Soto, Fernando Jorge (2010) Sources, symbols, identities, and metamorphoses in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and Macdonald’s Fantasy. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2295/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] SOURCES, SYMBOLS, IDENTITIES, AND METAMORPHOSES IN CARROLL’S ‘NONSENSE’ AND MACDONALD’S FANTASY FERNANDO JORGE SOTO C. Submitted to the Department of English Literature University of Glasgow in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) January 2010 © 2010 Fernando Jorge Soto C. All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Thesis: Sources, Identities and Metamorphoses in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald are responsible for some of the most popular yet obscure texts in the English Canon. Because Carroll and MacDonald are often credited with pioneering much of their genres — Nonsense Literature and Fantasy Literature — it seems that often they are labeled as originators, and not as active contributing members of a much larger literary tradition. Carroll and MacDonald were close friends and literary confidants, using each other’s works, as well as employing that of other writers. This is a study of the sources Carroll and MacDonald used in an attempt to better understand the underlying meanings and symbols in some of their works. For example, I study the analogous symbols they utilized, along with the words used to express them, to convey their ideas about identity and metamorphosis. I show that they rely on ancient, complex symbols, and the traditional language and meanings associated with them, to communicate deeply embedded messages to their readers. They employ the symbols of the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, in several different guises, in their complex works. It is these symbols that allowed them to elucidate the concepts of the individual’s initial materialist state, followed by the midway period of dreaming/reflecting, and the subsequent spiritual awakening. The analysis of the literary sources they used helps to uncover symbols and themes of interest for Carroll and MacDonald, which in turn help to expose other of their sources, such as the Bestiaries, biblical stories, and the works of Isaac Watts, and William Blake. I attempt to explain how some of these symbols and themes function in the portrayal of coherent, yet creative, meanings in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS 1:1 - GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 1:2 - LAYOUT OF THE THESIS 9 1:3 - CARROLL’S AND ‘NONSENSE 10 1:4 - MACDONALD AND HIS WORD-WAYS 12 1:5 - CONCLUSIONS 13 CHAPTER TWO: CREATIVE USE OF WORDS, SYMBOLS, AND SOURCES IN PHANTASTES, ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, AND LILITH 2:1 - INTRODUCTION TO THE CARROLL- MACDONALD RELATIONSHIP 14 2:2 - CARROLL’S BORROWINGS FROM PHANTASTES: THE BEGINNING OF THE LITERARY INTERPLAY 15 2:3 - MACDONALD’S REFASHIONING OF THE ALICE AND PHANTASTES BOTANICAL EPISODES IN LILITH 19 2:4 - LILITH AND MANDRAKES 31 2:5 - MACDONALD AND BLAKE’S HAND 34 2:6 - JOHN DONNE: APPLE-MANDRAKE AND SOULS 36 2:7 – CONCLUSIONS 38 CHAPTER THREE: CARROLL’S AND MACDONALD’S USE OF WATTS, (SOUTHEY) AND BLAKE 3:I - INTRODUCTION: WATTS (SOUTHEY), CARROLL, AND MACDONALD 39 3:2 - CARROLL, SOUTHEY, WATTS, AND BLAKE: PARODIES AND CRITICAL COMMENTARY 42 iii 3.3 - BLAKE AND CARROLL CONTRA WATTS 56 3:4 – MORE CONTEXT: CARROLL AND BLAKE 64 3:5 – OTHER CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CARROLL AND BLAKE 66 3:6 - WHAT IS MAN!: BLAKE’S AND CARROLL’S “KEYS” 71 3:7 - MORE CROSS POLLINATION: MACDONALD AND CARROLL 82 3:8 - MACDONALD, BLAKE, AND WATTS 84 3:9 - MACDONALD, BLAKE, AND IDENTITY: WORM, CHRYSALIS, AND BUTTERFLY 88 3:10 - LILITH, ENITHARMON, AND CARROLL AND DANTE 101 3:11 - MACDONALD AND CARROLL: ORGANS AND PIANOS 109 3:12 - MACDONALD’S LADY WITH THE EYES, PIANO/PEONY, AND METAMORPHOSES 111 3:13 - FURTHER SUPPORTING EVIDENCE OF METAMORPHOSES, ORGANS, AND DAISIES IN MACDONALD’S OTHER WORKS 114 3:14 - CONCLUSIONS 117 CHAPTER FOUR: INDENTITIES, SOURCES, AND MACDONALD’S REFASHIONING OF CLASSICAL MYTH 4:I – INTRODUCTION 119 4:2 - MACDONALD AND MYTH — KORE MOTIFS IN THE PRINCESS BOOKS 121 4:3 - UNEARTHING ANCIENT SOURCES IN MACDONALD’S THE GOLDEN KEY 136 4:4 – CONCLUSIONS 150 CHAPTER FIVE – MACDONALD AND VICTORIAN SCIENCE: THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY AND LIGHT IN PHANTASTES AND LILITH 5:1- INTRODUCTION 151 5:2 - ELECTRICITY AND LIFE FORCE IN PHANTASTES AND LILITH 153 iv 5:3 - THE IMAGINATION AND LIGHT: OPTICS IN THE WORLD OF LILITH 162 5:4 - OPTICS IN LILITH 166 5:5 - RESURRECTION AND PERCEPTION: COMPLEX VERSIONS OF VISION 171 5:6 – CONCLUSIONS 178 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS 6:1 - CONCLUSIONS 179 END NOTES 183 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 192 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. 