User:Murad Y Ishmael/sandbox/

University of Baghdad College of Arts Department of English

'''Biblical and Mythological Allusions in AngelaCarter’s Nights at the Circus''' A research paper submitted to the Department of English in English language and literature

By

Murad Y.Ismael

Supervised by

M.A.

Fatima Raheem

Date:

Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………V 1.Fevvers as a Fallen Angel…………………………………………………………….1 1.1.Angels and Demons………………………………………………………………….1 1.2. Fevvers in assimilation to Lucifer ………………………………..………….2 2.Mythological Allusions ………………………………..……………………………..6 3.Sacrifice in Carter's Nights at the Circus………………………………………9 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….15 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………..16

Acknowledgement

To all of my teachers, who enabled me to attain this level, especially Asst. Instructor Fatima Raheem,M.A, who is like the candle,has consumed herself to enlighten our way.

Dedication

To my Dark Lady, whose example has never beenattained before by any woman.She who has been my catalyst overall these fruitful years I spent in the Department of English. The Winged Angel of every man's dreams,the red fragile heart of Cupid,the pure innocence of Psyche,and their forbidden love.

Abstract

Angela Carter,whose original name is Angela Olive Carter, was born in May,7,1940,Eastbourne,Sussex,England and died in Feb ,16 ,1992, London. Carter is a British author,who could reshape many motifs from mythology, legends, and fairy tales in her books, giving them ghastly humourand eroticism.(Encyclopedia Britannica,2014)

Angela had rejected an opportunity of education at Oxford University to work as a journalist at Corydon Advertiser, but later she studied Medieval literature at the University of Bristol(B.A.1965).She had deliberate success with her novelsShadow Dance (1966); also published as HoneyBuzzard) and The Magic Toyshop (1967); filmed (1986). Her other novels include Several Perceptions (1968), The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972), The Passion of New Eve (1977), and Wise Children (1991). Carter’s fiction gained new popularity in the 1980s, notably after the release of the motion picture The Company of Wolves (1984), which she wrote; the film was based on a story from The Bloody Chamber (1979), a collection of her adaptations of fairy tales. Her interest in the macabre and the sensual was reflected in The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History (1979), a polemical study of the female characters in the writings of the marquis de Sade. She also wrote radio plays, children’s books, and essays(ibid).

Nights at the Circus is a novel written by Angela Carter in 1984.It shows the life of an extraordinary aerialist called Sophie Fevvers, who comes to existence after being hatched out of an egg. When she grows up, she develops a couple of wings in her back. Being able to fly, Fevvers moves to the Circus and there, she becomes enormously famous. Mr.Walser, an American journalist sees her and falls in love with her, so he decides to join the Circus just to be close toFevvers.

The present paper is divided into three sections. The first section is biblical, whichdeals with Sophie Fevvers as a fallen angel, and the assimilation between her state and that of Lucifer. Then,the section moves on to make another assimilation between Fevvers and other biblical characters, Azrael and Gabriel.The second section is mythological; it shows the relationship between Fevvers, Venus, and Flora. It illustrates the common aspects which make Fevversclosely affined with these two mythological characters. The third section tackles the idea of sacrifice from both the religious and mythological scopes, and how Carter has introduced it in the novel.

1.	Fevvers as a Fallen Angel

1.1.	Angels and Demons : Angels are beings created by God,and they do exist between God and humans.The word angel means"messenger”, but as a biblical expression,it often comes to mean "rescuer" (Tischer,2006: p19). In the Bible,the word comes with other various meanings like:guardians,guards,admonishers,encouragers,warriors,destroyers,worshipers,and the interpreters of vision.These emissaries of God, as mentioned in the Old and the New Testaments,have appeared frequently in human history as intervals.They are,as stated in Psalm 8,creatures as humans,but they are higher in grade than humans and less than God(ibid).

Angels are pictured in white linen garments,barefoot,and shinning.They also have wings spring from their back as given in the scriptural descriptions (Where exactly, put the description). Artists often agree on the idea that the wings of the angels are symbols of the angels' divine missions and pictured to be bird-like entities(ibid).Angels, furthermore, look like birds in their shape, and as they float over heaven serving and guarding the sky, birds are also given Christian names like (Robin, Poly, Bob……),for, they are permitted to resemble humans(Ferber,1999:p26). Demons or devils are unlike angels, they are artistically described as having wings like bats, along with tales, horns, and pitchforks they might use to torment the wicked ones (Tischler,2006,23).Demons are the subordinates of Satan.They are the other fallen angels,who, after they were cast away from heaven,became Satan's disciples and subject to his commands.The Greek transliteration of the word 'Satan' is used in the New Testament and appears as Satan in English.He is also known as the prince of evil spirits,hence,any one, who commits bad things or has devilish attitudes,is called Satan,and his deeds are known as Satanic attitudes(Encyclopedia Britannica,2013).

