The Enunciation of Truth

“Words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and, for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.”- V, V for Vendetta (2005).

            

            Throughout the course, our discussions have revolved around numerous topics from the gothic to monstrousity and numerous topics in between; however, they have always focused on the power and the meaning and most importantly the choice of words. The power of words has brought entire families to ruin in The Castle of Otranto. The power of words has a magical effect in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Without finding the right words, the beauty and horror of the sublime could not be expressed within Frankenstein. And it is through words that Keats will obtain his immortality in When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be. The power of words is far beyond anything else studied this semester, for without words the course would be impossible.

            The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole, rather brilliantly portrays this across the course of the novel. As pointed out in the post “Names”, the meaning of many character’s names creates rather the opposite effect as to what the original meaning of their names implies. By rather unsubtly inverting the meaning of words, Walpole creates an uneasy atmosphere; it is however a subtle unease as it takes a certain degree of research and knowledge of etymology.

The atmosphere of unease is established through the appearance of the “enormous helmet, a hundred times more large than any casque made for human being, and shaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers” (Walpole 18). The descriptive word “enormous” within this passage are the important elements of the overall establishment of the atmosphere of unease. “Enormous”  is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “abnormal, unusual, extraordinary, unfettered by rules”. A single word has the potential and capability of conveying all those things and more; a single word in addition to the inversion of names has given the atmosphere of The Castle of Otranto  it’s shape, all within the first two pages of the novel.

Yet it is not only these simplistic and singular instances of the meaning of words that give Otranto it’s eerie atmostphere. More words give shape to the plot of the novel and allow it to be done easily within a single sentence on the very first page of the novel. “That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it” (Walpole 17). The enormity of words looms in this section, just as it does in other descriptive words in the novel.  The pervasiveness of these words further winds itself throughout the novel in the form of Manfred’s constant and persistent paranoia over them and the legacy of his family line. The power of these words is what ultimately leads to Manfred’s downfall in the form of the death of his daughter and the end of his noble house.

Words themselves can often possess this power, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Samuel Taylor Coleridge displays this in his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In the first part of the poem, the Marine speaks to the Wedding-Guest, yet once the Mariner begins his tale “The Wedding-Guest stood still,/ And listens like a three year’s child:/ The Mariner hath his will” (Coleridge 18-20). While the Broadview edition cited here notes that “the wedding guest is spellbound by the eye” of the Mariner, I respectfully disagree. It is not the Mariner casting some sort of spell to root him there, rather the tale the Mariner is compelled to tell had rooted the Wedding-Guest to the spot. The very words themselves are bound with a certain supernatural power to root men to the spot; Coleridge makes this clear a few lines down when the Wedding-Gues “cannot choose but hear;/ And thus spake on that ancient man, the bright-eyed Mariner” (38-39).

The Wedding-Guest is intimately acquainted with not just the supernatural power but the transformative power that words can have upon a person in the very last stanza of the poem:

“He went like one that hath been stunned,

And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man,

He rose the morrow morn” (Coleridge 622-25).

Our Wedding-Guest has not had the experience of the Mariner, but rather through the act of listening to the tale of the Mariner, that is through the Mariner’s words, he himself is transformed as a result. The transformation within the Wedding-Guest creates within him a deeper understanding; in the Wedding-Guest, ignorance is bliss. Yet as a result of the obtainment of knowledge through the Mariner’s words, the Wedding-Guest is rendered sorrowful.

            Coleridge himself was obviously aware of the power that words could have upon the overall interpretation of a poem. As outlined in “The Many Faces of The Ancient Mariner”, Coleridge edited The Rime of the Ancient Mariner multiple times to bring clarity to the societal and political undertones of the message in the poem. The process of creating different editions of a poem ultimately relies on adjusting words; however in the act of adjusting words to conform either to a new meaning, the overall portrait that a poem paints can in and of itself alter the meaning of the poem.

            The transformative power of words that the Wedding-Guest is not a universal experience; it is through exposure to a masterpiece of literature, a masterpiece of wordsmithing, that the Creature of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein transcends his baser natures. Prior to discovery his new family, the monster is solely focused on his survival. He states that, “Food, however, became scarce…When I found this, I resolved to quit the place I had hitherto inhabited, to seek for one where the few wants that I had experienced would be more easily satisfied” (Shelley 123). Without the assistance of language and words, Frankenstein’s creature is a base thing, an animal with the potential to improve. This in and of itself makes a powerful statement about the power of words: the only thing that truly separates us from basic needs and our self-perception of higher understanding is the ability to command language.

