Examples Of Identity In Nightwood

In Nightwood written by Djuna Barnes, identity within the character outlines the novel. At beginning of the novel, the characters chose their identity and no one was who they said they were, but by the end of the novel, identities were revealed. Nightwood illustrates through its dialect and characters how desire and identity are depicted. Throughout the novel, the characters Nora Flood, Doctor Matthew O’Conner, and Robin Vote go through a series of events in which shows who they really are. First, at the beginning of the novel, Nora was careful, Christian, quiet, authentic, and sane. She is a queer character within the novel who falls in love with Robin. The narrator describes Nora, “Nora was alone most of the night and part of the day, she

In the beginning, Robin married Felix and they were expecting to have a child. Felix loved Robin, but Robin was never happy. Robin yells at Felix, “As he came toward her she said in a fury, ‘I didn’t want him!’ Raising her hand she struck him across the face.” Therefore, Robin had a child with Felix, a child she wants nothing to do with. Robin leaves and abandons the child and she is not seen for awhile. When Robin reappears, she is in America with Nora. During her relationship with Nora, Robin is also dating someone else, Jenny. Nora goes to Jenny’s, “I knew then, before I said, ‘You are Robin’s mistress, aren’t you?’ (Barnes 149) Jenny says yes and breaks down explaining to Nora how Robin did not want to hurt Nora, but at the end of the relationship, Robin hurt Nora the most out of all the characters. Robin is the beast in the novel. She goes through the novel hurting and ruining everyone she has a relationship with. Robin is, to say the least, a toxic character. Towards the end of the novel, Robin was drunk and Nora finds her beside a policeman. Nora explains, “She put her head down on one of the officers’ shoulders. She was drunk. He had her by her wrist, one hand on her behind. She did not say anything about that because she did not notice and kept spitting horrible things at me.” (Barnes 153) Robin is putting her shoulder on the police officer because she wants to intentionally hurt Nora. The police officer sees Nora as a disgust because she is queer. Therefore, Robin is bragging about how she can be with a man and showing she did not care about