Possession Essay - Grade: A PDF

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Possession Whenever one hears about a love story a variety of situations are brought to mind. Awkward meetings result in happy endings and unconventional tactics lead to romantic dinners. In A. S. Byatt’s novel, Possession, there are two different love stories emerging and while one has a happy ending, the other unfortunately does not. Possession deals with the love story of Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. Ash is a famous Victorian poet who is actually married. LaMotte is a lesser-known feminist poet who has high esteem with women due to her lesbian relationship. These two eventual lovers meet during an event in which Ash’s poetry is honored. Letters are sent back and forth between Ash and LaMotte and play a major role in the novel. Ash and LaMotte’s relationship develops from friends to lovers over the span of the novel. During their first meeting in June of 1859 Randolph Ash and Christabel LaMotte share a handshake and a kiss on the hand. During this time period this was a normal exchange of a greeting. The reader first can sense some flirting when LaMotte addresses Ash about his demeaning language towards women in his writings. It may seem a little childish to believe that a simple sarcastic gesture could be mistaken for a flirtatious movement; however, this is how many relationships begin. It is not long until Ash tries to court LaMotte with the sending of a letter, but to no avail in the beginning. It is learned that LaMotte actually enjoys reading Ash’s material and owns the majority of his works. She reads them and discusses them with her lover. Due to the status of LaMotte’s relationship, a same-sex relationship, she must attempt to hide the letters from her lover, saying that Ash just wants to be friends. LaMotte’s lover, Blanch, seems to realize Ash’s intentions and expresses that to LaMotte to a deaf ear. LaMotte originally denies Ash’s request to “call on her” and counters with a sort of writing relationship for the two. This

suffices for the current moment; however, the relationship will take more serious turns throughout the novel. LaMotte begins to feel uneasy about her writing relationship with Ash. She eventually wishes to cease contact with him and wants the letters returned. One can assume it could be a combination of guilt because of her involvement with Ash compromising her relationship with Blanch and shear confusion because she does not know exactly how she should be feeling. Should she should stick with her public views and keep a relationship with Blanch? She would be the righteous feminist everyone expects her to be. Or should she start a new life with Ash and see where the world takes her? After Blanch shows Ash’s wife the letters that Ash and LaMotte have been exchanging, the choice actually does not become clearer. LaMotte is furious at the fact that Blanch said she destroyed the letter when one as the reader is the wiser and knows that the letters were not destroyed. Though LaMotte’s behavior is difficult to interpret throughout many different letters, she does pay Ash an unusual compliment in the fourth. Christabel tells Ash that he reminds him of her father. In today’s age, this statement would catch a young man off guard due to the fact that it could mean a variety of things. However, in the olden days this was a compliment because it was said that a woman would want to marry someone like their father. A father worked hard for the family and put food on the table every night. Why would someone not want to be like a father figure? The reader is able to speculate this is just one more issue that brings LaMotte and Ash closer to a permanent relationship. She sees a figure making advances towards her who is precisely like a man she admired and loved growing up. It is hard to see any reason why LaMotte would attempt to dissuade herself from creating a life with this man.

This writing relationship eventually does become more than friends. Ash and LaMotte become more than friends when they consummate their love. Ash and LaMotte take a trip for weeks in order to be together. While together they consummate their love for one another and it can be seen that the relationship turns from friendship to a love relationship. This can be seen as odd because Ash never did consummate his marriage with his wife. During this trip Ash begins to dread the day it all must come to an end. LaMotte must reassure him that though it was short, at least it was able to happen. In the writer’s eyes, this is portrayed as the moment where the relationship between the two changes simply because LaMotte did not advise Ash to stop advancing. Earlier in the story, when they first arrived at the hotel they began to become involved in seductive acts. At this point, LaMotte told Ash that they needed to wait. This actually correlates with the modern story of when Roland Michell and Dr. Bailey are in bed together, become aroused, and begin to start motioning that something may happen later on in the evening. Though Dr. Bailey says to wait, simply just to reposition herself, it is Roland who stops the action all together. LaMotte’s loving a man may come as a shocker to some readers and would cause a major outcry in the world of feminist poetry. Here is this phenomenon, this poet who is idealized by the feminist community not just falling in love with a man, but leaving her lesbian lover for multiple weeks in order to be with him. There is also a slight moment of deception in which one is able to wonder whether the relationship could last. Christabel says, “You have made a murderous out of me” everyone involved in the novel can assume that means she killed the baby. It is later learned that she is speaking about her lesbian lover, Blanch, who did commit suicide due to Christabel’s interactions with Ash. However, the fact that LaMotte would lie about having a child with Ash is

very suspect. Why not simply tell the gentleman? A renowned young man who could very easily take care of her? Ash is left to live a life with his wife without every knowing about his daughter. This story is a love story jam packed with drama. A combination of affairs, a lesbian relationship, a suicide, a daughter, and a modern day love story all packed into one book allows the reader to think. The title of possession is a well thought out title. The possession of the letters as well as the possession of significant others truly go hand in hand throughout the novel and simply adds to the drama of this romantic novel. One can only wonder what would have happened if LaMotte and Ash would have been able to raise their daughter together. Would they have lived happily ever after or would the story have turned out the same?...