Introduction
With the intention of establishing the theory of this project, the following sections will be focusing on the correlation between Gothic and trauma, in order to analyse how trauma is used as a Gothic feature in the novel The Last House on Needless Street, along with an introduction of trauma theory and how it is applied in literature.
Trauma and Gothic
This section will provide an account of trauma theory, defined and used by Michelle Balaev, Kali Tal, and Cathy Caruth, as well as how this theory is applied in literature. Finally, the mental health condition, Dissociative Identity Disorder (abbreviated DID) will be introduced and explained since the novel The Last House on Needless Street deals with this particular disorder. In order to give an account of DID, the article “Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Controversial Diagnosis”, by Paulette Marie Gillig, will be used as reference.
Michelle Balaev denotes in her article “Trends in Literary Trauma Theory” that the central claim of trauma theory asserts that trauma creates a speechless fright that divides or destroys identity (149). In addition to that, Balaev defines trauma as referring to a person’s emotional response to an overwhelming event that disrupts previous ideas of an individual’s sense of self and the standards by which one evaluates society (Balaev 150). In her article, Balaev introduces the term “trauma novel,” which refers to a work of fiction that conveys the profound loss of intense fear on an individual or collective level. The defining feature of such a novel is the transformation of the self ignited by an external, often terrifying experience that illuminates the process of coming to terms with the dynamics of memory that inform the new perceptions of the self and the world (Balaev 150). In the case of our project, the notion of self refers to the protagonist’s individual self. This is seen in terms of how Ted constructs the narrative, along with how his trauma experience affected Ted’s perception of himself and the world, by acknowledging the different alters that live within him. However, the external event that results in an extreme response from the protagonist is not necessarily bound to a collective human or natural disasters such as wars and earthquakes. For example, the event may include, among others, an unexpected death, sexual abuse, and so on. In the case of Catriona Ward’s novel, The Last House on Needless Street the event resulting in the protagonist developing DID is violence and manipulation.
Balaev further argues that the trauma theory depends upon the abreactive model of trauma (150), which is based on an emotional, unconscious reaction that one has in response to something that brings back a painful situation one has experienced. An example of such, is where the character, Ted constructs the other alters in order to, among others, take over the unbearable pain his body was exposed to, thus distancing himself from the traumatic experiences. Hence, this model asserts that traumatic experience produces a temporal gap and dissolution of the self (Balaev 150). To further elaborate on the dissolutions of the self, In addition to this notion, Kali Tal writes in his book Worlds of Hurt that accurate representation of trauma “can never be achieved without creating the event since, by its very definition, trauma lies beyond the bounds of ‘normal’ conception” (15). In other words, this concept of trauma and memory emphasises the necessity to recreate through narrative recall of the experience. Additionally, repetition is an essential term in this context as trauma only exists through repetitions, which works as the fundemental aspect of the novel. However, as Tal noted, the remembrance of trauma is an approximate account of the past, as traumatic experiences preclude knowledge and, therefore, representation.
In addition to the above mentioned, Cathy Caruth says in her book Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History that trauma is not locatable in the simple violent or original event in an individual’s past, but rather in the way that is very unassimilated nature – the way it was precisely not known in the first instance – returns to haunt the survivor later on (4).
Hence, traumatic experiences are not representable since the brain cannot understand and process the event properly. Caruth denotes that this theory argues that trauma is only known through flashbacks that re-enact the event, as the mind cannot represent it differently; as she writes, “[the] historical power of trauma is not just that experience is repeated after its forgetting, but that it is only in and through its inherent forgetting that it is first experienced at all” (17). In other words, the gap that is constructed from when the trauma is experienced to recalling the event is what leads to experiencing the trauma at all, as the individual’s mind is not capable of understanding the effect of the trauma, or even realising that what has been done was damaging for the individual.
The gap between the true event and its recalling becomes of the major thrilling issues in the novel. It seems that the author gives the reader a variety of opportunities to develop a plot, learn the background, and explain the main characters’ behaviors, knowing beforehand that no correct answer will be found. Caruth’s argument about revealing trauma through flashbacks and re-enacting the event may be supported by several examples from the story. Ward demonstrates the complexity of DID and the inability to predict the level of damage and the number of deviations in a person.
