advances to him and his young, homosexual, but now deceased friend. I ronically,
this incident seems to have resulted from the guilt at his own inability to reciprocate
the love felt for him by that friend. I ndeed, the homosexual theme is predominant,
more as homophobia, particularly in the post war days when it was considered a
perversion and was universally a social stigma. Ben, another character has fears
about his own sexuality, in contrast to Luce Daggett, a villain of pure evil potential,
whom Honour Langtry considers, “... some sort of moral imbecile, a psychopath”
(McCullough, 1981:65). Luce will use his sexuality, expressed either as homosexual
or heterosexual, to manipulate others, as can be seen in the fact that as a young
man in Sydney he had prostituted himself with both men and women. I ronically, it
is Michael, the melancholic, who is the voice of reason, and who says:
I reckon homosexuals are like any other group of men, some
good, some bad, and some indifferent (McCullough, 1981:241).
The implicit sexual symbolism of womb, breast and penis in these works are
apt symbols for the life principle itself. Through the sexual urges new levels of
physical and spiritual responsiveness are possible, the coarse urges are transformed
into unifying spiritual principles. This is also a psychological novel, in the sense that
particular attention is paid to the internal characterisation of the characters; to their
motivations, feelings and thoughts and the way these affect the plot and in this
case particularly so because it is here that psychological pathology, or abnormality,
is studied but it is often the deviant or outsider who enunciates the truth.
(b) Role of Myth, Symbol and Metaphor
Throughout her corpus, McCullough uses myth, symbol and metaphor to
subtly elaborate and give depth and meaning to that which would otherwise be lost.
For example in Tim, in language evocative of the Hindu custom of suttee, Mary
yearns “... to immolate herself on the flame of his fascination” (McCullough,
1974:141); an image that also serves as an excellent symbol for the approaching
disaster implicit in her relationship with Tim but also as a symbol that hints at a
process of transformation through fire. I n this work the animal motif is quite
frequent; Tim is repeatedly associated with images of dogs, Mary’s neighbour,
speaking of Tim, connects “... dimwits and dogs” (McCullough, 1974:18), Tim is
obedient or responds “... like a dog”(McCullough, 1974:68, 118), and is described as
a “... poor, silly creature as simple and faithful as a dog” (McCullough, 1974:215).