According to the visions of the Book of Revelations,Jesus saw Satan falling like a lightning star(Luke 10:18).When the risen Christ returns from heaven to reign the earth,Satan will be fettered for a thousand year(Encyclopedia Britannica,2013).

This can be obviously touched in the character of Sophie Fevvers,who, as she claims at the beginning of the novel,has come into existence after being hatched from an egg :"Hatched out of a bloody great egg while Bow Bills rang,as ever is!"[p. 3].With her beauty that is of an angel and wings like birds that she could take off with,she becomes the significant point of interest to whoever sees her and the wondrous aspect of her existence.' Look at me! With a grand, proud, ironic grace, she exhibited herself before the eyes of the audience as if she was a marvelous present too good to be played with. Look, not touch.'[p9]

1.2. Fevvers as a fallen angel in assimilation to Lucifer: The Bible asserts that Satan is a fallen angel of the highest order,who was created in perfection in all his ways.In Corinthian 11:14,it is written that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light;that is,if someone has an access to see Satan,he might be seen as the most beautiful creature ever seen on earth. If God permitted him to reveal himself, Satan would be limited in what he can and cannot do. His power is limited in scope,but it is more than what one could comprehend in his mortal being.But still what one knows about Satan is limited to what the Bible reports in the revelation. The first linking idea in the story of the fall of Satan and the character of Sophie Fevvers in Nights at the Circus is the fall from grace. Fevvers improves the claim that she is like Lucifer: "Like Lucifer I fell.Down,down,down,I tumbled,bang with a bump on the Persian rug below me…."[p19] In order to make sense of end-times Bible prophecy,one must first understand what happened at the beginning in order to know where one is headed and why.Although mankind is intricately involved in history,one cannot understand the purpose and the goal of history without the reference to God's revelation of the angelic dimensions.It is the starting point,which begins with Satan's declaration of independence from God shortly after the creation (Ice, 2009: p1). How art thou fallen from heaven,O Lucifer, Son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground ,which didst weaken the nations!(Isaiah,14:12,KJV) There is a belief that Lucifer was a heavenly or angelic name,which was taken from him after his rebellion against the authority of God.The Bible does not thoroughly statethat; Satan is nowhere referred to as Lucifer;he is called with other names. (Hodge,2011: p14) The transitional point in the story of the fall of Satan is,to some extent,mirrored in Nights at the Circus,more in the fact of the deterioration in the status of the New Woman in the modern age.Immorality, unfortunately,became the key feature designating the modern woman,and how the chastity of the modern woman has declined.So, in addition to the fall of Satan from his heavenly place to the earthly one, another declination takes place in history which is the fall of the morality of the new woman from its higher place.As the novel depicts Fevvers raised up in a brothel, a place for fallen girls before she moves to the Circus. It is how the image of the New Woman was shaken by the immorality of the modern age and the coexisting prostitution that became the major cause behind great change in the history of women and in women's behavior at the beginning of the twentieth century(Toth,2005: p1). It is the pressure,the action against women and the prominent suppress that caused such a reaction,which then became more intensive by time.Carter gives the same idea in showing Fevvers as a small girl having,somehow,a lump in her back to embody the burdenborne by women.The lumpturns, then,when Fevvers becomes an adult,up to be a couple of wings with which Fevvers would strike the ground and hover freely and highly with the surplus freedom which symbolizes the state of women: "Mr.Walser,I knew I was not ready to bear on my back the great burden of my unnaturalness…."[p.19] Another point of similarity between Fevvers and Lucifer is that both are rebels against authority.Lucifer,as revealed in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, stands against God in an assertion of his freedom and independence even if it cost him eternal damnation.Verses 13 and 14 record Satan's famous declaration of rebellion when he says: "For thou hast said in thine heart,'I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of congregation in the sides of the north"(Isaiah 14:13 KJV). Fevvers can also be a symbol of rebellion and the given evidence is the couple of wings on her back.Again it is the New Woman's rebellion against the chains with which they are fettered and the social boundarieswhich are stressed out by Carter to be suffocating the creativity of women and putting limits on her identity.Lyn Pykett says in his book The Emperor Femininethat the New Woman is the symbol of rebellion and disorder and how her news became popular and widespread: First andforemost the New Womanwas a representation.She wasa construct,a condensedsymbol ofdisorder andrebellion '(Smith-Rosenberg,1985: p247)who was actively produced in the pages of the newspapers and periodical press,as well as in novels.The New Woman (and the moral panic which surrounded her)was yet another example of the way in which ,in the latter half of the nineteenth century, femininity became a spectacle(Pykett,1992,pp 137-138).

Fevvers,when she was introduced first as a child and, as mentioned earlier, was an ordinary child but with a distinct mark on her back. When she grew up, this lump sprang up to be wings,which made her able to fly.These wings are,in fact, rebellious devices against the patriarchal authority of the society. Symbolic wings are for the sake of defending her gender and to set women up to freedom.

