Notes
Daphne Du Maurier, Jamaica Inn, London: Virago, 2015, 292.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Breaking Point: Short Stories, London: Virago, 2009, 108.
Ibid., 147. In “The Pool”, “Deborah thought of Icarus, soaring towards the sun. Did he know when his wings began to melt? How did he feel? She stretched out her arms and thought of them as wings. The fingertips would be the first to curl, and then turn cloggy soft, and useless. What terror on the sudden loss of height, the drooping power.” (147) When Deborah herself “flung up her arms to the sky” (138), “the joy was indescribable, and the surge of feeling, like wings about her in the air, lifted her away” (140). Amidst this euphoric outburst, her overriding vision is dominated by “the beating of wings. This above all, the beating of wings” (141). In “Ganymede”, the narrator, who imagines “the boy and I, soaring towards the sun […] as though both of us plunged headlong into the molten mist which was neither sea nor sky, but the luminous rings encircling the star” (119), also displays the five components of Henry A. Murray’s Icarus complex, rooted in Jungian personality theories, which I will outline in this article. Stephen in “The Chamois” also manifests components of the Icarus complex whilst the eagle, mentioned five times throughout the tale, “soared” (261). Du Maurier’s recurring use of the phrase, “soaring towards the sun”, connects these three Icarian stories originally published together in The Breaking Point (1959). Further examples of Du Maurier’s evocation of the Icarian imagination include: “A Difference in Temperament” (1929), “The Doll” (1937), and “The Old Man” (1952). Some feature Icarian scenarios, in which protagonists experience the euphoria or horror of avian transformation or flight; others portray a protagonist who manifests, with remarkable accuracy, the five features of Murray’s Icarus personality complex. Most of these short stories encompass both of these mythic and psychoanalytic dimensions. Although it is beyond the scope of this article to include analysis of the full extent of Du Maurier’s pervasive and persistent use of the Icarus myth and related personality complex, it is nonetheless worth noting that these Icarian tales, including The Flight of the Falcon, span five decades of Du Maurier’s writing career.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, London: Virago, 2006, 304.
Richard Kelly, Daphne Du Maurier, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987, 130.
Nina Auerbach, Daphne Du Maurier: Haunted Heiress, Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2000, 65.
Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik, “Glimpses of the Dark Side”, in Helen Taylor (ed.), The Daphne Du Maurier Companion, London: Virago, 2010, 242-248, 243.
Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik, Daphne Du Maurier: Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, 170.
Richard Kelly, op. cit., 113.
Melanie Jane Heeley, Resurrection, Renaissance, Rebirth: Religion, Psychology and Politics in the Life and Works of Daphne Du Maurier, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Loughborough U, 2007, rev. 2019, <https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/Resurrection_renaissance_rebirth_religion_psychology_and_politics_in_the_life_and_works_of_Daphne_du_Maurier/9326801>, accessed 8 March 2020, 185.
For evidence of Du Maurier’s broader interest in Graeco-Roman myth, see her essay, “Romantic Love” (Rebecca Notebook 99-108). Heeley explores mythic dimensions of The Flight of the Falcon and acknowledges Du Maurier’s interest in Jung (“Greece” and Resurrection). Horner and Zlosnik recognise that “undoubtedly there are Jungian resonances in this late novel, evidence of the influence of Du Maurier’s reading of Jung’s work” (Daphne Du Maurier 160). Margaret Forster also points out the novel’s interest in Jungian theory (336).
Daphne Du Maurier, Letters From Menabilly: Portrait of a Friendship, ed. Oriel Malet, New York: M. Evans, 1992, 34, 48.
Ivan Magee was a fan of Du Maurier’s fiction who had initially written to her with questions about Rebecca. The pair subsequently developed a correspondence that touched on personal subjects and included Du Maurier’s frequent references to Jungian theories. See Special Collections, Exeter Archives, University of Exeter, ‘Letters to Ivan Magee”, EUL MS 354. Permission to reproduce excerpts from Du Maurier’s unpublished letters, typescripts, and research materials held at Special Collections, Exeter Archives, University of Exeter, is granted by her son and literary executor, Christopher Browning and The Chichester Partnership.
