A piece of fiction set in country estates near London England, The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West offers the story of a shell-shocked soldier from World War One the novel subtly explores questions of gender, class, identity and memory in the late 1910s of English society.
(Rebecca West wrote The Return of the Soldier after making a name for herself as a fighter for woman suffrage).
The Return of the Soldier recounts the return of the shell shocked Captain Chris Baldry from the trenches of the World War One. In being shell shocked, a term that we understand today as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, we see a story of Baldry from the perspective of his cousin Jenny. In grappling with the soldier’s mental trauma and its effects on the family, you get the novel The Return of the Soldier.
(Rebecca West wrote The Return of the Soldier after making a name for herself as a fighter for woman suffrage).
In discovering that Chris Baldry has lost the preceding fifteen years due to his service in France during World War One, narrator Jenny tells us that Chris’ wife Kitty Baldry had lost the couple’s infant son to death. With the complication of Chris having lost the memory of his service as well as the knowledge of the relationships, Chris remembers the romantic feelings of his younger self, which includes the flame his past self held for Margaret Grey. We as the audience are informed that Margaret isn’t in the upper class of society like Chris and Kitty, yet she is happy.
(Rebecca West wrote The Return of the Soldier after making a name for herself as a fighter for woman suffrage).
The revelation and ultimate fight for Chris’ memory, romantic feelings, and marriage begins upon Chris recounting his summer fling with Margaret at Monkey Island some 15-years past, and the fact that Chris had ended things with the inn-keeper’s daughter hastily and departed. Despite some efforts to expose Chris to the passage of time, the realities that the circumstances of life have brought in terms of lifestyle, and the fact that both Margaret, Kitty and Chris have moved onto new married lives, the old feelings persist because retrieving the missing memories haven’t been possible.
(Rebecca West wrote The Return of the Soldier after making a name for herself as a fighter for woman suffrage).
The story turns towards resolution when a psychoanalyst is consulted and Margaret, who had lost a child five years ago, suggests that her knowledge of having lost a child like the Baldries could be the avenue to bring Chris fully back. The inherent goodness of Margaret is revealed as Jenny and Kitty separate on how to interpret their feelings toward the woman. Chris confronts the reality of his lost child, and in doing so regains the memories he has lost while simultaneously, for a second time, acquiring the lost love of his life in Margaret. Kitty declares Chris’ cure, whereas Jenny silently considers the facts of the lost love, the lost child, that Chris would now need to return to war as a soldier, and, should he survive that, a less than emotionally full life with Kitty and Jenny.
(Rebecca West wrote The Return of the Soldier after making a name for herself as a fighter for woman suffrage).
The emotional appeal of The Return of the Soldier is in seeing feelings through the perspective of the main characters. While Chris Baldry isn’t exposed in his own internal world from his own perspective, the perspective is advocated externally through the different explicit views of Jenny, Kitty and Margaret. Chris is definitely an antagonist of sorts, ultimately being central to the full expression and point of the novel. The value of The Return of the Soldier comes from this perspective. I offer the book a rating of 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.
Matt – Wednesday, September 02, 2020
Matt Lynn Digital 