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George Hounslow
Michael is a married psychiatrist with whom Anna has a lengthy, heartbreaking affair during roughly the first half of the 1950s. He is a Jewish ex-communist—much of his family died in the Holocaust, and many of his communist dissenter friends were murdered by the Soviets. Their relationship is mostly referenced in passing and through the fictional character Ella’s relationship with the fictional doctor Paul Tanner in the yellow notebook, but it is clearly the central reason for Anna’s emotional devastation throughout the novel. In the third section of the blue notebook, Anna recounts the end of their relationship; on September 16, 1954, which Anna describes in detail, she spends much of her day at home catering to Michael’s every desire—sex, food, emotional reassurance—but gains nothing in return; after she lovingly makes him a veal dinner, he never shows up and she ends up throwing it in the trash. While Michael was the only man Anna ever loved, he never saw her as anything more than a diversion and never would have married her; this disconnect between men’s apparent affection for women and their lack of emotional investment in them is the central obstacle to Anna’s satisfaction with her romantic relationships.
Michael Quotes in The Golden Notebook
The The Golden Notebook quotes below are all either spoken by Michael or refer to Michael. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Notebooks: 1
Quotes
“How can you separate love-making off from everything else? It doesn't make sense.”
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What Ella lost during those five years was the power to create through naivety.
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The Notebooks: 2
Quotes
15th September, 1954
A normal day. During the course of a discussion with John Butte and Jack I decided to leave the Party. I must now be careful not to start hating the Party in the way we do hate stages of our life we have outgrown. Noted signs of it already: moments of disliking Jack which were quite irrational. Janet as usual, no problems. Molly worried, I think with reason, over Tommy. She has a hunch he will marry his new girl. Well, her hunches usually come off. I realized that Michael had finally decided to break it off. I must pull myself together.
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The Notebooks: 3
Quotes
From this point of the novel “the third,” previously Paul’s wife; then Ella’s younger alter ego formed from fantasies about Paul’s wife; then the memory of Paul; becomes Ella herself. As Ella cracks and disintegrates, she holds fast to the idea of Ella whole, healthy and happy. The link between the various “thirds” must be made very clear: the link is normality, but more than that — conventionality, attitudes or emotions proper to the “respectable” life which in fact Ella refuses to have anything to do with.
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Get the entire The Golden Notebook LitChart as a printable PDF.
Michael Quotes in The Golden Notebook
The The Golden Notebook quotes below are all either spoken by Michael or refer to Michael. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Notebooks: 1
Quotes
“How can you separate love-making off from everything else? It doesn't make sense.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
What Ella lost during those five years was the power to create through naivety.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The Notebooks: 2
Quotes
15th September, 1954
A normal day. During the course of a discussion with John Butte and Jack I decided to leave the Party. I must now be careful not to start hating the Party in the way we do hate stages of our life we have outgrown. Noted signs of it already: moments of disliking Jack which were quite irrational. Janet as usual, no problems. Molly worried, I think with reason, over Tommy. She has a hunch he will marry his new girl. Well, her hunches usually come off. I realized that Michael had finally decided to break it off. I must pull myself together.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The Notebooks: 3
Quotes
From this point of the novel “the third,” previously Paul’s wife; then Ella’s younger alter ego formed from fantasies about Paul’s wife; then the memory of Paul; becomes Ella herself. As Ella cracks and disintegrates, she holds fast to the idea of Ella whole, healthy and happy. The link between the various “thirds” must be made very clear: the link is normality, but more than that — conventionality, attitudes or emotions proper to the “respectable” life which in fact Ella refuses to have anything to do with.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
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Explanation and Analysis:
