Stories as a mode of thinking/4

by Richard Green Moulton

IV

Previous Studies have abundantly illustrated how thoughts and speculations can be embodied in concrete personages and stories. Western Romance and Hindoo Mythology have been drawn upon. Quite a different region of speculation (chiefly of Arabic origin, but naturalized in Europe during the age of Romance) is embodied in Elemental Beings, of which a very original and suggestive presentation has been made in one of the Waverley Novels.

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S MONASTERY

On account of the diversity of paging in different editions, the References below are to the chapters, and paragraphs in a chapter. A new paragraph is counted wherever (in prose) there is an indented line. Quotations of verse are considered part of the prose paragraphs to which they belong.

Sir Walter Scott's Monastery is a Story of the Reformation, located in the Halidome of a Scotch Monastery: as a result, we get a group of contrasts maintained or developed throughout the action, directly or indirectly springing out of the main conception.

Directly:

1.	Finished controversialists of either party, originally college friends:	${\begin{matrix}{\big \{}\end{matrix}}$	Catholic: Father Eustace. Protestant: Henry Warden.
2.	Protestants secretly developed by the silent agency of the Bible:	${\begin{matrix}{\big \{}\end{matrix}}$	Of the old generation: Lady Avenel. Of the new generation: Mary Avenel.

3.	${\begin{matrix}{\big \{}\end{matrix}}$	Catholic Prelate of the old (easy-going) type: The Abbott. Catholic Prelate of the new (polemical) type: The Sub-Prior.
4.	${\begin{matrix}{\big \{}\end{matrix}}$	Church Domains and settled life: St. Mary's Halidome. Lay Barons and wild life: Avenel Castle.

Indirectly :

5.	${\begin{matrix}{\big \{}\end{matrix}}$	Statesmen of the Scotch Regency: Murray and his party. Statesmen of the English Queen: Sir John Foster.
6.	${\begin{matrix}{\big \{}\end{matrix}}$	Dependents of a noble house: Tib and Martin. Middle-class household: Dame Elspeth Glendinning.
7.	${\begin{matrix}{\big \{}\end{matrix}}$	High-born beautiful maiden: Mary Avenel. Low-born beautiful maiden: Mysie of the Mill.

Above all, forming the main psychological interest:

8.

${\begin{matrix}{\bigg \{}\end{matrix}}$

Out of the same family and by the same influence (love of the heroine) are developed the

${\begin{matrix}{\bigg \}}\end{matrix}}$

Elder Brother, a Protestant Warrior: Halbert. Younger Brother, a Catholic Priest: Edward.

But over and above the main conception, two very special and peculiar elements are woven into the action: a supernatural being of the Fairy order, and a courtier of the age of Euphuism.

 

The White Lady of Avenel.

As a principle of criticism: imagination is an end in itself, and the intrinsic interest of the White Lady as apiece of art-creation must come before all others—at the same time it is a part of the functions of criticism to analyse the ideas and interests that underlie and are embodied in such a portraiture. [For the whole subject, compare the Introduction to the Edition of 1830, especially paragraphs 15-20.]

 

Ideas and Interests crystallised into the conception

The central interest is creative curiosity: imagination as a mode of speculation, abstract fancies conveyed in plastic form.

1. Man's origin described as being from the dust of the earth animated by the Divine Spirit—suggests: other beings formed from earth or the other elements without any such Divine admixture—so the Elemental Spirits: Earth and Gnomes, Water and Naiads, Air and Sylphs, Fire and Salamanders: with attributes in accordance—the idea of such unsubstantial beings a foundation for such creations as the White Lady, who seems to partake the attributes of several elements [compare her words in ix. 54, xii. 3; and the Grotto Scene, xi. 31-xii].

2. Man's relation to the rest of the animal creation.

(a) They surpass him infinitely in single physical qualities—suppose this extended to the intellectual sphere, and the result is an order of beings with physical and mental powers as unlimited as the instincts of animals—supernatural knowledge (of past, present, and future), strength, perception of the invisible, motion, &c. [Compare Davies's idea of man as the horizon between brutes, or mindless bodies, and angels, or bodiless minds.]

(b) Yet with all his limitations man becomes lord over the brute creation—suggests: so man may by courage mysteriously tame the supernatural spirits, and make them do his will.

(c) This conquest of the lower creation is achieved by man's power to find out the laws of each order—suggests: these spiritual beings have their secret laws, through the knowledge of which they can be ruled: the whole Rosicrucian philosophy was an attempt to discover such secrets—with this connect the idea of a spell: an utterance mystically connected with the (unknown) laws of some order of spirits. [Compare: xi. 33-36; xvii. 29.]

3. Moral curiosity, as well as intellectual.

(a) Human passions, u perpetual interest in art, appear in man always in conflict with law—suggests: beings reflecting human passions apart from law and moral responsibility—mischief and caprice a leading characteristic of elemental spirits, and ministers to the art interest of fancy. [Compare xii. 3 (last eight lines), xvii. 39; and especially, the connection of the White Lady with the Duel incidents.]

(b) Curiosity plays around even the topic of man's fall and redemption—suppose: beings near enough for sympathy yet never fallen and never redeemed; no struggle, but no future—observe they are usually presented as superior in faculties yet lower in fate and moral dignity. [Compare xii. 3 (last six lines), xii. 23, xvii. 30 (verse), xxx. 5. The Peri in Moore's Lalla Rookh is another example.]

