Christina Gaita'S Story Is A Chronicle Of The Course Of A Mental Illness That Leads To Her Tragic End. Should Romulus Take Responsibility For His Part In His Wife'S Descent Into Depression And Despair, Or Is It The Deficiencies In Her Character That B

In Raimond Gaita's memoir 'Romulus, My Father', it is clear that both Romulus and Christina share the responsibility for her descent into depression and despair. However Romulus and Christina alone are not the only ones to blame for other exterior factor influenced her spiraling descent into a mental illness.

It is hard to say which of Christine's actions were caused by her, and which of them were caused by her mental illness. It was her actions, and no others that caused her to have the affairs that made Romulus push her away. Her affairs cannot be blamed solely on loneliness and the want of company, for readers are told that even on the boat to Australia Christina was committing acts of infidelity. Possibly her affairs were an outlet for the depression. However, no matter which it was caused by, it was her numerous affairs and her inability to look after Raimond that caused Romulus to move to Frogmore. Back at the migrant camp she had company, she had women she could talk to but at Frogmore, she had none but a 6 year old boy. In this aspect of her loneliness, it was her fault. In addition to that, it was of her own free will she moved to Frogmore, away from people, and into a new stage of despair. It was through her own actions she was committed to loneliness, and thus, despair.

Romulus plays his own part in his wife's depression for he was a hard man to live with. He was too good, his morals and values far outclassed the normal man. It is this quality that made him extraordinary, however, for Christina who hardly lived by her sense of what was right, this was intolerable for she could see, if not feel the contrast. He was not a tolerant man, living in a world of black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. Romulus worked too hard. When she was home, he 'took the opportunity to work overtime'. Communication between the two was hard to come by. This added another level of loneliness that could not be remedied except by another affair. They may have been man and wife but this did not mean that they knew each other. Perhaps he subconsciously pushed her away once he knew of the affairs, making her feel unwelcome, forcing her away.

Part of the blame of Christina's depression goes to both Romulus and Christina because after the war they did not stop to review their love for each other. The war made the relationship to an older man 'involved with the black market' more 'exotic' to a 'young and rebellious' girl. She was involved in a 'rollercoaster of wild emotion' that ended as soon as the war was over, where she found herself married and with a child. Both Romulus and Christina had a responsibility to each other and to their newborn child. Christina soon proved she was incapable not only of these two responsibilities, but of any responsibility whatsoever. After Raimond was born, she was 'incapable of looking after' him, and it is suspected she had postnatal depression. The birth of her child marked the first step in her