THE PARANORMAL CONFRONTS VICTORIAN MATERIALISM
Taking up the discussion from the Previous Post, I intend to show the MESMERIC POWER, Margrave exerted over Lilian Ashleigh, the effect this had on Fenwick's Materiailstic Philosophy, and the deepening incidents of Occult Phenomena in the novel.
I have shown that the MESMERIST Margrave - we shall find he is more than that - needed a pure Virgin, Lilian Ashleigh, to act as a Sibyl, or guide in his pursuit of the Elixir of Life. Thus, he must ensnare her BEFORE her marriage to Fenwick.
On the day of Fenwick's marriage to Lilian Ashleigh we find an instance of Margrave's Paranormal Power pitted against Fenwick's Orthodox Medicine and his Materialistic Philosophy of life. Lilian receives an anonymous letter designed to destroy her reputation. The letter refers to events earlier in the story when Margrave had ABDUCTED Lilian Ashleigh by means of a MESMERIC SPELL. In a SOMNAMBULISTIC STATE she had vanished from her own home and walked for miles. She was responding in this semi-sleeping state to the CALL of the MESMERIST at a great distance from her home. On this occasion Fenwick had managed to rescue her from Margrave's clutches.
MARGRAVE ABDUCTS LILIAN ASHLEIGH USING A MESMERIC SPELL FROM A DISTANCE, EXEMPLIFIED HERE BY OPHELIA - WILLIAM WATERHOUSE
But Margrave was not going to give up as easily as that, after all he had access to immense Paranormal Power. The content of the letter implied that whilst she had been in Margrave's control she had lost her virginity. After reading the letter Lilian collapses ' prostrate, insensible, so still' it seemed that 'life had gone.' Eventually she woke in a terrible state. 'Hours were passed in violent convulsions'. Following this 'succeeded stupor, lethargy'. Even though 'Life came back ... the mind was gone As if she was still in a Magnetic Trance, Lilian Ashleigh neither knew her mother, nor Fenwick.
What is being suggested here? First that Margrave is quite capable of exercising his power at a distance and Lilian Ashleigh's condition mirrors what nineteenth century Mesmerists described as A MAGNETIC CRISIS.
ORPHEUS BY JEAN DELVILLE REPRESENTS LILIAN ASHLEIGH ENTRANCED BY MARGRAVE
Here is a direct challenge to Fenwick's Materialistic Medicine. With what result? He admits ' my experience was in fault, my skill ineffectual. Day followed day and no ray came back to the darkened brain' (LXIII) He even called in his esteemed Medical Colleagues. But they could not cure her. Their Materialistic Approach had been pitted against Paranormal Power and had been defeated.
Even after a lengthy period, Lilian Ashleigh does not get better. She seems to become more detached from reality as time goes on. Her worsening condition forces Fenwick to admit 'The profession I had once so enthusiastically loved became to me wearisome, insipid, distasteful.' (LXV) It is obvious that Fenwick's rigorous scientific training alerted him to precise scientific features associated with mental illness, but there are clearly some MYSTERIOUS, undefinable factors at work.
Margrave's influence is found to be deeper than Fewick imagined or beyond his ability to combat. This surfaces when he visits Miss Brabazon, a dying woman. We learn two things from this visit. First that she was the one who wrote the letter, which plunged Lilian Ashleigh into a mental breakdown. We also learn that Margrave lurks at the back of it all. For, it was he that forced Miss Brabazon to write the letter.
But how?
She admits, 'that young man, that Margrave, put it into my head .... his laugh and his song haunted me. I THOUGHT I saw him still in my room prompting me to write, and I sat down and wrote.' Despite all of Fenwick's skill Miss Brabazon reaches the point of death and then cries out regarding Margrave, 'The Evil One tempted me! There he is, near me now! I see him yonder! there at the doorway. He comes to claim me.' Fenwick is helpless to assist her recovery. Whether or not Margrave actually projected his 'doppelganger' or a 'double' of himself into the room on this occasion, the context does not answer. However, we shall see that using OCCULT POWER, Margrave certainly does have the ability to do so, if he wished.
PROSPERO AND ARIEL BY WILLIAM HAMILTON
GIVES AN IDEA OF THE MESMERIC POWER EXERTED BY MARGRAVE OVER THE TWO WOMEN
The lesson is this. Bulwer has placed in Fenwick's path two women, both in the grip of occult forces whose illnesses he cannot cure, in order to SHAKE HIS CONFIDENCE in Materialistic philosophy.
