MOTHERTONGUES : LANGUAGE ANDMATERNITY IN THEE"lCTI ONSOF AUDREYTHOMAS
BY
TRUD YJ.MORGAN
Athe sis eub rndt t ed to the School ofGradu a teStudie s inpa r tia l fulf ilment of the requirement s
for the degreeof Master of Arts
Depart me nt of English Memoria l Univer sity of Uewfoundland
April 1993
St.Joh n's Newfoundland
ABSTRACT
Audrey Thomas' novels and short stories employ aut obi og r a phi c a lma t e r i al and repeated storylines to explo re thE.: rel at ionshi pbetween la nguage and expe rie nce. This thesis focuses on stories ill whichThomaswrite s about maternit yand motherhood, specifical ly female exj.e r Lencee which her characters struggle to capture in language. He r us e of this subject matter And the techniques of autobiography and repetition leads the reader to question the shifting , no n- tr a ns p are nt relatio nsh ipbet ween la ng ua ge and experie nce.
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ACKNO WLEDGE MENTS
I wouldliketo than kmy pe rents , Donaldand Joa nMorgan , for their unfailingencouragementandsupport throughou t this project. I amgrateful also to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Noreen Golfma n , for givingme so much hel p and alwayspushing me to do more thanI though t I cou l d. Iwou l d liketo thank Jon Astolfi, of the PAA compute r lab , for en s ur i ng th atmy thesis wa s not lost in disk error in d e f in i t e l y. Fin a lly , thanks are also due to the threepeopl e withwh o s e helpand company I survive d my Mast e rs courses in 1991-92 : Glenda Ripley, GeoffWint e r, and Paul Toner.
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TABLEOF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT. • • • • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . INTRODUCT I ON. • •
CHAPTER ONE- - "PARODIESOFBIRTW:
MISCARRIAGE, ABORTION AND BIRTHIN AUDREY THOMAS' FIC TI ONS. • • • • •
11 iii
CHAPTER TWO--" WRITINGWELL":MOTHERS, LOVERS, ANDWRITERS IN REALMOTHERS, LATA KI A , AND INTERTEJAL LIFE. • • • • • . . 611 CHAPTERTHREE--WOUNDSAS WELL AS BLES SINGS:
MOTHER-DAUGHTERRELATIONSHIPS IN
AUDREYTHOMAS' FICTIONS. 1111
CONCLUS ION. • 1611
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 167
Lv
INTRODUCTION
"All my novelsareone novel,"AudreyTho ma s once told an intervi e we r (Graham106). The reader ofTho ma s' sixnovels and six volume s of short stories quick.ly understands the auth o r' s stat e ment. The central characters in Thomas ' st criesv-a rs.Blood, rsc bei Cleary , IsobelCa r p e nt e r, Rachel, Ali ce Hoy l e, the of te n nameless protagonists of the short ntortose--ar r these women havesuchsimilarbi ographies, such similar personalit ies, that we might almost be reading one woman's lif e story. And when we look at the biographical detaiLs of Audrey Thomas' lifer which so close ly parallel thos e of her ch a r acte r s , we almo st ine v i tabl y conclude tha t wha t we are reading is the storyof one woman' s life :Audrey Tho ma s ' aut obiography .
Audrey Thomas 'writingchal l engesthe notionof a unified and unif y i ng subject /speakerby urging us to ask que s tions . Howsimilar is Is obel Carpen terto Mrs. Blood ?ToAli c e Hoyle?
ToAudreyThomas?IsIsabelAudre y ? Wha t doesitme a n to"be"
Is a bel , orAli ce, or Audre y? Is Alic e (an d "all the All ce s, whate ve r your mothers calledyou" as the dedicationtoBlo wn Figu res rea ds ) cr e ated by the sto ries she tells? Is Audrey Thomas?Am I?
Thomas frequently rel a t e s an even t inone of her nov el s or sho r t storieswhich wil l appearaga in in a lat er story, with a few key details changed. Thi s technique can be disconcerti ngto the reader. I tremind s us that wha t we ar e
reading is neither straightforward autobiography, nor a traditio na l ficti onalnarrativewhich ma i ntai ns the pretence of rep r.ese nt ing real experiencelite r a ll y. It is, inst e a d, writ ing which de liberate ly destab il izes tr aditio nal narrativity. Even as Audrey Thoma s fixes an exp er ienc e in la ng ua ge , she reminds ustha t thistransparentrelation shi p of lan g ua ge to experience is an illu s ion .
The use of repeatedst oriesand autnbicqr-a phica I materia l in AudreyThomas' writ ingdrawsthe reader'sattent i on tothe pro cess of storytell ing : howexperience is translated into languag e and how we, in tur n , are shapedand defi nedby tha t language. Few cri tics have failed to comme nt on Thomas ' fascinationwi t h language, evidenced in her use of puns and etymologies ,as well as her persi stent postmodern fa sci na tion with the ac t of storytel ling. In fact, all her wri ting is writ ingabout wri t i ng, about words and the i r inadeq ua t e but necessary attemptsto embodyexperience.In thisthe si s Ihope!
to explore how Thomas' fiction the mat iz e s the pr ob lema ti c relationshipbetweenlanguage and expe rience ,and to show how her use of autobiographical and repeatedsto r i e sco ntri but es to this process.
Ihave cho s e nto concentrate on those ofThoma s' novel s and short stories which have birth and mother hood as their central themes . Maternity is a concern inma ny of Thomas' stories. The experienceof birth is often paralleled withthe
act of writing, especi a ll y in Thomas' earlyworkscenteringon mi scarriage, aneventwhichshe hasca ll e d a "parody ofbir t h "
(Dowering, "Song s andWi s dom"15). Laternove ls andstories fea ture ma ture WOmen, mothers and writers, who struggle to defin e the ms el ve s inlanguag e. Fina l ly, several storiesabout the relation s h ipbetween mothers anddaughters suggest the ext e n t towhi chwomen's real i tyis shapedby thei rown, and the i r mothers'.sto r i e s.
Of the fewmajor studie s ofAudr ey Thomas that havebe e n written(th r e eunpu b li s he dMas t er' s thesesanda monogr aphby Barbara God ard), noneis specifica llyconcernedwit hhe r use of au tob i ography and repetition, no r with her treat ment at women as mot he rs . None in c l ude s the twovolumes of short storiesTho mas has pub l i sheds inceher 1984 novelIntertidal Life. The setwo co llections- -GoodbyeHarold,GoodLuc k (1986) and Th ewild 81 ue Yon d e r (990)--contain st o r i e s which are cent ra l tounderstandingTh omas' treatment of therel a t i o ns hip between mothersandda u gh t e r s, whichwillbediscussedin the thi rdchapter of this the s is .
The first two chapters of thisthesis follow a ro ug hly chrc-toLc q dce I pattern. Someof Audre yThomas ' earlies t wor ks, specificall ytheshort story "IfOne Gre enBottle...."and the nove l Mr s . Blood, center on the ea pe erenceof mis carri age.
Af ter exami ningthisshortsto r yand th i s novelinsome deta il in Chapter On e, "Parodiesof Birt h," I wi lllook brie fly at
Blown Figure s to se e new i t continues th is theme of miscarriage. The story "The More Li ttleMummy in theWorld"
andthe recent"The Slow ofDes p ond " will al s obediscussedin thi s chapter.
Although"The Sl oW"of Despond" show:;;tha t Audre y Thomas can return years later to explore again a theme she has written about before, the main cha r a c t e r in most of her stor ies chan ges, af te rBl own Figur e s, from a you ng mother to a middle-ageddivo r c ee and single mot her , as Tho ma s herse l f wasafter1912. Stories fromthi s pe riod willbedis cu s sed in the secondchapter, "Writ ing Well." Mos t of the s e are drawn fr om the collectionReal Moth ersand the nov e lsLa t akiaand Intertidal Life.
Theth irdcha pt e r , "Wo undsasWell asBle s s ings,"break s thi s semi-chro nolog ical pattern to look specifica llyat the relati onship between mo t he r s and daugh ter s in Thomas' fictions . Thisrela t i onsh ip is obvi ou slyan impo r t a nt one to Thomas, and is first explored in det ail in the 1913 no vel Songs My Mother Taught Me, an apparently autobiograph ical coming-of-age novel. La t er stories usually approach the relati ons hip no t frOm the daughter 's perspe c tive but the mother's. The mothers in the s e stories, fo und in Real Mothers, Goo dbye Harold , Good Luck, and In ter t i d al Life, are Audrey Thomas' own contemporaries, divorced wome n rai sing adolescentdaughters in the1910s, and from thisperspective
the mother/daughter re LacLcnah.Lp is viewed muc h positive ly than it is in SongsMy Mot h er Ta ughtMe. Th i s ch a p te r concludes wi t h an analysis of twoshortstories, one fro m(,v" db y e Harold, Gr-od Luck, and one fro mThe Wi l dBlue Yo n d e r, whic h explo rehow Audrey Thomas' bocoLneresponds, as an adult, to the aging mothe r whos evo Lat Lj,e !'~:L30n:slit yso domina ted her child~,ood. A central concernfor allthese womenis, asthe titleofSongs My MotherTaughtMeindicates, vi-et; "songs,"wha t sto ries, wha t myt hol og y, will be passed on frommother to daughter.Through these explorat i ons of maternity, motherhood and daughte rhood, I hope to show how Thomas' of repeated, autobiographical storylines ch a l l e nge s us to question the linlt between language and experience. She encourages us to ask how we as women, as mothers and daughters, can tell our unique stories in a lang ua ge tr a di t i ona l l y dominated by male writers and male conc e r ns, and how theprocessoftellingthe s e storiesshapes who we are.
