âÂÂThe Interior Castleâ is a work of short fiction by Jean Stafford originally appearing in Partisan Review (November-December, 1946) and first collected in Children Are Bored on Sunday (1953) published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
âÂÂThe Interior Castleâ is written from a third-person omniscient point-of-view. Pansy Vanneman and Dr. Nicholas are the focal characters. The events take place in a hospital.
Pansy is recovering from injuries she suffered when the taxi she was riding in crashed; the cab driver was killed. She suffered major trauma to her craniumâÂÂthe bone and cartilage around sinuses were shattered. PansyâÂÂs âÂÂcrushed and splintered noseâ requires extensive reconstructive surgery. At night she lies awake, listening to the horrifying sounds of the other patients in the ward; some scream as their morphine wears off, others writhe in their death agonies. This contrasts with the hospital staff who go about their tasks with cheerful self-complacence. Weeks pass as PansyâÂÂs head fracture heals sufficiently for her to undergo the delicate task of reconstructing her nose. She evinces a studied remoteness towards the nurses and aides who attend to her, causing resentment among the staff. Pansy secretly takes pleasure in their discomfiture; they consider her a snob.
Pansy begins to obsess over the upcoming operation, one which will necessitate inserting scalpels and other sharp implements very close to her brain. She conceives of this precious organ as a jewel, a delicate flower, a light, âÂÂalways pink and always fragile, always deeply interior and invaluable.â The youthful Dr. Nicholas is eager to begin the surgery. Tall, handsome, and widely regarded as supremely talented, he is adored by his internees.
The preparation for the surgery alone is agonizingâÂÂonly local anesthetics are applied. Dr. Nicholas keeps up a jocular banter with Pansy as a way to reassure her. Then he descends upon her with probes, pincers, knives, scissors, applying them near her brain tissue as he chips away at bone and tendons. The pain is excruciating and Pansy begins to hallucinate. The nurses gasp at the surgeonâÂÂs virtuoso performance. Pansy withdraws into a state of terror and loathing that transitions into ecstasy.
The medical ordeal ends successfully. The doctor congratulates his patient and he and his staff depart triumphantly from the operating room. As PansyâÂÂs awareness slowly emerges she realizes that a precious and private realm has been violated by Dr. Nicholas: âÂÂHer silent mind abused him: âÂÂyou are a thiefâ it said, âÂÂyou are heartless and you should be put to death.âÂÂâÂÂ
In 1938 Stafford suffered serious spinal and facial injuries in an automobile accident with poet and later husband Robert Lowell who was driving the vehicle. âÂÂThe Interior Castleâ is StaffordâÂÂs only effort to fictionalize the incident and the reconstructive surgery which followed âÂÂthat permanently scarred her face.âÂÂ
Literary critic Mary Gordon at Literary Hub notes that some passages in the story provide a clinically âÂÂprecise description of pain.â The story transcends a merely clinic interpretation:
Author Joyce Carol Oates and literary critic Ihab Hassan each offer the following passage from âÂÂThe Interior Castleâ as evidence of StaffordâÂÂs literary achievement.
Stafford appropriated both the title of the story from thematic elements of a sixteenth century mystic saint Teresa of ÃÂvila.
Her Los Morados (The Dwelling Place) conceives the soul as a multi-chambered âÂÂinterior castle.âÂÂ
Literary critic Mary Ann Wilson reports that âÂÂTeresaâÂÂs contemplative piece provided Stafford a vehicle by which to convey the inexpressibleâÂÂthe excruciating, but transcendent physical and psychic painâ that Pansy experienced during the surgery and its aftermath.