Smith i
Megan Smith
Mrs. E. Richardson
University English II
12 November 2010
The Characterization of Dr. Rivers in Regeneration
Thesis: Throughout Regeneration, Pat Barker reveals the dynamic nature of Dr. Rivers through the initial conflict between his love for his patients and his duty to the government, the evolution of his opinions as he interacts with patients at Craiglockhart War Memorial Hospital, and the severity of his opposition to the treatment methods used by Dr. Yealland.
I. The initial conflict between Rivers’ duty to the government and his love for his patients
A. Love for his patients
1. When expressed freely
2. When masked by the masculine complex society preferred
B. Duty to the Government to return his patients to war
C. Examples of the two conflicting
II. The evolution of Rivers’ opinions as he interacts with patients
A. Through his interactions with Prior
C. Through his interactions with Sassoon
1. Introduction to pacifist idea
2. Fear of repercussions of “curing” a patient who is not sick
B. Through his interactions with Burns
III. Rivers’ opposition to the treatment methods used by Dr. Yealland
A. Yealland’s methods
1. The pain inflicted upon the patients
2. The treatment of the patients as inferior
B. Contrast between Yealland’s Methods and Rivers’ methods
1. Pain infliction vs. conversation
2. Inferiors vs. equals
C. Rivers’ reactions
Smith i
Megan Smith
Mrs. E. Richardson
University English II
12 November 2010
The Characterization of Dr. Rivers in Regeneration
Pat Barker’s Regeneration is the first book in a three-part series giving fictional accounts of the lives of many historical personages from World War I, including some of the war poets and a doctor who treated them. As the novel commences, Barker introduces readers to war hero Siegfried Sassoon, who refused continued fighting on the grounds that the asserted purposes of the war had already been fulfilled. Rather than getting a court martial, as he had hoped, Sassoon is declared “mentally unsound” and sent to the Craiglockhart War Memorial Hospital where he comes into contact with Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. Dr. Rivers is employed to get the soldiers to a state of “mental fitness,” enabling them to return to the service. From the opening of the novel to the closing, when Rivers leaves the hospital for London where he will work with Dr. Yealland, readers are glued to the pages wondering what will become of him. Which side will he fight for: that of the struggling soldiers or that of the desperate government? Throughout Regeneration, Pat Barker reveals the dynamic nature of Dr. Rivers through the initial conflict between his love for his patients and his duty to the government, the evolution of his opinions as he interacts with patients at Craiglockhart War Memorial Hospital, and the severity of his opposition to the treatment methods used by Dr. Yealland.
When introduced to Dr. Rivers, one of the first things the reader notices is the love he holds for his patients. At times, Rivers expresses this love freely, a method helpful to many of the soldiers. The first evidence of his attitude towards the patients occurs in his dialogue with a colleague, Dr. Bryce, concerning Sassoon. Bryce questions, “Did you like him?” (Barker 16). Rivers responds: “Yes, very much. And I found him…much more impressive than I expected” (16). Bryce expected Rivers to judge the patient just as other authorities had—to think him incompetent and a threat to the country due to his rebellion against the war. However, Rivers chooses to hear his patient and even to sympathize with him, realizing that his anger and opposition to war was real, even credible. Samuel Hynes claims, “But the private man, the individual who talked with his patients and read their books and was troubled by their ideas, seems to have been rather different [than the public Rivers]” (qtd. in Harris). Rivers cares about his patients; he does not think of them only as subjects of his treatment who he must prepare for a return to war. This bold quality makes Rivers the successful doctor that he is. It contributes greatly to his characterization and is necessary to understanding the changes that overcome him.
