Muhammad Faisal bin Abdullah

Dr. Netty Mattar

ENGL 7618; English Literature in the Twentieth Century & Beyond

12 January 2021

Loneliness, Perpetual Grief, and the Haunting as Representations of Trauma in

Descending Figure

Abstract

Loss and grief are inescapable yet the severity or the complexity of the experience differ from

one person to another. Through the psychoanalysis perspective of complicated and

uncomplicated grief, the discussion in this paper will be analysing the three different

representations of griefs within the poem, “Descending Figure”. The analysis and discussion

will explore the notion of “everyone griefs differently” through a psychoanalytic

justification. In the second part of the analysis, the discussion will focus on the

representation of trauma within the poem. The discussion will be looking at the notion loss as

a traumatic event and the concept of grief as both therapeutic and anti-therapeutic,

depending on the different representations of grief.

Introduction

This paper will attempt to analyse the theme of grief and trauma in Gluck’s poem;

Descending figure. Through the perspective of Psychoanalysis, I will relate the three different
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types of griefs represented in the poem. This paper will provide a psychoanalytic perspective

towards the different types of griefs. By analysing the representation of griefs in the poem,

the discussion will also attempt to prove an alternate view towards proving that “the

descending figure” does not only apply to the dead, but also, the one left behind.

For the second part of the paper, I will also examine how trauma is represented

through the theme of loss and grief in the poem. The analysis will be done through the

application of Trauma theory on the same poem. The structure, word choices and the writing

style within the poem will be discuss in relation to the Trauma theory.

Different Types of Griefs

This sections will explore three different manifestation of grief due to the loss of a loved one

in Gluck’s poem, Descending Figure. This is in accordance to the understanding that people

manifest their grief differently, either passively or aggressively and the length of the

durations will vary as well. In most cases, the grieving process consisting of a duration of

sorrow, numbness, and even guilt or anger, will eventually and gradually fade away as the

griever learns to let go and move on (Howarth, 4). This is considered as normal or clinically

labelled as uncomplicated grief. The term complicated grief however, is ascribed to the types

of grief that “appears to deviate from the norm in duration and symptom intensity” (5). This

sections of the analysis and discussion will look into the different representation of grief and

compare them with the psychoanalytic prescriptions of complicated and uncomplicated grief.

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Grief and Loneliness

Gluck’s Descending Figure consists of three parts and the first part of the poem is titled, “The

Wanderer”. The wanderer in brief is a recount of a persona grieving the loss of her sister. She

reminisced the moment when she was spending time with her sister and how she missed her.

The process of grieving the loss of a loved ones is represented through the sense of loneliness

in this section of the poem. The persona laments “If I could write to you about this

emptiness”, signifying not only the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, but more

importantly stressing on the suffering she is enduring in her loneliness. The poem suggests

heavily that she is not alone, as indicated in the following lines, “along the curb, groups of

children were playing” and also in the last two lines when her name was called by other

people. Through the psychoanalysis perspective, this type of grief is classified as an

uncomplicated trauma due to the fleeting nature of the grief. The feeling of loneliness is

difficult for the persona, but the extent of distress that is caused by the grief is neither

extreme nor constant (Boelen, 2) and the persona is evidently still aware of the people and

around her and the surrounding while going through the loneliness.

Perpetual and Constant Grief

In the second section of the poem, Gluck opt for the title; The Sick Child. The title actually

refers to the famous painting of Metsu, on display in the museum of Rijksmuseum,

Amsterdam. If “The Wanderer” can be classified as portraying a “normal” grief, the sick

child on the other hand is the total opposite.

This section in its essence has the universal message of maternal love. But upon

further analysis, it can be deduced that it was also the unbridled love of a mother that would

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cause her to be severely traumatic as she grieves the loss of her beloved child. The grief in

this section of the poem is represented through the notion of suspension, and perpetuality.

Perpetuality and recurrence is a prominent sign of “complicated trauma” which is also known

as prolonged grief disorder or persistent complex bereavement disorder. Boelen in his study

identify the complicated trauma in term of its persistence and pervasiveness (2). In relation to

the identification of the extent of grief in this section of the poem, the perpetual grief

expressed in the poem fits into the notion of persistence and pervasiveness of complicated

trauma.

The theme of perpetual and constant grief are represented through several symbols

and imageries in the second section of the poem. First and foremostly, the choice of a

painting, “hanging” in a bright museum as the central element of the poem is certainly highly

suggestive to the idea of suspension. The line “she stares fixedly into the bright museum”

bring forth the concept of the “immortality” of the painting and thus could also be related to

the “perpetuality” of the grief that the mother in the painting has to endure as she is now

“suspended” in that moment, grieving for her sick child.

