45 pages • 1-hour read
The Last September
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Character Analysis
Lois Farquar
Lois Farquar is the niece of Sir Richard and Lady Naylor, the owners of the Danielstown Big House and its demesne (estate). Lois represents the Anglo Irish experience in Ireland and the uncertainty of modern women during the post-World War I period. Lois’s near-constant self-doubt reflects the uncertainty of the time (particularly modernist sentiments) and her position as part of a social class that existed between two warring sides. Additionally, her feelings of “playing at” being a woman and her desire to feel more like an adult reflect Ireland’s drawn-out transition period, before southern Ireland gained independence, enabling its growth as its own nation with full autonomy. The liminal state she occupies also mirrors the quality of her fractured identity as Irish and English. Lois, torn between her care for her lower-class neighbors and her high social position, cannot exist comfortably in either world, just as the Anglo Irish characters of the novel are not fully Irish or fully English. Lois’s inner conflict is not resolved in the novel, much like many modernist heroines and heroes. Gerald’s death clearly disturbs her, but she struggles to express or understand her grief.
As the protagonist, Lois is similar to other primary characters of the Modernist genre; Modernist literature during the inter-war period reflected the disillusionment, rejection of tradition, and individualism that many people pursued as a reaction to the horrors of World War I. Lois’s own uncertainties and detachment from the world echo modernist sentiment. While talking to Hugo Montmorency, she thinks, “[…] she was now unconvinced and anxious but intended to be quite certain, by the time she was his age, that she had once been happy” (40). She knows she is unhappy, and she struggles to understand what she wants from life.
Hugo Montmorency and Marda Norton
Hugo Montmorency and Marda Norton are visitors to Danielstown (the home of the Naylors, Lois, and Laurence), and each provides an outside perspective from which to view the events of the novel. They are all outsiders of sorts within the estate, though both Hugo and Marda are Anglo Irish. This element of their identities compels them to join the other Anglo Irish characters of The Last September in trying to “protect” Ireland from the judgments of the English. Hugo joins the Naylors in telling Francie that their English friends’ fears about their safety in Ireland are unfounded, and Marda actively suppresses the truth about how she hurt her hand to avoid giving her English fiancé any further reasons to condemn Ireland.
Hugo is the least self-aware of these three visitors. He is somewhat morose for much of his visit, and he allows himself to fall into fantasies like that of his love for Marda. An open secret at Danielstown is his unrequited love for Lois’s deceased mother, back when they both lived in the area, and when he meets Marda, he transfers that love to her, despite his status as a married man. He does not seem to recognize that Marda purposefully tries to repel him. He notes: “She had, then, her whole sex’s limitations: a teachable shallowness, a hundred little abilities. But he, prey to a constant self-reproach, was a born lover” (119). He criticizes her without realizing that she took such actions to prevent problems with Hugo.
Marda stays at Danielstown briefly, but her residency takes up the entire second section of the novel. It is through her presence that Lois awakens to certain realities of life, including the deadly realities of war and her desire to feel safe with someone – specifically, with Gerald. Marda subtly encourages Lois and pushes her further along her path, all while trying to avoid an entanglement with Hugo. She also represents an opportunity for Lois to develop an intimate friendship, but both women struggle to be vulnerable with one another; their most vulnerable moment is when they are held at gunpoint by an IRA soldier.
Francie Montmorency
Francie, by contrast is the most aware character of the novel, both of herself and of those around her. Labeled and treated like an invalid, her mind does not suffer from the same weaknesses as her body. She understands what is going on with Hugo when Marda arrives, and she sees the love between Lois and Gerald. Unlike the other characters in the novel, she does not engage in constant subterfuge and tries to intervene in certain situations, such as Lois and Gerald’s engagement, but she is limited by the niceties required by upper-class society. Through Francie, the reader receives a slightly more objective view of each of the characters.
Sir Richard Naylor, Lady Naylor, and Laurence
Sir Richard, Lady Naylor (Myra), and Laurence are Lois’s family at Danielstown. Lois is Sir Richard’s niece by his sister, and Laurence is Lady Naylor’s nephew by one of her siblings. These family members provide different social and political pressures, and their uncaring attitude toward the war deeply affects how Lois feels about the war and her life at Danielstown.
Sir Richard is a man of few words, and he plays only a minor role; he primarily offers opinions about Ireland, the war, or matters like Lois’s possible relationship with a soldier. Like Lady Naylor and the rest of the Anglo Irish characters, he is dismissive of English fears of the dangers in Ireland at the time. He stubbornly maintains behaviors befitting his status, but he nonetheless expresses concern for his lower-class neighbors and their treatment at the hands of English soldiers.
Laurence provides a lackadaisical, superficial version of liberal politics in the novel. Lois tells Hugo that Laurence isn’t allowed to bring his politics to Danielstown, since they are the wrong sort (or inconvenient, as she clarifies). However, Laurence is disconnected from the supposedly “socialist” views that characters in the novel associate with Oxford, his alma mater. He is so bored with life that he actually longs for IRA raiders to come and set fire to their home, and he runs home in excitement after being stopped on the road by IRA soldiers who steal his shoes and watch. Laurence represents the distanced, unengaged version of liberal politics that some men took on simply to be “different” rather than out of genuine solidarity.
Lady Naylor plays the greatest role of these three family members in driving the plot. Her commentary frequently interrupts conversations, putting some people down for fear about the war and clearly establishing her aristocratic views of proper social hierarchy. She is the voice of the previous Anglo Irish generation; although she feels sympathy for some lower-class Irish neighbors, she is adamant that the world should not change. It is her actions that spur Gerald to break of his engagement with Lois, and she exerts as much influence as she can over Lois, despite Lois being Richard’s niece rather than her own.
Gerald Lesworth
Gerald Lesworth is an English soldier and Lois’s love interest. Although Gerald provides one possible path for Lois’s story, his primary role in the novel is as a symbol of the English empire and English paternalism. He is much more straightforward than many of the other characters, and he has a simple view of love without feeling the need to explain or understand it, unlike Lois.
Gerald is, as he puts it, part of the “‘jolly old army of occupation,’” directly addressing the English army’s role in Ireland while also making light of it (49). He symbolizes the English forces: “civilized” and kind within society but conducting violent raids and other military actions away from that society to make sure it – and the British Empire – survives in its preferred form. For the most part, his military duties do not seem to bother him. He accomplishes them brusquely, like the kiss he lands on Lois. She notes that afterward, he “was not nervous at all. Queer, she confusedly thought, how men throw off action without a quiver at severance from the self that goes into it” (131). He can conduct his duties without questioning his sense of self; he simply sees the army’s presence in Ireland as “right.” It isn’t until he is confronted with more personal connections to the effects of the war that he experiences momentary horror. When Laurence announces to the family that Gerald and his fellow soldiers have finally apprehended the local man who had fled custody, and Sir Richard expresses regret, Gerald is horrified as “[h]is duty, so bright and abstract, [came] suddenly under the shadow claw of the personal. ‘I had no idea,’ he exclaimed to Laurence, ‘these people were friends of yours’” (131). The use of Gerald as a symbol for English control over Ireland continues through the end of the novel, when Gerald is shot and killed in the course of his duty. The final section is named for the “departure” of Gerald, making a connection between his death and the departure of the English from southern Ireland at the end of the Irish War of Independence.
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