Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen and Her "Bad Women"

Larsen's "Bad Women"

Believing that "children aren't everything (Larsen 81)," she believes motherhood is a cruel thing and cares little for her child, She places her feelings above the feelings of others. She even admits to her best friend that she does not have "any proper morals or sense of duty (Larsen 81)." She becomes infatuated with her best friend's husband and begins an affair with him. This is Clare Kendry, Nella Larsen's "Bad Woman" in the novel Passing. Kendry has every aspect of a "home wrecker." Home wreckers are the ultimate "bad women." If you will, they are the goddesses of "bad womanhood."

Nobody likes "home wreckers." In no society is it acceptable to be a "home wrecker." In some countries an adulteress would even be killed by her own family because of the shame and dishonor. In the U.S. the hatred of the "home wrecker" can be seen just by watching one of the numerous talk shows like Montel or Jerry Springer. Anyone who has been hurt by a "home wrecker" would tell you that she is a "bad woman," or something worse.

Irene Redfield, the one whose husband has an affair with Clair Kendry, would appear to be a "good woman." She tries to be a good mother [" I know very well that I take being a mother seriously (Larsen 81)"] and wife, and enjoys her family life. However, it can be argued that she does not remain a "good woman" forever.

Irene's worry over Clare eventually twists her into that which she fears. Irene believes that if Clare becomes free of her husband, John Bellew, her security and family life will be ruined because of the relationship between Clare and Brian, Irene's husband. At a party, Clare ends up falling out of a window. How it happened is obscure, but there are good indications that Irene is responsible. Just before the fall Irene has this one thought that "She couldn't have Clare Kendry cast aside by John Bellew. She couldn't have her free (Larsen 111)." Based on this action, it seem that Irene is just like Clare in that she will "do anything, hurt anybody, throw anything away" so that she can "get the things [she] wants badly enough (Larsen 81)."

Both Clare and Irene were victims of uncontrollable feelings. Clare had a lack of a "proper morals or a sense of duty (Larsen 81)" which impaired her control, whereas Irene was inflicted with too much "terror" and "ferocity" (Larsen 111) for her to keep on leash at the time of her downfall.

Biography

Nella Larsen (1891-1964), one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of the Harlem Renaissance, was born on April 13, 1891 as Nellie Walker. She was an American novelist and short story writer (Larsen i).

Her mother, Mary Hanson Walker, was Danish, and her father, Peter Walker, was West Indian (Britannica). She was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 13, 1891. Her father died when she was two years old. Shortly afterwards, her mother married Peter Larsen. Together they had a daughter, Larsen's half-sister. Larsen attended public schools in Chicago along with her half-sister.

Peter Larson enrolled Nella Larsen in Fisk University's Normal School in 1907. Larsen studied science there. Between 1912 and 1915, Larsen trained as a nurse in New York and, upon her graduation, went down to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to work as head nurse at John Andrew Memorial Hospital and Nurse Training School. By 1916, however, Larsen returned to New York and took a nursing job there. She then spent two years working at Tuskegee Institute. The next three years, from 1916-18, she worked as a nurse at her alma mater, Lincoln Hospital. Her writing was first published in The Brownie's Book while she was working as a Department of Health nurse for New York City from 1918-21. This is also when she met Elmer S. Imes, who she married on May 3, 1919.

Her love of books helped her decide to be a librarian in the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library. Some of her favorite authors were James Joyce, John Galsworthy, Walter White, and Carl Van Vechten. "As a socialite wife" (Brown-Guillory 696) Larsen started to establish relationships with major Black authors of the Harlem Renaissance including James Weldon Johnson, Jessie Fauset, Jean Toomer, and Langston Hughes (Brown-Guillory 696).

Larsen's first novel Quicksand "which is largely autobiographical" (Peters 278), was published in 1928 and won a Bronze medal from the Harmon Foundation that same year. Her second novel, Passing, followed in 1929. In 1930, she was the first black woman to receive a Guggenheim fellowship for creative writing. That same year she was accused of plagiarism. Apparently, her short story "Sanctuary" bore too close of a resemblance to another story published in 1922. She was able to prove her innocence, but was not published again during her lifetime. Marital problems during this same time led to her "crudely sensationalized 1933 divorce" (Peters 279). The Afro-American press reported rumors that Imes was "having an affair with a white woman and that Larsen tried to kill herself by jumping out of a window" (Brown-Guillory 697).

Larsen was crushed by both the accusation of plagiarism and by the negative publicity during her divorce. She gradually drew away from her literary friends and worked as a nurse in Manhattan from 1941 until her death. Nella Larsen was found dead in her apartment at age 72 in March of 1964.

Larsen Criticism

Passing was looked at as a successfully written novel. It "is classically pure in outline, single in theme and impression, and for these reasons -- if for no others -- powerful in its catastrophe (Seabrook)."

However, W.B. Seabrook seems to think that more emphasis should have been put on Clare. Seabrook said, "Miss Larsen should either have told us the story of Clare Kendry directly, without the device of an intervening character...(Seabrook)."

Despite any slight problems the book may have had, it is "that rare object, a good novel (Seabrook)."

Esther Hyman did not acclaim the novel quite as much. Hyman says Larsen had "not completely fulfilled the promise inherent in her theme (Hyman)."

Hyman believes the climax lacks "conviction." Apparently Hyman thinks that the ending should have been less obscure, needing a "very decided push, such as could scarcely escape the attention of a crowd of people (Hyman)."

It is apparent that the fall of Clare did escape the attention of the crowd because of the confusion towards how she fell at the end of the novel.

Works Cited

Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth. "Nella Larsen (1891-1964)." Black Women and America: A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol I. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, Inc. 1993.

Hyman Esther. Rev. of Passing by Nella Larsen. Bookman 4 June 1928: 427-28.

Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York: Penguin Books, 1997.

Peters, Joanne M. "Nella Larsen 1891-1964." Contemporary Authors Vol 125. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc. 1989.

Seabrook, W.B. "Touch of the Tar Brush." Rev. of Passing by Nella Larsen. Review of Literature 18 May 1929: 1017- 18.

BACK