The well of loneliness : the influence of place on identity.

Abstract

Place affects identity and movement in Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness. Hall's main character, Stephen Gordon, is developed through her response to the Gordon family heritage of home, land, and community, which together make up her sense of home. Place theorists view sense of home as the basis for the development of an individual's personality. Throughout life, places experienced influence self identity. In turn, response to the surrounding environment affects movement and attachment to certain locales and people. Stephen Gordon is torn between two aspects of her identity which society will not accept simultaneously, preventing her from living in harmony with herself so she must choose to leave one part of herself behind. She cannot live a lesbian lifestyle and receive her birthright of being Lord of the Manor. Her coping skills fail her when she chooses to express her homosexuality, eventually leading to a nervous breakdown. Stephen learns her inherited role as Lord of the Manor is more essential to her self identity than is her sexuality, connecting her back through the ages to her ancestors before her. The realization of this returns Stephen to her home to take on her birthright. This paper will use two identity theories used in environment-behavior studies, place-identity theory and identity process theory, to examine the impact place has on Stephen's identity and the changes she experiences due to her attachment to place.