Though much of Rivers’ love for his patients is expressed openly, he also attempts to conceal his affections under a cloak of masculinity, which leads to tension and, consequently, changes in his character. During World War I, society associated certain qualities with women and thought men who expressed these qualities were weak. Karen Knutsen asserts, “In the trilogy, Barker takes traits traditionally perceived as quintessentially ‘feminine’ in a patriarchal society…and uses them in the creation of male characters” (111). Some characters, generally those possessing more rationality, attempt to mask any instincts that could, in any way, link them to women. An example of Rivers’ attempting to do so is offered after he gives Prior a text book answer for the reason of Prior’s breakdown. Rivers states, “I’m sorry to sound so impersonal. I know you hate being ‘the patient’” (105). He is aware of his objectivity, but he still speaks without emotion or connection. This results from his desire to conform to society’s expectations. Regardless of this awareness of society’s preferences, Rivers yearns for his patients to embrace their emotions. The narrator asserts, “In advising his [Rivers’] young patients to abandon the attempt at repression and to let themselves feel the pity and terror their war experience inevitably evoked, he was excavating the ground he stood on” (48). Rivers knows how strongly the men feel against emotions associated with women. The narrator further describes Rivers’ opinion: “these emotions were so despised that they could be admitted into consciousness only at the cost of redefining what it meant to be a man” (48). As Rivers looks upon the challenges society places upon men who attempt to feel—to be more than just mindless workers— he finds himself repulsed. Rivers attempts to help the patients at Craiglockhart to see past these boundaries as he also tries to cross them. He believes that the only way they will recover from their neurosis is to embrace emotion. Fortunately, Rivers succeeds in many cases, making him an excellent doctor to these patients. This is related in Greg Harris’s statement: “Rivers’s encouragement of feelings…seems invariably to have led these men on journeys of introspective exploration into unpaved avenues of emotion never before taken or even thought available.” The lengths to which Rivers goes to undermine society’s demands and help his patients further indicates his love for them and characterizes him not only as a man committed to doing his job, but also as a man with great moral compass, true concern for those he cares for, and a willingness to conquer personal feats in order to help others.
This love Rivers shows his patients is countered by the strong duty he feels toward the government for which he works. Due to his moral conscience he feels obligated to perform his duties, which are described in his dialogue with Sassoon: “You realize, don’t you, that it’s my duty…to try to change that? I can’t pretend to be neutral” (15). Despite the fact that he partially agrees with Sassoon and does not think him to be mad, Rivers accepts that it is his duty to “cure” Sassoon to the point where he is able to return to war. Elaine Showalter suggests, “The goal of wartime psychiatry was primarily to keep men fighting, and thus the handling of male hysterics and neurasthenics was more urgently purposeful than the treatments” (qtd. in Harris). The government pressures Rivers to tell them that a patient is “cured” and prepared to return to the front, and Rivers submits to these orders because it is his job. Near the closing of the novel, Sassoon speaks to Rivers about his concerns that the government may claim that his neurosis has returned if he tries to continue speaking out against the war. He wants Dr. Mercier, another psychiatrist, to declare him sane. A shocked and confused Rivers wonders why, and he fears that Sassoon has decided not to return to the war. When Sassoon tells him he does wish to return, Rivers proclaims, “Thank God. I don’t pretend to understand, but thank God” (213). This statement perfectly portrays Rivers’ philosophy on work. Rivers constantly shows readers that he will perform his duty to the government and that he thinks of it not as an option, but as a necessity.
Throughout Regeneration there is evidence of a conflict between Rivers’ love for his patients and his commitment to the government, which contributes greatly to his dynamic characterization. He finds himself going back and forth between what is right and wrong. In essence, there is an internal struggle in Rivers between the well-being of individuals and the greater good; he must decide which holds priority. Every time Rivers feels forced to choose the government over a patient, his heart breaks a bit. This is evident in his conversation with a patient, Prior, who begs Rivers not to report his asthma, so that he can go back to the front. Rivers cares about Prior and his desire, but the regretting duty-driven man inside of him defers: “Look, if this is what happens when you’re exposed to cigarette smoke on a train, how would you cope with gas?” (134). Rivers realizes that it would be detrimental to the country to have fighting people unable to have a positive influence on the outcome of the war. Because of this, he rejects Prior’s wishes and reveals his asthma to the war board. This is evident in his encounters with Sassoon as well. Though he does not believe that anything is wrong with Sassoon, he feels obligated to “cure” him, enabling him to return to the war. Ankhi Mukherjee states, “With Sassoon, the task is not simply to construct a consistent case history but to reinstate his patient to the rationale of war.” Rivers clearly acknowledges the government’s triumph over the individual in his mind, but not without regret. Readers are forced to see the struggle this causes within Rivers—a struggle that eventually leads to his mental breakdown. He becomes more and more mentally frayed, showing signs of neurosis himself. He summons Bryce over some physical symptoms he is experiencing. Rivers explains to Bryce when asked what he thinks is the cause of his symptoms: “War neurosis…I already stammer and I’m starting to twitch” (140). Dr. Rivers launches into a harrowing attempt to assign priority to either the individual or the state that causes a decline in his health. This struggle is one of the forces responsible for the shifting nature of Dr. Rivers.
