A C T A U N I V E R S I T A T I S L O D Z I E N S I S
FO LIA LITTER A RIA A N G LIC A 1, 1997
Dorota Filipczak
DA NTE “FO L L O W S YOU AROUND, SIR!” - T H E D E C O N STR U C T IO N O F IN F E R N O
IN O C TO B E R F E R R Y TO G A B R IO LA BY M A LC O LM LOW RY
O highest wisdom, how great is the art
You show in heaven, on earth and in this evil place1 Inferno, C anto X IX
The fact that Lowry chose to reach back to the D antean fram ew ork in his opus magnum seems paradoxical, when the complete and well-ordered vision in The Divine Comedy is juxtaposed with a rather postm odern perspective of The Voyage... th at never ended!2 The choice to follow this particular precursor may be seen as a result of nostalgia for the hierarchical universe, on the part o f the author whose own life and creation were so m uch tro u b led by the co n tin u al resurgence o f chaos. T he m edieval categories of Inferno, Purgatory and Paradiso functioned as an imaginary world where Lowry tried to trace his own path in the works that bear distant but distinct overtones of Divina Commedia. T he truly religious concern with salvation and dam n atio n as realities is usually reflected in th e experience o f ch aracters w ho share certain featu res o f their D a n te an predecessors. T he m ale p rotagonist can be com pared to the visitor in The Divine Comedy. In his quest for m eaning, he is usually accom panied by a female character who plays Beatrice with different effects. Critics have been aware o f this paradigm in Lowry’s Under the Volcano, where the association o f Yvonne with light reflects her salvific
1 D ante, The Divine Comedy, trans. C. H. Sisson (M anchester: Carcanet, 1980), p. 79. 2 F o r the analysis of M . Lowry’s fiction in terms of evolving narrative see: Sh. E. Grace, The Voyage that Never Ends: Malcolm Lowry's Fiction (Vancouver: University o f British Colum bia Press, 1982). The author observes th at “ the early D antean conception of the sequence has a finality and a naivete about it which could not possibly have suited Lowry s complex evolving system” .
role.3 She often appears clothed in sunlight, and she is borne tow ards the Pleiades in the m oment of death,4 both images recalling the celestial radiance of Beatrice. The association is strengthened by her aim; she tries to rescue the Consul from darkness misinterpreted by him as true light.5 The female character in The Forest Path to the Spring recalls Beatrice because she is an idealized person through whose sensitivity the true understanding of the w orld is m ediated to her quester-husband.6 M alcolm Lowry sometimes comm ented on the D antean elements in his works. In the fam ous letter to Jo n ath an Cape, about Under the Volcano, he stressed the im portance o f “ the path them e of D ante” .7 He also mentioned “ the dark wood of D ante” , which was alluded to in the name o f cantina “El Bosque” , and in a real wood near the b arranca.8 One o f the points in a letter to Albert Erskine is that “the celestial scenery” of pine trees and m ountain inlet and sea in Dollarton “m ust be extremely like that in R avenna” where D ante” died and wrote and got the inspiration for the last part of the Paradiso” .9 The landscape of D ollarton called Eridanus surfaces in quite a few parts of Lowry’s grand narrative, especially in The Forest Path to the Spring that was m eant to become a version o f Paradiso.
The extent and significance o f D an te’s influence on Lowry’s fiction has been a m atter o f dispute am ong Lowry critics. T o m ention ju st a few opinions: D ouglas D ay does not find The Divine Comedy particularly relevant in his analysis o f Lowry’s fiction.10 Carole Slade claims th at Under the Volcano is the only position that fulfills its role in the planned D antean trilogy.11 Richard Cross comm ents on Paradiso as the intertext in The Forest Path to the Spring.'2 W hat I would like to prove in this article is that
3 Cf. K. D orosz, Malcolm Lowry"a Infernal Paradise (Uppsala: A cta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1976) pp. 36-7. T he author provides a detailed analysis o f light and darkness im agery in Under the Volcano, pp. 34-44.
4 C. Slade, “Under the Volcano and D ante’s Inferno I ” , in B. W ood (ed.), M alcolm Lowry: The Writer and his Critics, (O ttawa: Tecumseh Press, 1980), pp. 140-50. The author is rather reluctant to grant the Beatrice status to Yvonne. “ While Y vonne’s association with the stars and heavens throughout the novel m ight seem to m ake her a Beatrice figure in the D antean context, she is far too hum an and full-bodied to be com parable to D ante’s adored lady ability to love is ultim ately her salvation, for as she dies from the kicks o f the bucking horse which Geoffrey has unleashed she ascends to a D antean celestial heaven” .
