Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941) is set on an army post somewhere in the American South. McCuller’s first paragraph explains that a murder took place there a few years ago, and that “The participants of this tragedy were: two officers, a soldier, two women, a Filipino, and a horse.” The cast are Captain Penderton, restive and closeted, his wife, the beautiful and stupid Leonora, their neighbors, Major Morris Langdon, who is Leonora’s lover, and his miserably ill wife Alison, Alison’s silly and theatrical Filipino servant, Anacleto, and a Private Elgee Williams, a strange and mostly silent soldier. And that horse, Leonora’s, named Firebird, who moves with “marvelous, fiery grace.” Beyond the mess of marriages and the Major’s and Leonora’s affair, the intrigue is this: Private Williams will become infatuated with Leonora, and Captain Penderton in a different way with Private Williams. Williams, who is on permanent stable fatigue, and often sees the Pendertons plus the Major there, is assigned to clear some of the woods behind the Pendertons’ house. Leaving and crossing the lawn, he sees Leonora bathing upstairs. He starts watching her through the windows each night, eventually quietly breaking in to squat by her bedside and stare at her. Penderton, oblivious to all this, nonetheless thinks sometimes of Private Williams. A year and a half ago, Williams spilled coffee on Penderton’s nice suit in heavy Chinese silk. He has a fantasy of having Williams court martialled, but more because of an unsavory association with the stables, with Firebird and Leonora. In Part Three, there is an incident involving Penderton, Williams and Firebird in a clearing in the woods, which leaves him fascinated by the young man.
© 2024 Kaz
Substack is the home for great culture