Leslies Poles Hartley and the Crisis of Sense of Self

Leslies Poles Hartley became known to the large public after the publication of The Go-Between, 1953, in which he tells the disturbing story of the difficult relationship and the psychological development of an adolescent, Leo Colston, who, acting as go-between for two lovers, becomes gradually aware of the reality around himself and loses his childish innocence. Leo Colston found a diary that he wrote when he was a 12-year-old boy.  Leo remembered several events that took place in the early 1900s, when he met Marcus Maudsley, who  belonged to the upper-class that seemed utterly astounding to him.

 

Marian, Marcus’ sister, was a beautiful girl, and Leo did anything for her, including taking secret messages to a certain Ted Burgess. But Leo dramatically soon realized what these messages were, discovering Marian’s relationship with Ted Burgess, and that she was to marry Lord Trimingham. So Leo refused to take any more messages, but at the same time he not only lost faith in the adult world, but also his self-confidence, experiencing psychosocial problems which he will have to endure for the rest of his life. Hartley was a great psychologist, and his work was so heartfelt that it is hard not to appreciate it, because it offered us an interesting psychological explanation for why a young man might choose a solitary life. Leo’s personality literally collapsed upon itself, and he discovered the chasm that divides the ideal world from the real one, which created in him the Crisis of Sense of Self or the breakdown of ego identity.

The 1950s were discovering studies on adolescence, because, back then, it was rare to find research focused on it.  For example, E. H. Erikson published a book on psychoanalysis in the early 1950s. In his Foreword to the First Edition, Erikson stated that his book “originated in the practice of psychoanalysis,” having determined to treat “anxiety in young children, apathy in American Indians, confusion in veterans of war.” However, he emphasized that his research was dedicated especially to “childhood,” because of “all people start as children.”

 

Undoubtedly, the years   following the Second World War represented the start of new lifestyles in Britain (consumerism, advertising, sexual freedom) that had a strong impact on adolescents. Therefore, according to the report of the former Ministry of Education, the young Brits  “[were] subject to continuous and considerable mental, emotional and physical changes” (  A. Ferrebe),  producing in them the crisis of sense of self alias  the  “breakdown of ego identity” , that is the “breakdown of previously established patterns of thought and behavior, while the ego was overwhelmed by a deep fear of failure, resulting in relationship difficulties and identity crisis.”

 

The fact is, that in the early 1950s  in England not only psychoanalysts but also writers began to be more interested in adolescence, and one of the most important of these writers was Leslies Poles Hartley, who denied to be familiar with Freud and psychoanalysis, and that his work was based upon a personal experience. But why is The Go-Between important today?  Because it is a historical novel,  in the sense that it  marks a decisive point in the history of adult-child relationships which often cause a very hard time in the life of young people.

 

 

Sources:

 

Leslies Poles Hartley, The Go-Between, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1953.

 

44. H. Erikson, Childhood and Society, New York & London, W. W. Norton & Company, 1993 [First edition 1950], p. 16 and p. 44.

 

19. Ferrebe, Literature of the 1950s: Good, Brave Causes, Edinburgh University Press, 2012, p. 19.