Essay on Nella Larsen's Passing

When Irene finally realizes that this woman is Clare, someone who chooses to “pass” and hide all traces of her black heritage, Irene’s opinion of her changes. She no longer wants to be involved with Clare in any way, and “had no desire or intention of making the slightest effort about Tuesday. Nor any other day for that matter. She was through with Clare Kendry.” (p. 31) Irene is appalled that someone can so easily throw away her background just for the sake of gaining privilege over another race. When Clare asks her if she had ever thought of passing, Irene replies, “No. Why should I? You see, Clare, I’ve everything I want.” (p. 28) She is happy with what she has, not even having to give up anything to get there. Or at least that’s what she convinces herself to believe. Irene is again hypocritical in her beliefs. Even when she opposes Clare’s view of passing, she is still very interested in the idea. “The truth was, she was curious. There were things she wanted to ask Clare Kendry. She wished to find out about this hazardous business of ‘passing’…” (p. 24) She even admitted that she held for her “a fascination, strange and compelling.” (p. 28) Irene doesn’t seem to be able to decide if she accepts passing as reasonable. She forces herself to disagree with passing, allowing her to hate Clare for doing it. This shows us that sexuality and race are two matters that conflict with each other, at least in Irene’s opinion. She uses race to

Passing begins with Irene’s recollection of encountering Clare in Chicago a few months before the current events of the story take place. Their first meeting on the roof of the Drayton offers insight into the nature of both characters. Clare’s seductiveness and ability to influence Irene is established when Clare convinces Irene to spend more time with her, leaving Irene wondering “just what had possessed her to make her promise to find time” (22). The fact that Irene is in the process of passing during their first encounter exposes her hypocritical nature, especially when it is revealed throughout the story how much she looks down upon Clare for passing.

The essay by Freud begins with the essential factor proposed by Ernst Jentsch relating to the uncanny theory, which Freud later attempts to contradict. The theory proposed is that of ‘intellectual uncertainty’, and thus ‘something someone does not know one’s way about in’ as well as the uncertainty over whether an object is inanimate or alive. Although it appears that Freud agrees partially with these ideas proposed by Jentsch, he adds further to this with his own principles and those are that of the castration anxiety, which in its literal sense is the fear of the

Transformation plays a role in stories meant to scare us by playing with our imagination safety and mood of a story. Imagination appears in both Edgar Allan Poe’s, gothic fiction story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Usher’s isolated environment and in Joyce Carol Oates gothic literature story “Where is Here?,” by foreseeing who people are. Transformation also plays a role by it assists knowing our own selves are safe in a scary situation. This is shown in, “ Why do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?,” by Allegra Ringo and in “ House Taken Over,” by Julio Cortazar. Transformation plays with our imagination and our safety it also plays a role in the mood and setting. This appears in , “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Dream Collector,”

During her shopping trip with her friend, Felise, Irene accidentaly met Jack Bellew. Irene considered warning Clare that Jack might aware of her racial status and possibly Clare’s too. However, Irene told nothing for she was worried that Clare’s divorce might encourage Irene’s husband, Brian, to leave her for Clare. Irene relationship with her husband was not good at that time, and she noted that Brian might like Clare more than friend. On one night, Clare accompanied Irene and Brian to Felise’s party which was held on a top of a building. Clare husband, Jack, suddenly came and shouted at Clare “You’re a nigger, a damned dirty nigger!, and tragically, the story ended with Clare’s death which she fell from an open window of the top of that

When a person experiences chills or goose bumps as a reaction to something strange or unusual, they are being affected by a sense of uncanniness. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud endeavored to explain this feeling of uncanniness in his essay entitled “The Uncanny”. Freud’s theory focuses around two different causes for this reaction. Freud attributes the feeling of uncanniness to repressed infantile complexes that have been revived by some impression, or when primitive beliefs that have been surmounted seem once more to be confirmed. The first point of his theory that Freud discusses in the essay is the repression of infantile complexes that cause an uncanny experience.

Although Irene feels that there is "nothing sacrificial in Clare's idea of life, no allegiance beyond her own immediate desire," it is apparent that Clare's desire to return to her African American race is honest, even if the motives seem rather one-sided (Larsen 144). Irene considers Clare to be "selfish, cold and hard" (Larsen 144). Irene also feels that Clare does not have "even in the slightest artistic or sociological interest in the race that some members of other races displayed…[She] cared nothing of the race, she only belonged to it" (Larsen 182). This may be true, but it does not diminish Clare's own pain at having to deny her African American heritage, and her desire to return to it. Irene represents a portion of society who feel that people who pass must have a morally acceptable reason to return to their African American roots such as a desire to rebel against a white society that has forced them into the role of a white person. Just because Clare feels "no permanent allegiance to either the black or white worlds or any of the classic anguish of the tragic mulatto" does not mean that she is not a tragic mulatto (Washington 48). In her own way, "Clare Kendry belongs with that group of tragic mulattos…emerg[ing] as an individual, not as a stereotype" (Davis 98). Because she wants to return to her own race on her own terms illustrates her individuality in the face of the

Irene wants to control her relationship with Clare and seems frustrated as she loses control when Clare is around. One occasion, Irene tries hard not to accept Clare’s invitation to meet her but ends up going. Later, Irene’s anger goes away just by the power of Clare’s smile, "And under her potent smile a part of Irene's annoyance with herself fled”. This constant loose of power makes Irene vulnerable and the possible affair between Clare and Brian gives Irene a motive for hating her instead of admitting her lesbianism and losing the life she has worked so hard to build.