5 See: K. D orosz, op. cit., pp. 34-44.
6 R . Cross, “ Lowry and Colum bian Eden” , in B. W ood (ed.), op. cit., pp. 178, 179. 7 H . Breit, M . Bonner Lowry (eds.), The Selected Letters o f M alcom Lowry, (Penguin, 1985), p. 76.
* Ibid., p. 83. 9 Ibid., p. 245.
10 D . D ay, M alcom Lowry. A . Biography (New Y ork, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 322.
11 C. Slade, op. cit., p. 143. u R. Cross, op. cit., pp. 178-81.
D antean influence is only partly seen in Lowry’s conscious use o f crucial images from The Divine Comedy. The influence is quite persistent though subliminal in the work th at was not planned as definitely infernal, purgatorial or paradisal part, i.e. October Ferry to Gabriola. One o f the results o f D a n te ’s impact on Low ry’s imagination is the obsessive recurrence o f certain infernal m otifs whose source does not m anifest itself overtly in the text. Accordingly, 1 will view the w ork in question as haunted by the sinister aspects o f D antesque world, and I will see the m utations o f D antean register here in term s of unsettling anxiety rather than harm onious fulfillment.
October Ferry to Gabriola is pervaded with fears th at give rise to dislocations in D ante’s paradigm . According to Terence Bareham , the destructive fire th at tends to obliterate earthly paradise in the book is a distant echo o f the fact th at Lowry’s intended Paradiso, i.e. In Ballast to the White Sea was consumed in the conflagration o f his first hom e in D o llarto n .13 The symbolic disaster o f Lowryan Paradiso seems to underlie the m ain feature o f the world in October Ferry to Gabriola, which can be called the conflation of heaven and hell. The term is m eant as a departure from Terence B areham ’s “concatenation o f hell and heavens” 14 because it emphasizes the radical fusion of opposite qualities. D a n te ’s worlds with strictly delineated boundaries are now blended in the way th at resists separation. The new quality emerges from the conversation th a t states the theme o f the whole work. Relaxing in the bar, E than and Jacqueline hear a voice over from the movie screen next door:
but are we going to heaven, or hell? 15 ... B ut they are the same place, you see.”
As in Under the Volcano, “the place” is not to be identified w ith a particular geographical location. W hen the Consul says that his hell “ is n o t Mexico but in the h eart” ,16 he realizes th at it is not so m uch external political determinism but his own choice that destines him for the infernal world and bends his m ind tow ards the abyss. E than undergoes ordeals in the private hell o f his own m ind, when the mem ory o f his past guilt changes into obsession. He blames himself for the suicide of a frustrated friend, Peter Cordw ainer, whom he could have helped in the time o f need. The sinister consequences of the past reach E than through his p aranoid inter pretation o f reality. Disasters and unpleasant incidents th at happen to him
T. Bareham , “A fter the Volcano: A n Assessment o f M alcolm Low ry’s Posthum ous F iction” , in B. W ood (ed.), op. cit., p. 236.
14 Ibid., p. 243.
15 M . Lowry, October Ferry to Gabriola (G reat Britain: Penguin Books, 1979), p. 17. 16 M . Lowry, Under the Volcano (G reat Britain: Penguin Books, 1985), p. 42.
are seen as an expression of divine retribution for the guilt. Since Cordwainer’s death E th an ’s life has become “ a self-inflicted penance” , to the point th at any associations with the traum atic event tend to disrupt the inward harm ony th at the character strives painfully to attain.
Thinking abou t Inferno encroaching on the protagonist’s consciousness via the self-imposed ordeal, I would like to focus on several m anifestations o f D antean intertext in October Ferry to Gabriola. They include; fire imagery and other elements o f infernal landscape, generated by the im age o f destructive G od; element o f the unnatural as a reflection of breach in the m oral order in The Divine Comedy and Low ry’s book; counter parts of Virgil and Beatrice, and the possibility o f exodus from the world o f conflated dom ains.
