Summary Of Passing By Nella Larsen

The novella Passing, by Nella Larsen is largely a story about Irene Redfield and her own inner turmoil. She is someone with a perfectionist complex who cannot stand to be in the wrong and so projects her own frustrations and insecurities onto others in order to cope with being average. In particular, Irene projects her frustrations with herself onto Clare Kendry, a childhood friend from Chicago. A topic that Irene obsesses over is Clare’s choice to pass as a white woman, thus bringing a focus to her own actions. Despite the title of the novella, the audience never learns how Irene defines passing for white, where she draws the line. There is no denying that Clare is passing, but it is not impossible that Irene views herself

It is when dealing with the status of Clare and Irene’s relationship with each other that things become much more stressful for Irene. She is interested in Clare romantically, and this interest is reciprocated, “…Clare had come softly into the room without knocking, and before Irene could greet her, had dropped a kiss on her dark curls. Looking at the woman before her, Irene Redfield had a sudden inexplicable onrush of affectionate feeling” (Larsen 45-46). Whenever Irene is with Clare, and even sometimes when she is not, all she thinks about is Clare. According to Irene, Clare is a manipulator and that provides an explanation as to why Irene would feel the way she does about Clare. This perceived manipulation also makes Irene nervous about her standing with Clare, DeVere Brody writes, “…it is Clare’s knowing look that incites Irene’s insecurities about her racial, sexual, and class status…” (DeVere Brody 401). Clare essentially makes Irene question her whole identity and because of these insecurities and the genuine belief that Clare is a manipulator; it makes Irene feel as though she could just be Clare’s plaything. Irene does not want to accept that she could have

When she finds Clare and Brian in the sitting room it only makes it that much easier for Irene to blame Clare. She convinces herself that the two are having an affair and it is another way for Irene to make up for her perceived shortcomings. She could not possibly be a bad wife for thinking about someone else romantically if her husband is having a full-blown affair, could she? This gives her another way to justify removing Clare from her life without having to confront her own feelings as well. Irene is also insecure about her appearance in comparison to Clare because it once again impedes on her goal of being “perfect”. In her essay “Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Problem of Interpretation”, Claudia Tate argues not only that the artificial feeling of Irene’s surroundings is intentional, but also that the plot is driven forward by the emotions of our unreliable narrator, Irene. Tate makes a point of showing that whether or not what they believe what they are hearing is true is up to the discretion of the audience when she writes, “We must determine whether she accurately portrays Clare, or whether her portrait is subject to, and in fact affected by,