The Man Who Never Returned From War: Considerations on Trauma Theory and History in Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the effects of trauma and history in Rebecca West’s novel The Return of The Soldier (1918) and, more specifically, how men and women got equally affected by trauma in the First War. Chris Baldry returns from the battlegrounds affected by shell-shock disorder and his traumatic amnesia prevents him from recollecting what his life was like before the War. The three women living in his house (his wife, whom he no longer recognizes; Chris’s ex-lover, Margaret, who still loves him, and his cousin, Jenny). 

In fact, Chris’s debilitated mental health comes as a shock to the three women in his life. The drama lived by these three women grows out of proportion as the psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson, intervenes in favor of recovering his patient’s “complete case of amnesia” and leads a trial-like interrogation of Baldry’s pre-war life. Their confessions generate hostility, but, rather than dividing the group of women, they promote reflection on the frailty and vulnerability of men.

In symbolic terms, the house where the three women live represents a kind of “laboratory” from which they observe war and formulate their views of it. Through the complex psychological interplay among the women living under the same roof, war is shown from the “home front.” It may also be said that the three women act as listeners and, in so doing, they may offer considerable help towards Chris’s possible recovery.