1 - BODLEIAN MS. ASHMOLE: GRIFFIN 16 FIG. 2 – BRITISH LIBRARY, HARLEY MS. BESTIARY: GRIFFIN 16 FIG. 3 - BRITISH LIBRARY, MS. ROYAL: MANDRAKE COUPLE 30 FIG. 4 - BODLEIAN LIBRARY, MS. ASHMOLE BESTIARY: MANDRAKE 31 FIG. 5 - BLAKE’S THE GATES OF PARADISE, BABY/MANDRAKE 34 FIG. 6 – MERTON COLLEGE LIBRARY MS. 249: WHALE 60 FIG. 7 – BLAKE’S FOR CHILDREN, FRONTISPIECE 67 FIG. 8 – CARROLL’S UNDERGROUND, ALICE AND CATERPILLAR 68 FIG. 9 - TENNIEL’S WONDERLAND, ALICE AND CATERPILLAR 68 FIG. 10 - BLAKE’S FOR CHILDREN, BABY IN EGG SHELL 72 FIG. 11 - BLAKE’S FOR CHILDREN, WORM/CATTERPILLAR AND DEATH 73 FIG. 12 – BLAKE’S FOR THE SEXES, SATAN 73 FIG. 13 - CARROLL’S UNDERGROUND, SERPENT/ALICE 75 FIG. 14 – THE LOST CHORD 78 FIG. 15 - MACDONALD’S BLAKE-INSPIRED BOOK-PLATE 84 FIG. 16 – CARDINAL WISEMAN ON HIS HAT 90 FIG. 17 – THE POPE ON HIS CHAIR 90 FIG. 18 – CARROLL’S UNDERGROUND SERPENT/ALICE AND PIGEON 105 vi DEDICATED TO FERNANDO SOTO von B. AND LIBERTAD CARVAJAL D. WITH LOVE, RESPECT, AND MUCH GRATITUDE vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank Dr. Donald MacKenzie for the encouragement and helpful advice he has given me throughout my Doctoral studies at the University of Glasgow. I also thank Professor Stephen Prickett for his support and for the time he has devoted to reading and commenting on some of my work. John Docherty was the original inspiration for my study of MacDonald, and he has been an incredibly helpful colleague in this and other literary endeavors of importance in my life. I also thank Amy Vail for reading my work, and for her helpful suggestions. I am very grateful to my father and mother for their overwhelming love, patience, drive, and the great sacrifices they have undergone on my behalf. Without their examples of persistence, motivation, and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, none of this work would have been possible. I also thank the University of Glasgow for helping to fund my studies, through a University of Glasgow Postgraduate Scholarship, and for the University of Glasgow Graduate School of Arts and Humanities Research Support Award. The former award made my studies in Glasgow possible, while the latter allowed me to present some of my preliminary findings to The Lewis Carroll Society, and the George MacDonald Society. I thank The Bodleian Library for their permission to use MS. Ashmole 1511, fol. 15v, and MS. Ashmole 1462, fol. 45r. I thank the Warden and Fellows of Merton College Oxford for allowing me to use Merton MS 249, as well as the British Library for allowing me permission to use © The British Library Board Harley MS 4751, Folio 7v. viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS 1:1 - GENERAL INTRODUCTION Carroll’s special genius lies in his ability to disguise charmingly and to charmingly disguise the gravity of his concerns by making the most playful quality of his work at the same time its didactic crux…. [In Alice] we are dealing with a curious, complicated kind of knowledge disguised as nonsense — nonsense that combines playfulness with instructive exercises to explore the use and abuse of language…. (Patten, The Logic of Alice 10) MacDonald’s writings are symbolic communications to his friend, the reader. This is true in the double sense that what they refer to (reality as we perceive it) is a symbol and also in that their means of reference (language) is itself, inescapably, symbolic. MacDonald’s reader, therefore, must develop the power to read the hieroglyphic aspect of things for he is dealing with an author who believes that literature ought to have as much conscious meaning crammed into it as possible. (Robb, George MacDonald 54) In this thesis I will study some of the works of Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) and George MacDonald. I will attempt to uncover and analyze previously undetected symbols and references in Carroll’s and MacDonald’s books that show a literary interplay between the two writers. I will provide a close reading of sections of their most popular books, as they relate to other sections of their works, as they reflect parts of each other’s books, and as they borrow from other sources, ranging from etymology, or the medieval Bestiaries, to some of the works of William Blake. Most of this comparative study of Carroll’s and MacDonald’s works and their possible sources will focus mainly on their handling of words, their similar understanding and development of symbols, and their creative recycling of themes associated with identity, metamorphosis, and perception.