Despondency
The novel is a penetration into the mind. The narrative is an expression of the title character’s unfiltered thoughts. They are not written down; this is narration as it is occurring. And the gamut of emotions runs thick and wide and far and deep. Metaphor helps the emotional expressions along:
“The twilight stares in. It stares in like a ghost - like a hundred ghosts. Ghost are rising up out of my meadow.”
Dialogue
There is dialogue in the novel, but it is received perceptually through the mind of Else. And that mind is a bit less than reliable as far as narration goes. Is the dialogue actually taking place or is it existing only in the mind of Else? Who knows? But the language of metaphor and lofty discourse suggests strongly it is the latter:
“I’m not a blackmailer, I’m only a man who has had many experiences and has learnt, among other things, that everything in this world had its price, and that anyone who gives away his money when he might get something in return for it is a consummate fool.”
The Blackmailer
The philosopher blackmailer is the antagonist of the story, Herr von Dorsday. The plot, such as it is, revolves around an agreement made by Else’s father for her to remove her clothes and allow Dorsday to gaze upon her in exchange for a considerable sum of money to be used to get the family out of debt. Maybe.
“What do you want, Herr von Dorsday? You look at me as though I were your slave.”
Scattered Brain
Scatterbrained is a term used to describe someone who can’t keep their mind on a single subject. In reality, of course, that is the nature of all minds. If a machine could be invented to type out thoughts as they occur—including images as well as verbal incarnations—the result would a narrative that is all over the place. From poetic metaphor to petty putdown; that is the nature of how the brain processes:
“The air is like champagne. In an hour it’ll be time for dinner. I can’t bear Cissy. She doesn’t care a scrap about her little girl. What shall I wear?”
Paranoia
The fuel driving this interior monologue is paranoia, with the caveat that, as the saying goes, it isn’t paranoia if they really are out to get you. But, of course, that is the crux of the story: what is really happening here? Is it what Else tells us or is it what the characters around her say to each other in her fever dream of perceptual reality?
“They're all murderers, Dorsday and Cissy and Paul; Fred is a murderer too, and Mother is a murderess. They've all murdered me and pretend to know nothing about it. She killed herself, they’ll say.”