The discovery of the mental health problem happens during the conversation between Olivia and Lauren when the cat finds out from Lauren that she is inside her. Ward informs the reader that “the truth is right here. But you have to choose to see it” (178). The first painful flashback that explains the moment was when Ted caught up with Laura in her attempt to escape and broke her feet “between two boards with a mallet” (Ward 179). The cat came out of the darkness to save the girl from suffering and calm the man down. However, it was not necessary to memorize the transition but to create a history that would be appropriate and adequate for both.
The controversies in the cat’s brain and the impossibility of how to accept the truth and treat her memories continue to grow. Ward gives the explanation for this condition by saying that “the mind is clever. It knows how to tell you something that you can accept, when life gets too hard” (179). Besides, the contributions of other people to the development of the problem cannot be ignored. In the story, it is Ted who removes all “reflective surfaces in the house” and boards up all the windows (Ward 181). This conversation between Olivia and Lauren proves that DID might not be caused by repetitive traumatic experiences or pain but by the gap between what has already happened and current memories. It helps pay enough attention to the details that have been mentioned but have never been recognized as meaningful. Trauma is not a single event but a combination of activities and participants’ roles. A person who has finished reading the novel knows that the relationship between the girl and the cat is not the worst extreme of the condition, and deeper and more dangerous spaces in the brain exist.
Balaev further adds that a traumatic experience is perceived as a fixed and timeless photograph that is stored in the brain unlocatable, yet it maintains the ability to interrupt consciousness and as well as the ability to be transferred to non-traumatic individuals or groups (151). That is to say, while the experience is isolated in the brain, it still carries the potential to infect another subject through the act of narration (151). In addition to this, Balaev argues that individual trauma can be passed to others of the same ethnic, racial, or gender group who did not experience the actual event, but because they share social or biological similarities, the traumatic experience of the individual and group become one. This claims that trauma narratives can recreate and abreact the experience for those who were not there (152).
Considering now how trauma novels convey the diversity of extreme emotional states, Balaev denotes that the trauma novel conveys these states through an assortment of narrative innovations, such as landscape imagery, temporal fissures, silence, or narrative omission, which withholds graphic, visceral traumatic detail (159). She further argues that authors of such novels employ a nonlinear plot or disruptive temporal sequences to emphasise mental confusion, chaos, or contemplation as a response to the experience. Moreover, using silence as a narrative strategy can create a gap in time, resulting in the feeling that allows the reader to imagine what might or could have happened to the protagonist, hence broadening the meaning and effects of the experience (Balaev 152). Generally speaking, these strategies help the author to structure the narrative into a form that attempts to embody the psychological action of traumatic memory of dissociation. To further elaborate on this, when a reader reads a trauma novel, they do not experience the trauma. They experience a character who undergoes a trauma, in this case we follow Ted who suffers from trauma. Therefore, the individual’s experience is connected to the novel’s experience, where The Last House on Needless Street exploits denarration as a way to emphasise this experience.
Ward uses several symbols and flashbacks to guide the reader about the character’s condition and his family history. There is the photograph of Mommy and Daddy, the Russian doll, and the music box, but Olivia and Ted have rather controversial attitudes toward these things on the fireplace. On the one hand, Ted sees the Russian doll who smiles fatly back, happy parents looking at him from a nicely decorated silver frame, and the ballerina who stands proudly and upright in the music box (Ward 14). On the other hand, Olivia’s emotional state differs considerably from Ted’s when she sees those subjects. She hates almost all of them: the Russian doll with screaming and constrained prisoners in the dark and the parents with melted and burned faces on a black lake in the picture’s background (Ward 29). However, Olivia likes the ballerina and her intention to reach the heavens when stretching up. Ted associates these objects with home and safety, while Olivia cannot get rid of provoking thoughts and unpleasant feelings. These differences alert the reader and underline the possibility of ambiguity in the plot.