CHAPTER ONE
"PARODIES OFBI RTH":MISCARRIAGE,ABORTION,ANDBIRTH IN AUDREY THOMAS' FICTIONS
AudreyThomas' first published short story,"IfOne Green Bottle.. •," which appeared int.heAtlanticMonthlyin 19 65, was ast ri ki ng enough accomplishmentthat a pub lLa he r , Bobbs- Merrill, of fered her a two-book cont ract onthestre ng t hof that sto ry al one (Arnussen 66). It is possibly the most anth ologized of Thomas' many short stor i es. More tha n j",st its chronologicalpouitIon makes thisstoryanide a l start i ng point fo r a study of Thomas' wo r k. Many of the theme s and techniquesthatrecurin her fict i onar e int ro duc edin "IfOne Green Bottle.. .," inclUding th r e e tha t are of particula r int e r estin thi s study:an experimenta lstyle that reveal sthe author's concern with language and vo i c e , subject matter related to motherhood and matern i ty, and the use of autobiographicalmaterial .
Whenher first short storycollection , TenGreenBottles, appearedin196 7 , the largelyfa vo u r a b l e reviewsdidnotmake any special mentionof "IfOne Green Bottle ...." One rev i ew describesthe storyas "astream-of -consciousnes spresentation of the thoughts of a woman during labor -snd birth" and comments that th e stream-of- consciousnesstechnique ,effective in this story, "be c ome s a slightly annoying mannerism" when used in some of the otherstories. The samerevi e we r praises
this story and two others be c a u s e in them "a n authentic voice .. .pe rs uades the reader to accept th e m as gen ui ne experiences" (r e v. ofTenGreen Bot tle s , Choice8361. Since thisstory, li ke all Thomas' wo rk ,ac t i ve l y questio nsthenon- transparent nature of lang uage and it s re l a t ions h ip to experience, thispraise mi-ghtbe seen as somewha t ironic .
Another conte mporar y rev iewername s"Omo,""Xan a d u,It and
"A Winter'sTale"as the best sto riesinthe coll ection, and observes that "some or the rest" (perhaps including "I f One GreenBottle...") "a r e ratherunreali z ed andsp ot ty" (re v.of Ten Green Bottles, Publishers' weekly 60). Mos t ot her rev i ewe r s comment favourably on the oo LkectLon as a whole wi t hout singling out "I f One Green Bott l e.... ..
Despite the lack ofcriticalattent ionthesto r y rec e i ve d when publishedinTenGreenBottles, its centralpla cewit hin AudreyTh o ma ~ ' work is clear. Inthis storyThomaspres ents us with anarrator whose ide nti tyis uncLea r throughout muc h of the story andwhose streem- c r-ccnscrou snesenarration oft e n invi tesus to question he r sanity. Thefrag ment e d na rrat ive , liberally sprinkledwith ellipse s, is fille dwith theki nd of li t e r a r y allusions, puns, and etymological explorationsthat will quick ly become famili a r to anyone who reads much of Audrey Thomas' work. Both ove rtly, thro ugh the na rra tor' s lhoughts, and indirectlY th rou g h its technique, the stor y raisesthe que s ti on of how exp e rience canbe tr a ns l atedint o
language.
The type of experience with whichthe narrator wrestles is also important in thecontext of Thomas' work as a whole.
The reviewerquotedabove who summarizedit as"t he thoughts of a woman during labor and birth" responded to the most obviousle ve l of meaningin the story, withoutmentioningthat the end product of thisbirth is nothing--it is, in fact, a protracted and. painful miscarriage. The experience of maternity is a central conce rn in many of Thomas' works,and, especially in the early works on which thi s cha p t e r wi ll focus, that expe rience is often one of "f a ile d " maternity--a miscarriage or an abortion. How to record this private, neglected, deeply personal aspect of women '5 experience in language is the major problem not just of "I f One Green Bottle..." but of thenovelsMrs.Blood andBlownFig u r e sas well.
Audrey Thomas further problematizes this relationship betweenlanguage and experience by daring her readers toask how closely her stories parallel the author's personal experience. In 1965, Thomas wa s liv ing inAfrica with her hus b an d and twochi ldrenand had recentlysuffered a tra umatic miscarriage . In that year she published "If One Green Bottle... -" the story of awh i t ewoma n having amiscarriagein an Africanhospital.
Most critics have commented on the commonbackgrounds
Thomas' maln char actersshare wi t h one ano ther and with the ir author, though no inde pt hstudy of theseparal lel S ha sbe e n undertaken. AnthonyBoxi11, in a 1972re v i e....ofThoma s' first three books, observes the similar backgroun ds of cha rac te rs and concludes somewhattentatively tha t "One always hasth e feeling that Audrey Thoma s' fiction is subs t an t i all y autobiographical " (Boxill 116 ) . Co ns t a nc e Rooke, in the Dictionary of Literary Biography ,statesmoreconfide nt ly tha t
"Aud r e y Thomas' fiction is largel y and conspicuously
autobiographical" (Rooke 331). In hisReader's Guide to the Canadian Novel, John Mos s says, "Thomas writes autobiographical fiction. Timeand again inher nove lsand shortstories the same mai ncha r a c t e r and circumstances lie revealed before us, sp layed in a va r i e t y of voic e s and disguises that do little to conc eal their common source outsidethete xt inthe aut ho r's life" (Moss 355).
Audrey Thomas' own comments on the aut ob i og r a phi c al nature of he r work suggest that she is not par t i cu la rly concernedabout conceali ng those source s . "I re all y don ' t know anyone as well as I kno w myself. I find it very presumptuous towri teab o ut other people " (Bowe ring, "s on g s and Wisdom"14). In anotherintervi ewshe co mme nt e d ,"Ithink everybodywritesautobiography. I thi nk everybody writ e s one story, ha s one th ingthat reall y inte rests them " (Wachte l,
"Interview" 58).
10 At le ast one crit i c finds Thomas' concentrationonher
"on e story"to be a flawin herwri t i n g. AnneArche r suggests th at "When story partakes almo s t exclus ively of autobiography,it seems that theta l e runs the risk of either turning in on itself,theteller,or both" (Archer 214). She describes the eff ectof Thomas' autobiographicalrepetit ionas
"a n obsession "producing "c la u s t r op h o b i a " (2 14,2151. Barb ara Godard, respond ing to Ar c h e r' s essay, rep lies: "That repetit ion ha s alwaysfunctionedasdifferencein Thomas ' work is something Archer has overlooked" (Godard, Audrey Thomas 19). She goes on to observe that in Thomas' fiction "The storiesoflife merge withthe stories of art,for both employ se lectionand arrangementin order to make the mstory, and detailsina new conte xt havea different meaning " (45). In all her work , Thomas dr a ws attention to this pr oc e s s of
"sel e c t i on and arrange ment. " To accuse her of lacking origina li t y because she use s autobiographical materialan d because she retells the same stories over and over (a techn ique we wi ll exami n emor e clo s e l y in Chapter2) isto ignore heremphasi sonpr oc e s s . Theac t of writing itself,of using lan guage to cr eate and re c re a te experience, is central to al l Audrey Thomas' novels and sho rtstories.
Anothe r critic, Susan Rudy Dorscht , the
autobiographi cal elemen t as centra l in Thoma s' postmodern questioning of the self . She suggests th at, "as curre nt
11 psychoanalyt icanddeconstructivethe orydoes, the writing of Audrey Thomas asks us to reread ou r notions of what co n s t i t u t e s not on l y the 'sel f' but concurrently the autobiograph ical se l f" (Rudy ncc s c ne, ·Bl o wn Figures and Blood, " FutureIndi c a t i ve 222 )•
A further cri t i c i s m some t i me s aimed at admitted ly autob iographic alfictionis suggested inJoh n Moss' comment on AudreyThomas' novel Songs MyMother TaughtMe, a me moirof childhoo d and youth wh i ch will be dis c u s s ed in Chapt er 3.