Another force contributing to the changes evident in Dr. River’s character are the interactions he has with his patients. Billy Prior is one patient who impacts Rivers. He arrives to the hospital unable to speak. Eventually, he regains his voice and readers learn that his disrespect toward himself for what he thinks to be a weak condition inhibits him from embarking upon the pathway of recovery proposed by Rivers. Prior refuses to talk about what happened, partially because he feels that he is less manly because of the breakdown he had. Because of Prior’s mind-set, Rivers states, “I don’t know that there is ‘a kind of person who breaks down.’ I imagine most of us could if the pressure were bad enough. I know I could” (105-106). This admission proves to be difficult for Rivers because of his own childhood. Rivers indicates that his father lacked a threshold for emotions. According to Dr. Rivers, the majority of his interactions with his father involved working on his stutter rather than having conversations. Rivers is forced to overcome this idea of what fatherhood consists of by Prior’s who, more than anything, needs a father-like figure in order to recover. During one encounter between Rivers and Prior, Prior starts crying and, when offered a tissue by Rivers, begins to ram his head into Rivers’ chest. Prior was reaching out for some sort of connection. Harris states, “No tragedy, no suffering dare be met with a request for, or an offering of, a simple hug between men. Prior displaces his need for nurturing by violently beating his head against Rivers’s chest.” Because of Prior, Dr. Rivers must overcome the boundaries set up for him in childhood; he must admit to his vulnerability and learn to nurture others despite the strictures society has against it; in this way, Prior contributes to the transformation of Rivers.
Siegfried Sassoon impacts Dr. Rivers as well; his primary influence on Rivers lies in the initial opposing nature of their war philosophies. When Sassoon arrives with his pacifist views concerning the war, Rivers disagrees. However, throughout the novel Sassoon’s words begin to reach the doctor, and he finds the evolution of his opinion inevitable. Rivers’ transforming opinion is illustrated in the passage: “And as soon as you accepted that the man’s breakdown was a consequence of his war experience rather than of his own innate weakness, then inevitably the war became the issue” (115). He finds himself incapable of ignoring the things the war did to his patients, and this realization leads him to explore the beliefs held by Sassoon. Hynes acknowledges, “Rivers consequently turned to researching pacifism, often consulting Sassoon for advice on books and journals to read that reflected pacifist viewpoints” (qtd. in Harris). As Rivers researches, he finds that he agrees more and more with Sassoon. The conflict between the opinions of Dr. Rivers and Sassoon leads Rivers to question his standpoint and start leaning toward some of the war ideologies Sassoon stands for.
As a result of these changes of heart, Rivers begins to question the morality of his job. Rivers wonders if he is responsible if, after being returned to mental fitness and the war by him, his patients are killed at the front. Do their deaths lie on his conscience? Is he in the wrong for curing patients with ailments caused by the war only in order to return them to the war? He wonders if there is any chance that this will not lead to a relapse in the patients. The descriptions given by Sassoon and other patients of the war and its atrocities heighten Rivers’ conflict of conscience. At one point in Regeneration, Prior describes a time in the war to Rivers: “And you start walking…In a straight line. Across open country. In broad daylight. Towards a line of machine guns…Oh, and of course you’re being shelled all the way” (78). This and similar conversations lead Rivers to continue questioning what he is doing along with his beliefs concerning the war. Bill Delaney asserts, “Through him [Sassoon], Rivers begins to learn about the realities of trench warfare and begins to doubt his role as a doctor responsible for rehabilitating soldiers so that they can go back to killing and being killed.” The fear brought to life by Sassoon causes a great shift in the opinion and actions of Dr. Rivers.