Bulwer next turns to a deeper, more penetrating method of reeducating Fenwick. He intends to expose Fenwick himself to Occult Forces.
In the museum of Sir Philip Derval a practicing OCCULTIST, traveller in the East, and Margrave's deadly enemy. Margrave, Sir Philip, and Fenwick are together. Using a MESMERIC technique, Sir Philip first immobilises Margrave. After which, using a similar technique he also MESMERISES Fenwick. But this has a definite purpose. In this condition, Fenwick enters a CLAIRVOYANT state. In this state he is able to penetrate Margrave's flesh aand discern the condition of this apparently young, Grecian God, as he was three years previously. What a shock! Instead of blooming youth, he sees, 'infirm old age; the discoloured skin, the bleared eye, the flaccid muscles, the brittle sapless bones'. His Clairvoyance takes him deep into Margrave's brain, and there he discovers, ' a moral world charred and ruined .... abused to evil ... a cynical disdain of what is right and just'. He also uncovers more terrifying features within Margrave's mind: 'arts which I could not comprehend, but which I felt were dark and terrible.' (XXXII)
What is Bulwer doing?
He uses this description to establish fully Margrave's true Nature. Margrave is somehow using the black arts to ALTER THE COURSE OF NATURE respecting his age and constitution. He has therefore become like a brute beast. thoroughly amoral.
FENWICK PENETRATES MARGRAVE'S TRUE NATURE.
SIMILAR TO DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE AS PICTURED BY HENRY VAN DER WADE
Whilst in this state Fenwick is able to peer into Marwick's Nervous Organization. Here he discerns what he describes as 'the halo round the soul'. Shifting his gaze to the stuffed animals in the room (the Mesmeric Trance enables him to see them as if they were alive) he does not see any evidence that they possess a soul.
The key point is that Fenwick's Materialistic Philosophy would lead him to believe that there is no distinction between men and animals. Thus asserts the Evolution Theory. Bulwer, here seems to be providing Fenwick with visible evidence that challenges Materialistic Evolution. The presence of the soul, as seen by Fenwick, shows that men and animals are distinctly different.
Even so, Fenwick has not yet learned the lesson. In the end he puts the whole episode down to a clever conjuring trick on the part of Sir Philip Derval. Fair enough, a range of explanations is always possible. This, Bulwer acknowledges. Whether or not the Mesmeric Trance reveals the actual state of things depends upon the way the participants, in this case the Materialist Fenwick, interprets it.
This being so, Bulwer next submits Fenwick to Occult experiences difficult to gainsay, or dispute.
However, this subsequent phase I must leave until my next Posting.
I hope by now you are getting the 'feel' of the Victorian Consciousness and finding it easier to slip into what made the Victorian novels tick.
I trust you are enjoying the voyage.
Any Comments?
KS (UK)
Picture Credits: Wikipedia Commons
Quotations from 'A Strange Story' Knebworth Edition (London 1897)
MARGRAVE ABDUCTS LILIAN ASHLEIGH USING A MESMERIC SPELL FROM A DISTANCE, EXEMPLIFIED HERE BY OPHELIA - WILLIAM WATERHOUSE
But Margrave was not going to give up as easily as that, after all he had access to immense Paranormal Power. The content of the letter implied that whilst she had been in Margrave's control she had lost her virginity. After reading the letter Lilian collapses ' prostrate, insensible, so still' it seemed that 'life had gone.' Eventually she woke in a terrible state. 'Hours were passed in violent convulsions'. Following this 'succeeded stupor, lethargy'. Even though 'Life came back ... the mind was gone As if she was still in a Magnetic Trance, Lilian Ashleigh neither knew her mother, nor Fenwick.
What is being suggested here? First that Margrave is quite capable of exercising his power at a distance and Lilian Ashleigh's condition mirrors what nineteenth century Mesmerists described as A MAGNETIC CRISIS.ORPHEUS BY JEAN DELVILLE REPRESENTS LILIAN ASHLEIGH ENTRANCED BY MARGRAVE
Here is a direct challenge to Fenwick's Materialistic Medicine. With what result? He admits ' my experience was in fault, my skill ineffectual. Day followed day and no ray came back to the darkened brain' (LXIII) He even called in his esteemed Medical Colleagues. But they could not cure her. Their Materialistic Approach had been pitted against Paranormal Power and had been defeated.
Even after a lengthy period, Lilian Ashleigh does not get better. She seems to become more detached from reality as time goes on. Her worsening condition forces Fenwick to admit 'The profession I had once so enthusiastically loved became to me wearisome, insipid, distasteful.' (LXV) It is obvious that Fenwick's rigorous scientific training alerted him to precise scientific features associated with mental illness, but there are clearly some MYSTERIOUS, undefinable factors at work.
