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Alchemy, Allegory and Individuation in Angela Carter's the Passion of New

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Alchemy, Allegory and Individuation in Angela Carter's the Passion of New "ALCHEMY of the WORD": ALCHEMY, ALLEGORY and INDIVIDUATION in ANGELA CARTER'S THE PASSION of NEW EVE A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Thesis Only in English in the University of Canterbury by Alana Bolton Cooke University of Canterbury 2005 Acknowledgements I wish to thank Associate Professor Mark Williams and Dr. Anna Smith for their patience and guidance during the writing of this thesis. Also, thanks to my husband Peter for his unfailing emotional, psychological and financial support, and last, but not least, thank-you to Felicity and David for the support of their "university-mum" who was forever writing a thesis. Contents Abstract. ....................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................... 2 Chapter 1 ....................................................................... 13 Chapter 2 ....................................................................... 3 9 Chapter 3 ....................................................................... 70 Conclusion ..................................................................... 99 Endnotes ........................................................................ 101 Works Cited .................................................................... 110 Appendices ..................................................................... 115 Abstract Angela Carter in The Passion of New Eve (1977) uses the exoteric phases of alchemy and Carl G. Jung's theory of esoteric alchemy as a means of demonstrating allegorically the idea ofrebirth and renewal. The purpose of this allegorical method is to produce an 'alchemical' change of thought in the reader about sexuality and gender associated with women's repression and liberation. In the novel Carter develops themes and ideas explored in her essay, The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History (1979), an analysis of the Marquis de Sade's pornography and its affect on the roles of men and women in society. The clash of opposites involved in combining alchemical symbolism, feminism and pornography within the fiction can be seen as representative of the state of chaos present in alchemy before the beginning of change. The circular narrative and alchemical structure of the fiction creates a literary version of the alchemical process as it brings together opposites involved in chaos, represented by events and characterisation that the protagonist, Evelyn/Eve, experiences, until, in the manner of alchemy, harmony is reached. The harmony created represents women's empowerment. Carter uses Evelyn's individuation process to encourage growth within the reader by altering patterns of thought to bring about change through self-confrontation and self-knowledge. The structure of Carter's fiction, thus, corresponds to the process of esoteric alchemy contained within the structure, imagery and symbolism of exoteric alchemy. The fiction is designed to stimulate the unconscious of the reader and make conscious hitherto unknown and repressed thoughts about gender and sexuality to bring about change in the lives of men and women. 2 Introduction. "The twin concepts of alchemy and the individuation process are matters that seem to be very far apart, so that at first the imagination finds it impossible to conceive of any bridge between them." Carl Gustav Jung. Angela Carter uses the twelve phases of exoteric, or material alchemy, to structure her fiction The Passion of New Eve (1977). The work is divided into twelve chapters, themselves divided into three sets of four, which correspond in symbolism and imagery to the process of alchemical change associated with renewal and rebirth. In The Passion of New Eve Carter combines the ideas and themes she developed in The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History (1979), with Carl G. Jung's (1875-1961) theory of esoteric alchemy as a metaphor for individuation to demonstrate the necessity of change as a pathway to growth of the self in the reader. Such growth occurs through change in thought and consequently can affect social and sexual relations between men and women. Jung calls individuation a growth into wholeness of the manifest self and Carter transfers this idea onto the written page through the application of the signs, symbols and imagery of exoteric alchemy to demonstrate the "spirituality" of esoteric alchemy which Jung associated as part of such growth (Stanton 7-8) Esoteric alchemy translates the "knowledge" of the secrets of nature into spiritual and philosophical values and ideas, especially those of the inner life of the individual. Jung called the "self' the totality of the