Commentary on Chapter 19 of The Blue Castle
“Of course, the Stirlings had not left the poor maniac alone all this time or refrained from heroic efforts to rescue her perishing soul and reputation.”
I love this sentence.
“Don’t quibble, Valancy,” said Uncle James solemnly.”
They are calling her “Valancy”. Finally!
“Why, I’m told that that jail-bird, Snaith, is hanging around here every evening.”
“Not every evening,” said Valancy reflectively. “No, not quite every evening.”
Hahaha I love her.
“She had once been afraid of this man’s judgment. Now she saw clearly that he was nothing but a rather stupid little village tin-god.”
Love these two sentences as well.
“Dr. Stalling was not so sure of this and had no great liking for the task. He did not believe Valancy Stirling was out of her mind. She had always been queer. He, Dr. Stalling, had never been able to understand her. Therefore, beyond doubt, she was queer. She was only just a little queerer than usual now.”
This is very interesting. I think the conventional people in her community always sensed something “off” in Valancy, and that was partially why they were so mean to her.
“Valancy greeted him with a sinking heart. She had to own to herself that she was terribly afraid of Dr. Stalling still. She had a miserable conviction that if he shook his long, bony finger at her and told her to go home, she dared not disobey.”
Religious authority is the last authority Valancy has to defeat. It is mightier than the familial, medicinal and legal authorities for her.
“Back of her terror Valancy smiled in secret. Uncle James must indeed regard the matter as desperate when he would loosen his purse-strings like that. At any rate, her clan no longer despised her or ignored her. She had become important to them.”
Yes. Exactly.
“But no woman comes here in Jim Stirling’s pay. If any one does”—Abel’s voice was uncannily bland and polite—“I’ll spatter the road with her brains.”
Yeah, I hate this. Sorry.
“She entreats, but I, Miss Stirling,”—Dr. Stalling remembered that he was an ambassador of Jehovah—“I command. As your pastor and spiritual guide, I command you to come home with me—this very day. Get your hat and coat and come now.”
Dr. Stalling shook his finger at Valancy. Before that pitiless finger she drooped and wilted visibly.
“She’s giving in,” thought Roaring Abel. “She’ll go with him. Beats all, the power these preacher fellows have over women.”
Valancy was on the point of obeying Dr. Stalling. She must go home with him—and give up. She would lapse back to Doss Stirling again and for her few remaining days or weeks be the cowed, futile creature she had always been. It was her fate—typified by that relentless, uplifted forefinger. She could no more escape from it than Roaring Abel from his predestination. She eyed it as the fascinated bird eyes the snake. Another moment—
“Fear is the original sin,” suddenly said a still, small voice away back—back—back of Valancy’s consciousness. “Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something.”
Valancy stood up. She was still in the clutches of fear, but her soul was her own again. She would not be false to that inner voice.”
Religious authority is the last Titan Valancy needs to defeat, but she takes her power to do it from religion itself. I quite like this part.
Also, a weird question I have to ask: Is Valancy genuinely in reverence and awe of Dr. Stalling’s religious authority or is it really just fear of his finger and the memory of her childhood traumas regarding it? How religious is Valancy?
“Then Cousin Georgiana came—on her own initiative, for nobody would have thought it worth while to send her.”
Cousin Georgiana starts to be singled out as the “less bad” Stirling.
“She found Valancy alone, weeding the little vegetable garden she had planted”
I love how Valancy is always doing work when Stirlings bother her. I mean it makes sense, it is her job, but also “realities vs unrealities”.
“We’ll just have to wait,” said Uncle Benjamin. “After all, Cissy Gay can’t live long. Dr. Marsh tells me she may drop off any day.”
Mrs. Frederick wept. It would really have been so much easier to bear if Valancy had died. She could have worn mourning then.”
Chilling. They are evil.
