Concluding by Henry Green

First published: 1948

Type of work: Antiutopian satire

Time of work: Sometime in the future

Locale: A government training institution in England

Principal Characters:

• Mr. Rock, formerly a famous scientist, now living in a cottage on the grounds of a government institution
• Elizabeth, his granddaughter, who has suffered a nervous collapse
• Sebastian Birt, an economics tutor at the school
• Mabel Edge, one of the principals of the school
• Hermione Baker, another of the principals
• Merode, and
• Mary, two girls who disappear from the school
• Moira, another student at the school
• Maggie Blain, the cook
• Miss Birks, the matron

The Novel

The irony of Henry Green’s Concluding is that nothing is ever concluded in it; in fact, critics have called it his most unresolved and inconclusive novel. They have also called it the strangest and most controversial of his books. The story focuses on a future antiutopian world of the welfare state in England. The central figure is old Mr. Rock, once a distinguished scientist, who lives in a small cottage on an estate that used to be his own but which now is the site of a large institution that trains girls to be government workers.

The action of the novel, which takes place in the course of one day at the school, focuses on the efforts of Mabel Edge, one of the principals of the institution, to get Rock’s cottage away from him. In her quest, she goes so far as to drop absurd suggestions about Rock’s possible sexual relationships with the girls at the school. Her ultimate effort, however, centers on a ridiculous proposal of marriage to Rock. A parallel action concerns the disappearance of two of the girls, Merode and Mary, from the school the same day. Although Merode comes back, claiming she was sleepwalking, Mary never reappears. When the novel ends, the reader still does not know what has happened to her—whether she has tragically been drowned or she has happily escaped the confines of the prisonlike institute.

Other areas of interest in the novel are the relationship between Rock’s granddaughter Elizabeth and Sebastian Birt, the economics tutor at the school; Rock’s refusal to accept an award of recognition for his past scientific achievements, for it would mean leaving his cottage to live in an institution; and the underground emotional lives of the girls who are trapped at the institution. While Edge attempts to get the cottage away from Rock, Rock himself discourages the love affair between his granddaughter and Birt, both because of his jealousy and because he fears her marriage would mean the loss of the cottage, to which he holds tenaciously as a legacy of security for her.

The girls at the institute are so depersonalized that all of their names begin with the letter M—Mary, Moira, and Merode. They are not children, but mature young women, cut off from contact with males, denied love and the opportunity to develop any sense of individuality. Their only escape from the regimentation of the institute is their sisterhood, which meets in the cellar of the institute building. When they invite Rock to one of their meetings to find out about his granddaughter’s future wedding, they treat him in a sexually suggestive and seductive way, but Rock manages to escape involvement with them, as he later is able to rebuff the ulterior advances of Edge.

Concluding has a fairly strict structure corresponding to one day—Founder’s Day of the institute. Part 1 follows events from the time Rock arises at dawn until noon. Part 2 deals with the period from teatime until dusk. Part 3 focuses on the time the Founder’s Day dance begins until late night, when Rock goes to bed. Much of the day consists of the trials of Rock as he meets various efforts by others to break down his individualism. The secondary symbol of individuality is the missing Mary. Throughout the novel, the reader is reminded of her by hearing her name called in the woods. Although the reader is never really sure what has happened to her or why she has disappeared, Mary comes to represent the courage to follow one’s convictions to escape the stifling conformity that the institution represents. Although the other girls are obviously discontented with their lots, only Mary follows through in an attempt to escape her fate.

The climax of the novel comes when Edge and Rock meet during the Founder’s Day dance in a mood of reconciliation brought on by Edge’s indulging in tobacco and by Rock’s weariness. In this sympathetic setting, Edge makes her marriage proposal, a proposal which she herself recognizes to be absurd but which she makes as a last-ditch effort to rid herself of what she considers to be the one thorn of individualism in the side of institutionalism. By his refusal, Rock triumphs over Edge and leaves with a scornful laugh, free of her scorn and her pity, still his own man, still free of the taint of institutional depersonalization.

The Characters

Because Concluding focuses on the abstract theme of individualism versus conformity in a fantasylike way, the characters are not presented in a realistic manner but rather are representative of the value systems on which the novel focuses. Rock is just that—a rock of individualism. Thus, he is the heroic father figure of the novel who champions the rights of the individual, although he certainly is not the conventional hero of antiutopian fiction. Edge is the complete bureaucrat, concerned with squashing individualism wherever she finds it. Birt and Elizabeth are embodiments of individual love, the only hope of personal escape from institutional conformity. Elizabeth is somewhat deranged by the strictures of the welfare state but believes that marriage is the answer to her emotional problems. Mary is the most problematic character, for the reader knows her only by her absence and thus can only speculate on her nature and her motives.

Although characters are largely abstractions in this novel, they are not without interest. Rock is not a complex personality, but in his staunch refusal to give in to the powers of the state, represented by the ineffectual Edge, he does emerge as a heroic figure, if for no other reason than the fact that he endures. His granddaughter derives her interest from the fact that her need for love defines her as one who understands what individualism really means, even though the stifling uniformity of the welfare state has almost driven her mad. In such a world as Green depicts, perhaps these two characters represent the only kind of longing and the only kind of hope for heroism that are possible.

Critical Context

Concluding has been called Green’s most pessimistic and his most poetic novel, for it presents a Kafkaesque, dreamlike or nightmarish world filled with grotesque imagery and meaningless action. The novel is a fantasy that takes place “sometime in the future, somewhere in England.” As such, it is surely Green’s most indeterminate novel. The fact that he has chosen to name it Concluding thus constitutes a self-conscious irony calculated to make the reader consider the abstract nature of irresolution itself.

Several critics have pointed out that since the novel is not rooted in any concrete social reality, it cannot be read in any way except figuratively. Instead of having a dramatic structure, or even a narrative structure, the work has a lyrical or musical structure. This use of lyrical structure is a common device for Green. In many of his novels, the casual reader may believe that he or she is reading a social satire; the image pattern of his works, however, often creates a counterpoint to the action. Indeed, it is usually this symbolic pattern that constitutes Green’s primary concern.

Concluding has been called a masterpiece by some critics, whereas others complain that it is too obscure. In its movement from a realistic situation to a dreamlike fantasy, the novel heavily depends on an elaborate structure of imagery and symbolism. References to the woods around the institution, to animals, to colors, to vegetation, and to other seemingly realistic details actually symbolically reflect the basic theme of individualism versus conformity which the novel projects. Some critics have noted that Concluding marks the last effort Green made to write a symbolist fiction before he turned, in subsequent novels, to focusing almost solely on dialogue to construct his narrative.

Henry Green is, like his more famous predecessor, Henry James, one of those writers whom one either loves or hates. Although he has never been a popular novelist, he has been the subject of several critical studies in the past decade and has been called, as a result of receiving much praise from other novelists, a writer’s writer who, even though he may not be appreciated by the masses, is admired by his literary colleagues.

Bibliography

Holmesland, Oddvar. A Critical Introduction to Henry Green’s Novels, 1986.

Odom, Keith C. Henry Green, 1978.

Russell, John. Henry Green: Nine Novels and an Unpacked Bag, 1960.

Stokes, Edward. The Novels of Henry Green, 1959.

Weatherhead, Kingsley. A Reading of Henry Green, 1961.