Daphne Du Maurier, Letters From Menabilly, op. cit., 33, 39, 141.
Ibid., 33.
Ibid., 39.
Ibid., x.
Ibid., 141. This letter is dated 9 November 1962. Her first mention of “brewing” the novel that became The Flight of the Falcon appears in a letter dated 11 March 1963 (149-50). Although she claims to have read all of Jung’s publications, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, first published in 1933, is the only one she mentions specifically.
Ibid., 167.
The following are exceptions: Horner and Zlosnik dedicate a thirteen-page section to The Flight of the Falcon; Heeley has written a twenty-page section on the novel as part of her PhD thesis, and has subsequently published a journal article relating to this research. Neither of these studies identify the novel’s symbiosis with Murray’s Icarus complex or examine its Jungian elements in detail.
Du Maurier predicted that The Flight of the Falcon would be misunderstood; she lamented that her publisher, Victor Gollancz, had failed to recognise the ““Deeper” Thought layers” and “just thinks it’s a suspense story” (Du Maurier, Letters From Menabilly, 176). Furthermore, she admitted, “I’m afraid people are not going to understand [The Flight of the Falcon] at all” (Du Maurier, Letters From Menabilly, 177). Du Maurier’s predictions were realised by contemporary critics, who condemned the novel as another “little” “bestseller” and an “extraordinarily dull book” (Kelly, Daphne Du Maurier, 108).
“Some of the[se] symbols […] derive from what Dr. Jung has called “the collective unconscious” – that is, that part of the psyche which retains and transmits the common psychological inheritance of mankind” (Carl Gustav Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols, 98).
Carl Gustav Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols, New York: Random House, 1964, 38.
Ibid., 113.
Ibid., 146-156.
Ibid., 147.
Ibid., 155-156.
See, in particular, the following images: “Scalette di Santa Margherita”, Italia Artistica No. 6: Urbino; “Panorama Sulla Conca del Catria”, Italia Artistica No. 6: Urbino; “Scalette di S. Giovanni, Italia Artistica No. 6: Urbino; “La Scala a chiocciola nei torricini”, I Tesori Dell’Arte Italiana: Il Palazzo Ducale di Urbino; “Palazzo Ducale – Tiziano: La Resurrezione”, Italia Artistica No. 6: Urbino; and “L’Aquila di Federico Conte”, I Tesori Dell”Arte Italiana: Il Palazzo Ducale di Urbino. These images belong to Special Collections, Exeter Archives, University of Exeter, “Research Materials relating to Flight of the Falcon”, EUL MS 207/6/1/3/1.
Daphne Du Maurier, Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 58.
Carl Gustav Jung, Man and His Symbols, op. cit., 101.
Ibid., 112-113.
Daphne Du Maurier, Letters From Menabilly, op. cit., 48.
Murray’s life and work were intimately bound and influenced by Jung’s. An interview with Murray, conducted in 1975 by American psychoanalyst James William Anderson, reveals the extent of the connections between Jung and Murray. Anderson asserts that in 1925 “Murray underwent an analysis lasting a few weeks with him. In later years, Murray had several visits with him and corresponded with him […]. Murray was enchanted with Jung during the period of the analysis” (James William Anderson, “An Interview with Henry A. Murray on His Meeting with Sigmund Freud”, Psychoanalytic Psychology, vol. 34, no. 3, March 2016, 322-332, 324). In this interview, Murray also recalls a time when Jung participated in talks given during two-hour-long lunch events at Harvard Psychological Clinic, where Murray was based (327). Tellingly, in this interview purportedly centering on Murray’s “meeting with Sigmund Freud” (322), the former refers to Jung no less than twenty-four times. For further evidence of Murray’s connections to Jung, see Forrest G. Robinson’s biography of Murray (1992), which contains nineteen references to Jung, four references to the Icarus complex, and a reference to the Icarus complex in relation to Jung.
