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The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
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The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (hosted by Petra)
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Petra
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Dec 27, 2024 10:09PM
Founder's Picture in the Dining Hall by Fred Barnard, 1878
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Lee wrote: "On the illustrations, do the 20th century illustrators give away something off the plot by having the ghost so exactly resembling the haunted man? Would Dickens have approved? We don’t know the answer yet (unless we have read ahead). But the illustrators do indeed have quite a bit of power to influence the reader!"I quite agree, Lee. I wonder how Dickens would have had Phiz illustrate this story.
The telling of stories. A story mostly brings the past to the present. In the telling of the story the narrator must reflect, remember, and then colour the story according to his/her memory.As a kid I enjoyed listening to my parents and their friends remember “the good old days.” Now, I realize I too tell stories. I wonder what my children and grandchildren think.
As for the dressing of the rooms with holly. A great Dickensian touch. Green. All that we associate with the colour green. A great metaphor to continue as the novella unfolds.
Kelly wrote: "Summary Three: I was also confused about the multiple names. It took me a minute to realize that Mr. William was the same person as Mr. Swidger and Mrs. William was Milly (although that one was a little easier to figure out.)..."I'm glad I'm not alone in getting all these names and characters confused! I kept having to go back and see who was who. To add to my problem, Dickens was having quite a lot of fun with all the names that Mrs. William could go by. I think I have it now. LOL
Bridget wrote: "I also wonder, if old Mr. William is the sort of person who is generally happy and if he is, that might explain how a painful moment in his life is remembered with fondness. I find that to be true in real life. Happy people tend to not remember the bad stuff in life. In contrast, I suspect it's true that unhappy people tend to dwell on unhappy memories. I think Mr. Redlaw is that kind of person..."Yes, Bridget! That is exactly what I have been thinking... that Mr. Redlaw must have lost someone very important to him, and he has never been able to move on (through guilt, perhaps?). I wonder if she (?) died, or like Scrooge, he gave her up for other desires (material, professional?). Either way, Christmas brings back the full force of those memories and regrets.
This is really turning into being a beautiful story!
Appreciate all the astute comments from everyone. I very much like Old Mister Swidger and his memories of his prior years. One can tell he has had a difficult life, with loss, but he chooses to remember it with gratitude. I do not think his constant repetition of his age is in any way an indication of any deficiency in his brain. People who lived to very old age in those times (and 87 would have been considered such) were very proud of the accomplishment. I can remember my grandfather, who was sharp as a knife, always told strangers his age. He was in his nineties and considered it a thing to be very proud of. He also tended to recount his progeny for them, whether they showed an interest or not. Both making old age and having many children were considered blessings from God.
Sara wrote: "I do not think his constant repetition of his age is in any way an indication of any deficiency in his brain. People who lived to very old age in those times (and 87 would have been considered such) were very proud of the accomplishment"I'm sure you are right about this, Sara. Thank you for sharing the memory of your grandfather. I had a grandfather who lived into his nineties, and you reminded me that he did the same thing. Loved to tell people how old he was. An accomplishment indeed, especially in Victorian times.
Did everyone notice "The room began to darken strangely" after Redlaw murmurs "merry and happy" to himself. Gave me a little chill, like the room itself is alive and responding to Redlaw.
I also loved the writing when Phillip talks about distributing more holly "if the cold don't freeze us first, or the wind don't' blow us away, or the darkness don't swallow us up". The Swidger family is a light in the darkness of the school.
Peter wrote: "As a kid I enjoyed listening to my parents and their friends remember “the good old days.” Now, I realize I too tell stories. I wonder what my children and grandchildren think...."I loved listening to the stories, too, and now I like telling them. LOL. It seems that we humans are born storytellers. It's a wonderful tradition and keeps our loved ones (even those we never met) alive and with us in a way.
Peter wrote: "As for the dressing of the rooms with holly. A great Dickensian touch. Green. All that we associate with the colour green. A great metaphor to continue as the novella unfolds..."Peter, great insight. I hadn't thought about the colour green and what it may represent. I only thought of Holly & Christmas.
The colour green and what it represents:
- Green is often described as refreshing and tranquil. Other common associations with the color green are money, luck, health, and envy.
- The color green can positively affect thinking, relationships, and physical health. Green is also thought to relieve stress and help heal.
- Ancient Greeks portrayed Osiris, their god of the underworld, birth, rebirth, agriculture, and fertility, with a green face.
