Katherine Mansfield ‘a Tragic Woman’ (Press, 20 July 1977)
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Summary: Katherine Mansfield ‘a Tragic Woman’ (Press, 20 July 1977)
A new analysis of Katherine Mansfield's tumultuous life and marriage has emerged in the book "Married to Genius," written by Jeffrey Meyers. The book examines how the marital dynamics of several prominent twentieth-century writers—including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and George Bernard Shaw—affected their artistic output, with a specific focus on Mansfield's relationship with her husband, John Middleton Murry, and her father. Meyers contends that Mansfield's complicated feelings towards her father, a self-made tycoon whom she regarded as both the richest and meanest man in New Zealand, shaped her views on men. He suggests that her father's provision of financial support instead of emotional nurturing contributed to her deep-seated insecurity. As a result, Mansfield sought emotional solace that her husband was unable to provide. Murry often distanced himself from her emotional needs, leading to an increasingly strained relationship. Throughout their challenging marriage, particularly during the winters that Mansfield spent outside England due to health issues, Murry's refusal to accompany her highlighted the cracks in their union. Mansfield's realisation that "all was not well" in their relationship was exacerbated by feelings of abandonment, which she expressed in her 1919 poem "The New Husband," framing herself as a helpless child abandoned by Murry, with death framing her as a potential escape. Meyers illustrates how Murry's frugality added to Mansfield's hardships, suggesting that his acceptance of her deteriorating health and his romanticised vision of her illness hastened her demise. Influenced by Murry's perception of her as a "doomed genius," Mansfield began to view herself as part of the legacy of artists who had succumbed to tuberculosis. Despite medical advice in 1918 suggesting that a year of discipline in a sanatorium could save her, Murry's reluctance to push her towards recovery is implicated in her tragic fate. Mansfield is depicted as a figure of female liberation for her time, engaging in behaviours such as smoking, sporting bobbed hair, and having lesbian experiences, alongside an abortion. Nonetheless, she experienced frustration over her childlessness, yearning for a conventional and secure marriage—a partnership akin to that of George Eliot and George Henry Lewes, which emphasised equality. Although Murry possessed charm and attractiveness, Meyers characterises him as insensitive and lacking in intelligence, unable to fulfil Mansfield's desire for an egalitarian relationship. In her final reflections on their life together, Mansfield poignantly acknowledged the strain of their marriage: "Life together, with me ill, is simply torture with happy moments. But it is not life." This insight captures the essence of her struggle for both artistic expression and personal fulfilment amidst a tumultuous marital landscape.
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