"The effect is.. .that need s ar e being met outs ide the fic ti on a l reali ty--alwaysa dangerin'con f e s s i o n a l' fi c t i o n "
(Mos s353). The "needs" Mossrefers to are no doubtth e ones whi chconcerned anot h e r reviewer of thesa me novel, who says,
"ot t e n suchdisguised autobiographybecome s merethe r a pyfor the author," thou gh , he hastensto add, "this is not trueof Aud r e y Thomas' work· (Stevens 259). WhetherMos s or Stevens isrightaboutthe overa lleffect ofSon gs My Mother Taught He isle s s impo r t a nt than the questionof Why writing-as-therapy is seen as having lit t l e orno value. AudreyThomas hers e lf has described "IfOn e Gr e e n Bott l e..•It as her first Itreal"
st oryprecise lybecause it fu lfille dth i s need:"it hadtobe writt e n, it seemed to be the onl yway I cou l d orga nizethe horror and utter futilit y of a six-mont hs-long drawn-o ut miscarriagein a hospita l inAfri c a " (Thoma s, "My Cra ft and SullenArt"153). Agai n, theemphasis is on the atte mpt to
12
"organi ze "the chaos of ex perienc eby writ i ng it. As Thomas drawsour attention again and againrv theprocess oftelling the story, we can hardlyescapebeingawa r e of the needs that motivate that process.
"I f One Green Bottle•.." is a story about telling a story,about howa wo ma n'5 story of a childbirththa t produces
"no t hing" has not beentold and perha pscannotbe toldina language writ tendown bymen and la r g e l y dominated by male concerns. The problemof wri tingthe experienceof maternity, first takenup inthis story, is one Audrey Thomas continues to exploreth r ou ghou t her writing.
"IfOne Green Bottle..."takespl aceentirel yins idethe consciousnessof a womaninlabour , awoma n whoseperceptions arequitepossiblydi s t or t e d by thedrugs she ha s been gi ven.
In her painand anxiety, thenarra torseeks to identif y with another wo man's expe ri ence: that of theVirginMa r y. Not only is Mar yacharacter with whom the pregna ntwomancan identify, but she is al s o a wo manwh o s e story has been toldby men.
"And the days were accomplished . Unfair to 91(')55 th at ove r...to make so li ttl e of the wai t ing ... the months...the hou rs. Th e yma ke no me nt i on of the hou rs;but of course, me n wrote it down. How were the yto know? " (Ten Gre enBottles 5)•
Thomas'at t empt to rewrite Ma r y' s experiencein herown, femalevoice, signa ls herunwillingne s s to acceptthe ve r s i on
13 of women'5experience that has beenwr itt en downby men. The figu re of the Virgin Mary appears in Thomas' writing as a symbol of a female exper ie nc e inaccessib l e to men and unexpressedina language wh os e perspective ispre d ominantl y male-- a phallocentricla n gu age. Materni ty is, of course, a uniquely female experience. In "If One Green Bottle.. ."
Ma r y ' s experience is neatly caught in a phr a se that, significantly , re cu r s in Thoma s' late r wo r ks: "Af t e r the imma c ul a t e conception.. .th e maculate de liv e r y" (5)• Here Thomas employs a word, "macu l a t e, " wh i c h is out s i d e th e lex ic on of pa tria r chal langu a g e , a wor d descr ibing that feature of Mary'smaternitywhichwa s beyondthecon ce rnsand the languageof the men who"wr o t e it down."
The narratorseesherself an dother women , suc h asMa r y, pit tedagainst a pat riarc h a lsystem.Thisid e aissugge~tedin the stor y 'sfirstimageof a mortalpl a y ingchesswith agod- - playing with fate. The god ispers oni fi ed:ma l e, with "thick lips " and a "mons t r ou s hand " (1) . He is "the deus in th e ma china " (2), the godfr om whomth espeaker repeatedly beg sa signthat her SUfferingis not in vain :tha t her pain, like Mary ' s, ha sa pur po s e whi chwil l validate it in theeyes of society. Sheimag ine s her experienceasa playcon t ro l ledby an author andadirector,bothmal e; sheempa t hi z e swit hMa r y an d wi t h Leda, bot h impre gn at ed witho ut thei r conse n t by imperi ous male gods . fea r fu l of th e comi n g da r kn e s s, she
14 reminds hersel f twice that "he promised it would be before the night" (3). On the level of re a li s m, "he " 13 probablya doctor; on anotherlevelthe reader identifies him with thedeusexmachina, th e controlling mal egod.
But th e speaker is also awarethat the la ngu a g e of this male power is inadequateto her situation. She repeats his promise , but immediatelyreflects tha t itis "Abs u r d to rely on verbal consolation...c r Icnes so worn they feel like old coins "(3). Throughoutthe speaker's fragmented, stream-of- consciousness narrative, she ma kes attempts to change her voice,to modifyher langu a g e , as ift rying to speakin the language approvedby the me n whoboth "wr o t e it down" and expunged all traces of female pain. She apologizes for her pai n and fear - -"you wil l excuse me for a moment? " (10),
"Fo r g i vemei f I'vement i o n e d thisbefore" (13 )--an d strives for "just theri g httone..•Abstractspeculationonbirth.. .on death...onhumanSUffering in general " (10). She struggles for a detached tone whichis ableto utter suc hplatitudes as
"SUf f e r ing is good for the soul." But, as she goes on to say,
"the effectson thebody are not to be considered " (13). The female voice, the voice of the body struggling with its maculate de livery, rises up to drownou t the abstract rat i or,!!l tone.
It would be easy , at this point , to dca,w a simple dist i ncti onbet ween ma l e and female voice. Wemi gh t as s ume
15 that Thomas hears the rational, detached voice of phallocentric,patriarchallanguage as exclusivelyth e voice of men, while the voice thatexpresses the physical realities of su f feri ng and childbirth is always a woman' s voice . But Audrey Thoma s' writing constantly challenges simple binary opposit ions, includingthose between men and women. Such a challengeis fo und in "If One Green Bottle.•. •" In the same passage in which the speaker strives for an abstract discourse, shesu g g e st s a woman as the ideal exampleof such a tone: "Cl eopat r a inherro b e s•.. her crown.... No fear... the asp suckles peac efully and un r e p r o v e d" (lO). The detached voice here is that of a woman- -though a quotation from Shakespeare'5play alerts us that Cleopatra's story, like Mary's, was writ tenby a man, and leaves us wondering whether Cleopatrawas really as detached about her own deat h as the literary imagesu g g es t s . But the narrator does not explore Cleopatra's possible pain and fear as she does Mary's. Instead,shecont r a stsCle opa t r a ' s detached vo Lce with that of a male cha r a cte r , also fromShakespeare--ItFalstaffbabbling 'o f green fi e l d s '" in his deathbed scene in Henry v (10). Our sympathyis drawn to the sufferer, regardlessof gender;
to "theold man...pathetic ...deserted... broken" (10). Though this is cle a rl y the story of a uniquely female experience which ca nnot be toldin patriarchal language, we are warned against overs implifying gender roles into a set of easy
16 oppositions.
Anothercautionarynote against such oversimplificatio n is soundedby the presencein thestory of a vaguely menacing power, le s s obvious than th e god of fate but perhaps more int r i gui ng . The childhood rhyme, "Lfyoustepon a cra c k , the n you'11br e ak your mother'sback" (1) isquot e d in the story's first pa r ag r aph as the speaker imag inesherse lfmaking a caut i ous advance, fearful of the conseq uen ce s. Mother appears again later in the sameparagraph. Asthe speake r visualizes being devouredby the godwho, "likea whale...
st rai ns...onemerebitof plankton,through his te et h," she suddenlyand apparently irrelevantly rememberstheivory teeth of hermother'scomb (2), In thepassagethat re-writ esthe Annunciat ton, Mary twice wondersabout he rmot her's response tothe news. Thesereferences suggestatonc e a need for and a fear of apowerful mother-figure.
In "IfOne Green Bottle.. ." the mother-f i gure appears onl y briefly, usually in parent heses . She never becomes a cha r a ct e r in the story,unlike the speaker' s fatherwho makes a brief appearance as a fisherman, annoyed by his daughter's squeamish female response to the fish's strugg le. In th is anecdotalmemory, the father is just another mal eaut hority figure, whilethe mother'spower, different, female, subt ler, is onlyhinted at. The same sort of half-buriedreferences to the mother occur in ThOlnas' firstnovel, Mrs.Blood, but the
17 power of mother over daughter is not fully explored until la t e r warl(s,most importantlySongs My Mother Taught Me. The power of the mother-daughter relationship is, however, present, i fonly minimally, in these earliest works.
"If One GreenBottle•.." experiments with language and reinterpretsti me-ho noured religious /culturalsymbols ,such as the Vi rginMary, in order to write an experience for whichour la n g ua ge has no wcrds--awoman's experience of the body , of he r pain, and ofpre gn a nc y and failed maternity . Thisshort but powerful sto r yin t rod uc e s many the me swh i c hwil l re c u r in Tho ma s ' laterwork, andsi g n a l she r int e nt i o n to writeabout aspectsof female experience seldom touchedon inliterature.