The notion of suspension and perpetuality is also represented in the lines; “Then it is

wrong, wrong, to hold her—Let her be alone, without memory,”. The abstraction in this lines

will be analysed further in the following section, but the perpetuality of the grief in this lines

is shown as it goes to say that “it is wrong, wrong to hold her”. At this point, the analysis can

be pointed towards a different interpretation through the psychoanalytic perspective. In one

hand, the analysis can be made to point out that it is wrong to hold a child who is already

dying as it would only lead to a creation of “traumatic memory”. On another hand, it would

also be analysed that it is wrong for the mother to continue to hold on to the grief of losing

her sick child as the act of never letting go of the grief would lead to prolonged grief disorder.

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Haunted by Grief

The third and the final section of the poem is titled; For My Sister and this is perhaps Gluck’s

most autobiographical reference out of the three sections. Even though Gluck’s elder sister

died before Gluck was born, the theme of grief and loss is very prevalent in most of Gluck’s

works. In this section of the poem, Gluck writes of the experience of haunting grief.

Gluck begin the section describing her dead sister in her crib being the “last to quiet”.

It was explained that “the dead ones are like that”. This is where the message of the haunting

grief is conveyed. In this section of the poem, the persona admits that her dead sister who

died when she was a baby would never be able to speak, yet she was imagining her dead

sister moving in the crib, hungry and struggling to break out of the grave. This section of the

poem is filled with what could perhaps be labelled as oxymoronic personification, in which

the persona is providing living attributes to her admittedly dead sister. Through a

psychoanalytic perspective this is another trauma coping mechanism; a way of attempting to

make sense of a traumatic event. This type of haunting grief can present itself either as an

uncomplicated grief or even as a complicated grief depending on the severity of the grief.

This poem ends itself in a manner of suspension, in the sense of an open-endedness, which

makes it difficult to ascertain whether the grief is ultimately uncomplicated or complicated.

Griefs and Descending Figure

In the most literal sense, the title of the poem, Descending Figure can be easily attributed to

the funeral procession where the body of the dead descends into earth as it is being lowered

into the grave. However, as mentioned earlier, Gluck admitted that she first heard the phrase

in reference to a musical term, yet she added that the phrase also relates very well to the

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concept of spiritual journey where “a soul, is permitted access to the other realm and returns

to speak of it” (Douglas, 117). Therefore, as it is apparent in most of Gluck’s work, she is

mostly intrigued with the supernatural aspects of death.

Psychoanalytic perspective however, provides an alternative interpretation towards

the phrase descending figure. As we have looked into how the three different ways that griefs

are represented in the poem, all three types, even though exist in a varying degrees of severity

has on aspect in common; without proper intervention, grief will lead into depression.

Gluck’s also offers a nod towards this perspective as she also refer to the choice of the title

due to “a feeling of minor key”, a sense of “irrevocable darkening”, and the descending idea

of “moving down the scale” (Douglas, 118). Dealing with depression alone, as an individual

figure will definitely be impossible, causing one to go spiralling down even further into

depression. This analogy would fit the phrase Descending Figure just as well as the

aforementioned perspectives as well.

Representation of Trauma through Loss and Grief

Within the trauma theory, there are several ways to analyze and interpret various

manifestation of trauma within a literary work. For the purpose of analysis and discussion of

trauma within this particular poem, the focus will be on the element of “Interrupted and

Fragmented Narratives” and the “Incomprehensibility and Absurdity” within the text.

Through the fragmented narrative, Caruth argues that trauma is represented in through

the incomplete representation of past memories, especially in the form of flashback (4). The

fragmentation and interruption within the narrative occur in reaction towards the trauma; a

representation of the mind’s rejection to specifically be reminded of a traumatic event. In

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relation to the notion of loss and grief as a form of traumatic experience, the discussion and

analysis will inspect on whether this type of fragmentation do occur within Gluck’s poem.

The discussion will then proceed to take into account the notion of incomprehensibility as a

representation of trauma. Caruth explains that the “impossibility a comprehensible story”

(154), is not signifying the insufficiency of language in representing a trauma but rather

points towards the inhibition that is made due to the one’s inability to fully acknowledge

certain trauma in one’s life (Andrew, 84). Through the specific examples of words choices

and positioning made by Gluck, the discussion in this section will explore the extent of

trauma representation through grief in her poem, Descending Figure.

Interrupted and Fragmented Narratives

The first part of the poem, interrupted and fragmented narratives demonstrate the lack of

proper narratives, one of the integral signs of trauma (Caruth, 4). The persona started the

poem with a description of a nostalgic view and even at this point, the readers are purposely

provided with insufficient input on the notion of the timeline of the story. The persona then

started acknowledging her dead sister by implying her yearning to communicate with her.

