Throughout The Master, Henry wrestles with various aspects of his identity—particularly his liking for solitude and his romantic attraction to men, both of which are heavily discouraged during the era in which he lives. Much of the narrative focuses on Henry’s compulsive bouts of self-reflection. He is concerned primarily with his identity as a writer, his cosmopolitan outlook, and his sexuality. He often uses painful experiences as a way to reflect on who he is as a person, and he is thus able to clarify his sense of self through his struggles with adversity. 

When the novel first introduces Henry, he is struggling to define his own niche within the literary world and failing miserably. At the beginning of the story, he has just embarked on a new literary endeavor: drama. Despite his background as a novelist, he hopes to expand his writing repertoire, and he is devastated when his play fails: a setback that smarts all the more when he beholds the simultaneous success of his foil and rival, playwright and author Oscar Wilde. Devastated by this development, Henry falls back on reflection to assimilate these events and move on, and this approach forces him to reconcile with the fact that he will never enjoy the widespread popularity that Wilde does because his more intellectual works do not have a broad appeal. Although this realization initially distresses him, he finally understands that writing character-driven, intellectually complex novels is vitally important to his identity as a writer. Thus, rather than repressing his literary identity, he embraces it and dedicates his time to playing to his strengths as a writer. 

However, Henry’s willingness to celebrate his literary “personality” and style contrasts sharply with his disinclination to claim a national identity. Although he is American by birth, he represses any sentiments of nationalism and instead cultivates the belief that he is a “citizen” of the world. In many ways, he has spent so much time abroad that he feels like an outsider in the United States, and this part of his background becomes sublimated by his critical attitude toward most Americans’ “myopia” and preference for innovation over tradition. By repressing certain aspects of his identity as an American, he allows himself to embrace a more expansive view of personal identity, becoming truly cosmopolitan and seeing himself as a citizen in a global world, united with the rest of humankind through shared values. He is moved by the idea of treating all humans with dignity and respect, and as a result, he finds fault with the concept of nationalism.  

Ultimately, the novel’s most powerful examples of repression and self-denial can be found in Henry’s struggles to come to terms with his sexuality. He lives during an era in which gay men and women are not accepted and are in fact actively prosecuted for acting upon their innate inclinations. Although many of Henry’s friends and family members are aware of his attraction to men, no one speaks about it openly, and Henry cannot even act on his desires because he is terrified of the social stigma and sharper consequences that may result. Thus, his primary response to Oscar Wilde’s obscenity trial is to feel a sneaking sense of relief that he himself has never betrayed any public sign of his interest in men. 

Repression is a survival tactic for Henry, and he never acts upon his desires despite his underlying attraction for several different men throughout his lifetime. Hammond, Holmes, and Andersen are all romantic interests at one point or another, but only Hammond appears to share Henry’s feelings. Even in this case, Henry will not let himself explore a relationship. When he encounters Andersen later in life, he sadly reflects that he wants “desperately to be held” by the man, even though he knows that the one short “embrace was all the comfort he could receive” (270). Although Henry manages to fully embrace his cosmopolitanism and his unique identity as a novelist, he never finds a way to incorporate his sexuality into his identity. Instead, he remains repressed out of necessity, constantly grappling with this lifelong source of emotional pain.