The majorideas, image r y, and verbal experimentat ionof
"If OneGre e n Bottle...ttoccur againinThoma s ' first novel, Mrs . Bl ood, published in 1970. The novel is basically an exp a nsi on of the shortstory. The focus of Mrs. Blood is br o a derth a n that of ItIfOne Green Bottle , "in whichwe knew noth i ngof the narrator's externallife. In the novel, the mai n character is fleshedout and contextualized:she isthe Ameri can wife of an Englishman, Jason, who teaches in an African university, the mother of two small <::hildren named Nicholas and Mar y. and the former lover of a man named Richard .
She herae Lf , however, remains nameless, id e n t ifying
18 herself by the twodescriptive pseudonymswith which thenove l ope n s: "Some days myname is Mrs. Blood; some daysit'sMrs. Th i n g " (Mrs . Blood 11). Exp lanat ions of the di st inct i o n between Mrs. Blood and Mr s. Thing are wide spr ea d among cr i t i cs. Are a der comin gdire ctly tothenovelfro m"IfOne Gre en Bo t tle ..." mi gh t expec t the Mrs. Thi ng persona to cor r espond to the detached ton e wh ich th e sho r t st ory'5
speakersometi mesuses :anintellectual "a bs tractspe c u lation"
in male-do mi natedlangu a ge. In this view, Mrs . Bl ood would be the subversivefemalevoic e expr es singthephy si ca lrea li t i e :;
of pai n and emoti on. Much of the book supp orts thi s int e rp r e t a tion, but readers ha ve also sugge sted ot her poss i bi l i t i es .
Cons t a nce Rooke supportsthe vi ewof Mrs . Bl ood as the
"vis c era l self" and Mr s. Thing as the "objective, but alienated self" (Rooke,DictiondryofLit e ra r yBiograp h y335) . Audrey Thomas herselfuse s similar language to des c r ibe the narrato r's two selves: "the r e ' s the vis ce r a l wvman, Mrs. Blood,and there'sthe objective distance dvcorcn,Mrs.Thing"
(Komisar 59). Joan Coldwe ll presents af.ai r l y nega tive vie w of bot hMrs.Bloodand Mr s. Thing: Mrs. Thing is "f e a r f u l , self-conscious , acted-up on" while Mrs. Blood is a "guil t- ridden bu n d le of memor-Ies and poetic vis ions " (Coldwell, Ox f o r d compenton785). Elizabeth Potvin agrees with the view ofMrs. Thingas tne more rational voice:she describesher as
"
"wolllandominatedby thetyrannyof ;le r mind . " Mrs. Blood , in Potv in' sint e r preta tion, is"a n objectand avi c t i m" (Potvin 391.
Some critic s ha ve seen the Mrs. Blood persona more positivel y . Lor ra i ne McMullen suggests th a t whileMrs. Th i ng is"theyoungwifeandmother concernedwithpresent reality ,"
Mr s.Blood is "her more seneuet and emoti onalself" (McMullen 64). Lo i s GottleibandWendyKeltne r, like Coldwe ll ,describe Mr s . Thi ng as "a ct e d-up on," but "Mrs. Blood, by cont rast, might be womanin touch with a unive rue L source of female stre ng th, yetwholl yove rwhe l med by herreproductive capacity"
lGottleib an d Keltner, "Narrative Technique"36B). The most positi v e view of Mrs. Blood comes from Frank Davey, who describes Mrs. Thing "nervou s , incompetent , incons equent i al ho u sewife and mother,"whose other vo i c e is
"the passion atel y car e l e s s 'Mr s . Blood,' whose generosity toward life hasof ten earned her embarra s smentand disaf."ter"
tue vey, FromHerecoTh e r e255 ) •
All these readingscan be supported by the novel. Mr s . Bloodex hi bi ts guilt, poeticvision, femalestrength, and a passio nategene rositytowa rd li fe . He r segment s of the book are fille d wi th puns , expl o r atio ns of word origins and meaning s,literaryallusion s, imag e s of birt han dde at h, and vi vid memories,partiCUl a rly memorie s of Ri c hard andof the mental hosp i t al where she once wor ke d. Mrs.Th i ngcomme nt s
20 more rat i on a lly on eventsinth e present; she ph ilos ophizes, andcar riesonconversationswit h others. The twovoicesare distinct, but notcompletelydi ffe re nt , since theirco n c e r n s over Lap•
One of the cha rac terswi thwhom Mrs. Thingtalks is Or.
Biswas, the Indian gyn e c ol ogi s t. Th at their inte r actionis larg ely an intellectual exe r ci se supportsthe ident if:ication ofMrs. Thi ngasthenarrator's more detached , cer ebr al self. She notestha t thedoctor's "ca s ua l attitudetoward bir t h and deat h issomethingIcan neverhope to attain,ormaybe don' t want to," but, wo r r i e d that her "br a in grows musty from disuse "as herbodyabsorbs all the attention, shewelcomes
"our da ily ritual of ta lk, where we at leas t hone the intel l ect , if nothingmore,and realizethat there ar '! mi nd s as wel l as bodie s inthe world" (Mrs. Blood93).
Mrs. Th ing re a li z e s that "Dr. arsvee, intellectual, mysti ca l, Indian, male , wi llne ver unders tand" herpain and self-p ity (91). Though he can be gentle and sympa t hetic towar dsher, when shetri e s to expres stohimher fear of a miscar riage he is "ob vi ously exaspe rated" and di st a nc e s hims e l f sothatshelooksathim andsees"onl y an alienfac e- -theface of theprofes sional " (121- 122). The juxtapositio n of "i n t e llectua l " and "male" inMrs.Thi ng 's description of him on c e ag ai n suggests a general iz ll.t.io n ab out rational,detached , andobje c t ive. Yet,once agai n, Thomas'
21 multipleperspectiveundermines our assumpt ionsabout gender, forthis Ls the sameDr.Biswas who says that nat seve nteen I wa s filledwi thho r r o r by the condition sin my coun tr y, and at night I used to weep becauseofit" (92).
Dr.at sves, like most AudreyThomas characters, is more complexth a n he first appea rs, but hi s in t era ct i on withthe main ch a r act e r r oma.Lns at the intellectual , abstract level. Mrs . Thing is aware, however , as was the speakerin"If One Green Bottle..0'" that communicationon thisle v el , in male- ce nt e r e d langu age, cannot ade quat ely expre ssher experie nce . Sheknows that thesurface- level conversationsshe and Jason ha ve when he visitsar e "un r e a l talk" (96 ) . When, home from the hospital, she tells Jason that the painhasbe g unaga in , she observes the way they talk: "rc c maa. Middle-aged.
Controlli ng the panic by speaking in careful sent e nces. A sentence is a group of wordsexp ress inga complete thought. But there are sentences and se ntences " (196 ).
The rational languageofsentences, withits conventio nal gramlMr and syntax, its tr a di tio na l narrat ive struc t u re , becomes as confining as a prison sentence whe n Mr s. Blood tries to express emotionsand expe r ience s tha t are outside lang ua ge. Li kethe charact e r in"If One GreenBottl e...,"she identifi esthe powers contro l lingher fate as mal e , quoting passages from the BibleandChristianli tu r gywh ichre fl e c ta patriarchal view of the wo rld. She reci te s a pray er fo r
22 he ali ng,italicizingthe pronouns"he - and "him "toemphasize themascul ine or i en t a ti o n of religion , and she remembersthe Bible verse whi ch says "In my fath er's house are ma ny mansions,·perhaps bec ause of themasc u line image of Godthe Father it presents. Immediately after these two passages, another biblical allusion appears: "I heard a voice from heaven, sayingunto me,Write." These biblica lquotationsand allusions recall the menacing mal e god of "If One Green Bottle ...." Inher di s cu s sionof th a t stor y , Barbar a Godard wr i t es , "Th e bib licalmyth of the incarnateword invokedhere invit esus to see the words setadrift because, ba ck e d by the fiat of a male God, it is antitheti...a l to women's realities andhas become 'e mp t y' forthem" (God a r d, Aud r ey Thomas 261.
If, as inthe passage fromReve lat ion quoted above, the male qod commands the male prophetto wri t e, howca n suchwriti ng embody women'sexperience?
