Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
"Good Morning, Midnight" is a novel by Jean Rhys that explores the poignant journey of Sasha Jensen, a middle-aged woman returning to Paris in 1938 after years of living in England. Once a newlywed navigating the city’s vibrant yet challenging landscape in the 1920s, Sasha now grapples with her past amidst the familiar streets and cafes that evoke both nostalgia and sorrow. The novel is structured in four parts, mirroring Sasha's mental state as she confronts memories that haunt her and the emotional turmoil of aging and loss.
Throughout her return, Sasha's experiences fluctuate between moments of despair and fleeting triumphs, as illustrated by her brief connection with a Russian man and her purchase of a painting that resonates with her sense of longing. However, her reliance on alcohol and her reflections on past happiness only deepen her sense of disillusionment. The narrative poignantly captures her inner struggles, highlighting themes of psychological distress, societal indifference, and the complexity of female desire. Rhys's masterful characterization of Sasha reflects the resilience of women facing life's adversities, making "Good Morning, Midnight" a profound exploration of identity, memory, and the quest for meaning.
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Subject Terms
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
First published: 1939
The Work
Good Morning, Midnight tells the story of a middle-aged woman’s return to Paris. Sasha Jensen was there first in the 1920’s, as a newlywed with little money. In October, 1938, after several years in England and no longer married, she returns and confronts her past. The familiar streets, shops, hotels, and cafés all haunt her. They remind her she is no longer young, and they tempt her with new adventures.
The novel’s four-part structure reflects Sasha’s state of mind. The story begins and ends in her room in a cheap hotel. “Quite like old times,’ the room says, Yes? No?’” When she ventures out, she avoids certain cafés, but does not feel much better in others. She thinks everyone is staring at and talking about her. She often breaks down and cries. The past overwhelms her, and the present does little to calm her. Her reliance on alcohol only makes things worse.
In the second part, she has an encouraging triumph. She accompanies a Russian man to the studio of a painter. Though she cries in their presence, they are kind and sympathetic. She buys a painting of a banjo player with a sad expression sitting on a curb. Her exultation fades when she returns to her room, and, despite her best resolves, dwells upon the past. “It’s all the rooms I’ve ever slept in, all the streets I’ve ever walked in. Now the whole thing moves in an ordered, undulating procession past my eyes. Rooms, streets, streets, rooms.”
The third part focuses on her early years in Paris, how she and her husband struggled to get by. Despite their lack of money and the death of a baby son, she thinks of that time as her golden days. “After all, those were still the days when I went into a café to drink coffee, when I could feel gay on half a bottle of wine, when this happened and that happened.” The chapter ends with her resolve to buy new gloves, perfume, cosmetics, jewelry—and to try to blur temporal distinctions. “When I have had a couple of drinks I shan’t know whether it’s yesterday, today, or tomorrow.”
In the fourth part, she spends an evening with a gigolo. She buys him dinner, and he follows her back to her room. “Now everything is in my arms on this dark landing—love, youth, spring, happiness, everything I thought I had lost. I was a fool, wasn’t I? to think all that was finished for me.” What follows is chilling—her distrust of the gigolo turns out to be founded, and her distrust of her own resolve equally so.
As in her other novels, Jean Rhys brilliantly re-creates the thoughts of a woman in psychological distress. Sasha Jensen typifies her heroines who refuse to give up, whatever the odds against them—and who struggle with their desires, as much as with unsympathetic societies.
Bibliography
Davidson, Arnold E. Jean Rhys, 1985.
Gardiner, Judith Kegan. Good Morning, Midnight: Good Night, Modernism, 1984.
Naipaul, V. S. “Without a Dog’s Chance.” New York Review of Books, May 18, 1972, 29-31.
Rhys, Jean. The Letters of Jean Rhys, 1984.
Rose, Phyllis. Writing of Women: Essays in a Renaissance. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1985.
Staley, Thomas F. Jean Rhys: A Critical Study, 1979.
Wolfe, Peter. Jean Rhys, 1980.
Wyndham, Francis, and Diana Melly, eds. Jean Rhys: Letters 1931-66. London: Andre Deutsch, 1984.