C anto XXVI of Inferno unfolds a vision of “thieving flames” , which is comm ented upon by Virgil:
In each fire there is a spirit;
Each one is w rapped in w hat is burning him .1'
These words could well be applied to E than Llewelyn, whose im agination becomes wrapped in the fire imagery in the course o f the book. The destructive aspect of fire that haunts him continuously is related to E th a n ’s growing obsession with his past guilt. He blames himself for the suicide o f a frustrated friend, Peter Cordwainer, whom he had not helped in the time o f need. D uring one of the dates with his future wife, E than visits the lavatory in the pub, and he comes across a sinister newspaper cutting on the floor. Its trivial content is the advertisement o f M other G ettle’s Soup by the C ordw ainers’ firm
... an advertisem ent ... could n o t have struck his eyes m ore violently had it been ringed with hellfire.1*
The phrase gains an om inous resonance in the course of the book, when E than starts recollecting all the years o f his m arriage to Jacqueline. H e soon faces the ordeal o f memories, while thinking about their two houses consumed in the fire. The disasters exacerbate E th an ’s “ sense of dam nation, this time literal, the tangible intangible feeling o f punishm ent” .19 The peculiar interpretation turns E than ’s religious feeling into a paranoid state which m akes him think o f himself as a plaything in the hands of revengeful deity. Obsessed with the emerging pattern o f his destiny he comes to the conclusion that his sanity depends on “deconversion even from any
17 D ante, op. cit., p. 112.
11 M . Lowry, October Ferry..., p. 48. 19 Ibid., p. 96.
belief in G o d ” . His unconscious way o f exorcising such a belief is the dream ab o u t Lake o f Fire. Invoking the apocalyptic image, Lowry also confronts the D antean vision as one o f its compelling interpreters. Standing on the bank o f burning Lake O ntario, his m ain character throw s stones at people gesticulating through the (lames. Their activity brings to mind the image of D ante’s sinners conveying their painful messages to a sympathetic visitor. Unlike D ante, Ethan is not keen on listening to them. His violent response is probably m eant to silence them, and to put an end to the dismal influence o f infernal vision on his own m ind. The dream culm inates in an unexpected act of sacrifice on the part o f E than or Jacqueline (Ethan is not sure). This, however, cannot alter the course o f things in the real world. As the dream fades away into oblivion, E than and Jacqueline gradually find themselves enclosed in a ring of fire, and they are bound to witness a series of disasters.
Unable to cope with the strain, E than clings to the conviction that “ some intelligence” is “searching for him personally” , and he insists on viewing the fires as a sign of G o d ’s presence. The fusion o f both is given a bizarre effect in a linguistic dislocation. The first words o f the L o rd ’s Prayer are turned into “ O ur fire which art in F e a r” .20 T hus the destructive fire which functions as one o f the attributes o f G od in the Bible, C hristian tradition and D antean vision is now located at the centre o f the divine image. The concept of G od is reduced to a culturally distorted association.
E th an’s paranoid vision o f reality affects his m arried life when Jacqueline breaks down under the strain and falls prey to his m isinterpretations. As the smell of the burnt house oppresses them, the couple start seeing their m arriage as “ aborted in its rebirth” . They feel throw n beyond the secure pattern, endangered by chaos and interpenetrating fever of m adness which recalls the m oods o f desperate inmates from D antesque Inferno.
Nightm ares o f the hum an m ind are juxtaposed with the hellish quality in m an-m ade constructions. A part from showing Vancouver as the “city of D antesque ho rro rs” ,21 Lowry uses the image o f the city o f Dis as an element o f E th an ’s observations. In The Divine Comedy the City o f Dis is essentially a place o f punishm ent for violence, blasphemy and waste o f property. Its prisoners suffer the agony of flames scattered am ong incandescent tom bs, within the glowing walls. In Low ry’s book E than gets the first misleading glimpse o f the City of Dis during his m orning walk in the paradisiac wilderness. The two aluminium retorts o f Shellco refinery bring to his mind the twin towers of C hartres Cathedral. The suggestive shape o f industrial
20 Ibid., p. 125.
21 M . C. B radbrook, Malcolm Lowry: H is A rt and Early Life, A Study in Transformations (Cambridge: C am bridge University Press, 1974), p. 35.
construction testifies to another cultural dislocation. The apocalyptic city o f G od which was once recreated in the cathedral stonew ork is now parodied in the technological meccano.