- Researchers theorize that green carries more positive emotional connotations. Thus, the color green might elicit an optimism bias when it comes to remembering information.
- in one colour study, participants exposed to the color green experienced increased feelings of hope and decreased fear of failure.
Shirley (stampartiste) wrote: "This is really turning into being a beautiful story..."I agree. This is a wonderful story so far. It starts out with so much gloom and darkness, and now we have the fun and light Swidgers.
Sara wrote: "One can tell he has had a difficult life, with loss, but he chooses to remember it with gratitude..."I like this thought. I hope to be like Mr. Swidger one day. I hope I can look back with gratitude.
Bridget wrote: "Did everyone notice "The room began to darken strangely" after Redlaw murmurs "merry and happy" to himself. Gave me a little chill, like the room itself is alive and responding to Redlaw..."Yes, I noticed that. It almost chilled the room I was sitting in. LOL.
It made me wonder whether the shadows and gloom we've been reading about truly exist or whether they are in Redlaw's mind only.
The darkening of the room is very effective, I think. At least for Redlaw the mention of the past seems to bring more melancholy.
Sara, yes....it really does seem as if Redlaw has been affected by his past. It's always a shame when someone can't find some resolution in order to be able to move on.
Summary 6 - The Gift BestowedMr. Redlaw inquires about why the student is so secretive, but Milly doesn’t know. She is trying only to make him comfortable because he’s lonely, poor and seems neglected, too.
The room is getting darker, with a heavy gloom and the shadows are gathering behind Mr. Redlaw’s chair.
He asks more about the student. She says the student is engaged to be married when his fortunes get better. He studies hard to one day be able to make a good living and he denies himself many things.
Philip remarks that the room is getting chillier and more dismal and asks William to turn up the lamp and stir the fire.
Milly continues: the student murmured in his fevered sleep about someone being dead and a wrong having been done that could not be set right again. Milly is unsure about to whom this wrong was done; to the student or someone else, but she’s sure it wasn’t done by the student himself.
William praises his wife’s attending and helping the young student, being like a mother to him.
The room continues to get colder and darker; the gloom getting heavier.
To add to this, William tells that Milly has found a young, wild child on the doorstep this very evening, which she had brought home with her to feed it and give it shelter. This makes her happy.
The child is currently sitting in their rooms, staring at the fire, as if it had never seen one before…..unless, of course, the child had bolted while it was alone.
Mr. Redlaw states that Mrs. William should be kept happy by keeping the child sheltered. He has to give these two situations a think. He may want to see the student. Then he bids them good night.
Philip thanks Mr. Redlaw, then asks William to take the lantern and guide them through the dark passageways. They leave the room and close the door. The room gets darker as the door shuts on it. As Mr. Redlaw muses in his chair, the holly withers and drops to the floor, dead.
The dark and shadow behind him gathered itself and took on the shape of none other than himself. A ghastly, grizzled hair, dressed in a gloomy shadow, the ghost takes up the resemblance of Mr. Redlaw, quietly, motionless and without sound.
While Mr. Redlaw mused and stared into the fire, the ghost leaned against the chair back, looking where he looked and with the same expression of face. This was the companion of Mr. Redlaw, the haunted man.
I have to apologize here. I posted the pictures of Mr. Redlaw and the Phantom too early. I have them marked in my notes twice and didn't notice that. They belong here; not where I earlier posted them. With that in mind, I'll post them again here, where they belong.
I'm sorry. When I saw Lee's post, I looked at my notes and found this mistake.
:(
Haunted by John Tenniel, 1848
Redlaw and the Phantom by John Leech, 1948
The Haunted Man by Henry Furniss, 1910
The Haunted Man by Charles Green, 1912
It's okay, Petra--we appreciate all you are juggling to keep us going here!Things are getting significantly spookier! I really appreciated Peter's comment from Summary 5 about the Green metaphor, and Petra's examples. To then see the holly wither and die in this section was powerful.
Petra wrote: "Haunted by John Tenniel, 1848"
First, no worries Petra about all those wonderful illustrations. They silently begged to be posted.