The picture of his parents proves that the main character has a mother and a father who are no longer with him. Daddy went away when Little Teddy punched him to protect his Mommy and disprove her insanity (Ward 143). Mommy, in her turn, finds out that the child has an old family sickness (Ward 145). She uses this fact as the reason for not loving her child but searching for new attempts to change him and save other people’s lives. It is another example of dennaration because, at the end of the book, the reader learns that it was not Ted but his mother who was sick with that old family disorder. This finding proves another element of the chosen theory that individual trauma passes and mental health diseases might pass to the representatives of the same ethnic and racial groups. Ward successfully combines several psychological actions to strengthen dissociation and transform traumatic memory. The same false associations are noticed in other characters, including Dee, who believes that Lauren is Lulu. Individuals with DID need help and understanding, but society is not always ready to offer the necessary support.
Traumatic events always leave traces in life and often overshadow the present and future of those affected. The phenomenon of dissociation is initially a kind of survival strategy. Still, the disruption of the usually integrative functions of consciousness, memory, or identity soon significantly impairs the quality of life of these people. The dissociative disorder may not be limited to dichotomous splitting: a person may as well contain a more significant number of heterogeneous or even contradictory subpersonalities (Gillig). However, these ‘subpersonalities’ in the individual’s inner world must coexist simultaneously and are realised in behavior successively, alternating one with the other. At the same time, after the switching, a person cannot remember his or her actions in the previous state.
Contemporary Gothic
The following section will provide an account of the characteristics of contemporary Gothic, hence we are going to refer to Steven Bruhm who provides a broad insight on what defines contemporary Gothic. Thereafter, we will focus particularly on how Gothic can be a constructive space to present trauma, by referring to Andrea Juranovszky, which David B. Moriss elaborates on. Moreover, due to our main focus on how trauma is represented in Gothic texts, in this case, the novel The Last House on Needless Street, the emphasis will be on the correlation between trauma and Gothic texts.
Steven Bruhm argues in his chapter “The Contemporary Gothic: Why we need it” from the book The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction, what becomes most marked in contemporary Gothic and what distinguishes it from its ancestors is the protagonists’ and viewers’ compulsive return to certain fixations, obsessions, and blockages, which in the case of our project is the protagonist’s trauma (Bruhm 261). Hence, as a result, Bruhm claims that the Gothic can be analysed through the rhetoric of psychoanalysis and that psychoanalytical accounts are intensely Gothic (261).
Bruhm further denotes that Sigmund Freud’s work was primarily attributed to psychoanalysis and for whom the Gothic was a rich source of imagery (261). Psychoanalysis provides a language for perceiving the conflicted psyche of the character, or patient, whose life story is characterised by neurotic disturbances and epistemological blank spots (Bruhm 261), where epistemological blank spots refer to the character, or patient, having some kind of lack of knowledge, and as a result of that, the character is not able to know the truth. Hence, Bruhm adds that what is most central to the Gothic, both classic and temporary, is the process of psyche life, which defines the human condition (261).
He further distinguishes classical Gothic from contemporary Gothic, considering Freudian understanding of the Gothic, which is as human beings we are not free agents operating out of conscious will and self-knowledge. Rather, when our fantasies, dreams and fears take on a nightmarish quality, it is because the unconscious is telling us what we really want. And what we really want are those desires and objects that have been forbidden (Bruhm 262-263).
Thus, Bruhm argues, what makes the contemporary Gothic contemporary is the centering of these unconscious desires on the problem of a lost object, which is usually material (parents, freedom to move around, money, a lover, etc.), yet these losses always have a psychological or symbolic impact (263).
In the novel under analysis, the main character loses several things and people during his lifetime. Most of his losses are related to the restrictions imposed by his mother and the punishment that followed each time disobedience emerged. Ted shares one of the most remarkable memories with the reader and mentions the situation in the forest when his mother bought him a present. Mommy took him to the forest and gave him a cat, knowing how much the boy loved animals. After a brief conversation, she made him put the present on the ground and leave it in the night forest (Ward 39). She explained it as practice when “everything in life is a rehearsal for loss” (Ward 39). Ted was thinking about how cold and alone the cat would feel in the dark and what a traumatic end would wait for the present. This memory affected Little Teddy a lot and could explain some of his problems with age.