Mrs. Blood ca n appropriatethe co mmand to "Write " and make this phallocentriclanguageher ownon ly by subverting it. She misquotesthe Bible : "Allfle s hisglass· (Mrs.Blood 59) , "Giveus this day ou r bare l y dead" (1 71),"The bloody and bawd of Christ " (193 ). Or she di s t ort s the words of the rat iona li s t male phil os ophe r De scart e s to re flect her own feeli ngs: "1 stink ther e fo r e I am" (21). Mrs. Blood' s distort~ons of male-wr itt e n te xt s would be refresh i ng to fe mi nis t theorists like HH~neC!xous, who writes that woman
23 must dislocate the male discou rse that has defi n e d he r; she must "explode it, turn it around, and seize it.. . ; makeit hers, containingit, taking i t in herown mout h, bitingthat to ng ue with her very own teeth to inve nt for herself a language to get inside of" (Clxous 257). Mrs . Blood's parodies of the Bible , lit urg y , andDescart es are her wa y of ta ki ng language into herownmouth.
Mrs. Blood'svoice dominates as the book continues: the voice of Mrs. Thing faltersunder the pressure of her body' 5 pain . And the vo Ice of Mr s . Blood moves fur the r away from traditional language, traditional narrative. The voice becomes more fragmented and is ta ke n over more and moreby random quotations from the Bible, fr om lite r a tu r e , from newspapers, and from children's rhyme s. The fi na l section, the brief Part III inwh i c h the misca r r iage ac t ua l l y occurs, is made upal mos t enti relyof this kindof foundmaterial ,and the last sixpagesconsistofshort,uzrualLy single-sentence , paragraphs. The furtherMr s.Bloodtravelsintoher traumatic female experience , the more distanced she becomes from rational narrative.
This str ugglebetweenfemaleexpe r ienceand ma l e-centered lan g ua ge , also evidentin the shiftsandelli p s e s of"If One Green Bottle ...,..wil l bediscussed in great erdetail whenwe examine some of Audrey Th omas' la t e r wo r k s in whi c h the protagonists are wri t ers who struggleexp licitlyto use and
misuse phallocen tric language for female purposes. At this point, as we examine Thomas' fi r s t short st o r y and first novel, thi sstrugglewithlanguage ind i c a t e s theinten sityof the experiences beingdescribed--intenselyfemaleexperiences, whichareoften not the subjects oflit e r atur e. The contras t betweenthe voices ofMrs. Bloodand Mrs.Thinghighlightsthe way in whichan experience su c h as a miscarriageis viewed diff e r e ntl y by th e woman unde rg oing it and by the outside wo rld, since Mrs. Th i ng is mo re awar e of the commen t s and op i nio ns of those around her.
This "outside worl d, "thoughit can be described as male- centered, is by no means made up onlyof me n. Though Jason and Dr. Biswasareunabletosympathizefull ywi t hher, Mrs.
Bloodalsofearstheconte mpt ofothe rwomen , speci f icallyof thecoollycompetentEnglish facultywi ve s. Chief among these is Mary M., "wi t h her goodness and concern and br ave r y (for hadn' t she dr i ve n twelve miles with [her son) Benjamin's tonguebi t t e n off andly ing thereanthe car seat... 1)" (13). Mary M. and theothers can "cope"; Mrs.Blood is consta ntl y aware that she is not one af them,thatshe doesno t measure uptothe i r standardsof competence. Theirvisits leave her with the impression"t ha t the yfind[he r ] a bitdecadentlying here and ble e d ing the afternoon away." She remembers a similar womanback in Engla nd who responde dtoMrs.Blood's fear of a miscarriageby telling her awn stor y: "I hada
25 miscarriageat nine0'cloc koneNew Year' 5 Eve andwe nt to a supper party later in the evening " (29) . In thefa c e of this unattainable standard, wha t can Mr s. Blood/Mrs.Thing saybut tor hate them and Iwa n t tobe like them" (29)?
Mrs.Blood' 5 sense ofgu i l t isinc r eas e d bythe fact that this attitude is expressedby otherwome n, not primarily by men. I tmight be .:Irgued, of course, thatthe faculty wi ve s ' cool competence is the product of the "c l e an, well -lig hted mytho logy" (66 ) found in th e ladies' ma g azi nesthe narrator reads in hospital, and that thisimageof "Li f e as it should be lived" is in fact a co ns truct of a pa tri archal society. Ladies' magazinesareapotentsymbol in Aud r e y Thomas' wor k: they appear again inSongsMy Mother Taught Me andInt er t i dal Life.' Theirvision of the ideal life centres on material comfort and conv enience, and the y presen t the ideal woma n as one who is competent and skil lful in han dli ng domestic affairs,possessing a courageandstr ength thatbe lit tle s pain and refuses tore c og niz e ugliness. Mrs. Thi ng suspects that wome n are actuall y vict ims of this mythology: "I s it not sadism ofaparticularlynasty kind?Canyouliveup tothi s woma n or thatdressor this complicatedrecipe? Andof course yo u centt;" (67). Yet she re c ogn i zes that thewomenwho ar e victimized by thismythology als o helptoperpetra t e it. Thu s thecool,competentfacult y wive s judgeMrs.Bloodby la di e s' magazine standards, and she cannothope to find suppo r t in a
26 communityof suchwomen.
In fact, although as Mrs. Thing she shares an intellectual communion wit h Dr. Biswas, the narrator finds onl yone pe r sonwh oca n truly re a c h out to her andshare her experienceas Mrs. Blood. Th i s is another woman, but awo man who stands outs idethe "c l e a n, well-l i g h t e d mythology" (661 of European civi lization. The African nurse, Elizabeth, appears init ial ly only as another nurse , alon g wi t h Alexand ria, Esther, andGraceAboundi ng. But as thena r r at i va continue s she becomes distinct. It is, of course , in herMr s. Thingpersona that thenarratormakes he r observationson the peoplearou nd he r, andin thisvo i c e shedescribes Elizabet h:
She hasadeep voice, unlik ethe us ua l high, nasal semi- whini ng accent ofthe other gi rls•. ..
I think too she is olderalthoug h it'sha r d to te l l. She does not giggle aboutMr s.xee boyf riend thewa yEs therand Ale xa nd ria doand she isnot a studentlike them,but a qua li fie d nur s ewhotr ai ne d in England... . I love to hear Eli zab e th talk, in much the sameway I love thedarkest chocolate.(46) On a fewother occasions Elizabeth'scharacteris further sketched:a little less likelyto gossip than the othergirlS , a little moreser ious, she is "quiet and efficient and gi ve s an impression of incorruptibi lity" (110). Sign ificantly, she is at herpat ient ' s sidewhe n Mrs. Blood/Mrs. Thing awa kens after a sudden episode ofble e d i ng andfainting.
This characterizationof Eli zabethprepares us for her import a nce in thebook ' s final section. Here , asMr s.Blood
27 undergoestheag on y of hermiscar riage and dri ft s furt her away from the rational language of thecontrolledandcontro ll ing sentence , none of the men in her life is pres e nt . Jason
"comes and holds (her) handandle a ve s " (2131. She repea tedl y asks for Dr. Blswasand re c eivesno answe r. Themost striking absence of all is that of Ri c hard, "The Ma nWho Nev e r Was"
(217). Thoughshe repe ate d l y crie s out fo rhe r lostlo ver,he exi st son l y inmemor i e s.
None of theth re e mento wh omMrs.Bl o od cries out comes toher, andtheclea n , well-lighte dwor ld of the Englishwomen is fa r awa y . Heronl ycompa nio ns in su f fe ri ngare the Afri c an women, es pe c i a ll y Elizabeth. Of all tho s e whosenames Mrs. Bloodcries out in herdisjointed , fragmen tedvoic e of pai n, only Eli zabethresponds. Eli za beth isth e first pers o n she asks for when she ar rive s back at the hospital , and th oug h Elizabeth is absent then , she ispr e s e n t during th e birth.
When the dead infant - --thething-- -is takenaway, El izabe th we e ps andho lds Mrs.Blood as Es t her ru b she rbel lyandAuntie Mary sings. At the en d, she is suppo r ted by a lov i ng communityofwomen, Afric a n women . Eliza be thPotv i n points out that Mr s . Blood "has a strongeraf fi n i ty with Elizabeth , the African nur s e , tha n she does withher husband, and when th e miscar ria g e doesfinally occur,itis toElizabeth and not to Jason that she cries ou t.... Thus it is suggested ...that tl".e fina l re integr ationwil l be ac h i eved th ro ug h a commu n i on
2B with other women" (Potvin 45). Elizabeth and the others, women, are able to move outside patriarchal language and its expectations for women'5behavior, while as Africans they may be less bound by the Eurocentric rationality which imprisons Mrs.Blood. As such,they are fit companions for her journey through an experience which cannot be desc r rbec in rational, male-centered te r ms .
Outside those boundaries, when Mrs. Blood attempts to speak her own fragmented, distorted female language, she is able to express a whole range of female experiences. These include a joyous celebration of female sexuality, descriptions of the birthing experience, and, of course,the experienceshe is presently undergoing: the pain and bleeding of her difficultpregnancy.
