The Interior Castle by Jean Stafford
"The Interior Castle" by Jean Stafford explores the psychological landscape of a young woman named Pansy Vanneman, who is recovering from severe injuries in a hospital following a taxi accident that claimed the driver's life. As she navigates the aftermath of her trauma, Pansy exhibits a passive demeanor, causing concern and commentary among the hospital staff. Isolated and without visitors, she retreats into her mind, envisioning her brain as a precious object, akin to a flower or jewel, where she finds solace from the pain of reality.
Throughout her convalescence, Pansy grapples with memories that evoke discomfort, particularly a past incident involving unrequited love that amplifies her tendency to flee from unhappy experiences. This coping mechanism leads her to prefer her introspective "interior castle" over engaging with the world. As she prepares for surgery on her damaged nose, her fear of losing her mental sanctuary intensifies, creating a tension between her need for healing and her desire for isolation.
The narrative delves into her inner world, capturing a poignant moment during her operation where she achieves a heightened awareness of herself. However, post-surgery, Pansy feels stripped of her comfort, confronting a painful reality that leaves her feeling treasureless within her mind. The story raises questions about the interplay between trauma, identity, and the yearning for connection, inviting readers to reflect on the complexities of healing and self-preservation.
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The Interior Castle by Jean Stafford
First published: 1947
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The 1940's
Locale: The United States
Principal Characters:
Pansy Vanneman , a twenty-five-year-old woman injured in a car accidentDr. Nicholas , the surgeon who repairs her shattered noseMiss Kennedy , a nurse in her hospital
The Story
Pansy Vanneman, twenty-five years old, is in the hospital recovering from severe injuries that she received when a taxi in which she was riding had an accident that killed the driver. It is now six weeks after the accident, and Pansy has recovered enough for her surgeon to operate on her smashed nose. She has spent the previous six weeks in a kind of waking trance. She has had no visitors, because she only recently moved to the city and apparently has not formed connections there. Her behavior is so passive as to cause comment among the nurses and resentment at her indifference. She barely responds to the presence of others, sometimes not answering their questions. Pansy doesn't seem to take part in life at all, and her doctor wonders if she is suffering from shock in an unusual way. Her rich fantasy life, however, provides her with continual solace. She has one particular object of contemplation: her own brain. She thinks of her brain as a kind of flower or jewel that is deeply interior and invaluable. She has withdrawn from the world of pain to this interior castle, where she feels soothed and comforted. She has no need for anything else.
As her operation approaches, it becomes clear that the real world was uncomfortable for Pansy even before the accident. Sometimes her contemplation of the color pink, the color of her brain, brings to mind a painful scene from her past of a day on which she had gone to an autumn party wearing a pink hat. At the party, Mr. Oliver, with whom she thought herself in love, casually compared her with a Katherine Mansfield character and then invited another woman out. Her reaction to that incident was to throw away the hat and flee from other reminders of the day, going so far as to lock her door against a clam peddler whose cry had inspired the only personal comment Mr. Oliver had made to Pansy before that party. Pansy's characteristic reaction to unhappiness or unpleasantness has always been flight; it may even give her some satisfaction to be in a situation like her present one in which active participation is not required.
In his desire to repair Pansy's nose so that she can breathe properly and take part in the life of the world again, Dr. Nicholas becomes her enemy. She is afraid that he will damage her brain, and, in fact, because she has had a skull fracture, there is a possibility that he might. Her real fear, however, seems to be that he will steal her hideaway from her. The preparations for the operation cause her excruciating pain; she flees from this agony into the contemplation of her brain. At intervals, she feels threatened by robbery and recalls how her mother once was robbed of an object that was precious to her.
During the operation itself, Pansy is anesthetized, although awake. When she thinks it is all over, the doctor asks her if he can perform a second operation at this time, although it will take him beyond the anesthetized regions and cause her pain. She agrees, knowing that she cannot spend the rest of her life in isolation, and thus must be able to breathe. The second operation is incredibly painful, but as a result she has the most complete vision of her brain, as a pink pearl that grows until it contains the room and the surgeon in its rosy luster. After the operation, when she is back in her room, she feels that she has been robbed of her consolation. The pain is intense, but now it offers her no reward: she shuts herself up "within her treasureless head."
Bibliography
Austenfeid, Thomas Carl. American Women Writers and the Nazis: Ethics and Politics in Boyle, Porter, Stafford, and Hellman. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Goodman, Charlotte Margolis. Jean Stafford: The Savage Heart. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Hulbert, Ann. The Interior Castle: The Art and Life of Jean Stafford. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Roberts, David. Jean Stafford: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.
Rosowski, Susan J. Birthing a Nation: Gender, Creativity, and the West in American Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
Ryan, Maureen. Innocence and Estrangement in the Fiction of Jean Stafford. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
Walsh, Mary Ellen Williams. Jean Stafford. Boston: Twayne, 1985.
Wilson, Mary Ann. Jean Stafford: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1996.