Author's Treatment of Fate and the Supernatural in Short Stories Written Before 1914

Author's Treatment of Fate and the Supernatural in Short Stories Written Before 1914

Using a selection of short stories written before 1914, compare and

contrast their authors’ treatment of fate and/or the supernatural

I understand the term supernatural to be an event or being that is

abnormal in some way and for which there is no rational explanation.

Although traditionally the supernatural is confined to spiritual

beings, such as ghosts, I perceive it to have a much wider meaning. I

will be investigating how certain writers of short stories view the

supernatural and how they adapt it into their stories. The authors I

will be looking at in this essay are M.R.James, Thomas Hardy and

Charlotte Perkins Gilman; their stories, Lost Hearts The Withered Arm

and “Yellow Wallpaper,” respectively. I will be focussing mostly on

the supernatural in this essay, but will also investigate the question

of fate briefly. Fate is the suggestion that all events happen for a

reason, and that there is a greater power watching over us.

Both these subjects are ones that greatly interested the Victorians,

the era in which these stories are written. They were especially

intrigued by the spiritual world, and the upper classes held séances,

attempting to contact the dead. This preoccupation with the

supernatural, and indeed fate, is one that emerges repeatedly in these

short stories.

The first story that I will be looking at is The Withered Arm by

Thomas Hardy. Hardy’s style was very progressive for the time, but

also reactionary; conservative, even, in certain aspects. His stories

have a preoccupation with fate and the inevitability of death.

The main supernatural aspect is the vision of Mrs Lodge that Rhoda

sees. The vision taunts her, and Rhoda retaliates by grabbing its arm.

The vision appears sitting on her chest whilst she is in bed: “The

pressure of Mrs Lodge’s person became heavier,” and yet is not Mrs

Lodge as she should be – “But the features were shockingly distorted,

and wrinkled as by age.” Although Rhoda can feel its presence, it is

extremely strange that it should be sitting on her chest in the middle

of the night, and it is undoubtedly a vision or a distortion of a

dream. Harding even describes it as a “spectre.” This is further

confirmed by its sudden disappearance, “She looked on the floor

whither she had whirled the spectre, but there was nothing to be

seen.” The whole story really revolves around the actions of the

spectre or vision, and this is the definite supernatural element in

the story. Later on however, both women go to see a “Conjurer

Trendle,” and Mrs Lodge sees the face of the person who cursed her in