Unspeakable Thoughts Revealed In Rebecca West's Return Of The Soldier

When coming back from the war front there are many thoughts that are going through a soldier’s head: how is my family doing, will home life return to normal quickly, will I be sent back to war? On the other hand there are many similar thoughts going through the heads of their loved ones. What are said to be unspeakable thoughts are the ones that are most articulated and expressed in the novel Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. Whether it be seriously reflecting about past lovers during a return to a childlike behavior, or the selfish thoughts that are expressed by the soldier’s wife by wanting him to be the same person that he was when leaving for war. In this novel Chris is the soldier returning from war. Chris is from a higher class in society where there is an emphasis on how people dress themselves and where protocol is everything. Kitty, Chris’ wife, renovates the whole home while Chris is away in order to upkeep their image and to impress her husband upon his homecoming she also does this in an effort to hold onto prior social structure. Chris comes back to Baldry Court earlier than expected because of the shell shock that he has experienced, he is incapacitated in some way but nothing was amputated. Shell
This furthers the belief that class is a very important idea in this time period and novel. “She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped down behind a bed in a hotel and has lain undisturbed for a day or two is repulsive when the chambermaid retrieves it from the dust and fluff.” (pg 10) This shows the disgust that both Kitty and Jenny, the narrator, have towards Margaret and how they believe that they are not in the same social class as Margaret and therefore she can’t possibly have a part of Chris’