“The Good Soldier” by Ford Madox Ford (post 2): Narrator claims “a silent listener,” infers “a dual personality,” and has trouble controlling characters

For whom do novelists write? They write primarily to suit themselves, and secondarily to suit readers. Where are the readers? Out in the world somewhere. The one place with no readers is the room where the novelist is writing. Please read the following with that in mind:

“I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it. I have stuck to my idea of being in a country cottage with a silent listener, hearing between the gusts of the wind and amidst the noises of the distant sea, the story as it comes. And when one discusses an affair—a long, sad, affair—one goes back, and one goes forward” (1, p. 143).

Thus, the story is not being told via the written novel to readers out in the world somewhere, but to “a silent listener” in the same room. But how can there be two persons in a room that has only one person, the writer? The only way would be for the writer to have multiple personality.

Is there any other evidence that the narrator has multiple personality? Yes, he infers it about himself, twice: “It is as if one had a dual personality…” (1, p. 85). “I suppose that my inner soul—my dual personality…” (1, p. 96).

As to why the narrator tells the story in such “a very rambling way,” in which he goes back and forth in time, he says “…I cannot help it. It is so difficult to keep all these people going” (1, p. 169). That is, the narrator gets much of the story from the characters themselves, but they are not continuously available and completely cooperative, which means they have a degree of independence that would make them alternate personalities.

Comment

In my previous post, I raised the question of how this novel’s famous first line—“This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”—could be true. Perhaps the “silent listener” (see above) is expressing his opinion.

1. Ford Madox Ford. The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion [1915]. Oxford University Press, 2012.