Henry A. Murray, “American Icarus”, in Arthur Burton & Robert E. Harris (eds.), Clinical Studies of Personality [1955], New York: Harper & Row, 1966, 631-638. Murray sees bisexuality as a further indicator of his complex. Du Maurier’s novel also satisfies this element but it is beyond the scope of this article to fully investigate it.
Ibid., 616.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 106.
Special Collections, Exeter Archives, University of Exeter, “Letters to Ivan Magee”, letter dated “December 14. 1960”, EUL MS 354.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 631.
Used in the field of psychology, “cathex” refers to “the concentration or accumulation of mental energy in a particular channel” (OED, accessed 8 March 2020).
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 631.
Ibid., 635.
Ibid., 629.
Ibid., 621.
Ibid., 624.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 35, 83, 303.
Ibid., 303.
Ibid., 14.
Ibid., 14.
Ibid., 39.
Ibid., 42.
Ibid., 30.
Ibid., 30.
Ibid., 30.
Ibid., 635.
Ibid., 69-70.
Amendment on “Typescript of The Flight of the Falcon (1965)”, 113-14. EUL MS 144/1/13, Special Collections, Exeter archives, University of Exeter.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 35.
Ibid., 264.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 619.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 260.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 632.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 291.
Ibid., 297.
Ibid., 292.
Ibid., 292.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 635.
Ibid., 633.
Michael A. Sperber, “Albert Camus: Camus’ The Fall: The Icarus Complex,” American Imago, vol. 26, no. 3, 1969, 269-280, 273. My approach is directed in part by what Sperber has to say about Albert Camus’s novel, The Fall. Sperber demonstrates a likewise remarkable correlation between the components of Murray’s Icarus complex and the nature of Camus’s character, Clamence.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 624.
Ibid., 624.
Ibid., 626.
Ibid., 639.
Ibid., 630.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 13.
King James Bible, Mark 16:19.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 637.
Ibid., 637.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 32.
Ibid., 35.
Ibid.,13.
Special Collections, Exeter Archives, University of Exeter, “Research Materials relating to Flight of the Falcon”, EUL MS 207/6/1/3/1.
Ibid., 13.
King James Bible, Matthew 4:6-10.
Furthermore, Aldo establishes himself as a dual figure, at once Jesus and Satan, as Armino reveals: “I did not know whether I should meet with the Christ or with the Devil, for according to Aldo’s ingenious theory the two were one, and also, in some manner which he never explained, interchangeable” (Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, 12). In many visual interpretations of this biblical scene, Satan’s wings are depicted as distinctly bird-like and therefore further foreshadow Aldo’s own winged persona. These Icarian symptoms become indistinguishable from the novel’s avian imagery when these ascensionist/precipitative figures converge: “the face of the Christ, gazing out from the portrait to the hills beyond, had been drawn by the daring artist in the likeness of Claudio, the mad duke, named the Falcon, who in a frenzy had thrown himself from the tower, believing, so the story ran, that he was the Son of God.” Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 13).
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 637, original italics.
Ibid., 638, original italics.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 73.
Ibid., 165.
Ibid., 274.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 637.
Ibid., 637.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 300.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 631.
Michael A. Sperber, op. cit., 274.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 618.
Ibid., 631.
Ibid., 631.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 53.
Ibid., 29.
Ibid., 30. I quoted a condensed version of this passage in a previous section to illustrate the undulating topography of Ruffano. It is worth quoting again here, with further details included, to show the extent of its equally snowy, watery aspects: “snow-covered […] snowflakes fell, or rather we ran into them as we came up from the south; they must have been falling all day. The sky became a pall. The rivers, swollen with the coursing mountain streams, roared through the ravines beside us. […] It was magnificent. […] Snow banked the road as it curved upward, lay thick upon the roof-tops, made phantoms of the trees, and, crowning the minarets of the twin towers of the palace and the Duomo and campanile beyond, turned my city into legend, into dream” (30).
Ibid., 35.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 624.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 246
Ibid., 35.
Ibid., 34.
Ibid., 36.
Ibid., 38.
Ibid., 130.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 625.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 93.
Ibid., 95.
