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The Last September
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Themes
The Protections of Power and Privilege
The Protestant, upper-class Anglo Irish characters of The Last September often behave as if they are distant from and uncaring about the Irish War of Independence, an attitude they are able to maintain because of the power and privilege afforded to them by their wealth and status as English people who were born and live in Ireland, and therefore do not identify and are not identified as “fully” Irish. They are not quite “of” Ireland, as an aristocracy established under British rule, but they are also not quite English. This in-between position affords the characters considerable protection from the harsh realities of the Irish War of Independence, even though the war is taking place all around the comforts of their stately home. However, it means their attitudes toward the war and the two countries they claim are ambivalent, and these seem to further exonerate them from culpability or action on either side.
Although the English soldiers are partly in Ireland to protect the Anglo Irish population from the Irish revolutionaries, these characters often exhibit irritation or minor disdain for the English. Sir Richard and Lady Naylor speak disparagingly of Francie’s fears about their safety while at Danielstown, telling her, “’You’re getting very English, Francie!’” (26) Lady Naylor also criticizes the English and speaks of them as a cold-hearted people more than once. They also know that the English look down on them. Despite their privileged positions in Ireland and their familial connections to the English aristocracy, the English often see them as much more provincial and look down on them, as when Mrs. Vermont, who is only an officer’s wife, disparages the Big Houses in Ireland, comparing them to English estates. The Anglo Irish know about this English view of them and reference it in jest. One common jest in The Last September is to note how “everyone,” or all of the Anglo Irish upper class, is related to one another. The seclusion of the island and the upper class’s desire not to mix with the lower classes has led to abundant marriages between the major Anglo Irish families.
The privileged Anglo Irish are also torn between their own sense of superiority and their care for their lower-class neighbors and servants. Perhaps because of their comparative isolation on the island, they have developed relationships with the lower classes. Even if these relationships are somewhat surface-level, the Anglo Irish characters of The Last September still demonstrate a sense of care for the lower classes, who have been harassed by English soldiers in their attempts to stamp out rebellion. Lois speaks of one local man who is on the run, telling Hugo about how the man could be shot on sight for being part of an ambush in County Clare. She says of his escape after a first arrest, “’I was so glad. […] But don’t speak of it – one cannot be too careful’” (91). Sir Richard expresses similar care, and when Laurence announces Gerald’s part in arresting the rebel, Sir Richard expresses mostly sorrow for the man and his family, particularly since his mother is ill. They seem unable to help their feelings of sympathy for some of the lower-class Irish, even when those same people participate in revolutionary activities. Nonetheless, the Anglo Irish appreciate the English soldiers’ attempts to protect them and their homes, and Lady Naylor tries to claim that many lower-class Irish people actually do not want the Anglo Irish to leave. These families may be torn in their sympathies, but they do not want to lose their positions of power.
Personal Identity During Political Upheaval
Many of the characters in The Last September struggle in some way to define themselves against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, but this conflict of identity is amplified in Lois. She comes of age during a period of great social and political upheaval, and struggles to define who she is amidst that upheaval. The social and political status quo in Ireland is in flux, and Lois’s identity crisis represents the greater crisis in a changing Ireland. Hugo notes a restlessness of sorts in Lois early on, but he identifies it as a result of her age and natural temperament, inherited from her mother: “He supposed that unformed, anxious to make an effect, she would marry early” (34). For men like Hugo, Lois’s restlessness and eagerness to please is a result of her status as a young woman who wants to make something of herself through marriage. The novel slowly reveals that Lois has more on her mind than marriage, and even her thoughts of marriage are complicated by the effects of social and political upheaval. She worries over whether she should feel more for Gerald, the English soldier who loves her, and it is clear that girls like her have fewer “appropriate” men around to marry, partly because of the great losses of World War I. Those losses make it more common for people to marry outside their own class, and Lois experiences the tensions caused by this when she agrees to marry Gerald but her aunt conspires to keep them apart, since Gerald is a “lowly” soldier.
