A Child's Point of View

Henry James' What Maisie Knew is a novel about an unwanted daughter. Maisie, the main character, has a mother and father who divorce one another, then re-marry different people. They split Maisie’s time between their two very wealthy upper-class households. Maisie is their only connection. It gradually becomes clear that both parents care little for her. Maisie's mother reveals that ‘[y]our father wishes you were dead – that, my dear, is what your father wishes. [. . .] He wishes me dead quite as much’ (p. 135). She goes on, saying ‘[y]ou’re a dreadful dismal deplorable little thing [. . .] And with this she turn[s] back’ and walks away (p. 138). Maisie’s parents wish they never had her.

         

This is also a novel about a child’s budding understanding of such a relationship. Maisie’s knowledge grows, which illustrates pictures of who her parents - who are mostly absent form the novel’s action - really are. For instance, during her early years, the narrator tells us that Maisie ‘puzzled out with imperfect signs . . . that she had been a centre of hatred and a messenger of insult’ (pp 18-19). Maisie is intelligent and knows more than anyone thinks, even if her conceptions are abstract and incomplete. Described at one point as ‘receptive and profound’, Maisie’s ability to understand her world develops and deepens (p. 52).

Even in her relationship with her step-parents (who, in a novel filled with affairs, fall for one another), Maisie realises that she is a device used in a greater game. It takes a simple slip in her step-mother’s phrasing to make her realise ‘the first time . . . [that] as regards herself [and her step-parents] it was not a relationship’ (p. 106). Maisie provides the framework of excuses for her step-parents, Sir Claude and Mrs Beale, to see each other. Maisie finally realises that these people need her for their affair; thus leading to Maisie’s grim realisation that she is dispensable once they are ‘free’ from their marriages.  

The novel’s narrative voice points out the role language plays in Maisie’s growth. Early on, language aids Maisie’s understanding over events that have already happened. After thinking about the word ‘toothpick’,

         

[s]he was familiar, at the age of six, with the fact that everything had been changed on her account. [. . .] By the time she had grown sharper . . . she found in her mind a collection of images and echoes to which meanings were attachable[.] (p. 16)

With each new word, her knowledge strengthens. Words provide the tools for critical reflection and understanding. Later, she overhears her governess describe Sir Claude. ‘Maisie had never before heard the word “sympathetic” applied to anybody’s face; she heard it with pleasure and from that moment it agreeably remained with her’ (p. 37). Words, like keys, unlock new areas of Maisie’s burgeoning worldview.

Source:

What Maisie Knew. By Henry James. Pp 222. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2000. ISBN 978-1-84022-412-2.

Mother and Child, 1928 (oil on canvas) by Marie
Laurencin. Detroit Institute of Arts, USA.