Comparative Study Never Let Me Go


as a teenager Kathy worries that her perfectly normal sexual urges may be too strong because all clones may be, as Ruth says, ‘modelled from trash’. As a result, Kathy searches through pornographic magazines at the Cottages to see if she can find her ‘possible’ among the women in the pages.


By the end of the novel, the opening makes complete sense. We re-examine the incredible poise, strength of character and sense of self that Kathy displays. She is viewed as less than human by the society in which she lives and is about to die as a result of this view; yet while she may accept her fate, Kathy does not accept this view of herself. She has a clear sense of her place in the world and a knowledge that her life has been worth living. The way the theme is presented forces us, like Kathy, to examine what it is to be human and to have an individual identity.


A key moment early in the novel forces the children to face an unpleasant truth about their identities. Kathy and her young schoolfriends are intrigued by the regular visits of a woman known simply as Madame. They believe she comes to the school to view their artwork and select pieces for her ‘Gallery’. Madame avoids any contact with the students, which makes them think she is afraid of them. Kathy, Ruth and some of the other children come up with a plan to swarm around Madame when she next visits. Their plan works too well; they are shaken to discover that Madame is genuinely afraid of them ‘in the same way someone might be afraid of spiders’. This is a blow to the children’s sense of self because, as Kathy says, it had never occurred to them to wonder how they would feel ‘being seen like that, being the spiders’. For the first time, the children see themselves through someone else’s eyes, making them realise that they are truly different from their guardians and ‘the people outside’.


Brooklyn


We do of course feel sympathy for Eilis when she feels under pressure to be the person others want her to be. We see this most clearly when she returns to Ireland after Rose’s death. Her sense of self is threatened by the well-meant but suffocating pressure of family and friends who are determined that she will marry the eligible Jim Farrell and resume her old life in her home town to all intents and purposes. However, this is an uplifting, romantic story at the end of the day, so it is unsurprising that Eilis manages to come to terms with who she really is in time to return to Tony and have a ‘happily ever after’ ending. The presentation of the theme in the film, therefore, does not make us question the issue as deeply or as seriously as the novel does.


Philadelphia, Here I Come!


those around him. If it weren’t for Private, Gar would be a dull, inexpressive and uninteresting character, and we would have little interest in his struggle to find out who he really is. Private shows us that Gar is a complex and conflicted character. The problem for Gar’s sense of identity is that he cannot blend his public and private selves and is constantly torn between them. Unlike the novel and the film, which span much longer periods of time, the play takes place over the course of a single evening, so it is unsurprising that Gar’s identity should not develop significantly over the course of the text. Still, he learns far less about himself in that short time than we might expect, and he accepts even less. He is, we fear, doomed to continue in this vein and to constantly veer between denial and self-loathing.


Characters in each of the texts have a moment or moments of revelation about their identity.


Unlike Kathy, Eilis experiences a moment of revelation about her identity when she is a grown woman, rather than an innocent young child. This moment is not as negative or devastating as the one Kathy and her friends experience in Never Let Me Go. The only real similarity between the moments of revelation in each text is that a third party forces the characters to face up to who they are and where they belong.


In Eilis’s case, her uncertainty about her identity occurs when she returns to Ireland after her sister’s death. Suddenly she is unsure about who she is and where she belongs. Is she Eilis Fiorello, who has a future mapped out for her in New York, or is she Eilis Lacey, who is primed to take over her sister’s office job and settle down with Jim Farrell? The answer comes when the spiteful and vindictive Miss Kelly confronts her about her marriage to Tony.


