I for One…: Analysis of Major Characters
"I for One…: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the lives of key figures in a narrative centered on Katherine Sheppard, an unmarried schoolteacher in New Zealand. The story unfolds through Katherine's diary entries, revealing her struggles with loneliness and her longing for love, particularly her disappointment with Dr. Hubert Nock, an American psychologist who manipulates her affections. Katherine's journey of self-discovery is further complicated by her relationship with her mother, who, initially perceived as conventional, reveals a rebellious past that influences Katherine's understanding of her own desires and inhibitions.
The character of Dr. Nock serves as a catalyst for Katherine's emotional turmoil, as his facade of charm unravels to expose his true nature as a deceitful figure. The introduction of Hilda James, Katherine's half-sister, challenges Katherine's puritanical worldview, while Helen, Hilda's daughter, offers kindness and support during Katherine's crisis, hinting at deeper emotional connections. Through these interactions, the narrative explores themes of love, deception, and the complexities of familial relationships, ultimately leading Katherine to a more liberated and self-reliant state of being. This exploration of character dynamics highlights the nuanced interplay between societal expectations and personal desires.
I for One…: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Frank Sargeson
First published: 1952
Genre: Novel
Locale: New Zealand
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The mid-twentieth century
Katherine Sheppard, an unmarried teacher in New Zealand who still lives with her mother. The story is told as a series of diary entries written by this intelligent, idealistic, and somewhat neurotic woman in her thirties who evidently does not realize how strongly she yearns to get out from under her mother's roof and find a permanent love relationship. She has been disappointed by men but keeps hoping to find “Mr. Right,” as she describes this imaginary mate in her diary. When she meets Dr. Hubert Nock at a party, she begins to hope that he may turn out to be Mr. Right. Hubert takes an immediate interest in her and quickly leads the eager, impressionable woman to believe that he has serious intentions. Her diary chronicles five months in the life of a fading spinster schoolteacher that are brightened only by occasional meetings with Hubert and daydreams about their future. She is bitterly disappointed when she discovers that Hubert has only been toying with her affections and is in fact already married.
Dr. Hubert Nock, an American psychologist visiting New Zealand in connection with his work. This tall, handsome, middle-aged New Englander appears to be a paragon of male virtues who has stepped out of an illustration in an American magazine advertisement. His behavior toward Katherine, however, proves that he is much more complicated than he appears. Being a professional psychologist, he easily understands her loneliness and longing for affection, and he begins to manipulate her to gratify his vanity. Although he leads Katherine to believe that they will marry, he often disappears for days at a time and then claims that he was ill or involved with work. From her descriptions of him in her journal, it becomes evident that she sees him more as a father figure than as a lover. When he is finally exposed as a cad, Katherine suffers a nervous collapse but then emerges much stronger and more self-reliant.
Katherine's mother, a widow. This aging woman appears to be a drab, conventional, unimaginative homebody until Katherine begins discovering secrets about her past. Katherine learns that her mother loathed her father and, rather than mourning his recent death, is happy to be rid of him. At the end of the novel, Katherine's mother confesses to Katherine that she was wild and rebellious as a young woman and traveled all over New Zealand with Katherine's father while he was still married to another woman. Katherine's new insights about both her parents, whom she has always regarded as models of decorum, help to liberate her from her rigid inhibitions, attributable to her false views of human nature.
Hilda James, Katherine's half sister by her father, an aggressive, affluent, worldly woman in her early fifties. Katherine meets her by accident in a tearoom at the zoo and learns to her horror that her father had been married to and was divorced from Hilda's mother. Hilda provides the first shock to Katherine's puritanical view of the world. Much later, Hilda delivers a final devastating shock to Katherine's house of cards by telling her that Dr. Hubert Nock is her husband.
Helen James, Hilda's teenage daughter. This beautiful, kindhearted girl takes an interest in her new Aunt Katherine and helps nurse her through the nervous collapse that follows Katherine's discovery that Hubert has been deceiving her for the past five months. There are overtones of homo-sexuality in Katherine's relationship with Helen as well as in Katherine's past relationship with a woman who is a mutual friend of Katherine and Helen. At the end of the novel, it appears that Katherine, having been shocked out of her puritanical stance, is ready to accept her own darker suppressed passions.