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Ella
Julia is Molly’s equivalent in Anna’s novel manuscript The Shadow of the Third, which appears in the yellow notebook. Like Molly, she is an unsuccessful, unmarried Jewish actress with communist leanings (unlike Molly, Julia is not a member of the Party). She plays a much smaller role in the yellow notebook than Molly does in Free Women, although Ella reveals her close attachment to Julia when she moves out into her own apartment. Julia has more contempt for men than Molly; she is an astute, if pessimistic, critic of sex and relationships, and perhaps reflects the responses Anna wishes Molly would offer her in their conversations about men.
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Julia Character Timeline in The Golden Notebook
The timeline below shows where the character Julia appears in The Golden Notebook. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Notebooks: 1
...The Shadow of the Third and is a manuscript for a new novel) begins with Julia calling upstairs to Ella, who is putting her four-year-old son, Michael, to sleep and has...
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Julia mentions that Ella wants to remarry and should go to the party—they are both “very...
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Ella reads Julia one of her letters, which was addressed to the medical advice column but apparently neurotic...
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...is hard not because of the writing but because of Ella’s shame at it—she knows Julia would respond badly, with some “judgment from the current communist armoury,” if she were to...
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...agrees to go on a drive with Paul the following afternoon and returns inside to Julia’s home.
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Julia invites Ella into her bedroom—the party was boring, Ella says, but a man whom she...
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...next day, Ella thinks about Paul Tanner’s voice while making lunch for her son, whom Julia has brought to visit friends while Paul takes Ella for their drive. Ella is at...
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...cries, ignoring the doorbell and the telephone, which ring again and turn out to be Julia, telling Ella she can stay out; Paul calls soon after, and Ella agrees to go...
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...which makes her feel “completely rejected” and disdain their sex that night. She chats with Julia, who is pessimistic about Paul and thinks he had “such a tight miserable face”—and he...
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...emotional for women,” and that even “the most perceptive and intelligent man” cannot understand—like when Julia insists that a marriage broke up because the wife did not love the husband, and...
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The Notebooks: 2
At home, Ella tells Julia that Cy was “very nice” and she will be “extremely depressed in the morning,” although...
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The Notebooks: 3
Ella moves out of Julia’s flat, creating animosity between them. Ella realizes that Julia used to dominate her but now...
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...“hatred and resentment,” while Ella continues to ruminate about Paul Tanner. Ella also learns that Julia has “protected [her] from a certain kind of attention”—she sees the difference between living alone...
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Ella talks with Julia at a mutual friend’s house, and “their relations are chilly” until she mentions Dr West....
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...gets four phone calls from men at work in the next few weeks and tells Julia, who “shows a flash of triumph.” They share an awkward silence, considering Ella’s departure and...
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...know he has been sleeping around. She decides to give up sex and not tell Julia.
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At lunch the next day, Ella nevertheless tells Julia about her experience and decision to stop having sex. She worries that her own bitterness...
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Ella finds Julia “sardonic rather than bitter.” Julia explains that the impotent actor has made another advance, and...
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The Golden Notebook
...through various films: Mashopi, then Paul Tanner and Ella, then Michael and Anna, Ella and Julia, Anna and Molly. He laughs when it says, “directed by Anna Wulf,” over Anna’s pleas...
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