Ibid., 96.
Ibid., 98.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 639.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 33.
Ibid., 38.
Ibid., 29.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 623.
Ibid., 618.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 84.
First, by Armino and his mother, who flee Ruffano, leaving Marta without explanation; second, by Aldo, who refuses to acknowledge her as his birth mother; and thirdly, by Armino, who deserts her after discovering her slumped in a drunken stupor on the streets of Rome.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 285.
For insights into matricide in The Flight of the Falcon, see Melanie Jane Heeley, “‘Greece as Inscape’ in Daphne Du Maurier’s The Flight of the Falcon”, in Rebecca Munford & Helen Taylor (eds), Women: a Cultural Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 2009, 42-56, 50-53; Heeley, Resurrection, op. cit., 186-191; or Horner and Zlosnik, Daphne Du Maurier, op. cit., 170-172.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 299.
Ibid., 299.
Ibid., 85.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 623.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 32.
Ibid., 35.
Ibid., 290.
Ibid.,173.
Ibid., 259-260.
Ibid., 138.
Ibid., 138.
Ibid., 134.
Ibid., 241.
Nina Auerbach, op. cit., 111-112.
Ibid., 110.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 242.
Scenes of bird flesh and egg consumption, and reactions of nausea or revulsion, abound in Du Maurier’s fiction from her earliest short stories (“Fairy Tale”, “Indiscretion”, “Frustration”, and “Nothing Hurts for Long”) to her mid-career, heroine-centred novels (Frenchman’s Creek and The King’s General) to many later short stories, like “Split Second”, “The Rendezvous”, “The Apple Tree”, “The Alibi”, “The Blue Lenses”, “Ganymede”, “The Pool”, “The Chamois”, “A Border-Line Case”, and “The Way of the Cross.” Three of the tales mentioned in the opening section of this article (“Ganymede”, “The Chamois”, and “The Pool”) contain scenes of bird consumption: in “The Pool”, Deborah, on the brink of a sexual rite of passage, muses on the fate of Icarus while pondering the consequences of human disregard for consumed birds; the narrator of “Ganymede” imagines the object of his desire serving him a swan instead of coffee; and the nauseating effect of fried eggs on the narrator of “The Chamois” also signals the uneasy bourgeoning of sexual awakening. In the earlier tales, the consumption of bird flesh and eggs occurs amidst delusional protagonists’ confrontations with awkward truths. Throughout the tales of the 1950s, scenes of bird consumption continue to appear during episodes of crises in the lives of men, and during moments of potential awakening in the lives of women. In the 1970s, Du Maurier re-enlists this avian trope in “A Border-Line Case”, a tale of unwitting father-daughter incest, the perpetrators of which eat hard-boiled eggs and cold chicken. Most are concerned with the power dynamics at play in sexual relationships and encounters; others probe the coming-to-terms with a stifled, yet threatening, sexual identity. In all of these tales, engagement with commodified birds’ eggs and flesh always signals malcontent. When couples share an avian meal, or one of the couple partakes in bird consumption in the presence of the other, such as the linnet-like Dona St Columb’s conflicted partaking of chicken during trysts with her bird-admiring lover in Frenchman’s Creek and Honor Harris’s swan consumption and sickness during an illicit encounter with the bird hunting and hawking Richard Grenvile, Du Maurier implies a dysfunctional relationship in some way.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 89.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 640.
Ibid., 640.
Daphne Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 304.
Henry A. Murray, op. cit., 615.
Daphne Du Maurier, Letters, op. cit., 167.
Du Maurier, The Flight of the Falcon, op. cit., 35.
Horner and Zlosnik, op. cit., 5.
Handwritten letter to Magee, dated “February 19. 1964.” Special Collections, Exeter Archives, University of Exeter, “Letters to Ivan Magee”, EUL MS 354.
Nina Auerbach, op. cit., 104.
Heeley also reads The Flight of the Falcon as metatext, but with an emphasis on Du Maurier’s “ekphraseis” (“Greece” 42, 54).
Michael A. Sperber, op. cit., 280.
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