Sleep Has His House

Kavan explains that Sleep Has His House ‘describes in the night-time language certain stages in the development of one individual human being.’ In relation to Kavan’s explanation of the novel, physical space can be related to the ‘certain stages’ of the novel, understood as the filtered spaces which the narrator is placed in. The psychological ‘development’ Kavan refers to can be defined as the psychological changes and progression, which are illustrated in conjunction with the physical spaces of the novel. The downward trend of B’s psychological development becomes evident in the setting of ‘THE ELMS’, the boarding school, the diction surrounding the ‘night-time world’ and the final house. Through the discussion of these settings, the impact
Mallett argues that the concept of the home is contradictory, and that it ‘can be fundamental and/or extraneous to existence.’ The narrator of Sleep Has His House returns to the home setting of ‘THE ELMS’ throughout the novel, portraying the interrelation between self and space in regards to this specific setting. The narrator describes the home, explaining ‘we lived in a house full of things kept brightly polished.’ (Kavan,19) The diction of ‘kept’ emphasises human effort and façade, suggesting a gap between the realities of internal familial life and how the externalities of the house are manipulated and presented. This is further emphasised, as B describes that ‘all of the shine of the house was quenched by my mother’s sadness.’ (Kavan,19) This illustrates that a fundamental setting in B’s adolescence is defined by her mother’s relation to it. In this sense, A and the home become inseparable in the narrator’s mind. Within the unreliable setting of the home, B positions herself by describing, ‘invisible and unheard I scampered down secret tunnels beneath floor boards and walked a tightrope webbing among beams.’ (Kavan,27) The connotations of ‘invisible’, ‘unheard’ and ‘tightrope’ in relation to a childhood home creates a melancholy and dejected view of B’s upbringing. Her awareness that her movements go unnoticed by her parents, and the consequential
In ‘THE ELMS’, the psychological effects of the home become evident, as the features of the home reflect the negative mental state of the mother. This illustrates that A’s mental health led to B’s isolation in childhood. The setting of the boarding school illustrates to B her own inability to fit into expected roles, while the loud and exclusive nature of the setting leads to the narrator’s acknowledgement that she must rely on the night world for comfort. As B becomes further isolated and therefore more reliant on the physical space of the night world, it becomes more seductive in nature. This leads to the interpretation that her final home of the novel is the night world, an internalised physical space in her mind, suggesting that she has given