Byatt's Possession

Jeffers, Jennifer. "The White Bed of Desire in A.S. Byatt's Possession." Critique 43.2 (2002): 30 pars. HumanitiesAbs. NewFirstSearch. Lubbock Christian U Lib., Lubbock. 08 Nov. 2006 http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.

White symbolizes the color of light, purity, and perfection. It is closely associated with the absolute (both the beginning and the end, as well as their union) and consequently is used at marriages, initiations, and death. Jennifer Jeffers contends that the "achromatic color white functions as a trope of desire and imbricates the pairs of lovers and the reader in a longing that can be fulfilled only through reading the white page" (1). Jeffers critically examines white as not only a trope of desire but also as a geographical destiny, an object, an image, and an ineffable experience (3).

Jeffers' research of white in art begins with the historical links between white and black and good and evil. Artists argue the theory of whether or not black and white are actually true colors or just the instruments used to bring all other colors to reality. Further study of art and color brings Jeffers to the conclusion that white is indeed a color. She continues to convey the idea that Byatt used the color white to woo readers to the story. Again, assigning desire to whiteness, she draws readers to the printed page. Jeffers contends that even the white spaces between letters, words, and paragraphs invoke the readers' desire to possess the text.

The lost correspondence between Victorian-era poets Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Henry Ash brings scholars Maud Bailey and Roland Michell together. Bailey and Michell desire to know the relationship between the poets as their relationship develops in the tale. The letters, which again are symbolic of the white trope of desire, expose the evolution of Ash and LaMotte's relationship from acquaintance to affair. As Ash and LaMotte begin their correspondence, we see that each one is taking small, or as children used to say in the game, "Mother, May I," baby steps in pursuing the possibility of interest in each other. In the beginning letters, each one uses great caution to write and sometimes re-write in such a way as to not be misunderstood or presumptuous. The letters contain many exaggerated hyphens indicating pauses which show the writers are thinking through what they are trying to convey to the readers. In one letter Ash writes, "The essential point in it is 'if you care to write again,' for by that permission you encourage me more than by your wish not to be seen - which I must respect - you cast me down" (Byatt 173). LaMotte is equally thoughtful as she writes, "If I held Silence - too long - forgive me. I deliberated indeed not whether but what - I might Reply - since you do me the honour - I had almost writ, the painful honour - but indeed it is not - that is not so - of trusting