Uncanny_in_Fall_on_Your_Knees

Character Demonstration of Uncanny in Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall On Your Knees “They're all dead now” (Fall On Your Knees, MacDonald 1). through repression and resurgence, being repulsed and attracted at the same time, something that is familiar, although like nothing you have ever seen before, creating a strange, uneasy feeling, the feeling of uncanny. “The uncanny is much more than a weird feeling or intellectual uncertainty. The uncanny is something – a mental stage, an infantile complex – that was once familiar, harmless even, but after years of repression inexplicably bursts forth and now appears strange” (Studies in Canadian Literature, Baetz). Ann-Marie MacDonald's novella Fall On Your Knees creates a strange feeling of the Freudian concept of uncanny by character demonstration of repression, resurgence, and the formulation of strange and familiar instances. James, Materia, Kathleen, Mercedes, Frances, and Lily Piper all demonstrate forms of uncanny through their lives in Fall On Your Knees. “MacDonald's novel goes to great lengths to dramatize the psychological uncanny. On a number of occasions, the characters in Fall On Your Knees experience the uncanny” (Baetz). Firstly, James Piper, father to the Piper sisters, demonstrates uncanny through mental processes, emotional response, and issues with identity. After the death of his beloved daughter, Kathleen, James mentally attempts to repress any memories of her. However, James demonstrates uncanny when his memories resurface after seeing a photo of Kathleen on the piano: “Then he sees the photograph … James can hear Kathleen laughing at him, totally unafraid, nothing to be afraid of. Not like now in this room. Now is the dim past. Then was the shining present. He hears her laugh … You think you're safe. Until you see a picture like that. And then you know you'll always be a slave to the present because the present is more powerful than the past, no matter how long ago the present happened” (260). This instance represents Sigmund Freud's formulation that the uncanny is something that is, “familiar and old established in the mind and which which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression” (The Uncanny, Freud). James has attempted to forget any memory of his daughter to rid himself of the pain of losing her. However, when he spots Kathleen's photograph atop the piano, he allows memories of his beloved, lost daughter to resurface: “The resurgence of a lost memory [causes] James Piper, at the very least, confusion; a frightening, though oddly comforting, mental regression to an experience once though to be surmounted; the return of a demon once thought to be outrun” (Baetz). On the night of Kathleen's death, James has beat his daughter for the first time. Kathleen's abuse from her father is another instance which demonstrates similar traits of uncanny. Throughout the novel James grew to hate his wife, Materia, and because of this he has repressed memories they shared together in order to be civil to Materia. When Kathleen begins to pound chords on the piano, she reenacts a moment in which Materia did the same. At the noise Kathleen produces, James brings himself to belt Kathleen twice, portraying his repressed anger towards his wife and the resurfacing of a painful memory. James then “realizes who it is and what he's done, and how he'd never, not even Materia, though God knows –” (60). Although this passage ends with a hyphen, one can assume that it has ended with a thought, a thought that James has possibly admitted to himself that God knows that James has unconsciously wanted to beat his wife: “He has only kept that desire a secret and hidden until now, until his daughter unwittingly repeats her mother's actions and reminds James of his wife” (Baetz). James makes several references to his experiences from the war, one being 'No Man's Land' in which he described as, “a haunted foggy expanse of silent slime. A limbo – grey, yellow, green, mostly grey, and empty except for the dead. Rats may scamper across it and remain rats. Birds may fly above it and remain birds … But no man may venture into this space and remain a man. That is the difference. No man may enter … and remain a man. It is possible to become a man once more if you make it back behind your line again, but you suspend your humanity for your sojourn in between. That is why the place is called No Man's Land” (108). No Man's Land is representative of an uncanny, in between place, where James struggles with issues of his identity, memories and thoughts: “James feels comforted by the fog and ambiguity of No Man's Land, but he wants to deny these in-between identifications and construct and maintain difference. He wants to rescue himself and others from in-between spaces and pretend that No Man's Land does no exist, that there are no ghosts or buried memories” (Baetz). Through