Gar’s situation is different to that of Kathy’s or Eilis’s in that he never has a sudden life-changing moment of revelation about his identity. Instead, he has a series of smaller insights that he fights against and refuses to fully accept, which is why he never grows as a person. These moments are presented via Private’s comments on Public’s behaviour. In each case, however, Gar manages to ignore or reject his inner self and continue on his self-destructive path. For example, in his last meeting with Kate Doogan, Public tells Kate that he will probably study ‘law or medicine or something’ while Private pours scorn on this idea: ‘Like hell! First Arts stumped you!’ There is something pathetic about Gar’s mention of ‘law or medicine’. Kate’s father studied law and her new husband is a doctor. Once again, Gar is imagining himself as someone very different to his real self rather than accepting who he is and making the most of that. Unlike Kathy and Eilis, who both faced unpleasant truths about


394 King Lear and Comparatives


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242  |  Page 243  |  Page 244  |  Page 245  |  Page 246  |  Page 247  |  Page 248  |  Page 249  |  Page 250  |  Page 251  |  Page 252  |  Page 253  |  Page 254  |  Page 255  |  Page 256  |  Page 257  |  Page 258  |  Page 259  |  Page 260  |  Page 261  |  Page 262  |  Page 263  |  Page 264  |  Page 265  |  Page 266  |  Page 267  |  Page 268  |  Page 269  |  Page 270  |  Page 271  |  Page 272  |  Page 273  |  Page 274  |  Page 275  |  Page 276  |  Page 277  |  Page 278  |  Page 279  |  Page 280  |  Page 281  |  Page 282  |  Page 283  |  Page 284  |  Page 285  |  Page 286  |  Page 287  |  Page 288  |  Page 289  |  Page 290  |  Page 291  |  Page 292  |  Page 293  |  Page 294  |  Page 295  |  Page 296  |  Page 297  |  Page 298  |  Page 299  |  Page 300  |  Page 301  |  Page 302  |  Page 303  |  Page 304  |  Page 305  |  Page 306  |  Page 307  |  Page 308  |  Page 309  |  Page 310  |  Page 311  |  Page 312  |  Page 313  |  Page 314  |  Page 315  |  Page 316  |  Page 317  |  Page 318  |  Page 319  |  Page 320  |  Page 321  |  Page 322  |  Page 323  |  Page 324  |  Page 325  |  Page 326  |  Page 327  |  Page 328  |  Page 329  |  Page 330  |  Page 331  |  Page 332  |  Page 333  |  Page 334  |  Page 335  |  Page 336  |  Page 337  |  Page 338  |  Page 339  |  Page 340  |  Page 341  |  Page 342  |  Page 343  |  Page 344  |  Page 345  |  Page 346  |  Page 347  |  Page 348  |  Page 349  |  Page 350  |  Page 351  |  Page 352  |  Page 353  |  Page 354  |  Page 355  |  Page 356  |  Page 357  |  Page 358  |  Page 359  |  Page 360  |  Page 361  |  Page 362  |  Page 363  |  Page 364  |  Page 365  |  Page 366  |  Page 367  |  Page 368  |  Page 369  |  Page 370  |  Page 371  |  Page 372  |  Page 373  |  Page 374  |  Page 375  |  Page 376  |  Page 377  |  Page 378  |  Page 379  |  Page 380  |  Page 381  |  Page 382  |  Page 383  |  Page 384  |  Page 385  |  Page 386  |  Page 387  |  Page 388  |  Page 389  |  Page 390  |  Page 391  |  Page 392  |  Page 393  |  Page 394  |  Page 395  |  Page 396  |  Page 397  |  Page 398  |  Page 399  |  Page 400  |  Page 401  |  Page 402  |  Page 403  |  Page 404  |  Page 405  |  Page 406  |  Page 407  |  Page 408  |  Page 409  |  Page 410  |  Page 411  |  Page 412  |  Page 413  |  Page 414  |  Page 415  |  Page 416  |  Page 417  |  Page 418  |  Page 419  |  Page 420  |  Page 421  |  Page 422  |  Page 423  |  Page 424  |  Page 425  |  Page 426  |  Page 427  |  Page 428  |  Page 429  |  Page 430  |  Page 431  |  Page 432  |  Page 433  |  Page 434  |  Page 435  |  Page 436  |  Page 437  |  Page 438  |  Page 439  |  Page 440  |  Page 441  |  Page 442  |  Page 443  |  Page 444  |  Page 445  |  Page 446  |  Page 447  |  Page 448  |  Page 449