THE DEEP ONES: "The Shadows on the Wall" by Mary E. Wilkins

"The Shadows on the Wall" by Mary E. Wilkins

Discussion begins January 23.

First published in Everybody's Magazine, March 1903



ONLINE VERSIONS

http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/shadows.html (with links to illustrations)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15143/15143-h/15143-h.htm#Shadows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMXbGUG1AUs

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?53417

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror
The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
Who Knocks?

MISCELLANY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Eleanor_Wilkins_Freeman
http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/freeman.html
http://tinyurl.com/arzfmcb

I'll be reading this one online, as it doesn't seem to be in my personal collection or in any volume at the local public library.

Looking at the author's Wikipedia page, I see that she was born on Halloween. Apropos, that.

I'll grab The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories if it's still at my public library when I stop by there tomorrow.

Rod Serling adapted this story for his 'Night Gallery' series, just FYI. Season 1, episode 3

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660797/

Totally unfamiliar with this one, and I really doubt if I have it anywhere. So I'll read one of the online versions.

I'll be reading it out of H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horrors.

Not much in the way of cosmic fear here, but I liked the characters. The manner in which the dialog carries the events along makes it very cinematic. I was picturing this as directed by James Whale, with Raymond Massey as Henry and Una O'Connor as Rebecca.

The "shadows on the wall" made for some rather inert ghosts. No clanking chains or malevolent moaning necessary. Guilt ghosts, perhaps.

>6 RandyStafford:

Anything in the book as far as HPL comments on the story, Randy?

> 7 Yep, not too dynamic.

I would call this a Jamesian story because there is no way to know what is going on.

The dialog suggests rural dialect nicely without using lots of intentional misspellings.

Some of my unanswered questions: What did Edward die of? Was he ill? Did the quarrel with Henry push him over the edge or did Henry poison him out of resentment: Edward had 'terrible pains in his stomach' and Henry said 'I am perfectly certain as to the cause of his death'? Why did Henry leave town? Was he consulting Dr. Mitford about an illness (Henry's)? Did Henry commit suicide from guilt? Did Edward's ghost kill Henry for revenge?

It seems that they both ended up as shadows on the wall because of the will proviso 'that all the children should have a home here' and Edward's challenge that 'he would like to see Henry get him out'.

I think it's pretty clear that Henry poisoned Edward. The characters were vivid, but they were really the only part of the story that was. The plot all seemed fairly predictable. I'd say the emphasis on character was like (Henry) James, but not the predictability.

It seems like this one might have been more effective if there had been more attention to the physical space of the house early on. Mostly, I had the impression of articles of furniture (sofa, armchair) floating in a void, until the introduction of the lamp, a juncture which afforded some detail. Even then, I never got much sense of the architecture or physical circumstances.

Hauntings need place to do their work. M.R. James and Wakefield were both excellent at establishing setting (and HPL upped the ante on this feature of the tradition), and nearly all of the writers we've read were at least competent at it, but I don't think Wilkins was in this story.

If Edward's ghost is appearing to cast a shadow (pun intended) of guilt over Henry, then why should Henry's shadow also appear on the wall after his death? Wouldn't Edward's ghost fade away, fulfilled at last? Did Edward's ghost have the power to subjugate Henry's spirit after death, forcing him to remain a shadow on the wall instead of finding peace? Ahh, the labyrinthine mechanics of ghosthood!

>10 semdetenebre:

Honestly, I think the mansion was simply keeping tabs of how many family members were left.

I haven't read enough Henry James to confidently pronounce something as "Jamesian", but I did notice that mood and character is got across in this story by close observation of tone of voice, body language and so on, rather than by the narrator reporting what the characters are thinking. I imagine this was cutting-edge realism at the time, but it does ironically come across as rather theatrical now.

I had read this story just last year, in The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories, but I'm afraid it didn't make much impression. In fact I couldn't remember anything about it.

Oooo. I liked this one. Very subtle, very nice delineation of characters and their various psychological states through quick strokes of narration and dialogue; a muted and steadily rising mood of dread is skillfully evoked. The author is clearly a writer of great skill. Much like "Torture by Hope", however, the title kind of blows the ending, though, doesn't it ("Shadows" (plural)? Why couldn't she have made it "Shadow" (singular) and retained a little bit of mystery?)?

Anyway, my favorite bit (in reference, of course, to Edward's shadow):

"It looks like Edward," burst out Rebecca in a sort of frenzy of fear. "Only--"

Don't know about you guys, by my mind just sort of ran amok with that one. =:^O

I also liked this bit:

She pointed as she spoke to the study door across the hall; it was ajar. Henry had striven to pull it together behind him, but it had somehow swollen beyond the limit with curious speed.

Indicating (again, very subtly) that something in the atmosphere of the house has... changed recently. >:)

>13 artturnerjr:

Good take on the story, Art. You may be right about that title. I enjoyed the dialog also, but the specific examples you quote really do add nuance to the atmosphere of the uncanny.

>7 semdetenebre: "In 'The Shadows on the Wall' we are shown with consummate skill the response of a staid New England household to uncanny tragedy." HPL

I think this goes too far in being subtle about its horrors, too far into the zone of suggestion in regards to the character of the shadows. I missed some adjectives. That may be part of what paradoxosalpha noted about the lack of physically grounding details -- except for the characters and this is vey much character driven piece.

I agree it's pretty obvious Henry killed Edward via poisoning. (Since we've mentioned Sherlock Holmes in the last couple of weeks, I thought of the Holmes remark about doctors being the most dangerous criminals.)

>10 semdetenebre: Yes, why two shadows? If we had descriptions of each shadow, we would perhaps have a better idea of why. Edward seems to have followed through on his boast to "stay here as long as he lived and afterwrd, too, if he was a mind to". Maybe there is some battle of wills, a contest for the house, continuing after their death.

On a technical level, I thought lines were not attributed to speakers often enough. I sometimes got lost following who was speaking.

All that said, thanks to everybody who suggested this one because I did like the story as a psychological study of a troubled family who really don't want to talk about a metaphorical elephant in the room. Besides losing his temper, what has Henry done to engender such timidity and fear? And I particulary liked Charlene who bounced from almost cringing fear of Henry to, still fearing him, confronting him at various times. So, I had a lot of the same reaction to it as Art did.