Central to many of these experiences is the image of blood--so central, in fact, that not only the Mrs. Blood persona but the title of the novel is explicitly identified with it as well. The contrasting attitudes towards bloodin the Mrs.Blood and Mrs.Thingpassages highlight the attitudes toward female experience,the attitudes that force Mrs.Blood to abandon the tone of abstract speculation and find a new voice to speak what is happening to her.
Although Mrs. Thing begins the novel with a straight- forward narrative about her ambulanceride to the hospital, Mrs.Blood takes over .. fter less than four pages and re-te lls
29 the story he r wa y , beginning. "I am her e because I bl e e d "
(141. As her nameimplies, blo od is ce ntralto he rdefi nition of herse lf as a woman. Blood is the ke y elemen t in her present hospitalization, as she frequently remi n ds us by refe rr ingtoherbl oody sh e ets and bloods t ainedth i g hs. Bl o o d also figu r e s promine ntly in Mr s . Blood 's me mories of the menta l hospital whe r e she used to work. Several of her me moriesrela te tomenstruation , andmany of these associate mens trual bloodwith embarrassment or sha me. She reme mbers herembarra ss ment , as ayoung girl hitchh iki ng In Europe,whe n a truck dri ve r whohadgiven her a ride foun d a pairof her bl ood s ta i ned unde rpa nts ; she recallsthe awkwardn e s s of being usher edout of sixth-grade mus i c classbecausesome girl "had found adirtyKotex unde rneathherchair. Wetho ughtshewas disgusting - (163).
AsinlingeringOld Tes tame nt taboos ,not onl y the blood ofmensesbut anythingor any on ewh o comes in cont act with it is shamefu l. Suc h taboos are, of cour se, not limited to Jude a-Chr ist i a nte a chingbut are foundinman y cultures. In the Koran , "Blood, like the men strua ting woman, is...bo th sac r e d and accursed" (Delaney, Lupton and Tot h 19). The eccu es ed ness survives inmodern at t i t ude s tomenstruation , in which "The rul e behind all other s see ms to be thatwome n may not dr a w men's att enti on to menstruat i on inany wa y" (Laws 43). Thisunwritten rule obviou slylie s be h i nd Mrs.Blood's
30 me mo r i e s of disgust and embarrassment.
But not all her associations wi t h blood involvepain or shame. She remembersalsoheruna b a s h e d sensua lity whe n she made lovewit h Richard wh ile menstruating and he said , "Lo o k, you'vecursed my pajamas " (Mr s . Blood-"3). Richard'sattitude toward his lover'Smenstrua l blood is verydifferent fromthat of the more traditional male to wh o m "Th e blood of the menstru ating woman is somehow dangerous, magical , and apparent ly not something he wan ts to get on his penis"
(Delaney, Luptonand Toth IB). Mrs. Blood's experiencewi t h Richard provides her with at least one positive memory of menstruation.
Anotherof herpo s i t i ve reflectionson blood occurswhe n she thinksof thebloodyexperience of birth,wherethe mother is "the bloody thingin the bed or on the table" who"s mil e s and forgetsthe horror and the outrage" (Mrs. Bl o o d183). Th o ug h sccIetyes attLt.uden proclaim that women's blood is shameful, blood mus t beacceptedas an integra l pa r t of female experienceifMr s. Bloodis to accepthe r s e lf as a woman.
When the virginMar y makes an appearance in this story, it is as"Blood y Mary ...the bloodyandbawd of Christ, that is to sa y , bloody Mary, who propell edHim, shrieking, into the musty straw" (193). By emphasiz ing thebl o od y aspect of Ma r y ' 5 experience the nar r ator her e , as in "If One Green Bot t le...,"draws attention to thatwhi ch is left ou t of the
31 written records. Mrs. Blood also uses the Bloody Mary image to subvert the symbolism of traditional religion just as she plays with its language. In Mrs. Blood, "If One Green Bottle ...," and such later Thomas stories as "Mothering Sunday," the Virgin Maryisc1woman whose experience has been written and interpreted by men, specificallythe men of the Roman Catholic church. As Marina Warner points out inAlone ofAllHer Sex: The Myth and the CUlt of the Virgin Mary, "The Virgin in th e Catholic Church represents motherhood in its fullness and perfection. Yet the Virgin as mother is exempt by special privilege from intercourse, from labour, and from other physicalprocesses of ordinary childbirth" (Warner192). Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mar observe that "The messy femaleness of Mary is dealt with by pretending it is not there" (Sjoo and Mar 35l). Mary isthu s a two-edgedsymbol for women: she shares their experience of materni.ty, yet at the same time condemns theirexperience for not being "immaCUlate."
In the early years of the Christian era,when the Church sought to validate itself by absorbing many of the beliefsand practises of pagan religions, many of the powers and attributes of pagan goddesses we r e credited to Mary. "The practice of honoring Christ's Mother •..comes to Western Christianity from the Orthodox Catholic Church, which succeeded in anne King the Oriental rites of mother goddess and fertility" (Kristeva 250). Thus "t he feminine moon, who
32 nou r i she s li f e wi t h he r beams, was...identified...with the Virgin Mar y,"who then took cve r the function of such moon- goddesses asIs i s and Diana "whose partic ular busine sswasthe giftand sustenanceofli f e, byrendering women fertil e, and easin g theirpain in childbirth, by bringing plenty to the earth " (Warne r 256). Parado xicall y , whi l e Mary is "t he ultimate of fert i litysymbols" she is also "a foc us fo r the steeliest asceticism" (274).
The experi ence of Mrs. Blood is almostan inver sionof that of the Virgin Ma ryI for whil e Mary produces a child without any of the me s sy physical realities , Mrs. Blood experi e nces sex, bleeding , pain and labour but pr od uce s no child. By invoking, no t thepure Virgin but her own "Bloody Ma r y ," Mrs. Bl ood may be trying to de c o n st r uct the male- created myth of the Virgin and reachbeyondit to the more life-affirming, woma n-c..m t e r e d religions itdi s p la c e d.
A ...imilardeconstructionoccurswit h the imageof blood. 50 .i.mportant inCh r i s tian symbolism, bloodtakes ona ne w, femaleimpo r t a nc e for Mrs.Blood. Sheappliesthelangua ge of themass,the symbolsof Christ 'sbodyand blood , tohe r own si tua tion: "The yha ve brokenmy bodyand thewine driessticky on the she e t s " (Mrs. Blood21) ; she wa nt s to "c a l l o u t to Jason whoha sno ears , 'Th i s is mybody,' and flingback the sheets and cry out tohimwhohas no eyes, 'And thi s is my blood.' And take hishea d•..and forceitdown , cr ying , 'Drink
33 this, eat this, in remembr ance of me'" (gIl. If it is acceptedthat, by makingblood the symbol of the male Ch ri s t ,
·Ch r i s t i a n i t y distorts ...the primeval mystery and terror and blood-rite in whi c h women struggle alone to create and triumph. . . . Christianity.. •hasgainedits energyby co-opti ng and dis t or t i n g this experience, this tact, thes e symbols"
(Sjooand Mor 353-3 54),then Mrs.Blood's po s i t io n i ng herself in the stor y of Christmaybe an att e mpt toreclaimblood as an es s e ntialpart of women'sexper i e nc e.
In asimilarpassage inIntert i da l Life, Alicerefle c t s on theAn91leanceremony ofthe Churchi ng of Women, perfor med after childbirth. Sh e recalls"the bloodscent inthat ro o m, thewomenwho , underthe crispwhitecove r l e ts,wer eplacidly bleeding" and contrasts thosebleedingwomen with "theyoung prJ,.est moving awkwardly up and downthe rows, sensing our communion tobe so much stronger thanwhathe hel doutin his silver bowl" (Intertidal Li fe 52). As in Mrs. Blo od, the blood of the mass is associat ed not with the maleChristbut wi t h thefemaleMary,Mary of thema c u lat ede l i v ery,rec l a i me d as a fertility goddess. The powerful symbolism of blood allows Mr s . Blood not onlyto ident ifywi t hMary butalso to takeon the sac ritic ial Chr ist- figu r e role , sugges t ingthat thefemalerealityofblood can be the source of aspiritua l strength.
By contrast , Mrs. Thing takes a more det ached,
34 extern a liz ed viewof blood. Shewon d er s about the African girls' attitude towards menstruation, womanhood, and sexuali ty. When she begins to bleed again and panics, Elizabethtells her,"Itwas nothing. A l i t tleflow ofblood"
(Hrs. Blood 100 ). and soothes her with a sedativeunt i lshe too agreesthatit wa snot h in g. Whenshe is taken to thela b for a blood test, blood becomesobjectified, somethingto be
"s ipho n [e d] off" (11 3) and carried in "a little bask et of tubes" (114 ). The manwhocomes to takeblood in her roomis
"very cheerful" and bu s i nesslikewithhis littletube s, cotton swabs, and blood chart wit hwhich he sits, "f i tt i ng us all intohi s patterns" (116 1. For Mrs.Thing, bloodhas indeed become a thing, somethingtobe thought about and discussed, analyzed and explained away, siphoned and collected. Inthe clinical language of the medical profession,blood is a cause neitherfor celebration nor for suffering.
