Authors Treatment of Fate and the Supernatural in Short Stories Written Before 1914 :: Short Stories Yellow Wallpaper Lost Hearts Essays

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 â€Å"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 sà ©ances, 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: â€Å"The pressure of Mrs Lodge’s person became heavier,† and yet is not Mrs Lodge as she should be – â€Å"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 â€Å"spectre.† This is further confirmed by its sudden disappearance, â€Å"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 â€Å"Conjurer Trendle,† and Mrs Lodge sees the face of the person who cursed her in