represents her desire for security, but also illustrates why Clare’s passing, a very risky way of living, fascinates her. It is as if Clare “who had done this rather dangerous and, to Irene Redfield, abhorrent thing successfully and had announced herself well satisfied, had for her a fascination, strange and compelling” (Larsen 161). Irene finds passing both detestable and attractive at the same time. She believes that “it’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we admire it. We shy away from it like an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it” (Larsen 185-86). Irene’s ambiguous feelings about passing illustrate her fascination with Clare Kendry’s plight. Because of Irene’s status in the African American community, she cannot understand Clare’s desire to re-enter the African American community. Clare, as a white woman, has all of the prestige and power that Irene has and giving it up would be a direct threat the security that Clare fought so hard to gain. Irene, “as the wife of a doctor…has servants, security, and near dictatorial powers over her family. As a black woman she has more prestige, let alone power, than would be accorded her were she white under similar circumstances” (Gayle 113). She feels that “it was as if Clare Kendry has said to her, for whom safety and security were all-important: ‘Safe! Damn being safe’” (Larsen 195). However, Clare Kendry realizes that her own social status is meaningless if she is forced to hide her African American identity. Ironically, Irene’s own adoption of white middle-class values makes it impossible for her to understand Clare’s desire for acceptance in the African American community she feels most comfortable in (Gayle 113). Irene has no desire to “assist Clare to realize her fo...