And talking of illustrations I think Tenniel’s ‘Haunted’ is wonderful. In the inner ring we see a Redlaw with the ghost behind him. That alone is a fine illustration. Then, in the otter ring we see two warring factions. On the left we see the forces of good, and on the right the forces of evil. It appears that angels are in a desperate battle with devils. Bows and arrows, grasping hands, pained expressions on faces. Tenniel has really packed a full range of human emotions into those faces. It takes a while to sort through the faces. Good Vs Evil. Our memories store both good and evil thoughts, good and bad memories.
What I found most disturbing was the chair on which Redlaw sits. His left elbow rests on the chair’s arm. The arm of the chair has a distinct face carved into it. The back of the chair shows a spiral support and the ghost’s left elbow resting on it. To me, the spiral of the back support links Redlaw to his ghost. Thus, like the battle of the angels with the devils that surround the central picture of the seated Redlaw, Redlaw and his ghost are physically linked by the chair.
Who will win the battle for Redlaw’s mind, for his desires, for his life. The answer to that is yet to be revealed.
Occasionally, I point out how Dickens writing influenced the later to come art of film. I won't make claim to his influence this time but there is certainly a similarity to what Dickens is doing in his writing and what later becomes known as "expressionism," in the arts where one object is to make manifest the inner psychology of the characters in the outer setting of the work. Specifically, you can see similarities in what became know as German Expressionist film with what Dicken's is writing in the chiaroscuro lighting effects, ghostly doppelganger, and other various elements that are apparent in the writing.
Peter wrote: "First, no worries Petra about all those wonderful illustrations. They silently begged to be posted.And talking of illustrations I think Tenniel’s ‘..."
I love your dissection of Tenniel's illustration, Peter. I thought the outer ring, with the devils and angels, was an indication that this is a battle for a soul; and I loved the way the "ghost" seems to be whispering in Redlaw's ear.
I agree, Petra, no problem about the illustrations. They have actually made me very attuned to the story and I was excited when the ghostly figure finally appeared incarnate.
The emerging story of the student is quite the mystery. Why is he so reluctant to have Redlaw know of him? What is the significance of the second story of the rescued child who is taken in to the fire? And, the increasing darkness takes shape after the others have gone--and the darkness is a shadow of Redlaw himself. This shape is visible only to him, but I did feel that the darkness itself was visible to the others and that it was felt by them.
Yes, there are so many mysteries developing - this is a wonderful tale so far! I love the little details, like the holly dying when the Swidgers leave and take their light with them. I also loved the description of the door closing"however carefully withheld, fired a long train of reverberations when it shut at last"
I imagine echoes of the sound as it passes through the mostly empty building. Spooky, chilling sounds!!
I agree that seeing the illustrations early actually has made my reading of this story that much more enjoyable! I've been eagerly awaiting the appearance of this spirit and what it might portend. Great observation about the chair, Peter! I didn't pick up on that. One of the most moving and dramatic moments for me in this section was when the holly withered, died, and fell. It gave me such a foreboding feeling.
May I ask those of you with more Dickens knowledge than me, what is it with Dickens and ghost stories for Christmas? What is his motivation for including such dark themes for this particular time of year? I know there must be a history or reason. I know he lost loved ones young and perhaps this time of year wasn't the most cheerful time for him?
Yes, the story is getting eerier & eerier!! The mysterious student, the "wild child" but most affecting at the moment is this manifestation of Redlaw. I felt Dickens was masterful in building the tension with the cold, the holly dying and darkness that finally congealed to become the spirit.
Peter wrote: "What I found most disturbing was the chair on which Redlaw sits. His left elbow rests on the chair’s arm. The arm of the chair has a distinct face carved into it. The back of the chair shows a spiral support and the ghost’s left elbow resting on it. To me, the spiral of the back support links Redlaw to his ghost. Thus, like the battle of the angels with the devils that surround the central picture of the seated Redlaw, Redlaw and his ghost are physically linked by the chair..."Wow! I hadn't noticed those details of the chair and how it interconnected the two. Now I can't unsee it. It's so obvious and makes this story spookier and more serious, in a manner.
I also like the circle around the illustration. To add to what's already been said, the design is very wreath-like. The merriment of a wreath is buried amid the battle going on within it in the illustration.
A lot of thought and sybolism has gone into this illustration. Battle for the soul, the self, maybe the World?
Kathleen wrote: "To then see the holly wither and die in this section was powerful...."Kathleen, my heart sank a bit, too, when the holly died and fell to the floor. It was as if something had been lost. Chilling.