Margrave's influence is found to be deeper than Fewick imagined or beyond his ability to combat. This surfaces when he visits Miss Brabazon, a dying woman. We learn two things from this visit. First that she was the one who wrote the letter, which plunged Lilian Ashleigh into a mental breakdown. We also learn that Margrave lurks at the back of it all. For, it was he that forced Miss Brabazon to write the letter.
But how?
She admits, 'that young man, that Margrave, put it into my head .... his laugh and his song haunted me. I THOUGHT I saw him still in my room prompting me to write, and I sat down and wrote.' Despite all of Fenwick's skill Miss Brabazon reaches the point of death and then cries out regarding Margrave, 'The Evil One tempted me! There he is, near me now! I see him yonder! there at the doorway. He comes to claim me.' Fenwick is helpless to assist her recovery. Whether or not Margrave actually projected his 'doppelganger' or a 'double' of himself into the room on this occasion, the context does not answer. However, we shall see that using OCCULT POWER, Margrave certainly does have the ability to do so, if he wished.
PROSPERO AND ARIEL BY WILLIAM HAMILTON
GIVES AN IDEA OF THE MESMERIC POWER EXERTED BY MARGRAVE OVER THE TWO WOMEN
The lesson is this. Bulwer has placed in Fenwick's path two women, both in the grip of occult forces whose illnesses he cannot cure, in order to SHAKE HIS CONFIDENCE in Materialistic philosophy.
Bulwer next turns to a deeper, more penetrating method of reeducating Fenwick. He intends to expose Fenwick himself to Occult Forces.
In the museum of Sir Philip Derval a practicing OCCULTIST, traveller in the East, and Margrave's deadly enemy. Margrave, Sir Philip, and Fenwick are together. Using a MESMERIC technique, Sir Philip first immobilises Margrave. After which, using a similar technique he also MESMERISES Fenwick. But this has a definite purpose. In this condition, Fenwick enters a CLAIRVOYANT state. In this state he is able to penetrate Margrave's flesh aand discern the condition of this apparently young, Grecian God, as he was three years previously. What a shock! Instead of blooming youth, he sees, 'infirm old age; the discoloured skin, the bleared eye, the flaccid muscles, the brittle sapless bones'. His Clairvoyance takes him deep into Margrave's brain, and there he discovers, ' a moral world charred and ruined .... abused to evil ... a cynical disdain of what is right and just'. He also uncovers more terrifying features within Margrave's mind: 'arts which I could not comprehend, but which I felt were dark and terrible.' (XXXII)
What is Bulwer doing?He uses this description to establish fully Margrave's true Nature. Margrave is somehow using the black arts to ALTER THE COURSE OF NATURE respecting his age and constitution. He has therefore become like a brute beast. thoroughly amoral.
FENWICK PENETRATES MARGRAVE'S TRUE NATURE.
SIMILAR TO DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE AS PICTURED BY HENRY VAN DER WADE
Whilst in this state Fenwick is able to peer into Marwick's Nervous Organization. Here he discerns what he describes as 'the halo round the soul'. Shifting his gaze to the stuffed animals in the room (the Mesmeric Trance enables him to see them as if they were alive) he does not see any evidence that they possess a soul.
The key point is that Fenwick's Materialistic Philosophy would lead him to believe that there is no distinction between men and animals. Thus asserts the Evolution Theory. Bulwer, here seems to be providing Fenwick with visible evidence that challenges Materialistic Evolution. The presence of the soul, as seen by Fenwick, shows that men and animals are distinctly different.
Even so, Fenwick has not yet learned the lesson. In the end he puts the whole episode down to a clever conjuring trick on the part of Sir Philip Derval. Fair enough, a range of explanations is always possible. This, Bulwer acknowledges. Whether or not the Mesmeric Trance reveals the actual state of things depends upon the way the participants, in this case the Materialist Fenwick, interprets it.
This being so, Bulwer next submits Fenwick to Occult experiences difficult to gainsay, or dispute.
However, this subsequent phase I must leave until my next Posting.
I hope by now you are getting the 'feel' of the Victorian Consciousness and finding it easier to slip into what made the Victorian novels tick.
I trust you are enjoying the voyage.
Any Comments?
KS (UK)
Picture Credits: Wikipedia Commons
Quotations from 'A Strange Story' Knebworth Edition (London 1897)
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