From Ritual to Narrative in Mary Butts

This chapter looks at three novels by Mary Butts. Butts’ work is fundamentally ambiguous about sacrifice, displaying both a sense of disgust with its demand on the individual to give his or her life for the benefit of a community, but also a sense of pride in being part of—and sacrificing oneself for—a greater cause. While sacrifices in the novels are justified by the needs of the community, it is the embedded narrative that creates the structure upon which a cohesive community can be built, rather than the sacrificial act in itself. The variations in Butts’ depictions of sacrifice coincide with variations in the narration, and it is the forms of narration rather than the acts themselves that control the success of the sacrifices.