D. M. Thomas' The Whit Hotel

A detailed Summary of D. M. Thomas' The Whit Hotel

Donald Michael Thomas began his writing career as a poet, and his early work was notable for the way it ranged across the heights of the fantasy worlds of science fiction and of sensuality. Thomas was a superb writer, meticulous researcher, and a genius in deceiving the reader. He skillfully wrote The White Hotel, combining prose, poem, and science fiction, to make it a believable, conceivable, and a touching piece of literature. In his novel, Thomas makes realistic and believable references to Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalytic theories. Furthermore, he was able to capture the real Freud so well that many Freudian scholars believed this "case study" of Frau Anna G. to be a lost work of Sigmund Freud. This leads us to conclude that Thomas did not only possess a great imagination for fiction, but was also well studied in his accounts of Freud and the Holocaust.

Composed of a prologue and six sections, The White Hotel utilizes a variety of literary forms. The main characters of this novel are the celebrated psychoanalyst and theorist Sigmund Freud and Lisa Erdman, a twenty-nine-year-old, half-Jewish Viennese opera singer who comes to Freud for treatment of hysteria in 1919. This novel is by far one of the greatest works of

The final parallel that I will make between the sections is that of motherhood and nurturing. Breastfeeding is a nurturing and comforting act that a mother provides for her child. In two sections, Lisa breastfeeds and is breastfed. I believe this is to feel safer at the Camp as well as to bring Lisa's womanhood and motherhood relationship with her mother closer. Throughout the novel Lisa indisputably portrays qualities of a mother, while in her real life she could not fathom having children, and only became a stepmother late in her life after marrying Victor.

Although we know that Lisa is attracted to Sigmund Freud and not Martin the novel decives the reader through Lisa's poems as she speaks of her sexual encounter with young Freud. In fact the text supports the idea that Lisa is attracted to Martin on various occasions. For example, when she accepts treatment with Freud she sees a picture of Freud's son, not only does she see this pictures but Lisa acknowledges the young officer's good looks. This is an example of transference because it seems Lisa is projecting her sexual fantasies into Martin, Freud's son. Though Freud does not provide a reason for this transference, he admits that this might be the key to Lisa's return to therapy.

The metaphysical characteristics that Lisa possesses do not become obvious until Freud's correspondence with her and with the events of Babi Yar which take place in section five. During sections one and two, Lisa's poetic nature surfaces, alluding and directly paralleling the events leading up to and occurring at the Nazi concentration camp, Babi Yar. The fire, which consumed a portion of the White Hotel, parallels with the fire that consumed the center of the town of residence for Lisa and her stepson Kolya in section five. This is a direct parallel with the fire in the White Hotel. Lisa's passion and sexual excess could explain the fire that blazed within the hotel. Lisa's heightened sexual excitement prompted such an outburst of passion that the hotel burst into flames. The shocking number of murdered Nazi prisoners and the evils the Germans are responsible for suggest a reason for the fire that attempted to cleanse the city of the German evil, but failed. In the same manner that passion evokes fire, it also evokes hate. This deeply routed hatred, possessed by the Germans toward the Jewish people, provoked the burning of victims by the German troops, so as to allow for more killing and genocide.

Using Freudian psychoanalytic theories and my greater knowledge of the novel, a variety of different approaches can be applied to Lisa as her life unfolds in the novel. One particular analysis is one that was incorrectly explored by Freud in the novel, the theory of homosexuality. Freud believed that Lisa possessed homosexuality tendencies. In fact I believe that Lisa's mother and perhaps her aunt display more homosexuality tendencies than does Lisa. Early in the novel we find out of an occurrence during Lisa's younger years, by which Lisa witnessed her mother, uncle, and aunt engaging in violent sex acts. This fact leads me to believe that the mother and aunt do indeed posses lesbian tendencies which they have already acted upon. In section six Lisa's mother comes to term with this idea as she discusses the affair she had with the Lisa's uncle.

Some common words found in the essay are:
White Hotel, Babi Yar, Anna Freud, Yar Holocaust, Sigmund Freud, Conclusion Thomas, Hotel Lisa's, Using Freudian, Freud Martin, Lisa Erdman, white hotel, section five, sigmund freud, babi yar, freud's son, sexual encounter, psychoanalytic theories, babi yar section, yar section, sexual fantasies, knowledge novel, yar section five, death section five, freud sexual encounter, section five pains,

Approximate Word count = 2757
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels