Incomprehensible Experience: A Psychological Analysis of Selected Characters in Barker’s The Eye in the Door

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of wartime experiences on combatants’ psychological health in Pat Barker’s The Eye in the Door. The war’s atrocities negatively affect the combatants’ mental wellbeing and, therefore, develop various psychological problems. One such psychological issue demonstrated in The Eye in the Door is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The theoretical underpinnings of PTSD are used to analyze Billy Prior and Charles Manning, major soldier characters in the novel. Prior and Manning’s pre-war worlds are disrupted by wartime memories that, henceforth, find difficult to reconcile with unforgettable war zone memories in the present. This is mirrored in the general demonstration of both Prior and Manning characters as PTSD patients who need psychological support persistently.