In the evening the refinery takes on a m uch m ore sinister look in the characters’ eyes:
... a fiendish lurid light coruscated from the w hole refinery, each o f whose cylindrical alum inium tanks reflecting the flambeaux in descending degrees o f infernal brilliance, in tu rn sent those reflections wavering deep within the d ark stream , ... all the reflections in the water dithered together w ith the image striking dow n directly from the fiery torch itself, ...°
T he whole description is clothed in an intensely D antean imagery. Since the initial letter o f the nam e is om itted, the neon light radiates the word H E LL, while all the windows and m irrors o f E than and Jacqueline’s cabin catch the reflection o f the “ lurid flickering City o f Dis” with its bloodshot glare. Low ry’s City of Dis seems to be completely dehumanized although it is a m an-m ade structure. It embodies the destructive and unnatural aspects o f the technological civilisation. Its noise im itates the clam orous yelling of the dam ned. Its shape, function and power appear to m ock religion, whose traditional paraphernalia, i.e. huge tower bells in the m onastery nearby, languish on the ground, tongueless and noiseless. In a sense, Low ry’s City o f Dis represents the twentieth century answer to the tradition th at brought forth both quiet m onasteries and D an te’s sophisticated system of tortures. T he G od o f this tradition seems silenced by the Shellco refinery.
The City o f Dis is yet another m anifestation o f fire which m akes E than and Jacqueline recede from the rational reality even further. The relentless succession o f elemental disasters with no arsonists involved supports E th a n ’s interpretation concerning the m align intelligence, and m akes him m ore deeply convinced o f his special role in the ordeal. He considers him self the cause o f all subsequent fires, identifying with potential arsonists. His feeling o f guilt expands and his image of himself undergoes unnatural transformations. W hen the whole reality is throw n into a disarray, E than finds the explanation o f his plight in the film about the W andering Jew and the story abo u t Tem ple T hurston, the author o f the play.
Elem ent o f the unnatural is the characteristic o f infernal scenery in The Divine Comedy. Hell is basically an inversion o f the world created by G od. Burning rains, rivers o f blood, shifting earth are the m ain elements o f the setting for tortures. Am idst such scenery the inmates o f Inferno undergo unnatural transform ation. They are dismembered, burnt to ashes, drowned in pitch. The images form D an te’s com m ent on sin as the disruptive,
unnatural factor.23 Those who destroyed divine harm ony o f the world by their evil are now forced to suffer in the cycle o f endless, physical m etam orphoses. They yearn for death during the ordeals. Still, all the transform ations only trigger off the successive tortures, so death rem ains an unattainable dream.
T he film about the W andering Jew uses the same elem ent o f the u nnatural in the debased form. Ahasuerus can be regarded as a counterpart o f the sinners punished for gratuitous violence in hell. In a sense, the W andering Jew experiences a variety o f infernal torm ents, and yet he is denied the right to die. E than rechristens the film, calling it; “Isn’t D eath W onderful?” , because death is “ all the W anderer’s longing, “ whenever he tries to be killed w ithout success. The apocryphal tale is a very compelling interpretation of the sterotype of revengeful G od. This G od sentences a hum an being to unnatural eternal life in suffering, by his “T h o u shall not die” verdict. D ante’s Inferno seems to be woven around the same idea. E th an yields to the dismal impact o f th at image. Consumed by the feeling o f guilt, he identifies with Ahasuerus, which is reflected in the question he asks himself:
(had he, E than, struck Him? he, E than had struck him-)“
T he film offers a ready explanation. A revengeful G od pursues E than, and yet allows him to be unharm ed by disasters. As a result, the m ain character feels suicidal, and yet he has the impression of being denied the right to die, like A hasuerus, who finally proved “incom bustible” . T he element o f the u nnatural is explored by Lowry in a variety o f ways. A nother example o f its presence is the story o f Temple Thurston. A ccording to the story th a t E than reads this m an falls asleep while reading a book, and loses his life in the fire. W hen the blazing door of his study is forced, firemen come across a burnt body in the unscorched clothes. The cause of conflagration is never discovered. According to an unnatural explanation, Temple T hurston is killed by an intense visualisation of the fire th at he read about in the book. Similarly, E than is alm ost destroyed by the thought th at he feared fires into existence.