mental processes of repressed memories, emotional response of resurgence, and a struggle with identity, James Piper exhibits instances in which are described as the Freudian formulation of uncanny. An instance of uncanny is also demonstrated in the representation and character of Materia Piper. In the novella, Materia Piper, James's wife and mother to the Piper sisters, represents a repressed memory to the important people in her life. When James and Materia decide to wed, Materia is only twelve years of age at the time. Mr. and Mrs. Mahmoud, Materia's parents, are enraged by Materia's irresponsible and betraying acts towards her family when Materia decides to run off with James. After this incident, Mr. Mahmoud does not want anything to do with his daughter, and wants to rid any memories of her from his life: “he instructed his wife to purge the house of Materia … Mrs. Mahmoud burned, snipped and bundled off his daughter's memory” (16). Mr. and Mrs. Mahmoud, disturbed and betrayed by their daughter's actions, decide they want to repress any memories of Materia. However, as Materia grows older she feels saddened by the loss of her family and when she gets pregnant, she hopes for a boy because she know her father would not be able to deny a grandson: ““She wanted a son of course. Her father would be hard pressed to disown a first grandson even if it came to him through a daughter, that was what she told herself … She began to pray to Our Lady, please, Dear Mary, let it be a boy” (31). Materia's desperation for a son portrays her severe desire to be part of her father's life again, she wants her memory to resurface in her parent's lives. However, Materia never does have a son, but all girls, representing how she is only going to stay a repressed memory in the Mahmoud family. Materia's father curses Materia's womb after the dreaded wedding of James and Materia to prove that he does not want her in life: “As for my daughter. May God curse her womb” (17). Materia's purge from the Mahmoud house, her desperate desire for a son, as well as her cursed womb, all demonstrate how Materia Piper represents an uncanny repressed memory to her beloved family, that is unable to resurface. Thirdly, another case of uncanny is demonstrated throughout the life of Kathleen Piper by repressed demons within her appearance of perfection. Kathleen is the ideal little girl to her father James. Kathleen appears to be too perfect almost to everyone else around her: “Every feature formed to preternatural perfection … It wasn't right in a child. Perhaps she wasn't a child at all” (41). Kathleen is haunted by her inner demons, her demon came to be known as Pete, appearing to Kathleen whenever she demonstrates her vanity to herself: “'Who's coming to get you'' he asked. And when he had deciphered some more, 'Who's 'Pete'''” (43). Pete is Kathleen's inner demon who is being repressed by Kathleen's vanity and love for herself. Pete makes himself known to Kathleen when she exhibits her vanity to portray his resurgence: “She smiles at herself. And gets stuck. Can't move. Can't look away or break the smile tightening to a grin on her face until she seems to be mocking herself. That's when she sees him. Pete. In the shadows behind her. His smooth stuffed head. His hat. His no ears. His no face. She whimpers. Pete watches, Hello there. She can't find her voice, is this a dream' In a wistful tone, Hello little girl. His no mouth, Hello” (77). The moment before Kathleen dies she sees Pete. Kathleen's sight of Pete before her death represents how her vanity can no longer repress her inner demon: “Here's what Kathleen saw just before the moment of respite. Between agony and release, she saw – framed at the door which is thumping like a heart attack – Pete. With his head off Hello little girl. This time he's not behind her in the mirror. He is out in the open. It's safe for him now” (137). As one learns in the novel, Kathleen becomes a homosexual, which was viewed as sinful in the early nineteenth century. Pete's appearances through Kathleen's vanity portray how Kathleen was repressing this inner demon, inner realization, through her depiction to others. Kathleen's repression, and Pete's resurgence, demonstrate how Kathleen Piper exhibited Freud's statement that if something “is repressed, into anxiety, then among instances of frightening things there must be one class in which the frightening element can be shown to be something repressed which recurs. This class of frightening things would constitute the uncanny” (241). Once again uncanny is portrayed through the character of Mercedes Piper by her inability to repress a burdened memory. A memory Mercedes acquires at a young age is of when she witnesses her father, James, raping her younger sister, Frances. Mercedes stores this mental image of her father and sister in the rocking chair but makes it evident that she is unable to repress it, “Advancing