As for her experience with political upheaval, Lois understands on some level that there is heightened danger in Ireland. However, her family’s blasé attitude toward those dangers creates a divide between the real-life dangers of war and her immediate surroundings in and around Ireland’s Big Houses. Early in the novel, she takes a walk down the lane of Danielstown and nearly runs into a man walking nearby; she hides since she may be in danger if he is a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the aftermath she rushes home, feeling more alive than normal, but she quickly loses her excitement over the idea of telling her family. She realizes they would not understand and would not listen, and she thinks to herself, “Conceivably she had surprised life at a significant angle in the shrubbery. But it was impossible to speak of this” (43). Lois has strong feelings of wanting to be more connected to the reality of her country, as her words to Gerald about a barrack burning reveal:
Do you know that while that was going on, eight miles off, I was cutting a dress out, a voile that I didn’t even need, and playing the gramophone? . . . How is it that in this country that ought to be full of such violent realness there seems nothing for me but clothes and what people say? I might as well be in some kind of cocoon. […] I might at least have felt something! (66)
She is anxious to feel something more, but many others of her own class are so disengaged that Lois struggles to feel much herself. She nonetheless has her own strong opinions, although those opinions are not terribly informed. She asks Hugo about why the war is happening, and when he says the Irish are fighting for freedom, she asks, “’What is it exactly […] that they mean by freedom? What does it affect? What is it besides an excuse for war?’” (86) When Hugo replies that he supposes they fight for “’some kind of a final peace – stability,’” she replies that “’to fight’s absurd; the more one keeps on, the further from it one is’” (86). Lois has been kept from many of the realities of war, so she cannot understand it fully, especially since anything she hears is painted from the perspective of her upper-class society. She cannot find a proper outlet for her feelings, because her immediate society tries to ignore the conflict even as their daily lives are affected by it. She wonders if there will ever be anything she and her social class can do about the war “’except not notice,’” highlighting the way that her family and friends have tried to deal with difficulties by turning away and letting the English handle the conflict (117).
The Decline of an Empire
The Last September takes place against the backdrop of the decline of the British Empire, in Ireland at least. Although the British Empire truly began to fall after World War II (after the novel’s publication), the Irish War of Independence contributed to the process of failure as the Irish Republican Army successfully freed southern Ireland from English rule. Lois and the rest of the Anglo Irish ascendancy witness the local fall of the British Empire and experience the ramifications of having been representatives of English power in Ireland.
The novel establishes a sense of danger and change early on through Francie’s worries over safety at Danielstown. She tells the Naylors that people in County Carlow “had told her things were so bad round here that she made a grave mistake in coming at all” (27). Despite the Naylors’ dismissal of this as nonsense, danger is a constant subtext of the novel, from Lois’s near-encounter with a soldier on the avenue to her and Marda’s encounter with an IRA fighter and Gerald’s death in the final chapters. The characters remind one another to be careful, and they take precautions when it comes to their own safety, but the Anglo Irish and the English often speak of the war as if it is a minor inconvenience.
Elizabeth Bowen uses Gerald as a symbol of the British Empire and its attitude toward itself and those over whom it rules. When Laurence asks Gerald what he really thinks of the war, Gerald responds, “‘Well, the situation’s rotten. But right is right. […] from the point of view of civilisation’” (132). When Laurence asks him to clarify what he means about civilization, Gerald demonstrates the viewpoint that is the backbone of English imperial power: “‘Oh – ours’” (132). His response reveals the English view that their civilization is, in a sense, the only civilization – in other words, the only civilization worth much of anything. When the English took over various lands around the world, they implemented schools and more violent methods of coercion to force locals to live as the English lived.
Despite the tight hold England kept over its colonies for centuries, their imperial hold begins to decline, and Ireland becomes the first colony (since the United States over a century prior) to challenge power. The aristocracy in both England and Ireland cling to their power and make light of the war to belittle it and place themselves above it. Comments about the realities of war creep into conversation, but the characters always move back to banal topics, like the young Anglo Irish women’s appreciation for the young male soldiers’ presence, since it allows them to dance and have boys with whom they can flirt. The Naylors themselves always dismiss more serious comments about the war. The upper class’s desperate – but veiled – clinging to their old way of life reveals the tension that haunts their lives as the containing walls of the empire begin to crack.
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