She then proceeded to reminisce about the memory of playing with her sister yet suddenly in

the last stanza, it was made unclear once again on whether she is still talking about the past or

the present.

As discussed previously in the first section, The Wanderer deals with grief in the

sense of loneliness, and the abstraction caused by the interrupted narratives serves the

purpose of surmising the inexplicable emotion of a grieving person dealing with the

perplexity of loneliness. In the persona’s case, she attempts to represent the emotion with the

paradoxical messages in the last two lines of the section, “Often I would let my own name

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glide past me, though I craved its protection.” She was deeply caught up in her sense of

loneliness not because no one was around, but because she is deeply grieving the loss of her

sister. She acknowledges the needs and her yearning for the “protection” from the livings

who care about her, but her grief is stronger.

The line “I was playing in the dark street with my other sister, whom death had made

so lonely”, is also another reference to the loneliness suffered by the persona, but it was

situated in such an awkward manner within the structure to evoke the multiplicity of

meanings towards the concept of loneliness. It raises the possibility of loneliness affecting

both the dead and the living. Gluck in her interview with Ann Douglas admits that in

choosing the title, Descending Figure, one of the aspirations for her was the concept of the

spirit of the dead “as a coming-back-figure”, “descending from the heavens to earth” (117).

The notion therefore fits the interrupted nature of trauma narrative. Finally, in the same lines, 

it also insinuates the blaming of death as a coping mechanism, by a person dealing from the

trauma of grief and loss. The persona wants to talk about the “emptiness” and the loneliness

that she feel but was unable to do so not only because “death” has made it impossible for her

to write to her sister but redundantly, “death” was also the reason for her loneliness.

Incomprehensibility and Absurdity

The final signifier of trauma representation that will be discussed in this section is the notion

of incomprehensibility and absurdity within the poem. In the first section, the persona

question why her dead sister “was never called”, unlike her, who purposely ignores the others

when her name was being called. The absurdity here intertwined with the aforementioned

interrupted narrative. As the interrupted narrative has made it problematic to ascertain

whether she is referring to the situation where she is playing with her sister while she was

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alive, or was she actually implying a scenario where she is playing with her dead sister and

wondering why no one else cares about her sister anymore? This absurdity and the

impossibility of certainties here fits into the criteria of a trauma text.

In the second section, The Sick Child, the painting itself was symbolised into

something abstract; the perpetuality of grief. The absurdity arises in the complexity of the

usage of the feminine pronouns, making it almost impossible to ultimately ascertain whether

certain reference are made about the mother or the sick daughter. Finally, in the last section,

the attributions of living characteristics towards her dead baby sister is definitely another

absurd elements that needs to be pointed out.

Conclusion

Louise Gluck through her poems delicately handles the harsh and bitter reality of grief and

loss. Upon reading the poem, the tranquillity and the supernatural essence of her work act as

a potently paradoxical reminder that trauma does not always manifest itself in a negative

representation. Through the analysis and discussion on Descending Figure, it is proven that

Gluck has successfully acknowledged the traumatizing nature of grieving the loss of a loved

one. She taught us that grief can be haunting and can make us feel very lonely. But most

importantly, she also reminds us of the importance of letting go and to not let ourselves be

trapped in a perpetual state of grievances; in order to save ourselves from turning into one of

the descending figures, spiralling downwards into depression.

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Works Cited 

Andrew Ng. “Visitations of the Dead: Trauma and Storytelling in Bao Ninh's 

The Sorrow of War.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, 2014, pp.

83–100. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/storyworlds.6.1.0083. Accessed 21

Jan. 2021. 

Boelen, Paul A, and Geert E Smid. “Disturbed Grief: Prolonged Grief Disorder and Persistent

Complex Bereavement Disorder.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 357, 2017.

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26944605. Accessed 19 Jan. 2021. 

Caruth, Cathy. "Explorations in memory." Baltimore/London (1995).

Douglas, Ann, and Louise Glück. “DESCENDING FIGURE: An Interview with Louise

Glück.” Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, no. 6, 1981, pp. 116–125. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/42744361. Accessed 19 Jan. 2021. 

Glück, Louise. Descending figure. Vol. 20. Ecco Press, 1980.

Howarth, Robyn A. “Concepts and Controversies in Grief and Loss.” Journal of Mental

Health Counseling, vol. 33, no. 1, Jan. 2011, pp. 4–10. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.17744/mehc.33.1.900m56162888u737. 

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