El cuarto de atrs presents itself as a book where there is a strange mixture of memory and dream, real and fantastic

elements. The union of these two different tones makes the story really interesting: discuss giving example from the text.
In El Cuarto de atrs, (The Back Room) Carmen Martin Gaite mixes the real actual actions and occurrences with memories, imagined fantasies, dreams and even memories of dreams in the narrative to create a complex psychological insight into mind of the main character. This union of these elements creates a complex and at times hard to follow story where reality and fantasy merge and blend to create a surreal environment in which the novel is set in. This duality of the reality or what is 'really' happening in the present, 'real' world and the fantasy, dreams and/or memories of the past, can be viewed as a reflection of the conscious and unconscious impact that General Franco's dictatorship over Spain, had on the author's life. The impact of the Franco regime on the life of a young girl growing up in Spain had been the subject of Martin Gaite's previous work, in the novel Between the Blinds.However in The Back Room, the story is written from a post-Franco era perspective. Which leads the narrative to constantly refer to memories, some of them distant childhood memories of fear or wonder, like when the main character is remembering about the thunder storms that she witnessed when she was a little girl. Or when she remembers the Portuguese admirer that sang fados to her when she was doing her social service in Portugal. From this we can witness how the impact of the Franco regime directly affected the author. Later in the novel she remembers Francos death and watching the funeral unfold in front of her on television. However these memories become blurred and mixed with what is unfolding in the apartment, and further mixed with fantasy when discussed with the mysterious man who visits the main character. He seems to act as her unconscious, and constantly tests her patience as well as her own thought processes, beliefs and personal habits. For example when he asks her what she is writing, and then when she says nothing, he continues to question her until she finally snaps at him. (pages 27- 28) Escaping my control, my voice suddenly explodes, in unison with the burst of thunder that follows. That's enough. Leave me alone! I don't know, I really don't. I've already told you that I don't know, that I don't remember anything! The echo of the two discharges lingers in the air. I am immediately ashamed of myself. I look at him, intending to apologize, and see, to my surprise that he is smiling. Well, that's certain proof at least, he says. Certain proof. . . of what? That you don't remember anything. I don't understand what you mean. Never mind. Certain things are beyond understanding. He acts as an antagonist and also as an advisor, with words of wisdom, and statements which intrigue the author, and make her question her own reasoning. However it is suggested that there is another side to his character, and we later learn (from the phone call from Carola) that he is violent and seems to have schizophrenic tendencies. There is something odd, and mysterious about him, he seems to draw the fantastical and

surreal out of the author. On page 93 she says of him: What he offers isn't confidence, on the contrary, its something quite the opposite of confidence, something disturbing and provocative, like a continual inducement to lie. A few pages later, on page 100 she states: All of sudden, he seems like a magician to me. There is no telling what he may produce from underneath that hat. He encourages the acceptance of the mixing and blending of reality and fantasy. On page 99 he says: strange things happen all the time. Our mistakes lies in the fact that we insist on applying the law of gravity on them, or the law of clock time, or some other law that we obey unquestioningly. It is difficult for us to admit that such things have their own law... ... And do you look for a logical explanation for things you see in dreams? For the fact, for example, that one place turns into another, or one person into another? This quotes shows that he is trying to encourage the author to embrace the strange, and dream-like, not to try and measure it by 'normal' standards. It also hints at the theme of split personalities, alter egos and possibly schizophrenia. He's an instigator in the conversations, and wants to stay up late talking with her, with no desire to leave in a hurry. He even offers her a pill to take along with him. In the book the action of him offering her the pill, on pages 103 and 104, becomes blurred and mixed with a memory from her childhood, when she learnt how to play a parcheesi board game from her cousins. The man states that the pills are not addictive, in fact they are for one's memory but not only for restoring one's memory: but they also disorder it, something that's very pleasant He is actively making her thoughts become jumbled up, and causing her memories to be mixed up, and her state of consciousness altered, not just through his words and actions, but also through chemical, mind altering drugs he is giving to her. This theme of altered states of consciousness, and the duality of conscious and subconscious, is another ongoing theme of the book, which is a part of the grander scheme of mixing fantasy with reality, memories of the past with the actions of the present and also the theme of an alter ego, split or alternate personality and conversations with one's self. Also the idea of communication, of being lost or alone in one's own private world. This is touched upon by the fact that the author has become slightly deaf, or is at least, slightly losing her hearing This is highlighted on page 116: What happens to me since I've become hard of hearing is horrible, I say in a dull voice. I can't tell the difference between what I say aloud and what I think to myself There is a lot of internal dialogue, and stream of consciousness writing, in terms of what the author is thinking and it's as if she is always in a perpetual state of being half awake and half asleep. In fact this is established right at the very beginning of the novel, on the second page, when the author is lying in bed, trying to get to sleep, and enjoying the

