Women depicted in the war novel The Return of the Soldier (1918)

Abstract

My paper aims at analyzing women character's as portrayed in the above novel A Return of the Soldier published in 1918 and written by a woman writer Rebecca West. It is the only novel written by a woman writer about the war and published during the war. It is her first novel and as the title suggests is an account of a shell-shocked soldier coming home. Since the novel was produced during World War I and the story undoubtedly has war at the backdrop of its writing it thus categorically falls into the canon of war literature. The war literature speaks about not only the experiences of the soldiers on the war front which was published mostly in the form of poetry but also it deals with other forms of literary genres as well. It also speaks about the home front that is life at home during the ongoing war. The war is a reality that involves both the soldiers and civilians physically and mentally. It can be said that, most of the work during and about the experiences of war were written by men due to the war's intense demand on the young man of that generation. At least we can say, their work was much sought after than that of women writers. Only when you do a study you realize that there were women writers as well who created literature about the war, giving their work a feminine touch. My study demonstrates the life of women at home while their husbands were busy fighting at the war front. It analyses their role at home and focuses on the effect war had on their everyday life. The chosen author is specifically female since I wanted to explore the woman writer's perspective under the canon of war literature.