Reducing Desire Anonymous College

Edna O’Brien’s trilogy “The Country Girls,” republished in 1986, follows two young Irish women as they navigate a system which is not built to allow them success. O’Brien explores many ways in which the society of her time negatively affected women, very prominently focusing on the treatment of female desire, both romantic and sexual. Caithleen, hereafter referred to as Kate, enters into many romantic relationships with men decades older than her. The most interesting way in which O’Brien frames Kate’s encounters occurs after her first romantic outing with one of these men, Mr. Gentleman. Kate compares his words of affection to “...a precious stone...I had only to say the words in order to feel it, blue, precious” (page 57). O’Brien sets up a comparison between Kate’s view of romantic interaction and a blue stone, and in doing so provides insight into Kate’s method of desiring.

Kate’s conception of love is immediately linked with instances of sexual misconduct and exploitation through connection with the color blue. Throughout the trilogy, blue often appears in association with Kate’s romantic misadventures: She wears a blue dress to her first dinner with Mr. Gentleman (page 55), she wears a turquoise necklace the night Baba...