Inher final dissociationfrom rationalLanquaqe, in the fragmented speech of her miscarriage, Mrs . Blood retu rnsto thepo wer f ul , female images ofblood. -I saythe moon is full of blood , " she says, or thinks, and "The y've got to do scmect•. ngaboutal lthis bl ood" (216). She re pe ats Macb e th' s admis s i on of gui l t: "I am so steep ed inblood": she rec all s Old Testament taboo s about menstruat i on and then Richard's delight ed "LoOk, you've cur sed my pajamas." The moon is identi fi e dwith woman, who is inde ed "fullof blood",andwhen
35 Mrs. Bloodis at the heart of th i s uni qu e l y female experience herla ngu a g e is most fullof blood.
The novel is an attempt to write one woman'5 experience of blood,of the uniquelyfemale,of all that isle f t unspoken in patriarchal la n g u a g e. Thebloo d y experi e nc eof maternity is at the ce nt r e of this nove l , and the aspects of this experience on which Mrs. Blooddwells ar e thos e most often glos s e d over inl i terature. As the narrator of "I f One Green Bottle... ." points out, to the men who have written down women's stories, the onlyas pec t of maternitythat matte rsis the successfulproductionOf a Chi l d , prefe rablymale. The pregnancy of theVi r g i n Mar y is not de s cr ibe d, nor is her
"ma c u l ate delivery" in a stink ingstable. In "If One Green
Bott le..."andMrs. Blood, the livingchild, th e oneeleme nt that makes birth wor th recording , is re moved. Thomas ' heroines give birthto"n ot h i ng ," and theabsence of the a11- imp o r t a n t child shifts the focusto theuns p oke n , unrecord ed aspect of the experience.
This absence also highlights the para llel s between birthing andwr i t i n g in Thomas' work, for tt.·~act of giving bi rth withoutproducing the expectedliving ch ild paralle ls the act ofwr iti ngwit r.ou t producingtheexpectedtradi t iona l na r r ati v e . In bothwritingandbirthing ac c ord ing toThomas , the emphasis is on the process, and on the woman wh o exp e ri e n ce s it. This same birthi n g/w riting connection is
36 exploredby aerenecixo u s when she writes: "Oral drive, anal drive, vocal drive- -allthese drives are our strengths, and among them is the gestationdrive- -just like the desireto wri te:a desire tolive these l f fromwithi n, a desire fo rthe swollen bel ly , fo r language, forblood" tc fx cus261).
"Awomanwhenshe is in travail ha t h sorr ow...butas soon as she is deliveredof the child, she remembere thno moreher ang ui sh , for joy that a man is born in t o the world" (John 16:21, KJV). But if no man is born int otheworld, what then ofwoman'5trav a i l ? Is her sorrow,her anguish,evenwort hy of men t ion ? The Bible, like mos t patriarchal relig ion and literat ure, gives noans we r , sugge s t i ng that itis not wo rth recor ding. This is borne out by women'sresponsesto hlfOne Green Bottle..." andMrs.Blood. As AudreyThomas tol d an inte r vi e we r:
Manywome n have come to me, who have-ha d miscarriages , and said that that story ("I f OneGreenBottle..."l has meantsomething to them ....There really wasn' t anybody talking about the fact that, youknow, blush,darling, I'mpregnant&nine months later, you have a dear lit t l e baby. But it doesn' talways happen, you
know, &th e r e's a lot of nasty things that go on
in between, &sometimes you donthave the baby or the baby'sdeformed, or wh a t e v e r. Andin that se ns e I guess Iwas reallytrying to say, look, whydont wetalkabout these things. (Bowering, "Song s and Wisdom" 14 , 15)
Thomas' comment suggeststhat thewome n whoresponded to he r description of miscarriage had ne ver before found any literary model to confirm the impact of that experience.
37 Society seems to view the subject with an at t i t udesimilar to that of th e Englishwoman who went to a supper pa r t y a fe w he !'$after her miscarriage.
"I f One Green Bottle.. ...andMrs.Bloodtestif ythat the experience goesfar deeper than thatattitudeadmi ts. Though thenarrato rtries to detachherselffrom the fe tu s , to see it as a"t h i ng,toshe is not ableto objectify it ful ly. Gr o wi n g in s i d e her, the child is "an animal inme strainingto get out" (61), and in a powerful, poetic passage in which Mrs.
Blood envisionsherself as both Christan d Mar y , the (male) child is "My Calihan, my dear, " "corked up...like a pe a r in brandy.. .. bobbingagainst thesides of his prison" (99) . The unborn child is re al an d alive, loved and wa n t e d, thouq;;
potentially monstrous and destruc tive. Although Mr s.Blood' s feelings about her child are ambiguous, she clearl ydoes not regardhi m or her as merelya thing. Whenit is allover ,her thoughts alternatebetween the apparent lydetached,"Th ey are takingthe thing away,It andthe plaintive"Mychildis dead"
(219 )•
Because thedead child is such a rea l i t y toMr s. Blood, society'sdismissiveatti tudeisimposs ible forherto accept.
Just as she cannotblithe lyget up and go to a supper party, so she cannot accept thatthe fetusis takenaw~yanddi s p os e d of, to become "noth i n g, an excre a c ence" (183) . The dead infant is described as "A something in a silve r bowl. A
38 Nothing" (219). Like the woman in "I f One Green Bottle•• • "
who also rebelled against giving birth to "this nothing" (Ten Green Bottles 13), she wonders "what do they do with it afterward...where will they take it? I have no experience in these matters" (Ten Green Bottles 9). Yet, even in the supposedly more"p r i mi tiv e " atmosphere of Africa, the clinical attitude prevails, and the fetus simply disappears. The narrator of"IfOne Green Bottle.. ."thinks of human fetuses stored in bottles on laboratory shelves, to be used for research or teaching purposes, and wonders if this same fate will befall her infant. The same possibility is mentioned in Blown Figures,the sequel toMrs. Blood. Sucha fate for the unborn child surely suggests the clinical detachment of the scientific mind, traditionally understood as masculine-- indeed, the short story'5 narrator imagines a male professor using her fetus to teach his class- -whichis unsympathetic to the woman's need to deal with what has happened to her child.
The mother never finds out what happened to the infant; there are no cere moni esor rituals to help her through her grief. One is,presumably, supposed to act as though thewh ol e thing has never happened.
Mrs. Blood compares birth to fishing, ina passage that echoes the narrator'smemory of her father fishing in "If One Green Bottle ...." She seems obsessed by the idea that once childrenare "caught..into life, "You cannot throw them back"
39 (Mrs. Blood 18 3 ) . The unborn embryo, like an undersized trout, can be disposed of,but in that case itis"t h r own back not to thrive and growbut to become nothing" (183). Mrs.
Blood'5 concern over "t hr owi ng back" theunb orn childlooks forward to her impend in£,miscarriage, but alsolooks back to an event buriedin her past.
Throughout the book weknow that Mrs. Bloodis tormented by memories, particularl ymemories of Richard wholo ve d her with joyousabandon andthe n coldly rejected her. She also hints at guiltconnected with pas t events,aguilt which leads her to interpret her present situation as punishment. As she li e s in bed, "th i nki n g of somethinglong ago,II shefeels Itr am a victimof my sense of sin, "and suggeststh a t she is being punishedfo r not lovingher fatheror for beingunfaithfulto Jason. But, as she says, she keeps "s e c r et s hidden, lik e grenades, beneaththe pillow" (102-103) , and one more secret, perhaps the most significant, is le f t until theend of the novelto be revealed.
In the final sentences we le a rn that l~rs. Blood 's obsession with Richard is more than a longingfor the one trUly passionate love of her life, though that pa s s i on is certainlyimportant to her definitionof herself. But as she repeatedly calls out Richard 's name while giving birth to Jason's child, we wonder wh at hi s con ne ct ion is to this experience. This is finally exp la ined in the closing
sentences, when as her dead child is be i ng ta ke n away she re c a llsatelephone convers a t i o n. "Ri c ha r d, I've got to talk to you. I' mpreg nan t....'Get rid of it,' he said" (229).
Thi s long-ago abortion is apparent l y responsible fo r Mr s . Blood's burde n of gu ilt , and as she suffe rs her miscarriage sheis alsore li vi n g the death of that other child.