The emphasis on visual experience (as in The Divine Comedy) is equally powerful in both T h urston ’s and E th an ’s case. While Jacqueline, implacable, is reading out the passages about Temple T hurston, E than desperately craves for disillum ination which would free him from the pseudo-religious concepts o f G od, from “ visualizations that are always radiated back” because they
23 P. K irkpatrick, D ante's "Inferno": D ifficulty and Dead Poetry (Cambridge: C am bridge University Press, 1987), pp. 95-226.
miss the point. E th an ’s identifications with the unnatural absence o f death, in the case o f Ahasuerus, or with the unnatural way o f dying, in the case o f T hurston are framed by the reality th at has been throw n into a disarray. The story of Tem ple T hurston is a bathetic reduction o f m eaning in the m otif o f unnatural suffering. Both the film about the W andering Jew and the story abo u t Temple T hurston lack any m oral or intellectual depth. They happen to be interpreted in the reality that has been described as unnatural in a bathetic, meaningless way. As the thunder comes back to N iagara with redoubled violence, apparitions are seen on neglected graveyards, and a phantom ship is sighted on the lake. The whole series of unnatural events culm inates in a strange incident when the housekeeper’s setter gives birth to a blue dog, which remains blue under the critical scrutiny o f the chief of police. Low ry’s way of handling the unnatural elements subverts the serious impact o f D ante’s ordeals and transform ations. The D antesque element o f the unnatural punishm ent in Inferno is thus exposed as a ludicrous accretion to the western concept of reality.
The last fragm ent of Lowry’s dialogue with D ante that I would like to discuss in this article is the role o f guides, counterparts of Beatrice and Virgil in E th a n ’s “ infernal paradise” .25 Since the m ain character’s world is basically the conflation of heaven and hell, Beatrice/Jacqueline enters the stage very early, bestowing her love on E than, healing his sense o f isolation, and being with him in the world o f “infernal drinkers” , in the “ ghastly” beer parlours. W hen D ante loses his way in the forest, Beatrice m akes efforts to save him by winning the heavenly court over to his cause. When E th an develops his m orbid delusions, he feels “ he simply m ust tell” Jacqueline “ about Peter Cordw ainer” . Thus she becomes a symbol of security and sanity in E th an ’s disturbed image o f the world. D antean Beatrice is a symbol of vision when she finally brings the poet to the discovery of divine radiance. Jacqueline fulfills a similar role for Ethan, m aking him see the things he had never noticed before he m et her. This is enhanced by the m otif of blindness in E th an’s life. As a small child, he had developed an eye-disease which was neglected by his father. As a result, he became semi-blind, unable to play games, which set him apart from his schoolmates.
... I never acquired the habit o f looking a t things.“
he confesses to Jacqueline, and the statem ent becomes an ap t com m ent on his way o f reading reality, which is very often a m isinterpretation. E than
25 The phrase has been borrowed from the ingenious title: Malcolm Lowry's Infernal Paradise by K ristopher Dorosz.
is a lawyer, involved in the complex system o f C anadian proceedings. His m em ory is full o f bizarre quotations from the forgotten texts, which he sometimes used in the court to impress people with the feats o f casuistry. D ue to Jacqueline the beauty o f the world is restored or rather revealed to E th an. She teaches him to distinguish between different kinds of blossoming fruit tress. The spring quality o f the image captures her essential features. Jacqueline is a symbol o f newness and vitality that awake E th a n ’s deadened sensibility. Also, she introduces him into the world o f poetry because the books he used to study are mostly collections o f legal docum ents with the honourable exception o f Grime and Punishment.
A lthough Jacqueline is so similar to Beatrice, she is the inversion o f D an te’s guide at the same time. Unlike E than, she is not religious because she was counselled not to hand herself over to any spiritual power. E than is a com bination o f genuine religious feeling and destructive pseudo-religious stereotypes which haunt his mind incessantly. Jacqueline violently defies his image o f revengeful intelligence. Thus, her role m ay consist in disrupting the fabric o f E th a n ’s dubious beliefs, and thus paradoxically, in bringing him back to the true religious.
