Dynamic Desire in "Passing"

Nella Larsen has created an interested character dynamic in her novel Passing. Irene and Clare are two African American women that pass as white women. Clare has “passed over.” She has married a white man, who does not know of her ethnic background, and has removed herself from the black community. Irene, however, is married to a black man and remains part of the black community. The juxtaposition of these two characters creates an interesting dynamic.

Clare has light hair and ivory skin, but “dark, sometimes black” (Larsen, 30) eyes. Clare is often described as seductive, exotic, and in possession of extraordinary beauty. Irene described that Clare always seems to be acting. Clare seems very uncertain about her place in the world. She clings to Irene and desperately wants to see her. She goes to extreme lengths to do so, and will not take “no” for an answer. It is because she has rejected her African American background and still craves that part of herself. That is why she is so attached to Irene because in a sense Irene has everything Clare desires.

Irene, on the other hand, has darker coloring that Clare. Her hair is dark and curly whereas Clare’s is light. Irene is also a bit more cold, stoic, determined, and self-assured. Irene knows her place in the world, and she knows that, unlike Clare, she does not want to “pass over.” She has a husband that is African American and two sons. However, Irene does have uncertainty around her husband and his future desires.

Both women have desires and conflicts within them. One thing they come agree on completely is that “being a mother is the cruelest thing in the world.” (Larsen, 69). The two women are tied together by their race and their motherhood. Though they are both living two very different lives, they understand each other's struggles unlike any other. Nella Larsen uses juxtaposition in the characterization of these two female characters, however, with this contrast, many commonalities in their struggles and desires are found. Both women deal with their situation in different ways, but both of them pass for white women and both understand the pressures of motherhood and what being a proper women means in the 1920s.