The Representation of Women Through Three Portraits in Party Going Anonymous College

Henry Green’s Party Going explores the relationships of a group of socialites centered around the character, Max. Max dictates the role of each member of the group, serving as the person in control, and thereby dictates the role of each woman in the group. His views and relationships with women shed light on the 1930s views of women. A physical manifestation of Max’s relationships with women are the three portraits in his hotel room, that one of his love interests, Julia, describes in detail. By looking at Max’s interaction with his three main partners (Angela, Amabel, and Julia) in the novel and comparing them to the three portraits in his hotel room, we can see the separation of women into three distinct categories paralleling a “sybaritic Hell, a sexual Purgatory, and a Heaven” (Hart). The portraits demonstrate how women are defined through their sexual availability, thereby stripping them of their emotions and transforming them into material objects that can usually be bought.

The first portrait described consists of Nero and his wives, depicting a sexual scene in a burning hell. The depiction of eight essentially identically, nameless women that all serve the same purpose, to get used by Nero, demonstrates how Max sees...