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It is Yeats' “fancy that there is some one myth for every man, which, if we but knew it, would make us understand all he did and thought.”1 Lichtenstein expresses a similar notion in his theory of identity, from which we can infer that a critic can articulate a writer's “identity theme” by perceiving an invariant “melody” in the patterns of that writer's life and art. Lichtenstein's third phase variation on the first two phases of psychoanalytic theory assumes that a “primary identity” is “imprinted” in an infant during the mother-infant interaction of the first years of life.2 As the child develops, he plays the theme of his own mother-infant experience, adding variations that elaborate the harmonies and dissonances of the original melody.
This theory can account for elements of Lowry's style, themes, and character configurations that remain consistent. An analysis of Lowry's identity theme and its variations fulfills two critical tasks; it provides insight into his creative process and reconstructs the motives for his suicide.
What is invariant in the patterns, processes, and persons of Under the Volcano is their representation as binary opposites in value. The principal characters' sensual experiences of the environment give rise to either extremely good or extremely bad memories of the past that point to value-laden consequences for the future. Hugh and the Consul, particularly in