Analysis of Kiss Me Again, Stranger

At its most basic, “Kiss Me Again, Stranger” by Daphne Du Maurier is a story about a woman who has been murdering Air Force men in acts of revenge and a man who is in love with her. When she is introduced to the audience, the girl is picking up her next mark. What I found interesting about this is we often see men killing women as revenge or in a spur of emotion but a woman is doing the thing a man is said to do. For a change, the woman is the one killing, the one people are afraid of. Though she is murdering men, they still don’t seem to be afraid, calling women “barmy” in a joking way and laughing about it together (Du Maurier 213). Even when there is a real threat, they can’t seem to think of women as harmful or powerful. Similar to some reviews and reactions to the short story, who described it as a story of finding “first love” in a movie theater. This further explains why she got away with killing four men already; the girl can lure them into a false sense of safety just by existing. As the last victim says right before he died, he followed her because she called and thought “it was just a bit of love-making”; there was nothing concerning to him about a woman walking into a graveyard (Du Maurier 225). Maybe he found it a bit weird but not enough to turn her down. He did not see her as someone who could hurt him; he felt like the subject here when in actuality he was the object and the girl was the subject.

The reactions from the public to this story were positive but it seemed that some didn’t fully understand it or describe it well. Seeing this story as something it's not, a love story or a story just about murder erases its significance in literature. There is an aspect of romance, something Du Maurier is known for but it is not the central theme. Reading it as a light summer read that doesn’t warrant much thought discounts its focus on the flipping of gender roles after WWII and the inevitable violence that follows the treatment of women (Shalit). I call it inevitable because from the moment women were granted the right to vote, there have been those pushing for more rights and freedoms just as men have. In comparison to some of her other texts especially the ones published in the collection it pales and was not loved as much by some (Seventeen). The deeper meaning, the post-war society, and how it affected women are inherent to enjoying the story in general but as more than just a part of a collection. 

Daphne Du Maurier is a well-known author so it's no surprise this story was loved but still, at the time, there wasn’t much literary criticism of it, as if critics were purposefully staying away. There were reviews like those above, suggesting that it would be a good read but not truly delving into its details. LaTourette Stockwell seems to think similarly, and asks, “How does it happen that an author who labors so diligently and well as be irresistible to millions of readers in at least seven countries is ignored by the literary critics?” (214). It's important to note her upbringing when understanding how the critics don’t give her work much attention according to Stockwell. Her family was all entertainers so she grew up knowing how to entertain and she does so with her writing. After the first page, Stockwell loses me because it is clear he thinks Du Maurier’s books have no grounding in the real world and are only an escape for her readers. He explicitly states “that an author who writes as well as Miss Du Maurier does has yet to produce an important novel” because she is too focused on the entertainment aspect of writing (Stockwell, 221). This argument cannot be sound when her stories are published after world events that changed society; many of her stories mention war of some kind and can be related back to a post-war society. In “Kiss Me Again, Stranger” the girl lost her parents to bombs dropped during WWII and then goes on to only murder Air Force men. Conveniently, Stockwell chooses to leave out this text of Du Maurier’s and even mentions it as a text “outside the range of discussion” (215). When reading “Kiss Me Again, Stranger” it's important to know people do read it as having no connection to real, important events even purposefully. 

Something that is worth mentioning is the connection of war to the femme fatale. The femme fatale was never stronger than after war and especially WWII in the 1940s (Boozer 20). The femme fatale is a seductive, beautiful woman who with said looks leads men into traps that often endanger them. She uses her beauty to her advantage, often to kill, harm, or rob a man and even get revenge as we can see from the girl in “Kiss Me Again, Stranger”. It gives women power and where a woman’s looks would normally be used against her or endanger her, here she uses them to endanger others. It once again flips gender roles on its head and reframes who the subject is because it began with women coming into the workforce, a male-centered job before the war (Boozer 20). The men in the story even blame the war while also taking themselves out of the equation for being the issue. After the war women don’t know “the difference between right and wrong”; coming from a soldier this is interesting because they take orders whether they are right or wrong and often they are wrong (Du Maurier 213). If war created femme fatales and men fought in the war did those same men, or the patriarchy not too create femme fatales? 

Unfortunately, the girl is never able to truly explain her motives and wants from murdering these Air Force men. We only hear of the murders and the way she murdered, with a knife and where she murdered, in a graveyard, from the perspective of other people. She does have her chances to speak and gain agency but the boy is surprisingly the only one who gives it to her. The moments we may understand her most are when she is spoken about by other characters. By telling this story of a woman wanting revenge and a boy who falls in love Du Maurier gives more nuance to post-war effects and the understanding of gender roles in that context. She takes up the role of a powerful man and he takes up the role of a lovesick woman. She doesn’t mince words or write only to entertain because if anything this piece is more concerning than a fun, eerie story. In understanding this, we can further challenge the dominant narrative of war and patriarchy in Du Maurier’s society and in ours.