First, I'll define the concept of The Uncanny, so we can understand better how it's used in the story. The term was popularized by Sigmund Freud, in his essay "The Uncanny", from 1919. The essay suggests two definitions for uncanniness: The first is the feeling a person gets when a certain regular event is repeated a few times. A story about Freud taking different routes while walking in a city, only to return to the same street again and again, is used to demonstrate the concept). This

Psychoanalytic criticism originated in the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind. Through his multiple case studies, Freud managed to find convincing evidence that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control (Guerin 127). One of Freud’s most important contributions to the study of the psyche is his theory of repression: the unconscious mind is a repository of repressed desires,

Freud was always fascinated by just about any phenomenon, espacially of "unsuitable affect," its expression,

Dutchman is centered around an African American man, Clay, who is encountered by another white female train rider, Lula, whose very manipulative. Clay was riding the train minding his own business awaiting his arrival upon his destination when a woman comes sit next to him, accuses him of looking at her through the window inside the other train that was going the opposite direction, psyching him out by bestering him, and making racial stereotypes against him. Lula is not to be taking seriously due to her con-artistic ways.

Sigmund Freud’s says that the uncanny “undoubtedly belongs to all that is terrible- to all that arouses dread and creeping horror, it is equally certain, too, that the word is not always used in a clearly definable sense, so that it tends to coincide with whatever excites dread.”(Freud), he also says that what makes something specifically uncanny is that it is opposite of what is familiar. . Certain components of the short stories “The Lottery”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, highlight Freud’s definition of the uncanny. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Freud’s definition of the uncanny appears continuously throughout the story, especially when the woman believes that she is the figure lurking behind the wallpaper. Also, in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Freud’s definition of the uncanny occurs within the mysterious plot and how the end revealed that the “winner” of the lottery had to be beaten to death with citizens of the city throwing stones at them. Lastly, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is connected to Freud’s definition of the uncanny since the story gives the reader a false sense of security, which makes the reader feel the horror and unfamiliarity that it brings

This led to his derivation of the uncanny as a dichotomy of unheimlich/heimlich. Unheimlich, although translates into the uncanny or eerie in English, etymologically refers to ‘unhomely’. Its seeming antonym, ‘heimlich’ while on the one hand could refer to that which is familiar and comfortable, it also means that which remains hidden. The second meaning of heimlich, along with the meaning of unheimlich, come together to each other in Schelling’s remark, who refers to the ‘uncanny’ or unheimlich as “that which was intended to remain secret, hidden away, and has come into the open” . The overlap between the heimlich and unheimlich, carries within it the ambivalence of the deeply familiar. The “… unheimlich is what was once heimisch, familiar; the prefix 'un' ['un-'] is the token of repression” . Thus, through the lexical investigation, Freud asserts the uncanny (unheimlich) as being located in the canny (heimlich) itself, but in

The first part is an exposition of Sigmund Freud’s aesthetic theory. This discussed the beginning of Freud’s perception of art as an escape to reality. However, of all the works of art, Freud give high regard to literature for it forms some kind of apprehension what exactly it is unlike those of paintings that affirmatively can evoke an effect or a feeling but it does not have the sense of apprehension in it. It is also in this part that Freud’s formulation that a poet is regulated by both the fantasy and reality as he proposes the “first poet” and the “second poet”. In the second part of the part of the chapter, discuss the three-fold personality structure of personality, the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id is the seat of the unconscious, it comprises of the desires and the wishes that are seeking for fulfillment, and it primarily conforms to the pleasure principle. The ego is the rational conscious part. It acts as the intermediary between the super-ego and the id as well as strive for the fulfillment of the demands of the id, the super-ego, and the reality. Unlike the id the ego is regulated by the reality principle. And the super-ego is developed with the help of the external influences that which is taken from the other people - external authority. It mainly concerns on the operation of man in the society. And on the latter part, it states that an art is produced with the influence of the three-fold personality structure. The id is the source of inspiration, the ego gives an art a unity and the super-ego makes an art to be a form of sublimation. The last part of the second chapter is the two mental functioning. The primary process conforms to the id while, the secondary process serves as a guide to the ego. These two are related to the pleasure and reality principle, respectively. Any work of art is working towards the reconciliation of the pleasure and reality