4 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2022
    1. These words were a sufficient explication of the scene. The nature of his phrenzy, as described by my uncle, was remembered. I who had sought death, was now thrilled with horror because it was near. Death in this form, death from the hand of a brother, was thought upon with undescribable repugnance. In a state thus verging upon madness, my eye glanced upon Carwin. His astonishment appeared to have struck him motionless and dumb. My life was in danger, and my brother’s hand was about to be embrued in my blood. I firmly believed that Carwin’s was the instigation. I could rescue me from this abhorred fate; I could dissipate this tremendous illusion; I could save my brother from the perpetration of new horrors, by pointing out the devil who seduced him; to hesitate a moment was to perish. These thoughts gave strength to my limbs, and energy to my accents: I started on my feet. “O brother! spare me, spare thyself: There is thy betrayer. He counterfeited the voice and face of an angel, for the purpose of destroying thee and me. He has this moment confessed it. He is able to speak where he is not. He is leagued with hell, but will not avow it; yet he confesses that the agency was his.”

      There's so much in this chapter. Firstly prudent reasoning from Carwin vs religious enthusiasm indirectly clashes in this emotion heated scene. Carwin has confessed his sins. Wieland escaped prison again to sacrifice Clara in his belief that the voice he hears is a divine messenger. Clara had thought of commiting suicide before Carwin's confessions, but once Wieland appears, she dreads the thought of dieing. The atmosphere has such eerie gothic elements. On the other hand there's a lot of character development, all 3 have changed a lot which makes them dynamic characters. Carwin seeks to clear up everything he had done out of guilt. Wieland had gone insane. But the most dramatic change is within Clara, who everyone adored, percieved as pure, brave and just and now - even though she just heard from Carwin that he had not made Wieland murder his family, Clara turns on him with a lie, a religious reasoning to save herself from her brother and to make his brother realize that "the divine messenger" is unreal. Clara is trying to use a possibly deadly trick on the two men. All three characters has reached a big turning point.

  2. Sep 2022
    1. My opinions were the sport of eternal change. Some times I conceived the apparition to be more than human. I had no grounds on which to build a disbelief. I could not deny faith to the evidence of my religion; the testimony of men was loud and unanimous: both these concurred to persuade me that evil spirits existed, and that their energy was frequently exerted in the system of the world. These ideas connected themselves with the image of Carwin. Where is the proof, said I, that daemons may not be subjected to the controul of men? This truth may be distorted and debased in the minds of the ignorant. The dogmas of the vulgar, with regard to this subject, are glaringly absurd; but though these may justly be neglected by the wise, we are scarcely justified in totally rejecting the possibility that men may obtain supernatural aid. The dreams of superstition are worthy of contempt. Witchcraft, its instruments and miracles, the compact ratified by a bloody signature, the apparatus of sulpherous smells and thundering explosions, are monstrous and chimerical. These have no part in the scene over which the genius of Carwin presides. That conscious beings, dissimilar from human, but moral and voluntary agents as we are, some where exist, can scarcely be denied. That their aid may be employed to benign or malignant purposes, cannot be disproved.

      This part specifically reminds me of Mather's apocalyptic view. Especially the part "evil spirits existed, and that their energy was frequently exerted in the system of the world." Clara seems to be both convinced that supernatural forces are in effect, but also questioning the evidence - both ways: No proof against it, no proof to support it.

    2. “Madness, say you? Are you sure? Were not these sights, and these sounds, really seen and heard?” My uncle was surprized at my question. He looked at me with apparent inquietude. “Can you doubt,” said he, “that these were illusions? Does heaven, think you, interfere for such ends?” “O no; I think it not. Heaven cannot stimulate to such unheard-of outrage. The agent was not good, but evil.” “Nay, my dear girl,” said my friend, “lay aside these fancies. Neither angel nor devil had any part in this affair.” “You misunderstand me,” I answered; “I believe the agency to be external and real, but not supernatural.” “Indeed!” said he, in an accent of surprize. “Whom do you then suppose to be the agent?”

      This is a great contrast to Wieland's confession. Neither of them think the cause was of supernatural origin, - no cosmologycal drama was involved - but either Wieland became insane or there was a setup by a 3rd party, presumably Carwin.

    3. Chapter XIX

      The entire chapter is a mix of overlapping sentimentalism and gothic elements in the form of religious enthusiasm: devoted and passionately religious Wieland is convinced by a hallucination that he must sacrifice his wife - and later children - to rid himself of mortal impurities, selfishness, and to prove his faith to God by it. The darkness and the torturous thoughts about death and murdering what's most precious to him are gothic elements. I think the cause - the hallucination itself - as godly as it looks is controversially gothic because it is a coverage of the madness and the horrors that will happen. The emotions are overpouring with grief, hesitation, and the urge to fulfill a "divine duty". The reasoning is far from prudent, although there are episodes where Wieland is torn between his love for his family and God. The inner conflict - although more exaggerated here - reminds me a little of "Contemplations", but unlike in Contemplations, where from the gloomy thoughts we reach peace, Weiland is "dancing with madness" in his inner battle, episodically going back and forth even after the deed is done - at first he's relieved even happy that he was able to obey a divine command and set himself free, but then he breaks down under its weight, and again his hallucinations bring him back to carry on and repeat it with his children too.