The Last September

The first half of Part 2 brings Marda Norton to the scene; her relationships with the Danielstown family and guests trigger changes in Lois, Hugo Montmorency, and the atmosphere in Danielstown. From the very beginning, Marda’s presence helps Lois begin the slow process of recognizing and tapping into new parts of herself. Trying on Marda’s coat in the entryway before meeting the newcomer, she struts around, saying, “‘Oh, the escape in other people’s clothes!’ And she paced round the hall with new movements: a dark, rare, rather wistful woman, elusive with jasmine […] How she could live! she felt” (109). Lois continues to waver between duty and desire, and she still struggles to understand what, exactly, she truly desires, but this moment of playacting helps her to see a new way to exist in her world. Marda also unwillingly awakens something in Hugo, who had been somewhat morose. He becomes entranced by Marda, despite her attempts to discourage and repel him. Francie Montmorency’s observation of these feelings provides one of the first moments where the novel shifts to her perspective; Francie’s gaze is more reliable than the more diffuse perspectives of the other characters.

Marda’s arrival also highlights the disengaged quality of Anglo Irish life in The Last September. Lois notes that Marda had “that quality of directedness – from which they all swerved off in their different ways. A hardy unawareness of self in her heightened one’s own consciousness” (114). Despite the airs Marda puts on, she is quite aware of everything around her, and she knows what she wants – marriage. Her self-confidence makes Lois feel her own self-consciousness more keenly, and Lois feels a desire to share herself with Marda, such as through the sharing of her artwork. Marda’s arrival provides a psychological heightening of the action, particularly for Lois (although, in keeping with the novel’s genre and contemporaries, the action remains fairly slow). Marda also helps highlight The Decline of an Empire, as she arrives from England to a conflict-ridden house and country. She tells Lois, “‘I don’t lose things except coming here; I am efficient really. But there seems a kind of fatality...’” (110). Lois replies, “‘I know,’” revealing her frustration with the atmosphere at Danielstown (110). The stagnancy and fatality of living in a Big House during the Irish War of Independence affects Lois deeply, making her feel stuck.

Lois continues to struggle with defining her Personal Identity During Political Upheaval in the first half of Part 2. She explains to Marda the one thing she understands about herself: “‘I like to be in a pattern […] I like to be related; to have to be what I am. Just to be is so intransitive, so lonely’” (142). In the midst of political conflict, war, and social upheaval, Lois struggles to define who she is for herself; in the absence of a clear sense of self, she attempts of define herself by others. She seeks this through Marda in Part 2, and Marda identifies that such an endeavor might lead Lois to marriage, simply to be able to define herself by her husband. Ultimately, Lois identifies in Part 2 that she “want[s] to go where the war hadn’t,” signaling her weariness of the war and the feelings with which it forces her to contend (143).

The realities of The Decline of an Empire begin to poke through the carefully constructed reality of upper-class Anglo Irish society in Part 2. When Laurence shares Gerald’s news that they captured the fugitive Peter Connor, the son of a local woman, Sir Richard “flush[es] severely” and skirts the edge of denouncing the man’s capture: “’I’m sorry to hear that […] His mother is dying. However, I suppose you must do your duty. […] The poor woman – it seems too bad’” (131). Sir Richard’s dual loyalty cements his inaction and feelings of guilt on behalf of England and Ireland. Gerald plays the primary role of representing English imperialism and the reckoning that was coming for it. After asserting that English civilization is the “right” civilization to Laurence, Gerald wishes to explain “that no one could have a sounder respect than himself and his country for the whole principle of nationality” (133). However, this respect for the principle does not stop England (or Gerald, in its service) from trying to maintain its firm control over Ireland. The narration reveals that he has “some awareness of misdirection, even of paradox, that he was out here to hunt and shoot the Irish” (133). Laurence is satisfied in having pushed Gerald to reveal these contrary beliefs and actions, although he himself is not terribly invested in the war.