psyche, which consists of the conscious and the unconscious together (Jung, Storr "Mandalas", 237). The exoteric stages of alchemy are used allegorically in The Passion of New Eve to demonstrate the psychological and/or spiritual development of the protagonist Evelyn/Eve. The title of this thesis is taken from Carter's essay on surrealism, "The Alchemy of the Word" printed in Expletives Deleted (1992) and from now on I will refer to The Passion of New Eve as New Eve or NE, The Sadeian Woman as TSW; and Wise Children (1992) as WC. 1 I have used Alexander Roob's Alchemy and Mysticism (1997) to obtain explanations of three works written about alchemy which Carter mentions in The Passion of New Eve (13). They are Splendor Solis written by Saloman Trismosin, Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens, and Manget's 3 Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa. For a clearer description and understanding of alchemy as interpreted by Jung, I have used Jeffrey Raffs Jung and the Alchemical Imagination (2000). The twelve subdivisions of the alchemical process based on planets and metals, and the twelve signs of the zodiac are: 2 Calcinatio: oxidisation -Aries Congelatio: crystallization - Taurus. Fixatio: fixation-Gemini. Solutia: dissolution, melting- Cancer. Digestio: dismemberment - Leo. Distillatio: separation of the solid from the liquid - Virgo. Sublimatio: refinement through sublimation- Libra. Separatio: separation, division - Scorpio. Ceratio: fixing in a waxy state - Sagittarius. Fermentatio: fermentation - Capricorn. Multiplicatio: multiplication - Aquarius. Projectio: scattering of the lapis on the base metals in the form of dust - Pisces.3 These phases of alchemy form the Opus Magnum or the alchemists' Great Work. or "the divine work of creation and the plan of salvation within it."4 The alchemical work is the reordering and unification of matter and material from the source material or prima materia which contains incompatible opposites in violent conflict within the mystery of chaos. This chaotic matter was supposed to be gradually guided towards a redeemed state of perfect harmony, symbolised by the healing "Philosopher's Stone" or lapis philosophorum: "First we bring together, then we putrefy, we break down what has been putrefied, we purify the divided, we unite the purified and harden it. In this way One is made from man and woman" (Roob 123). Carter, in NE , literally applies the idea of unification of the sexes symbolised in the alchemical process which results in a reformed, renewed, reborn and refined substance of new woman in the character of "new" Eve. Carter's use of fiction in NE achieves what Jung acknowledges is an almost impossible feat as she bridges the gap between alchemy and individuation to demonstrate allegorically the stages of growth associated with human self-knowledge. 5 4 Carter's choice of twelve chapters divided into three sets of four chapters in NE is of alchemical and symbolic significance. The number three has its own importance as with the inclusion of four it makes up the "whole" which Carl Jung explains is one of the central axioms of alchemy: "One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth." 6 Four also signifies the feminine, motherly and physical while three signifies the masculine, fatherly and spiritual (Storr/Jung 276). Jung also explains that the number three is not a "natural expression of wholeness, since four represents the minimum number of determinants in a whole judgement" and in alchemy there are three as well as four procedures and there are colours and four elements grouped together with the fourth in a special position, sometimes earth and sometimes fire imagery (Storr/ Jung 275). The association of fire is part of four "directions" of the natural, supernatural, divine and human which are all symbolically associated with the division of elements of earth, fire, air and water, as well as the "four degrees of fire" associated with alchemy (Storr/Jung 275). 7 For example, Carter uses the imagery of fire in New York (10) at the start of Evelyn's change and "the sky fissured with artificial fire" (164) as Eve enters her last phase of spiritual transmutation. All three sets of chapters in NE encompass the four stages of human wholeness and totality, which Evelyn/Eve, the protagonist, achieves during his/her journey. In this way the number four (mankind) is combined with the number three (divinity) and produces seven (symbiosis of the human and divine), signifying wholeness. Number four represents "quaternity" which, according to law attributed to Pythagorus, defines the spectrum of all earthly possibilities (Roob 30). Four is based on the four elements of earth, fire, air and water theorised by Empedocles, Hippocrates and Aristotle who all traced elements back to the prima materia which is essential to the
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