The lack o f ordered vertical structure in October Ferry to Gabriola brings ab o u t the lack o f a suitable guide who could interpret the fragm ented reality. D ante, the m aster o f a coherent fram ework, chooses Virgil to be his guide through the infernal clefts. Thus he places himself within the philosophical and literary legacy th at resists the resurgence o f chaos. In M alcolm Low ry’s world o f conflated dom ains no one is endowed with the insight that would turn the existing chaos into a m eaningful text. T hroughout October Ferry to Gabriola Ethan Llewelyn experiences surrogates of illumination coming from the debased cultural phenomena. Their im pact is m ounting confusion with the ensuing disintegration o f the m ain character. T he loss o f real value is reflected in the powerful role of the trashy narratives o f the twentieth century: the film about the W andering Jew and the play abo u t Tem ple T hurston. Both o f them appeal to the lowest com m on denom inator, showing the world that lacks any genuine depth. T he drastic reduction o f m eaning com m unicated to the m ain character by the external reality gains a m ost powerful expression in the slogans w ritten on the huge road signs. The words: “ G od is love” are placed side by side with the advertisem ent o f the best cure for sore muscles. Thus, the value o f b oth statem ents is equated, and E than sees the first one as “ selling spiritual sou p” , truth debased by the context. These surrogates of genuine teaching produce the effect o f bathos when com pared with the scope and profundity o f D ante’s illum ination. Trying to create an overarching explanation of hum an condition, Lowry ends up bracketing m ost of his characters inter pretations on the grounds o f their unavoidable superficiality and incom pleteness.
One o f the crucial explanations o f his plight is actually suggested to E than by a friendly grocer, with whom he talks about a relentless plague o f fires.
Hmm. I t ’s like the element follows you around, sir How d o you mean it follows you around? ... Y ou’re dam n right o f course.27
The position o f D ante is prom inent in the story o f Low ry’s anxiety of influence. By em barking on the project o f creating the twentieth century version o f The Divine Comedy, Lowry did not only confront D an te as a m aster of visionary art. In fact, he took up the challenge o f the authority who stated the truth of his insight with prophetic insistence. The relation between D ante and Lowry could be aptly illustrated by H arold Bloom ’s theory o f misprision. In his A nxiety o f Influence28 the M iltonic Satan is the image o f a rebel-poet who defies his god-like precursor and chooses hell in order to create his own independent world. H arold Bloom resorts to the Freudian idiom, com paring precursor and ephebe to father and son who act out a family rom ance.29 D ante and Lowry can easily be seen in these roles. Lowry seems to perceive D ante as a figure th at possesses special authority. Yet he is at pains to dem onstrate the absurdity o f D antesque well-ordered vision. Intim idated by D an te’s clarity, Lowry creates works which m ake a m anifesto o f “ non serviam” , by unleashing the vortex of chaotic and fragmented reality. The book is saturated with elements from the D antesque register. They are, however, misred, which reveals the logic o f The Divine Comedy as basically self-defeating.
T he dislocations in m eaning can be explained by an illum inating distinction between shame and guilt culture.30 As a representative o f the latter, M alcolm Lowry feels the overpowering influence of D ante, and yet he is bound to rem ain estranged from the compelling legacy. Lowry is caught in the sheer impossibility o f accepting D ante as a father-figure because he cannot overcome the barrier o f cultural otherness. T hus the D antesque message becomes ultimately ungraspable, and October Ferry to Gabriola reveals the guilt resulting from the a u th o r’s inability to com e to terms with the father’s enigma. In fact, D ante is as alien as the religious structure th at he represents. His vision does not provide the solution amidst the postm odern reality th at has become so radically unm oored from any
27 Ibid., p. 123.
28 H . Bloom, The A n xiety o f Influence. A Theory o f Poetry (New Y ork: O xford U niversity Press, 1973), pp. 5-35.
25 Ibid., p. 27.
30 E. R. D odds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: U niversity o f C alifornia Press, 1971), pp. 28-50.
stable points oi reference. Unable to identify with D an te’s characters in the hierarchical world ol The Divine Comedy, Lowry faces the h o rro r o f otherness assailing him with unpredictable logic. Besides, he seems to perceive the D antesque image o f G od through the scandal o f hell. The image th at emerges from the reading o f Inferno exceeds the m ost violent depictions o f the Old Testam ent G od o f revenge. It is the G od who seems absent and yet the whole m achinery for tortures is perpetuated within him Viewed from this perspective, the Dantesque G od makes a rather unacceptable though powerful figure.
