The War- Marguerite Duras Analysis

    As Duras writes about the arrival of her husband, she explains, “I can’t remember what exactly happened. He must have looked at me and recognize me and smiled. I shrieked no, that I didn’t want to see” (p.239). She is in shock when she finally sees her husband again after so long, and he looked like a stranger. He was so ill and weakened from the war and being in the concentration camps in Germany. Robert was near death with a high fever and would not eat for several days. He was not hungry and could not take any food without his stomach bursting. His organs and whole body were so delicate. Duras said when describing what it was like for her when she was taking care of her husband each day, “I fall asleep anywhere. I wake in terror. It’s awful, every time I think he’s died while I was asleep” (p.244). She lived in constant fear of her husband dying without the chance to say goodbye. Duras would not eat and could not sleep for days on end. She does not handle this trauma well. I think the reason for her writing about this traumatic experienced was her way of coping with it. My idea for the reasoning behind why she is writing about her experience is similar to another woman we read, Vera Brittain. She lost loved ones in the war and was writing about her trauma with losing them. Even though Duras’s husband did not die and was home with her, she went through a horrible experience with him being so ill with the fear of his death every single hour. I imagine it helped them to process their traumatic experiences and be able to keep moving forward.

Word Count: 292

Comments

  1. Katie TaylorFebruary 22, 2021 at 6:43 AM

    This was a heartbreaking account of how Duras was reunited with her husband, but because he was in such terrible condition, she almost did not recognize him. The war along with being in a concentration camp had taken such a toll on him that he was just a shell of himself. You did a great job of explaining how taking care of her husband after he had returned, which should be considered a happy occasion, brought much stress and trauma onto Duras. During this time, I doubt that it was common to discuss her feelings and keeping them to herself must have broken her even more. It's sad to think about how much she was looking forward to seeing her husband again and then having to worry daily (like she did when he was away) about whether he would survive or not.

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