Noneof this is expl icitlydetailedin Mr s . Bloodas it is inBlownFi gure s, whic hwas publi s he d in 1974 and can be re a d as a sequelto Mrs. Bl ood. In BlownFigures, the main charac ter is Isabel; her marriedname is Carpenter. Tho ugh she is named, her identity is ev e n more tentative and fr a gme n t e d than that of Mrs . Blood/Mrs. Thi n g . Mos t likely she is called Isobel because the young heroine of Songs My Mother Taught Me,pub li she d in 1973, is named IsabelCleary and experiences man yof the same chil dhoodevents that Mrs. Bloodremembers . Since thepr o tagon is t ofBlownFigures is namedIsobel and has the same pa s t as Mrs. Bl ood , pe opl e d by th esamecast of characters,we can readall three novels as a trilogy , andsee Is abe l Clea r y, Mrs.Blood/Mrs. Thing , and Isobe l Ca rpe nte r as one woman. Thougha fewdetailsdiff e r-- the na mes of some mino r characters , for exa mpl e- -the similaritiesare strongenoughtosup p or t this reading.
Bl ow n Figuresisa huge, complexbook, in form themos t ex perimenta l ofal l Aud r ey Thomas ' nove l s . Thomas he r s e lf says of it: "The minute your novel is about brea k ingdown,
41 it's not ano vel anymore. It' s a book . Iwritebo ok s" (Twi gg 249). As Barbara Godard says about Bl own Figures , "The manipulationsof textandcontext.. . dema ndtheparticip ation of an attentivere ad e r, wh omust remember, sift, compare, and contrasttheoccu r rencesof a give nph rase.... Th e journey is ours aswe fabricate the connections, 'ma ke ' the st ory, seek out linear linksbetween polntson the jou r ney in hopes of finding formal consolation" (Godard, Au d r ey Th oma s 46). In Blown Fi gur e s ,Thomas has pushed he r expe ri mentswithlanguage to theirfu rt he s t extent. Throughout the bo ok' s 547 pa ge s, most of them bl a n k save forasi n g l e sentenceor pa r agra p h, we move progressivelyfarther away fromtraditiona l narrative, fromthe rational la ngu a g e that wa s so inadequa t eto contain Mrs.Blood'sexperienceofma t e r nity. Inth i s brieftreatment of the book, I wil l concent rate on the wa ys in which it expands upon the experiencesof miscarri agean d abo r t i on in Mrs. Blood.
InBlownFigures, Isabel, Jason, Nicholas and Mar yhave move d toCanada aft e r le avi ng Africa. When the nove lopens, Isabel is returnin g alon e to Africa. Th e novel constantly questions the re a li ty of expe rie nce and whether Iso b e l ' s jou r neyisre alat all, and Thoma she rselfha ssu g ge sted that the whole thing ca n be read as the insane rambl ing s of a schizophrenic Is a b el wh o ha s been commit t ed to a men t a l institution "a nd wishes she'd gone back and made suc h a
42 journey and haddealt with th e past" (Komisar 59-60). The purpose of Isobel'sreal or imaginedjourney to Africa is to confront the unresolved emot i o n s of her miscarriage, which havele f t her fear Ingfor her sanity, convinced that she is possessed by wi t c h e s or demons.
For much of thetrip, Isobel'5 travelling companionis a young woman named Delilah, who has had four abortions and is planning a fifth. Though Delilah'sapproach to life differs fromth a t of the Englishwoman inMrs.Bloodwho so gallantly recovered from her miscarriage to attendaparty onNew Year'a Eve, Deli l a h too tr Ivt afLae s what has been a tremendously traumat ic exp e r i e n c e for Is obe l. In fa c t, Delila h unconsciously echoes thatbr i s k Englishwomanwhen, imme d i a t e ly after he r abortion, she says, "I feel fine. Le t's go out tonight. Get dressedup and do the High Life. I'm fe d up with all this inact ivity" (BlownFigures493 ) .
Delilahdoes seem to feel thatunwa nt e d children can be
"th r own back" li ke undersized fish. As Isobel listens to Delilah'sstory,the narrator (wh os e identity is never clear, butwho often, as inthis passage, seems to bean aspectof Is ob e l ' s ownconscio usness),asks"Whereisyo urbab y, Is obe l , the one you wanted, yourlittl e dead tot? ..Wha t ha ppe n e dto your l it t l e deadtotwhom you la s t saw curledin thesilvery basin? And the other one, Richard's sen-e-where is he now?"
(153). Thispas s age establishesthe link betwee nIs abe l's
43 earlier abortionand later miscarriage. It also perso nifies both deadinfa nts--oneis a "tot,"the other a "son, "neither merely a "fetus"- -andso underlinesIsobel'ssense of lo s s, of a real death and grief. And once agai n, as in"If One Green Bottle ... " andMrs. Blood, i t points out the fact that the fetus is simplydisposed of as ga rbag e. The suggestion is that thisact of discarding the dead child, whichdenies life, death, and grief, is responsible for much of Isabel's anguish andguilt.
In its language as well asin it s plot, Blown Figur es picks up whereMrs. Bloodleav e s off. The narrativevoice is even more fragmented than in the closing pa s s ag e s of Mr s. Blood. Here we read withanarratorwho seems sometimes tobe Isobel, sometimes her creator, sometimes athird party, and who frequently addressesan equallyvague figurecalled"Miss Miller." The entire book is le s s a na r r a t i ve thana collag e of non sequiturs ,quotationsandallusions,photographs,comic strips, sections from newspapersrep roducedin theiroriginal type, and other foundmaterial . The intertextua l materi a l deliberately counters conven tions of the rati onal, linear narrative. As in Mrs. Blood, thi s type of writing becomes more dominan t as the book progresses and as Isabel moves deeper into Afrlca--andpossibly int omadness.
That descentint o madness at the book 'send is open to manypossible readings. Is obe l retur nstotheho s p i t alwhe r e
44 she had themiscarriage, ask s uns u c c e ss f ully for El izabet h , and in qu i r e s after what is done wi t h de ad babies. The n, leavingDelilah, sheapparent lygoestoa re mot e vill a gewhere sheunde r go esa rit ua l of cle ansing and exorcism whichlIlay or may not be successful. She confessesto being a wi tchand says, -Iate the child in mywomb.... SincethenIhavenever be en happy" (518 ). In the bizar re closing pa s s age s , the attemp t to create a narrat i ve is compl etel y abandone d. Whetherts a b elhas gonemad, orwhetherwe aretobelievethat she disappea rs intothe Afric an jungle and discovers some sou r c eof femalestrengthas a wi t ch, the re is no su ggestion tha t she is restor e d to sanity and returns to Cana da to performher approvedsocialfunct i o n aswi f e andsot.n er. The break down ofla n qu a ge at th e novel 'send strongly sugges t s that Isobel has movedirrevocably be yond theorde r ed , -Mrs. Thin g" world of pha ll o c e ntr ic language. and it is perha ps worthnotingthat she never appe a r s againin an Audre yThoma s work. This may imply that the on lyway to move outside a male- domi n a ted la ngu a g e isto desce n dintomad nessor silence, for Blown Figures end s wi th five bla n k pa ge s . ' Is obe l ' s descentintomadnes s and silencemay par a lle l th e exper ien c e describedby JuliaKrlstevaasthe "shat teri ng of language."
"Th e n , the sy mbolic cover i ng (c ons t i tuted by acq uired knowled ge , the discourse of ot hers , and commu n al she lter ) cra c ks ....Anaimless drif t ing ensues.•.openin gup anin fin ite
45 aby s s where thereare no more words" (Kr i steva 162-163).
As we will see in the next chap ter, Thomas explores different uses for si l e nc e , as ve I l as diff ere nt poss ible fa t e s for herheroi ne, in later works su ch as LdtakLaand Int e r t i dal Life . Theartis t- mothe rheroinesst ru g g l e, asdoes Isabel , withthe demands of la ngua g e and silence, but they cont inu e the struggl e rather than be ing destroyed by i t Is ab el appe a r s to be.
Blown Figures is a seq uel to Mrs. Blood in that it suggest s a possibleoutcometoMrs. Blood'5trauma ove rthe los s of he r child. The event wnich society regard s as scarc e l y worthmen tion i ng is, for thiswoman, so devastating that it le ads he r into mad n ess. Is abel's story is a reject ion,notjustof patriarchallanguageandnarrati ve,but of patriarcha l soci e t y's attempt to prescribe how a woman should respondto an abort i on ora mi s ca r riage.
Weha v e already se e n the impor t a nc e of autobiogra phical material in AudreyThoma s ' wr i ting . Mrs. Bloodandtosome extent Blown Flgurescer t ainly draw uponsu ch material, since Thomas herself experiencedamis c ar r i a ge while in Af rica. She and her husba nd and childr en didlater move to Cana d a, an d Thomas, li ke Is ob e l, re tu r ne d alone to Af r ica a few yea rs later. The purposeof Thomas' tripwa s os t ensib l yto gat her materialfor anew novel. Thoughr sobetmayhavegone mad and perhaps nev e r even re tu rne d toAf ri c a,AudreyThomasdoesmake
