Agatha Christie’s Unfinished Portrait: “The Girls”—alternate personalities that the main character had from age 10 to 19—are an example of Gratuitous Multiple Personality

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that the main character, Celia, from age ten to nineteen, had a private relationship with about seven imaginary girls. Note: age ten to nineteen is older than ordinary imaginary companions.

“The girls” are described as being more real to Celia than her real friends. And Celia would be absorbed in scenarios with these imaginary girls for hours on end. Indeed, her mother had to prohibit her from playing with “the girls” for more than three hours at a time (1, p. 103).

Each of “the girls” had her own name, age, and abilities. On rainy days “the girls gave a concert in the schoolroom, different pieces being allotted to them. It annoyed Celia very much that her fingers stumbled over Ethel’s piece…and that though she always allotted Isabella the most difficult, it went perfectly” (1, p. 102). Apparently, then, Celia was switching from one personality to another, and would have the ability characteristic of each personality—she had more musical ability when she was Isabella than when she was Ethel—as is typical in multiple personality.

Thus, Celia is being described as having multiple personality. But why is this in the book? It has no relation to the plot. It does not help explain Celia’s motivation. The author had no intention of raising the issue of multiple personality, per se. It is what I call “gratuitous multiple personality,” meaning that it is in the book only because it was part of the author’s personal experience.

1. Mary Westmacott [pseudonym of Agatha Christie]. Unfinished Portrait [1934]. New York, Jove Books, 1987.