“Well, I read the book you left last time.”
“Oh, what do you think of it?”
They were off and all was as usual. But was it? Weren’t they just a little too quick, too prompt with their replies, too ready to take each other up? Was this really anything more than a wonderfully good imitation of other occasions? His heart beat; her cheek burned and the stupid thing was she could not discover where exactly they were or what exactly was happening. She hadn’t time to glance back. And just as she had got so far it happened again. They faltered, wavered, broke down, were silent. Again they were conscious of the boundless, questioning dark. Again, there they were–two hunters, bending over their fire, but hearing suddenly from the jungle beyond a shake of wind and a loud, questioning cry . . . .
She lifted her head. “It’s raining,” she murmured. And her voice was like his when he had said: “I love that little boy.”
Well. Why didn’t they just give way to it–yield–and see what will happen then? But no. Vague and troubled though they were, they knew enough to realize their precious friendship was in danger. She was the one who would be destroyed–not they–and they’d be no party to that.
Psychology is a curious story by Katherine Mansfield. I say curious as rereading it again after a probable gap of at least 20 years, I was impressed by the subtle sense of awkwardness conveyed in the story, and the recognition that the tale was far more substantial than I remembered. Maybe it is a story that needs the experience of awkwardness fresh in the mind of the reader? I don’t know. Psychology just seemed to capture that odd sense we all might experience , when we leave someone and think, why did that feel encounter feel strange or even strained? Something thwarts the previously ‘knowable’ interaction between the male and female protagonists and the exact identity of this strange conflict or strain remains finally unidentified except as a ‘questioning dark’. This suggestive ‘title’ of what lie beneath their intimacy seems likely to be romance and sexuality, yet their physical selves appear far out of reach of their well manicured minds!
It is as if there is another type of relationship running beneath the acknowledged relationship in the story and the story explores a pregnant/resonant moment when the submerged relationship seems to demand expression, (fed up of repression or emotional suffocation) yet is finally denied and displaced through an extra warm hug given to someone else who is no threat to the female protagonist’s composed life.
So, the story gives ironic and subtle expression to the inexpressible within an established relationship, where boundaries and guidelines have been clearly delineated. Suddenly emotions, or perhaps emotional possibilities threaten to hijack away the composure of their relationship and it is this threat of decomposure that generates the interest of the story.
Very interesting and cleverly filtered through both protagonists, hence a slightly hazy atmosphere and mood, which captures the singularity of this ‘odd’ departure from their normal connection.