Myself, myself, it is enough

“Myself, myself, it is enough” is the inward-facing refrain that follows V. I. Warshawski’s answer about whom she works for. The line invokes Medea to give her declaration of independence a literary echo, but the practical account that follows keeps that self-reliance grounded in the circumstances of her investigation.

The phrase in context

Asked who she is working for, V. I. Warshawski answers, “Myself,” and the narration turns the reply into the fuller expression, “Myself, myself, it is enough,” attributing the sentiment to Medea. The immediate exchange is about whether she represents a company. She clarifies that she was not hired by one: a young woman who used to live next door hired her to find out who the woman’s father was.

Independence and its limits

The doubled “myself” makes the expression sound like a self-sufficient declaration. Yet the conversation that follows gives that independence a concrete, less absolute shape. The young woman has fired Warshawski, but Warshawski continues asking questions because she is piqued by people’s reactions and by what she sees as their lies about Pankowski, Ferraro, and Xerxes. Her work is personal rather than corporate, but it remains entangled with other people’s histories and with an investigation she has chosen to pursue.

Narrative function

The allusion compresses a claim about autonomy into a short, memorable refrain; the surrounding explanation then tests that claim against the facts of the case. Warshawski does not present herself as answerable to a company, yet she explains her continued involvement through her own curiosity and through a lead from a Department of Labor contact who said that the person questioning her used to represent the workers. The expression thus marks her independence without suggesting isolation: her self-directed inquiry begins in a commission and proceeds through connections to others.