Sam, I'm not exactly clear on Expressionism, but that feeling of the lighting of the room, the ghostly doppleganger phantom and the withering holly give me a clearer idea of what you are trying to say. It's a surrealness to the story, I think? From Wikipedia:
Expressionism:
An alternative view is that the term was coined by the Czech art historian, Antonin Matějček, in 1910 as the opposite of Impressionism: "... (an Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures... Impressions and mental images that pass through ... people's soul....."
Sara wrote: "The emerging story of the student is quite the mystery. Why is he so reluctant to have Redlaw know of him? What is the significance of the second story of the rescued child who is taken in to the fire? .."Sara, we've been tossed a couple additional stories in a quick way, then moved back to the phantom. It's a double punch from Dickens before he sidesteps back to the main story.
I'm curious, too, who these two people are and their significance.
The rescued child is especially interesting. Why was a child out on its own, without care and protection?
Bridget wrote: ""however carefully withheld, fired a long train of reverberations when it shut at last".."
Bridget, the echoes would have been as ghostly as the phantom watching Redlaw.
Chris wrote: "The mysterious student, the "wild child" but most affecting at the moment is this manifestation of Redlaw. I felt Dickens was masterful in building the tension with the cold, the holly dying and darkness that finally congealed to become the spirit...."Dickens is a master at his art, I don't know how he does it but he's always got control over the scene. This one is no exception. It came together perfectly with the phantom and darkness and the chair (thanks again, Peter, for this insight).
Kelly wrote: "May I ask those of you with more Dickens knowledge than me, what is it with Dickens and ghost stories for Christmas? What is his motivation for including such dark themes for this particular time of year? I know there must be a history or reason. I know he lost loved ones young and perhaps this time of year wasn't the most cheerful time for him?..."I hope Jean sees this. She's best to answer this.
I'm not an expert by far but my feeling is that Dickens sees the spiritual world as a kind of passage through to our spiritual awakening or enlightenment or something like that.
There's that saying "it's darkest before the dawn". Rock bottom, spiritually speaking.
That's kind of the feeling I get from these dark themes.
Another illustration from this section:Mrs. William and the Waif by Charles Green, 1895 & 1912
Summary 7 - The Gift BestowedNeither one took notice of the other. Music played from a distance. It seemed that both man and ghost were listening to it.
At last, Mr. Redlaw acknowledged the ghost, who acknowledged him back. The ghost says he’s there by Mr. Redlaw’s bidding; Mr. Redlaw says he’s there not by his bidding. Redlaw turns to look at the ghost. At the same time, the ghost moves to the front of the chair and looks at Mr. Redlaw.
The two looked at each other in that lonely, dark corner of an old building, on a cold and windy winter night.
The spectre spoke: I was neglected in my youth and very poor. I had to dig for the knowledge I learned by myself. I had to make my own steps to help myself forward.
That is myself, said Redlaw.
The ghost continued: No mother’s love had I; no father’s advice helped me. A stranger took my father’s place when I was little and I lost my mother’s affections. My parents love did not last long and their responsibilities ended quickly. They sent their children from their home young. If they succeeded, the parents took credit. If they failed, the parents claimed pity for having a failed offspring. I then found a friend and bound him to me. We worked together, helped each other. All the love inside me that had no earlier outlet, I put onto him.
No, not all the love. There was a sister.
Redlaw held his head in his hands and agreed.
With an evil smile, the ghost drew closer to Redlaw and looked into his face, searching.
The ghost continued: Any sense of home came from the sister. She was young, fair and loving. He’d taken her in as soon as he had a roof over his head. She brightened his home and life.
Redlaw: he sees her in the fire, hears her in the music, the wind and in the stillness of the night.
The ghost replied that the man had loved her once. It would have been better for her to have loved the man less and more shallowly than she did.
Redlaw angrily replied that he’d like to forget and blot that memory from his mind. The ghost fixed his cruel eyes on Redlaw.
As the sister fell in love, so did he. He again sees his sister who became the wife of his friend, a man of some inheritance.
Redlaw now sees pictures of the past in music, in the wind and the stillness of night. He sees pictures of his sister as the wife of a dear friend; pictures of their happy lives and their children. ….But the pictures were delusions.
Delusions, said the ghost. For the sister lived to see Redlaw begin his success and then she died.
