“The Brownie of the Black Haggs” is one of the most
interesting stories I’ve ever read, by far. Any time there is some true
insanity and mental instability in a story, I get intrigued. Especially
interesting is how much more perturbed Lady Wheelhope seems thanks to the contrast
in her surrounding characters. She’s the only insane one in a relatively large
cast of perfectly normal, if not plain people. What most interested me, though,
is the specific way that Lady Wheelhope’s insanity manifests itself. She’s not
Ophelia walking around speaking nonsense, or Lady Macbeth being haunted by
hallucinations. She is obsessed, fully consumed by an emotion. It really
reminds me of Wuthering Heights,
which deals with a similar obsessive madness. I won’t spoil the story, but
trust me, it’s...well, I’ll call it a 19th century, high-class,
English Jerry Springer.
I found Lady Wheelhope's foiled vengeance as the downfall of her character. For the longest time she treated her servants miserably and enjoyed the disgust but when her "goblin" servant defies her evil, she makes him her obsession. It's as if she ultimately led herself to destruction because she couldn't bring it upon the other. As soon as the lady's husband discovered the discontent in his wife, he realized that she truly has lost it.
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