October Ferry to Gabriola is a record of the a u th o r’s struggle with the sinister legacy which transpires th rough different fragm ents o f reality. Low ry’s characters find themselves entangled in D antesque scenery which oppresses them and makes the interpretative exodus alm ost impossible.31 I hey arc bound to rem ain in the world of conflated dom ains whose fragm ented structures m ake it impossible to follow any path with the hope of success. Thus, ironically, the absence of a reliable hierarchy does not lift the sense o f closure but m akes it even m ore oppressive. M alcolm Lowry says that his characters “have m ore trouble getting to G abriola th an K to the castle though G abriola is not a castellan symbol; it is, finally, the futu re” .32 Sherrill G race follows the optimistic clue in the a u th o r’s com m ent, and she reads the whole novel as a deeply religious text. In the light of her interpretation, E than goes through the ordeal to finally attain balance and self unification.33 She treats E th an ’s visit to the Ocean Spray Bar as the descent into hell.34 This is contrasted with the anticipated walk on G abriola, stars and M oon being the typical symbols of life and hope in Low ry’s catalogue o f images.35 The vision recalls harm ony o f D antesque Paradiso.
The unpublished fragm ent o f the text seems to support this interpretation, since it shows E than climbing the hill with the perilous chapel. H e is accom panied by a dog on his way up.36 The scene is an exact inversion o f the final image in Under the Volcano. T here are also some other indications in Lowryan docum ents which m ake the critics see the ending o f October Ferry as a victory over destructive powers. Tony Kilgallin quotes
P .A r m o u r , “The Theme o f Exodus in the First Two C antos o f the P urgatorio” in U- Soundings, Eight Literary and Historical Essays, ed. D . N olan (D ublin: Irish Academic ress), pp. 59-92. The author discusses Exodus as a symbol o f pilgrimage from the state of sin to grace.
Quoted in Sh. E. Grace, op. cit., p. 76. 33 Ibid., p. 7 9.
34 Ibid., p. 82. 35 Ibid., p. 83.
the a u th o r’s remark: “ whereas before the ferry was a C haron boat proceeding to a kind o f hell, now it is another sort of ferry proceeding, as it were tow ard the M ount o f P urgatory” .37 Tony Kilgallin sees “the developm ent o f the process of redem ption” as “ the highest accom plishment o f the b o o k ” .38 The redemptive quality is probably partly justified by the a u th o r’s comment. However, the fact th at Lowry associates G abriola with the purgatorial island does not transform life in obsession and disquiet into life in complete harm ony. In the light o f his comm ent the closing episode on the ferry should be preparation for another ordeal, this time purgatorial, and with the hope for the final exodus. Sherrill G race argues that The Divine Comedy provided too constricting fram ew ork for the scope and m utability o f Lowry’s writing process.39 T he opinion would enhance my contention that the author was bound to swerve away from D an te’s clear-cut categories n ot to harm his own project.
T he world o f conflated dom ains is related to Purgatorio in a revisionary way. Like D antesque space between hell and heaven, it combines flames o f purification and hope for salvation, m anifest in the characters’ ordeal. Still, the use of the D antesque label for G abriola, by way of providing a solution, is undercut by the collapsing o f vertical hierarchy. The interpretation th at diverges from Lowry’s critical com m ent on his text m ay be excused by the a u th o r’s attitude tow ards his role. Lowry did not believe in the w riter’s m astery over his creation. His ideas seem to anticipate those of R oland Barthes, who says:
Comm e institution l’auteur est m ort: sa personne civile, passionelle, biographique, a disparu; dépossédée, elle n ’exerce plus sur son oeuvre la form idable paternité ...40
Low ry’s fear o f being “killed by his own book ... the m align forces it arouses”41 would point to the awareness of the unm anageable potential o f his own text. Thus, the text would not be viewed as an exposition o f the a u th o r’s intentions, but as a record o f his anxieties and obsessions th at creep into the work w ithout any conscious plan.
The critics often stress E th an ’s inability to start his life anew. Only the m om ent when the ferry is bound for G abriola for the second time is seen as a sign o f reversal.42 However, the persistence o f E th a n ’s p aran o id
37 A. R. Kilgallin, “The Long Voyage Home: October Ferry to Gabriola” , in B. W ood (éd.), op. cit., pp. 224-225.
31 Ibid., p. 225.
39 Sh. E. G race, op. cit., p. 6.
40 R. Barthes, Le Plasir du texte (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1973), p. 45.
41 M . Lowry, “T hrough the Panam a” , Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (London: Penguin M odern Classics, 1984), p. 36.
observations m akes it im probable th at he m ay shed them altogether on G abriola. The fact that he is not able to interpret incoherent reality in a saving way questions the possibility o f his final liberation from the world o f conflated dom ains. Even though “ the tendency ... is undeniably upw ard and o utw ard ” .43 E th an ’s exodus is continually frustrated, when com pared with the D antean visitor’s m ethodical ascent. The initial message about heaven and hell being one place amplifies the tone o f uncertainty. A fter all, G abriola belongs to the world o f conflated dom ains and partakes of its infernal aspect.
