“In that pre-Freudian era people did not ask themselves what the ear might be a substitution for, but merely shuddered.”

The novel never explains why Clarence cuts off Lloyd’s ear. Maxwell’s reference to the “pre-Freudian era” delineates the space between the past and the present. It is also a loaded allusion to Freud’s theory of bodily displacement, suggesting that a modern interpreter fluent in psychoanalysis (as the narrator is) might see the dismembered ear as a substitution for the murdered man’s genitals.

“What I felt about his ‘affliction’ was tucked away in my unconscious mind (assuming there is such a thing) where I couldn’t get at it.”

This passage continues the Freudian allusion introduced in the prior quote. The narrator’s older brother has an artificial leg as a result of a carriage accident. Because the boys never discuss the “affliction,” any feelings or associations with it are buried deep in the narrator’s psyche. Freud’s idea of the unconscious is one of his most lasting contributions to psychology. Toward the end of the novel, the narrator describes “lying on an analyst’s couch” in the present day (131), affirming his engagement with psychoanalysis. The direct references to Freudian language and ideas are part of Maxwell’s characterization of the narrator. They also alert the reader to underlying Freudian themes like doubleness, alienation, transference, and melancholy, suggesting the rich potential of a psychoanalytic textual analysis.