September 16, 2003

I was sure the answer to the question was why he put those 2 stories back to back. Here's my hypothesis. One has to take into account the Victorian context, and the fact that both the Governess and Kurtz came from petit bourgeois families and backgrounds- the governess from a curate's family in a small town and Kurtz a shopkeeper's son. A certain code of ethics would be implicit in both cases. Both are then plunged into a world that is new and completely different and alien- and also beyond their moral limitation, the factor that causes each of them to attempt an expansion of those limitations without having the adequate background to cope with the the subsequent lack of Victorian Christian behaviour. Kurtz realizes too late that he can't be the portentate of a savage tribe (the horror) and the governess who may or may not have lost her mind, is pushed beyond her curate's daughter limit by just the idea of the salaciousness of Quint and Miss Jessel. Anyway- a question of going beyond one's own moral limitations.  3:16:18 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Betsy Burke. Last update: 06/10/2003; 8:05:49 PM.