Julia and the ‘Others’

Abstract

In After Leaving Mr Mackenzie the portrait of Julia Martin is developed with a good deal more ambiguity than that of Marya in Quartet. Although in many parts of the text there is an identification of her consciousness with the narrative voice, this is balanced by the fact that in other parts she is focused on externally through the eyes of minor characters who are themselves rendered with a greater degree of complexity than was the case in the earlier novel. Thus, where Julia is concerned, there is a greater resistence to being read than there was with Marya, and consequently the reader does not always know quite what to make of her.