Dantesque legacy seems to lurk underneath the text, as a source o f disquiet. W hen travelling on a ferry, E than has a conversation with a Catholic priest w ho invites him to a chapel on G abriola. Lowry, who calls the whole chapter “ perilous chapel” , predicts the menace that the chapel symbolizes through its association with the liminal experience in the G rail legend. The talk with the priest is preceded by the image o f nuns whose calm and trust evokes some associations in E th an ’s m ind. He seems to feel nostalgic for the security guaranteed by the old fram ew ork that D ante found so easy to embrace. Still, the impacts of institutionalized religion and of its Dantesque interpretation seem equally rem ote for the m ain character.
The priest seems to hit the point when he describes E than as a m an to whom dogm a is inimical in any form. E than rejects the fixed categories and chooses the realm o f ambiguities, where the word good-bye is echoed as Anglo-Saxon abye which means “to atone for” . But it also means “to endure” . However ambiguities and blurred boundaries cannot possibly form a sequence in the experience that ascends tow ards illumination. Besides, the misprision of Dantesque tradition seems to be a part o f the character’s identity, m uch as he tries to rationalize it away. The ambiguity o f abye is here counterpointed with the association from the dictionary that would list “ abye” next to “ the abyss” . William H. New sees am biguity even on the last page th at is often viewed as trium phant resolution “W hen Ethan and Jacqueline finally dock at the island ... it is dark and the stars are out, but “demonic” fires are burning there, too; the island promises to be only another ferryboat continuing the voyage through the G u lf of experience” .44 M arked with the presence of the perilous chapel, G abriola lies in immense shadow, not as the promised land but as an enigma to the m ain character. He reaches it, unware of the fact that he brings in the perilous chapel o f D antesque poem, latent in his mind.
Institute o f English Studies U niversity o f Ł ódź
43 T. Bareham , op. cit., p. 241.
Dorota Filipczak
DANTE „CHODZI ZA PANEM KROK W KROK!” - DEKONSTRUKCJA PIEKŁA
W OCTOBER F ERRY TO GABRIOLA MALCOLMA LOWRY’EGO
A rtykuł jest poświęcony analizie jednego z kluczowych intertekstów w powieści M alcolm a Lowry’ego October Ferry to Gabriola. Intertekstem tym jest Boska Komedia, d o której naw iązują zarów no infem alne, jak i rajskie wymiary św iata Lowry’ego. Wpływ D antego jest wyjaśniany n a podstawie teorii H arolda Blooma, zawartej w książce pt. A n xiety o f Influence. Z akłada ona, że na skutek nieuświadomionego wpływu poprzednika tw órca dopełnia jego dzieło przez antytezę. T ak ą antytezą jest wobec świata dantejskiego świat low ryański, gdzie uporządkow ana w ertykalna struktura trzech osobnych krain ustępuje miejsca rzeczywistości, w której dokonało się nierozerwalne zespolenie piekła z czyśćcem i niebem, a więc również zatarcie ścieżki prowadzącej z jednego świata d o drugiego. Elementy dantejskie są ukazane w powieści Lowry’ego w sposób groteskowy. Miejsce sprawiedliwego, karzącego Boga zajmuje mściwa inteligencja, k tó ra wedle paranoidalnych w yobrażeń b ohatera wymierza m u karę za przewinienia ludzkości. W idom ą oznaką tejże odpłaty są pożary nawiedzające rajską enklawę bohatera. R osnąca obsesja grzechu i kary sprawia, że bohater odrzuca świat dantejski jak o niszczący stereotyp. Możliwość całkowitego wyzwolenia spod jego władzy zostaje jednak zakw estionow ana w niejednoznacznych partiach końcowych October Ferry to Gabriola. Czy w postm odernistycznej rzeczywistości, bez pom ocy przewodników n a m iarę Wergiliusza czy Beatrycze, w której rolę próbuje wcielić się ukochana bohatera, istnieje duchow e ocalenie? Pytanie w paradoksalny sposób potw ierdza siłę dantejskiej wizji, z k tó rą zm aga się Lowry.