Addressing the conflicting psyches of the character, there are many alters that appeared in Ted with time. First, the reader learns that Night-time is Olivia’s part, and both represent “two natures that share a body” (Ward 103). However, Olivia is not a single cat, but an alter of Lauren. Then, it is discovered that Lauren is not a single person as well, but an alter of Ted. There was also Little Teddy, whose experiences with his parents affected Ted’s life. The decision to choose Olivia and Night-time as his alternative identities might be related to that first childhood memory of his mother’s gift. A cat-toy was left in the dark forest and had to survive in harsh conditions. The same characteristics and environment were inherent to Ted’s real life where his mother imposed boundaries and rules.
There are multiple blank spots in the story that become an internal part of the plot and contribute to understanding DID in a person. It is hard to understand how the white vinegar, an ordinary liquid used in cooking, became a source of suffering and a murder weapon or why the number of markers was critical. It was necessary for Ted to control other characters’ behaviors, words, and even thoughts. For a long period, he remained unaware of his disease or what other people knew or guessed about his life. Lack of knowledge, obsession with order and control, and the presence of permanent things and people in human life strengthen the DID symptoms. It becomes impossible for Ted to reveal the truth and accept his diagnosis to minimize emotional and physical harm. The essence of contemporary Gothic lies in the character’s unconscious desires and actions challenged by all those blank spots and no extra professional help.
He further denotes that contemporary Gothic markedly expresses a person’s crisis from his or her personal history, wherein in such cases, he or she would be forced simultaneously to mourn the lost object and to become the lost object through imitation or identification (268), which Bruhm denotes, is a form of repetition. This notion of repetition, Bruhm argues, is what constitutes a sense of trauma, and it is through trauma that contemporary Gothic is best understood (268). In that matter, repetition is what reinforces the traumatic experiences, as mentioned above in the trauma theory. He then explains that the reason which Gothic can be seen as analogous to trauma is that the Gothic itself is a narrative of trauma; usually, the protagonist experiences some terrifying event that affects them and destroys the norms structuring their lives and identities. Among the things that define the Gothic aesthetics are “[i]mages of haunting, destruction and death obsessive return to the shattering moment, forgetfulness or unwanted epiphany” (Bruhm 268). These elements are close to what Cathy Caruth defines as trauma, as he quoted: there is a response, sometimes delayed, to an overwhelming event or events, which takes the form of repeated, intrusive hallucinations, dreams, thoughts, or behaviors stemming from the event, along with numbing that may have begun during or after the experience, and possibly also increased arousal to (and avoidance of) stimuli recalling event(…) (Brum 268).
Andrea Juranovszky writes in her article “Trauma Reenactment in the Gothic Loop: A Study on Structures of Circularity in Gothic Fiction” that among the things that shape the Gothic fiction is the unique narrative direction that some scholars and readers describe as being alike as a retrospective or repetitive (Juranovszky NP). That is to say, Gothic fiction can be shaped through things that have happened in past events, yet it can also be constructed as repetitive, in the sense of events repeating itself. Juranovszky elaborates that some Gothic texts, such as The Last House on Needless Street, can be seen as progressing through a series of flashbacks and constantly reviving deeds of the past to point out a problem that prevails in the present and calls for immediate resolution (Juranovszky np).
The correlation between Gothic and trauma is perfectly described through a number of repetitive activities in which Ted was involved by his mother or continued doing something by himself after her death. The examples from the text include his visits to the forest, listening to the music out loud, and using the vinegar for medical purposes. Ted’s first negative experience with the forest was when his mother made him leave the cat there. Then, the mother brought him there and explained, “when your feelings get too big, you must come to the woods and walk” (Ward 148). It was the moment when Ted learned that something was wrong with him and his mother chose neither to love him as his son nor to “search my heat for a love that I cannot feel” (Ward 149). Finally, the forest was the place where his mother asked him to hide her body after her suicide. At the end of the story, the wood was chosen as the setting where Lauren stabbed Ted, which turned into another form of suicide because Lauren was one of Ted’s alters.