It is through the power of words that the Creature begins what is identifiable as the human experience. The Creature begins to tell Frankenstein of his discovery of words and says that “ I cannot begin to describe the delight I felt when I learned the ideas appropriated to each of these sounds” (Shelley 129).The Creature begins his journey into the power of language and the power of words themselves through the slow process of discovering a language. It is an experience that is perhaps lost on those who are in its process just how magnificient and wonderous that language truly is; yet the Creature seems to understand exactly what is happening on an emotional or subconscious level. The delight, the joy that is indescribable in the process of discovering meaning through language is expressed by Frankenstein’s monster.

 While the creature is exposed to numerous books prior to his discovery of Milton it is the discovery of John Milton’s great work of Paradise Lost, that arguably transforms the creature the most. Within its pages he finds massive parallels to his own life and the vast differences to his own. He notes “ Satan had his companions, fellow devils…but I am solitary and detested” (Shelley 144).  Yet as noted in the post “Monsters:Creator and Creation”, the Creature has a spiritual kinship with his creator precisely through their isolation. .  The Creature however notes a great difference between himself and Milton’s Adam: “I remember Adam’s supplication to his Creator, but where was mine? he had abandoned me, and, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him.” (Shelley 145). The lack of connection that the Creature feels with his creator is the defining aspect of the Creature’s life and his endeavors. It is through the identification he notes that Milton creates between Adam and God that the Creature is most profoundly influenced; the words of Milton create the ultimate affect and transformation upon the Creature. Words, given meaning by the Creature give his life a purpose and a direction.

Purpose and meaning in one’s life is the subject of the rather fascinating poem of John Keats’ When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be. The first two lines of the poem read “When I have fears that I may cease to be/ Before my pen has glean’d my seeming brain” (Keats). The end of a life and the meaning behind the legacy that Keats will leave behind is engrained in the very start of the poem. Keats then uses this thematic tone of the end of life to showcase what his fear is: that he will leave behind nothing even though he leaves behind these words. The “high piled books, in charact’ry” are Keats’ legacy that he will leave behind (3). As outlined in the post “Keat’s Obsession” however, Keats recognizes this fear of his to be uncurable and resolves to “stand alone, and think/ Till love and fame to nothingness do sink” (25-26). Words, though Keats legacy, were unable to assuage this fear of Keats, but still allowed him to see the truth that it didn’t matter that he was afraid that he would leave no lasting legacy behind.

(Statue of John Keats at Guys Hospital in London).

This essay begins with the epigram from V For Vendetta on words being the enunciation of truth specifically to draw your attention to what each of these cases of the use of words means.

Above is included the full speech in which the character makes this quote in order to provide for context. The overall point within the speech is that just because nobody is talking about the horrific and repressive events of the government, that doesn't mean they aren't happening. Within the Romantic poems and novels disccussed here, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner showcases this concept: the Wedding-Guest actually embodies this for after the Mariner’s tale he is exposed and wisened to the atrocities of the slave trade and thus “a sadder and a wiser man/ He rose the morrow morn” (Coleridge 624-25). 

The power of words ultimately spells Manfred's downfall, and exposes the truth of his monstrosity; the same can be said of how the words of Milton expose the nature or Frankenstein's monster. The Mariner's truth is also exposed through the verbal recounting of his tale. Keats' words become his legacy, and it is through words that he finds a certain level of truth about the nature of his self and his concept of immortality. 

Works Cited

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Age of Romanticism. 2^nd. Ed. Joseph Black, et al. Buffalo, NY: Broadview Press. 2010. Print.

"enormous, adj.". OED Online. March 2013. Oxford University Press. 8 May 2013. Web. <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/62538?redirectedFrom=enormous>.

Keats, John. “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Age of Romanticism. 2^nd. Ed. Joseph Black, et al. Buffalo, NY: Broadview Press. 2010. Print.

"pray, v.". OED Online. March 2013. Oxford University Press. 8 May 2013. Web. <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/149429>.

Mary, Shelley. Frankenstein. 3rd ed. Broadview, 2012. Print.

Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. 15. New York: Penguin Classics, 2001. Print.