Nella Larsen's Passing

When Push Comes to Shove Would you kill your oldest friend if she was a threat to your marriage and possibly life as a whole? Well, for Irene Redfield the answer is clear. Set in the 1920’s, Nella Larsen’s Passing is a gripping novel following the lives of Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, two ferocious women who would do anything to get what they desire. When Clare ‘falls’ out of a window, the question arises, did Irene murder Clare? Larsen’s portrayal of Irene begins to unravel due to her insecurities about her marriage and distrust of Clare. This aspect of Irene’s character reveals that she is the cause of Clare’s death because of her building resentment toward her, shown through Larsen’s prose, imagery, metaphors, and particularly

Larsen’s prose displays how Irene’s internal struggle and strong emotions influence and sometimes control her actions, and how these factors contribute to Clare Kendry’s murder. At a party, when Bellew, Clare’s husband, makes a surprising and horrifying entrance, Irene sees Clare standing by an open window, she, both in a fit of rage towards Clare and a fear for her life, rushes towards her. Larsen describes,“She ran across the room, her terror tinged with ferocity, and laid a hand on Clare’s bare arm” (116). Larsen uses the words ‘laid a hand on’, which by dictionary definition means to attack, injure, or punish physically. The author is clearly implying that Irene pushed Clare. Irene placing her hand on Clare’s arm, literally moments before she falls out the window, perspicuously evidences this. Though the author leaves the cause of Clare Kendry’s death open-ended, its clear that Irene pushed her, being driven by intense jealousy and anger towards Clare.

At the party, Irene opens a window, claiming it is too stuffy inside where she is. She smokes a cigarette and casts it aside. Larsen dictates, “Irene finished her cigarette and threw it out, watching the tiny spark drop slowly down onto the white ground below” (115). The image of the red-embered cigarette falling out of the window sparks an idea in Irene’s mind. In seeing the cigarette fall, she either subconsciously or consciously makes a connection to Clare, because in this excerpt, Larsen is drawing an analogy between Clare and the cigarette. In some ways, Clare holds just as much value to Irene as the cigarette does, and Larsen shows this throughout the novel with Irene’s hostile attitude towards Clare, someone she sees as disposable, just like the cigarette. At this point in the book, Irene is mad, spiteful and finished with Clare, just like Irene finishes her cigarette. When Irene finishes her cigarette, she casts it aside mindlessly, as it's only a cigarette after all, you light it, smoke it, and discard it, just like how she wants to treat her friendship with clare. When told that it is dangerous to be by the window because she would catch cold, Irene walks away, without closing the window. Minutes later, Clare is standing by the window previously opened by Irene, when her racist asshole husband crashes the party, threatening and lunging towards her. This, as well as anger towards Clare, causes Irene to