what year this was. "1916," I told him. He fell back in a fainting condition." (19). 16 Most narratives of trauma fiction seem to have in common the feature of breaking the narrative chronology and more specifically, of being reiterative. This is due, perhaps, to the fact that such narratives, like trauma itself, are based on repetition. Anne Whitehead explains that: One of the key literary strategies in trauma fiction is the device of repetition, which can act at the levels of language, imagery or plot. Repetition mimics the effects of trauma, for it suggests the insistent return of the event and the disruption of narrative chronology or progression. 17 West"s novel can be said to share an important feature with War and Peace: their stories are set after the war has started, and no previous information, or historical background, about the wars they refer to, is given to the reader. According to Ginzburg, the in medias res setting confers a unique value on the fictional representation of history. Speaking of Tolstoy"s War and Peace, the statement is also valid in relation to West"s novel: In War and Peace ... all the events prior to the narration (from personal memories to the cultural memory of the Napoleonic Era) is assimilated and left behind, in order to enable readers to gain intimacy with the characters. Tolstoy leaps at filling in the gaps between fragmented, distorted clues of an event (a battle, for example), and the event itself. (My translation) 18 It is important to observe that Tolstoy"s fictional account of the Napoleonic wars, more remarkably the battle of Austerlitz, followed by the final withdraw of French troops --defeated by both the Army and the cold of Russia --is retold by over a hundred real and fictitious characters. The time period between 1805 and 1820, when Russian forces, led by Czar Alexander I, fought the Napoleonic armies, is not replicated. Rather, it is reconstructed through imagination.
The raw material for Tolstoy"s historical novel -expansionism, dictatorship and aristocracy in early nineteenth-century Russia --is filled with theoretical digressions. In The Return of the Soldier, the reader may assess historical battles (here, the Battle of the Somme) through a multiplicity of voices. In the case of West"s war narrative, the reader has access to the voices of three women inhabiting the same house.
War fictions seem to have a kind of peculiar advantage in relation to traditional historical accounts -fragments of cultural memory may be recollected in the voices of fictional characters. Ginzburg sees in these narratives the very content of microhistory, as he explains further in his remarks on Tolstoy: To this kind of leap, this kind of direct connection with reality is set (although not necessarily) on the ground of fiction: historians, who rely on traces, documents, are denied access. Historiographic frescoes, which convey the illusion of an extinct reality, sometimes in a mediocre fashion, tacitly deprive historians of a constructive limit. Microhistory takes the opposite direction: it accepts the limit by exploring