Mantissa

When I began reading Mantissa, I continually got the feeling that I would not really know what to expect from the text next. At first glance, Fowles took me by surprise in his writing style and in the plotline of his novel. However, after getting a feel for the book and coming to terms with the fact that anything, literally anything, could happen at any given time, I really enjoy the direction that Fowles takes.

One of the more obvious theories that I initially related the book to is psychoanalytic theory. Fowles makes it a point to discuss the conscious and the unconscious of Miles, his main character who is located in a hospital and being treated for amnesia. The use of psychoanalysis helped me understand that the characters of the book and the scenery that are mentioned are being represented by some sort of sexual tension. The trick that Fowles snuck in there lies in the representation of the conscious and the unconscious in terms of the characters. For example, Miles’ wife stands in as his unconscious; he views her as a cliché woman of the times by stating that she is essentially the image of what a man would want, although her image is something that he really doesn’t want. On the other hand, Miles’ conscious lets him consider the nurse to be classy and desirable.

Similarly, Fowles incorporates the setting in terms of the unconscious and conscious. Certain things in the novel represent Miles’ feelings. The clock, for example, is a symbol of annoyance for him which he considers as “an incongruous reminder of all he could not remember” (p 11). He is upset that he is basically being outsmarted by the inanimate object of a clock which proves to be his reality.

With that being said, I feel as though it’s quite evident that psychoanalytic theory can be seen as controlling Miles throughout the portion of that novel that I have read. His thoughts are at stake, and I suppose it’s just a matter of time until we see if this theory can be traced throughout the remainder of the novel.

Hasta luego,
La Sonrisita