Author: The Shop Around the Corner

When Laura is freed from the asylum, she is a changed person. Not only are her looks different, but so is her mental capacity and ability to remember. Simply speaking, she has repressed the negative memories that had led to her confinement. Walter Hartright explains that Laura’s mind is “too evidently unfit to bear the trial of reverting to [her memories]” and that in order to help lead her back to health, she must continue to repress those horrifying memories (Collins 428). Freud believes that the repression of memories means that one is repressing their sexuality. Marian and Hartright encourage this repression of memories and therefore encourage Laura in repression of her sexuality and do so by treating her as a child.

Throughout the whole of the novel, Laura is infantilized by her sister, Hartright, Mr. Gilmore, and almost everyone else who has been around her. Marian decides to not share with Laura that she and Hartright are investigating Anne Catherick even though it has a direct influence on Laura’s life and after she escapes the asylum, the new investigation of Sir Percival Glyde is kept secret from her. One of the moments of infantilization that sticks out the most to me is when Laura tries to assert herself as an equal to Hartright and Marian when they are living in London because she wants to contribute to the household financially. When she begs to help out, Laura exclaims “oh, don’t, don’t, don’t treat me like a child” (478). The repetition of “don’t” is reminiscent of a child stuttering when they are overwhelmed with emotions. As she is sharing her feelings to Hartright, she has laid her head on his shoulder in order to be comforted but also places her lower than him. Hartright, therefore, has to hold Laura up, if he were to move away, she would fall. Hartright tries to comfort her, but in the way a father would comfort his toddler and responds that she will sell her paintings. Rather than keeping his word, Hartright hides those drawings and gives her money of his own earnings, much like a parent putting a drawing from their child from the daycare onto the fridge. 

Hartright, in this moment, openly goes against Laura’s wishes of being treated like the adult that she is and continues to infantilize her. Laura then internalizes this treatment and believes and acts like she is younger than she actually is, always having to be told what to do and being comforted by those around her, and almost never asserting herself. Essentially, Laura has the same amount of agency that a toddler would have. Her repression of her memories and what that means for Freud is in direct connection to her internalization of the infantilizing treatment from Marian and Hartright.

Freud claims “that the patient repeats instead of remembering, and repeats under the conditions of resistance” (Freud 151). Laura, in this case is not only just repeating her words when speaking through her stuttering, but she is also repeating the toddler-like behaviors but under the condition of trying to resist her sexuality, as both children and women at this time should not be sexual beings. Hartright and Marian’s treatment of her furthers this repetition and repression, especially with the fact that they do not push Laura to remember but rather would prefer to keep her in the dark of her memories or her marriage, an experience that a child usually would not have, and later of her confinement and therefore of her sexual impulses.

When Mr Hartright first meets Miss Halcombe, he begins his description without even having viewed her face. He describes her as “…tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat” (34). This is yet another instance where Hartright is unable to place the person he is describing into a category. It all comes to a head when Miss Halcombe turns around and discovers, much to his horror, that “the lady is ugly!” (34). He feels betrayed by Miss Halcombe’s figure causing him to expect a beautiful young woman. He states that the adage “nature cannot err” has never been “more flatly contradicted” by his discovery (34). Even though he says that after Miss Halcombe turns around, contradiction permeates throughout his description of her before her face is revealed to him. This contradiction though takes on a Goldie Locks like effect when he describes her body. She is the perfect height and the perfect weight. Her movement was elegant and caused him to grow excited seeing her face. Her face, on the other hand, brought Mr. Hartright back down to earth and he was disgusted by it. Her face contradicts her body. Her body was perfect in every way, but her face was dark to the point where it seemed she may have even had a mustache. This duality of Miss Halcombe, her womanly body and her manly face, puts Mr. Hartright on edge. He is easily able to move past her facial features that he deems ugly and is able to become good friends with Miss Halcombe, but he never views her in a romantic light again. I believe this scene, though, sets up the reader, and Mr. Hartright, to be prepared to be deceived by how a character may seem when they first appear, just as Hartright feels that he was deceived by Miss. Halcombe’s body in thinking that she was a beautiful woman.