sensation, of not quite being asleep yet, but still being able to dream or at least imagine and fantasise: Trying at one and the same time to understand and to dream: and that is the fate to which my nights are doomed. Another telling sentence from the second page of the book, is the line where she says: I recognized that strange silence as being the prelude to something that was about to happen. This idea of waiting, being in a sort of 'limbo' condition, of anticipation and excitement, and desiring this feeling, is further made clear on page 3 with the lines: ready, willing and eager, and above all enjoying that wait, experiencing it knowing that the best part is always the waiting; I've believed that ever since I was a little girl, up until quite recently. I'd give anything to relive that sensation, sell my soul to the Devil just to experience it again, if only for a few minutes These lines really seem to touch on the theme of mixing memory with the fantastical, in that her fondness for innocent childhood enjoyment is so desirable she is willing to trade her very soul to the Devil to relive and feel those feelings again. This theme of the exploration of the fantastical and the letting go of boundaries, rules and logic is fundamental to the book. It is introduced on page 12, with the reference to another book 'Introduction to Fantastic Literature' by Todorov. The book is described as: It deals with the subject of split personalities, of breaking through boundaries between time and space, of ambiguity and uncertainty. These are all themes which are explored in 'The Back Room'. Indeed, later on in the book, on page 169, the author states that: There is a point where fantastic literature crosses over the threshold of the marvelous, and from then on everything is possible and believable. The notion of confusing the perception of time, is another common theme which occurs again and again throughout the novel. This theme of time perception being confused, as in not knowing how much time has passed and also the past mixed up with the present, can be viewed as another parallel to the mixture of memory and dream, real and fantastic. It adds to the surreal and unpredictable, dream-like tone of the novel. Examples of this constant reference to the perception of time in the novel can be found on page 86, when the author is remembering a conversation she had with her mother: and I told her that the good stories always make a person lose all sense of time and that thanks to them we keep ourselves from being overwhelmed by practical tasks Also on page 133 when she is talking about the impact Franco had on her life: The one thing I realized, as I told you before, was that I am simply not capable of discerning the passage of time all during that period, or differentiating the war years from the postwar ones. The thought came to me that Franco had paralysed time,

Further down the page, another reference to the perception of time appears with the line: I'm finding it hard to calculate how long he's been sitting here. On page 145, she reads a note that she finds on top of the Todorov book, which reads: The time and space of supernatural life are not the time and space of daily life. The first part of the sentence on page 151, could also be describing the novel itself: What strange flashbacks keep occurring in the plot of this story, and then it goes on to say: or can it be that it has never moved ahead except in my imagination? The authors definition of 'the back room' is explained on page 87: I also imagine it as the attic of one's brain, sort of a secret place full of a vague jumble of all sorts of miscellaneous junk, separated from the cleaner and more orderly anterooms of the mind by a curtain that is only occasionally pulled back. The memories that may come to us as something of a surprise live in hiding in the back room. They always emerge from there, and only when they want to. More information about the real, physical, back room of her childhood is revealed later in the book on pages 190 and 191. Where the connection to this 'real' back room and the world of fantasy, no boundaries and freedom is further explained: The back room was very large, and in it disorder and freedom reigned... it was a kingdom where nothing was forbidden. As the conversation with the man progresses we find out how 'the back room' becomes a metaphor, not only for personal freedom of expression but also as a symbolic metaphor for Spain and the authors life, under Franco's rule: Up until the war, we felt entirely at home there, and there was more than enough room for us to study and play in it. But no one had ever discussed that space with us, now were there any definite rules governing how it was to be used: the room was ours, period. 'And things changed when the war came along?' 'Yes. There's a sort of dividing line, separating childhood and adulthood, that began to be marked off in '36. The 'amortization' of the back room and its gradual transformation into a storeroom was one of the first changes that took place on that side of the line.' This quote clearly demonstrates that 'the back room' of the authors child hood memories, not only is the private, subconscious, fantasy dream world, but is also a symbol for the impact and of the historical context of Franco's rule had over her life. 1936 of course being a significant year in Spain's history, and the year when Franco became head of state of

Spain. However like the change in the back room, which also begun in 1936, Franco had not completely changed Spain just yet, he gradually gained more power, until he officially became head of state for life in 1947. So in the same way the back room didn't suddenly completely convert over night and it too gradually changed from a place of freedom of expression, into a store room where the partridges and other stockpiled food rations and 'articles of prime necessity' during the reign of Franco had to be kept. By the end of the book, the story has come round full circle, in keeping with the theme of timelessness. We find that the author has discovered a pile of papers the next day, in place of where Todorov's book was the night before, the pile of papers is entitled 'The Back Room' and the first sheet of paper begins with the opening lines of page 1 of the book. This seems to suggest that the book the reader has just read is the very same book which is the subject of the story which the author is writing about. Therefore keeping to the theme of blurring the lines of time, space, reality, fantasy, memory and dreams.