steadily towards the front of her mind is the memory of what she and Frances can't know together out loud. She has kept this memory on top of a pile of things at the back of her mind. Not buried. Right there where she can see it every time she passes the open door. But as long as she keeps it in the back room, she can believe that it belongs with the rest of the old junk” (374). Because of Mercedes willingness and failure to repress the burdening memory of her father and sister, she portrays a concept of uncanny. As well, Frances Piper exhibits uncanny through her representation of memory throughout the novella. Frances is symbolic of memory because of her ability to remember everything, and by being repressed from her father's life. Throughout Frances childhood and growth to adolescence she begins being repressed from her father's life: “[Frances's] ever-increasing erasure starts with James telling Frances to 'keep [her illicit behavior] away from Lily' (290), grows into 'increasing absence' (297), and culminates in James denying that Frances even exists; 'I don't have a daughter by that name,' (360)” (Baetz). Frances decreasing relationship with her father, James, portrays how Frances is like a repressed memory, attempting to be pushed aside and forgotten. However, like any other repressed memory illustrated throughout the novel, Frances demonstrates resurgence as she brings to life the past by being a constant presence of uncanny forms. Frances taunts James with memories of Kathleen, those that he is trying to forget by stating that it would be nice, “to see Kathleen now and then” (261). When Frances attempts to seduce Leo Taylor, a black man in the neighborhood, it triggers James's memory of Kathleen's miscegenation in New York. When James hears that Frances is, “fuckin' that precious spade, Leo Taylor” (360), He goes to rescue his daughter much like when he went to rescue Kathleen from New York. Frances's uncanny exploits and representations of repression and resurgence are another example in Fall On Your Knees of Freudian uncanny. Lastly, Lily Piper exhibits uncanny because she is, “a buried secret that eventually comes to light” (Baetz). Lily is not truly a Piper sister in a sense because she is the daughter of Kathleen, not Materia. However, she is the daughter of James, the result of Kathleen's rape by her father in New York. This is a secret to Lily as she grows up but eventually she discovers the truth. When Lily is being born, along with her twin deceased brother, Ambrose, she is described as, “a sunken treasure” (136) illustrating her representation of a secret that will eventually be recovered. Lily demonstrates undeniable uncanny when she leaves the Piper home, dressed in Kathleen's undeniable green dress, to travel to New York after she learns the truth of her existence. When Lily arrives in New York, she is the perfect depiction of her mother, Kathleen. Lily visits Rose, Kathleen's lover and the main conflict within the novella, and when she does Rose believes Lily is Kathleen coming back to her: “'I love you' says Rose. 'I know.' 'Never leave you.' 'It's okay.' 'Kathleen.'” (542). This instance portrays the memory of Kathleen resurfacing in Rose's life, a repressed memory that has now come to resurgence. Throughout the novel Lily demonstrates uncanny through her presence, much like Frances, she carries around a burdening secret of past events. Frances says to Lily, “We are the dead” (295) meaning they are “buried impulses, experiences, and even people refuse to remain hidden, refuse to be ignored” (Baetz). Through Lily Piper's uncanny presence, her symbolism of a secret waiting to be uncovered, and her ability to resurface repressed memories, are all instances in which Lily Piper is in Freudian terms, an uncanny secret that must be told. “Fall On Your Knees is itself an uncanny narrative … MacDonald replicates the act of repression and resurgence on a [thematic] level” (Baetz). Anne-Marie MacDonald's Fall On Your Knees portrays the lives of James, Materia, Kathleen, Mercedes, Lily, and Frances Piper to demonstrate repression, resurgence, and familiar instances to bring about the Freudian concept of uncanny. These character's inability to repress memories or burdened secrets allow them to bring about the strange, yet familiar, feeling of uncanny. Through James's mental and emotional traits, Materia's representation of a buried memory, Kathleen's inner demon, Mercedes inability to repress a memory, France's symbolic character of memory and repression, and Lily's life as an uncovering secret, all of the Piper family allow us, “to define the uncanny in a final or complete way” (Bernstein 1111). From “They're all dead now” (1) to “We are the dead” (295), the Piper family gives us a sense of a feeling that is strange, uneasy, yet familiar at the same time, but after the process of repression, it bursts forth and ultimately appears strange, but truthful.