During the conclusion to Nella Larsen’s “Passing,” there is a huge focus given to the fact that Irene chooses to ‘protect’ Clare’s continuing “disguise” in regards to her husband. Of course, this ends with the penultimate scene where Mr. Bellew confronts the dinner party that his wife is attending, and Irene pushes Clare to her death. In the next few scenes there is an air of mystery surrounding what will happen next. The reader is lead to believe that some castigation , whether it be police or Mr. Bellew who enacts it, will be taken upon Irene. The twist ending becomes not the killing of Clare Bellew, but the lack of recourse taken on the suspected killer.
In order to pursue the thought that Irene is a killer, one would have to negate the opposing possibilities first. There is a very likely possibility that Clare threw herself from the window. A couple lines during the “Finale” point toward this possibility. On page 109, Brian offers the sentiment of someone who would, “rather be dead than bored” (Larsen). Clare’s boredom here, would mean that she no longer had freedom to move to Harlem, which, she states, would be her backup plan if she was found out by Mr. Bellew. The fact that she has thought this through, and stated that her plan would be to move where she was happy, would imply that suicide was not a premeditated decision, but an impulsive one. During the brief moments before her fall, “There was even a faint smile on her full, red lips, and in her shining eyes” (111). If Clare had decided in those moments to jump from the window, then her smile would point to her not being dissatisfied with the situation. It is hard to conclude a solid reason for her faint smile, but there are arguments there about her coming to terms with her life.
Another factor pointing not to her suicide, but to the responsibility of her death being on Irene, is that just following a passage outlining how “gone!” Clare really was, the narrator states that, “Irene wasn’t sorry… What would the others think? That Clare had fallen? That she had deliberately leaned backward?” The acknowledgement that Clare could have killed herself is brought up with regard to how Irene herself thinks the others will perceive her death. After this, Irene decides, “she mustn’t, she warned herself, think of that” (112), referring to the possibility that Irene killed Clare. Irene has ignored the truth before, when contemplating the cheating of her husband with Clare, Irene decides that, “She wanted no empty spaces of time in which her mind would immediately return to that horror which she had not yet gathered sufficient courage to face” (90). When faced with the dark truths, Irene ignores them. She attempted to ignore the cheating, and then attempts to ignore the fact that she killed Clare.
If Irene did kill Clare, did the others know? My answer to this is indubitably yes. Not only did they know Irene killed Clare Kendry, but they were all responsible for the cover up. How do we know that the others saw what happened? Well it was written out in such a way to show that everyone bore witness to the crime. When Mr. Bellew, “strode towards Clare. They all looked at her as she got up from her chair, backing a little from his approach” (110), and if that’s not enough, “Clare stood at the window, as composed as if everyone were not staring at her in curiosity” (111). It is absolute that every single person in the room was watching the events unfold. Felise, however, warns Mr. Bellew that he is, “the only white man here” (111), which puts forth the possibility of him being extorted into silence. Furthermore, it is entirely possible that Bellew, on discovering that his wife was what he hated, was content to leave it at that. There are more underlying issues at play in that reading, especially concerning gender in the marriage and a male lack of care for people. Brian cheats on his wife, Bellew is fine with his being killed.
As to why the others did not reveal that Irene had killed Clare, it was exactly the same reason that Irene found herself unable to reveal Clare’s secret to her husband. They are, “caught between two allegiances” (98). A bit of foreshadowing comes from the earlier scene involving Hugh Wentworth covers up for Irene breaking the cup of tea, which is lying in, “white fragments” (94). This seems small, but such imagery is repeated with, “the cement path that split the whiteness of the courtyard garden” (109) and even further when Clare, being discovered, acted as if, “the whole structure of her life were not lying in fragments before her” (111).
I find myself getting off track. There is a lot to be said about the symbolic fragmentation of Clare, and the way the story (Irene) chops her into pieces of herself. The same way the movie camera often acts as the “male gaze” when regarding women in film. Back to the point of the cover-up, Dave Freeland, “told her that, having only just missed her, they had concluded that she had fainted or something” (113). Irene knows as well as the reader that it was “or something,” but the police get the story they’ve written, and accept to report “Death by Misadventure” (114).
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