Analysis Of The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner

In “The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner”, written by James Hogg, narrative contestation is a large part of the novel, as it is not one singular story, and rather a contest of stories played out in a contest of narrative written by both Robert Wringham and a fictitious Editor . The first section of the book, the ‘Editor’s narrative’, provides a seemingly objective historian’s editorial to the memoirs, whilst the second section of the book, the ‘Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Sinner’ is a biographical account of Robert Wringham’s life. Despite the two sections essentially retelling the same tale, the discrepancies between the two narratives leave the reader constantly unsure exactly what is true, and unable to be certain of the actual events that occured. The Editor concludes in his Editorial that “I account all the rest either dreaming or madness”, which makes the reader question the objectivity of the historian writing the Editorial, whilst Wringham’s memoirs display his continued descent into depravity and madness until such time as he takes his own life, also questioning the validity of his account of events given his deteriorating psyche. The reader has to account for the reliability of the narrator and textual evidence in order to draw a conclusion on whether the contest between the two narratives can be resolved and closure achieved.

The novel seems to have two contextual authors, the fictitious Editor and Robert Wringham, each of whom narrate the events differently, so the reader is torn in-between the two points of view and unable to make any definite conclusions in the text. In the narrative contestation evident in the novel, the Editor and Robert Wringham contest, “each trying to make their ...

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...ective historian, while Robert seeks sympathy by casting himself as a devout, but suffering, Christian, who was “born an outcast in the world” (Hogg 81). The Editor also attempts to portray the events as completely unbiased, while clearly displaying his personal opinion in the third section of the novel. While striving for this sympathy, the narrators consequentially highlight the discrepancies between the narratives and the absence of the evidence needed for closure. The lack of closure in the novel and the presence of shadow stories prevent the story from achieving general reader satisfaction. The reader can conclude however, that perhaps the true motive behind Robert’s confession was that he came to the realisation that he was not an infallible member of the Elect, with the religious justification to sin, but merely a sinning murderer facing eternal damnation.