(c) There is Biblical authority for the idea of spirits interested in man, as involved in the grand contest between good and evil: spirits ministering and tempting—this falls in with the impression of unseen agency in human experience, where natural causes seem insufficient—imagination fills in the details to such conception, especially note:

(aa) Interposition of evil Spirits invited by man, and looseness of life a mode of inviting [adventure of Father Philip]—on the other hand they are powerless before firmness of will (xvii. 33)—further, their gifts turn to evil or good according as they are used (xvii. 47).

(bb) The idea of tempting to good is suggested (heading to chapter xxx).

4. Even abstruse metaphysical speculation may sometimes take a plastic form—thus: investigation of boundaries and dividing lines suggests a region of middle points and negatives as a speculative location for the supernatural, or a mode of shading off its nature and attributes to the proper degree of indefiniteness. [Compare ix. 52, xii. 3.]

5. From speculation it is a short step to aspiration.

(a) Intellectual aspiration: rebellion against human limitations—e.g. motion [compare: ix. 54, xii. 2], insight into the future—the 'uniformity of nature' creates by repulsion an interest in phenomena divorced from causes [compare: xxxvii. 120 (sixth line of verse)].—Perhaps with this is partly connected a sense of sin as attaching to commerce with the supernatural.

(b) Moral aspiration: we feel our lower nature as a weight—imagination catches the feeling in the form of beings free from the grosser influences of earth. [Compare xvii. 33 (last four lines), heading to chapter xii.]

The central interest of speculation is supported by others.

1. Mystery is a primary human interest—with which ignorance does not interfere, but assists it, serving as a sort of dark back-ground.

(a) Natural scenery often favours the mysterious: mists and fantastic resemblances (iii. 32)—ravines, groves, sense of loneliness: distance from the real becomes nearness to hidden possibilities (chapter ii, particularly paragraph 8)—thus the general idea of haunting: every such idea a centre of imaginative activity. [Compare xx. 47.]

(b) Dream experience—phenomena connected with delirium and opiates—optical delusions—apparitions and unceasing interest in the relations between the worlds of matter and spirit—and generally: the residuum of unexplained phenomena in the wake of scientific discovery [which properly makes 'superstition'].

(c) Science itself is the greatest of all wonder-workers. [Compare the Introduction: Answer to Clutterbuck, paragraph 2.]

2. Tradition assists.

(a) Popular and universal: folk-lore—part awe, part gossip, and part trickery—the Nameless Dean, the Good Neighbours, All-Hallow E'en (iv. 11 to end)—spells and charms (viii. 25).—The humorous presentation of the lower supernatural assists the conception of the higher.

(b) Mythological: the deities of defunct religions become literary property as imaginative creations—especially: Pantheism (in the sense of deification of every conceivable individuality) assists the notion of 'middle spirits' (neither angels nor tempters) such as the White Lady.

(c) Literary: successful creations such as Puck, Ariel, Oberon, give a basis of quasi-reality to others.

3. Personification, or the humanisation of inanimate nature as a device of poetic style—especially applied to the four elements (e.g. the 'sighing' of the wind, 'earthly,' as meaning sensual, the 'rage' of fire, the 'cruel' sea): it is only a step from this to Elementaiy Spirits, [ix. 54 illustrates the connection.]

4. We get allegory in occasional flashes as a subsidiary effect. E.g. the Grotto scene and the burning of mortal workmanship where truth alone is unconsumed (xii. 16-19).

 

These ideas and interests enter into supernatural creations in general: there are two special to the present example.

1. There is a special connection between the White Lady and the family of Avenel: several mediæval ideas support such a conception.

(a) In heathen theogonies gods appeared as patrons of individual races and families—so mediæval saints connected with particular races or families, as well as particular churches. [Compare iv. 57 to end.]

(b) Astrology (the longest lived of delusions) instituted distinct connections between heavenly influence and individuals in accordance with the moment of their birth: so All-Hallow E'en the link between Mary Avenel and the White Lady (iv. 55-57).

(c) Heraldry regularly connected some natural object with the continuity of a family history. [Compare xxiv. 21.]

(d) Popular traditions of spirits connected with families for purposes of warning (Irish Banshees)—or even familiar intercourse (Highland tradition: Introduction 17).

2. But this novel is essentially a Protestant story: the difficulty arises, how to get a Protestant Fairy! The link is found in the conception of the Bible as a book; it is perfectly consistent with mediæval imagination to invest a book with mystic attractions and powers [compare Runic letters and their mystic powers—charms attaching to exact sets of words or to written symbols—magic books and the awe they excite: all these the product of an age in which reading was a professional mystery]. The White Lady throughout is associated with the Bible that has found its way into the Halidome: with the fortunes of the book itself and of those who use it. [Especially: the Grotto scene, chapter xii.]

 

The White Lady as an element in the story

When familiar with the general course of the story, the Student will do well to follow the White Lady as. a separate interest.

1. First glimpse on All-Hallow E'en (iii. 30-35).

2. Father Philip's Adventure (v from 40).

3. The Sub-Prior's Adventure (ix. 42-59): compare beginnings of Chapter viii and x.

4. Grand Appearance to the hero, and Grotto Scene (xi. 31 to end of xii).

5. The Friday Appearance (xvii from 28).

6. The Nocturnal Appearance (xx. 30 to end).

7. The Mysteries of the Duel Incidents (xxi. 33 to end of xxii, xxvi. 28-xxvii. 18).

8. Appearance to the heroine (xxx. 1-6).

9. Appearance to Edward (xxxii. 55 to end).

10. Last vision of the White Lady (xxxviii. 120).