In addition to repetitions, The Last House on Needless Street shaped another characteristic of Gothic fiction related to hallucinations and obsessive return to destruction and unwanted moments. While reading the horror novel, it could seem that Ted was haunted by his mother’s ghost, who made him do terrible things and never repair the dilapidated house. Almost everything was broken: mirrored surfaces, the music box, lawn chairs, and chest freezer. Instead of trying to change something or ask for help, Ted survives the same emotions, raises the same questions, and meets the same people. However, he does not look bounded to or controlled by his mother, except for those hallucinations he experiences from time to time. He knows that “thoughts are a door that the dead walk through,” and he can do nothing to predict the presence of spirits from the past (Ward 133). Therefore, the problem is not solved, and DID symptoms progress until Ted gets to the hospital and begins real therapy from professional doctors.
A similar view of how Gothic texts progress is seen in David B. Moriss’ article “Gothic Sublimity” in the journal New Literary History. He writes that the typical Gothic vision of history is “the past interpenetrates the present time, as if events were never entirely the unique and unrepeated product of human choices, but rather the replication of an unknown or buried pattern” (304). In other words, this kind of ‘loop’ in the Gothic narrative is seen as being ‘curved’ by a forceful intrusion of the past or past events into the protagonist’s present time, which Juranovszky claims to be a vital feature of the Gothic tradition as well as the most underlying structural principle any gothic text relies upon (Juranovszky np).
In Ward’s novel, the evidence of gothic traditions can be traced through the quality of life that Ted chooses and the relationships he develops, disregarding his personal interests and wants. Relying on her medical experience, Mommy never addressed professional help and treated her son with available equipment and medicines. She used the freezer filled with vinegar for its antimicrobial properties to cover her manipulations with the scalpel on Ted’s skin (Ward 236). It was the moment when Lauren appeared to protect him, take “some of his pain,” and help him survive because the boy “couldn’t take much more of this” (Ward 236-237). Those memories are negative, but Ted does not find it necessary to remove the vinegar bottle from the house and makes similar baths for Olivia and Lauren. He knows they can handle this pain, and their health will be restored. He also goes to the forest to manage his thoughts even if he does not like that place because of painful memories. Thus, the Gothic narrative is based on harmful repetitive actions, proving Juranovszky’s argument about trauma and the inability to escape from the loop.
When his mother died, Ted could not get rid of the feeling that she was still present in his life and could punish him for wrong choices or inappropriate interests. It turns out that Ted is interested in men, but he does not show his attraction and represents Olivia as a homosexual cat. In his turn, Ted goes on dates regularly to meet a good woman but usually finds some reasons not to begin a conversation. One of the main reasons for not meeting other women is his appearance. Lauren once called Ted big and fat, and Ted cannot get rid of the idea that he takes much space in the world and that his body “is turning on” him (Ward 53). At the end of the novel, Ted meets Rob, who shows that there is nothing wrong with his attraction to men. The mother’s impact on Ted becomes less noticeable, and he admits that “she’s gone. She’s dead… That’s all” (Ward 262). It was the end of the story when all alters knew nothing about each other but the beginning of a new life when the integration heals trauma.
Juranovszky further argues, “the past—often presented as a site burdened with historical and/or personal crisis—not only regains its sense of immediacy and relevance, but also acquires a revised perspective” (Juranovszky np). She then denotes that several authors of Gothic texts discovered the conventions and effect of this in utilising the retrospective direction of Gothic narratives for particular purposes, in this case, personal and socio-cultural trauma reenactments (Juranovszky np). Hence, the Gothic can be a constructive space of trauma reenactments, as it calls for reenactments or even dramatisation of specific personal memories. In other words, the Gothic genre is applicable in order to construct post-traumatic experiences through certain narrational strategies to reenact personal traumatic events.
Additionally, Juranovszky claims that whether trauma is understood as an ever-present state that originated from one’s oppressed identity or as a past traumatic event having certain after-effects, the Gothic literature aims at capturing it with the method of confusing the timeline of the narrative. She adds, “such temporal confusion is to evoke a disturbing sense of backward-pointing progress, one which allows for a reconsideration as well as a resolution of the past” (Juranovszky np).
Conclusion
To summarise, the two textual forms, trauma and gothic, are often closely linked, in the sense that the Gothic text often attempts to depict a traumatic experience, whereas the narrative of trauma often draws on the language of the Gothic in order to speak about or express cruel and violent acts.
Works Cited
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