I wanted to just quickly add a thought to Kelly's question. I think the veil of separation between the two realms (real and spiritual) was considered to be the thinnest at the Winter Solstice. The Winter Solstice is very close to Christmas, so this would have been a time when spirits would have found it easier to communicate or visit the tangible world. I think this influenced Dickens' thinking. (please correct me if someone believes this to be wrong).
I agree, Sara. I believe the word you are looking for is numinous. It is a thin space between the real and the spiritual, or in Christian terminology, between the real world and the divine.
Numinous: “A numinous experience is a state of mind or category of value that involves a feeling of awe, fear, and being in the presence of something otherworldly.” I’m being quite lazy here to take a quote from Wikipedia. I have experienced this in the religious sense in a 1,500 yr old chapel on the Isle of Iona, off the coast of Scotland.
Thank you for that, Sara and Lee. And on that note, I want to say I loved the long sentence toward the beginning of this section:
An awful survey, in a lonely and remote part of an empty old pile of building, on a winter night, with the loud wind going by upon its journey of mystery—whence or whither, no man knowing since the world began—and the stars, in unimaginable millions, glittering through it, from eternal space, where the world’s bulk is as a grain, and its hoary age is infancy.
This hints at how little we understand about the vast world in which we are but a small part, which opens our minds to the idea of spirits. I love how Dickens works this "journey of mystery" into his story, and works his magic on us!
Thank you, Lee. I now have a word to go with the concept! I do love expanding my vocabulary.Kathleen, the quotation is beautiful, isn't it?
Sara wrote: "I wanted to just quickly add a thought to Kelly's question. I think the veil of separation between the two realms (real and spiritual) was considered to be the thinnest at the Winter Solstice. The ..."Thanks, Sara! This is a great way of stating it.
Lee, thank you for Numinous. That's a great word. I've felt that when looking up at a sky full of stars. That's not easily done anymore but I recall the Heavens full of stars and the aweness of being surrounded by such depth and space.
Kathleen, that is a wondeful sentence. Dickens must have worked on the wording of that one for some time. I don't know how he finds just the right words in just the right order.
Redlaw's past is so sad. He didn't come from a loving home, except for his sister (anyone reminded of Scrooge and Fanny?). He seems to have lost something when his sister married. Perhaps she was more distant from him after marriage? And then she died, leaving Redlaw all alone.
It's tragic. This must have left him feeling lost in this world, with no support or encouragement. It's a wonder he's done as well as he has in the acedemic world.
It appears that his personal world was less successful. ....yet he's a generous man, as seen when he handed Milly that bag of coins for the student's care.
"They come back to me in music, in the wind, in the dead stillness of the night, in the revolving years."
He's never away from the memory of his sister and his lost love. It must eat him alive to keep thinking of them constantly with such loss.
Oh goodness, I have to go read this again. I did not read it as the sister married but that his intended love married his friend. I guess Christmas has left me foggy-brained. Thank you so much for your comments, Petra.In any case, it is very sad, with the loss of both his love and his sister weighing on him always. I thought the repetition of the line you have cited had another haunting feel to it.
Oh dear....maybe I got it wrong. I was confused through that section and couldn't decide who was who. I may have mixed it up.......LOL!
I did find that section confusing as to what was happening. I thought he lost his love because he couldn't earn enough to keep her in a good style. .....maybe she did leave him for another??
It was a confusing section so I read it several times. I think that the chemist's best friend married the chemist's love. He was not able to marry her earlier because he had financial difficulties, but the friend was wealthier.The chemist enjoyed living with his cheerful, beloved sister, but she became sick and died. (Dickens' sister, Fanny, had recently died so he was feeling a similar loss.) The sister might have been hoping to marry her brother's friend.
So the chemist lost everyone who was important to him--his sister, the woman he loved, and his former best friend.
I think his friend married his beloved sister. But I don’t understand why that meant she was torn away from him. ”Pictures of my sister, made the wife of my dear friend, on equal terms—for he had some inheritance, we none—pictures of our sobered age and mellowed happiness, and of the golden links, extending back so far, that should bind us, and our children, in a radiant garland,” said the Phantom.”
Dickensians!
Books mentioned in this topic
American Notes for General Circulation (other topics)No Thoroughfare (other topics)
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (other topics)
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (other topics)
The Cricket on the Hearth (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Charles Dickens (other topics)Michael Kitchen (other topics)
Alan Bleasdale (other topics)
Fred Barnard (other topics)
Sol Eytinge Jr (other topics)
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