The same development happens with Lucifer in the Revelation 12 when the serpent,Satan,turns into a dragon with four heads,two tales and wings to rebel or fight against God in the Wars of Heaven.He wants to show God's inefficiencyto be God.

2.	Mythological Allusions

As Rosencreutz goes on calling Fevvers with the different names trying to identify her angelic being,a certain perception of Fevvers is formed.For him,Fevvers was the representative of the unusual, because his eyes have not seen such a thing before.Hence,Rosencreutz seems to be an intruder to the magical world of Fevvers, therefore, he is a representative of the society which tries to smother women, because it is threatened by her special and distinct existence: "Quick spirit of the awaking world!Winged and springed upwards!Flora,Azrael,Venus!"[p52] Venus is the goddess of beauty and love,but she is originally a vegetation goddess and patroness of vineyards and gardens.In Greek mythology,Venus is compared to Aphrodite,forboth are having many aspects in common.Venus is the daughter of Jupiter and some of her lovers are Mercury,Mars, and Vulcan,modeled on the affairs of Aphrodite.Venus's importance is the rose,and the oldest temple of Venus dates back to 293BCE which has been inaugurated on August,18(Encyclopedia Mythica,1997).

The reference to Venus by Rosencreutz shows the importance of women and how they are treated in the various mythologies of the world.It is how women were the crucial part in life that of being goddesses and having other occupations not less than those of deities.Women were the catalyst,and Psyche,the mortal pretty girl whom Cupid,the son of Venus, heartily and passionately loved,is a vivid example. Ma Nelson gives a prophecy about the upcoming of a new-age in which women will not be subject to society.This means that women are fettered;hence,she is expecting the upcoming of the new age with hope as talking to Fevvers: "Oh, my little one, I think you must be the pure child of the century that just now is waiting in the wings, the New Age in which no women will be bound down to the ground.” And then she wept. That night, we threw away the bow and arrow and I posed, for the first time, as the Winged Victory, for, as you can see, I am designed on the grand scale and, even at fourteen, you could have made two Lizzies out of me’ [p16] In reference to Venus,it is important to refer to her son,Cupid,who is very close to Fevvers in his outer aspect.Like,for instance,when there is a reference to Virgin Mary,it is important to mention her son,Jesus Christ,whose story is a part of the life of Madonna.Also Lizie refers to Fevvers as Cupid in her aspect and how the assimilation fits her: These were the kind old buffers who would extend a father's indulgence in the shape of the odd half-sovereign or string of seed pearls to the half-woman, half-statue they had known in those earliest days when she had played Cupid and, sometimes, out of childish fun, sprung off her toy arrows amongst them, hitting, in play, sometimes an ear, sometimes a buttock, sometimes a ballock[p25]. Cupid,in ancient Roman mythology,is the god of love and son of Venus from her lover Mercury.He often appears as a winged infant carrying a bow and quiver of arrows,whose wounds inspire love and passion in his every victim.He is also sometimes portrayed wearing a shield as Mars,the god of war and one of Venus's lovers;he suggests the ironic relationship between warfare and romance.Cupid falls in love with Psyche,anextremely beautiful mortal girl,but Venus,in one tale,seems to be unsatisfied with her son,so she used Cupid for revenge on the mortal Psyche.Finally,Cupid succeeds to win Psyche to be his immortal love despite his mother’s objections and attempts to separate them(Encyclopedia Britannica,2013). Christian Rosencreutz doesn't cease calling Fevvers with different names,then,out of fancy,he opts the name of Flora to designate Fevvers,the astonishing creature:"Flora!These are but few names with which I might honour my goddess, but, tonight, I shall call you "Flora", very often, for do you not know what night it is, Flora?"[p52] Flora,in the Roman religion,is the goddess of flowering of plants.According to the tradition,the Sabine king Titus,who ruled with Romulus,is said to have introduced Flora's cult to Rome.Her temple has been established near the Circus of Maximus,and her festival has been called Floralia.Her name has survived in the botanical vegetation of a particular environment; her floral crown has appeared on the coins of her republic(Encyclopedia Britannica,2013). Myths about Flora are found in Ovid's Fasti,Book V,that Flora was an ordinary woman called Chloris,but when she was kissed by the West Wind,she turned into Flora(ibid). Fevvers,in one scene,she is shown as another model of Flora when her dress is thoroughly made of flowers : Her suit appeared to be furnished exclusively in flowers but, peering beneath a couple of bushels of white lilac, Fevvers located a red velvet armchair of the size of a sitz bath and plumped down in it, kicking away her high-heeled shoes and shrugging off a flowery Spanish shawl with gestures of furious exhaustion. Under her shawl, she wore an extravagant satin dress in that shade of red blondes, are told to avoid because it "drains" them; but it did not drain Fevvers, whose rouge was even brighter. Her dress was decorated with flounces of black lace and cut down at the front almost to her nipples, probably in an attempt to distract attention from her hump[p. 83]. It is quite ordinary to make such a kind of assimilation,sincemost of women,in their beauty and delicacy,are associated with flowers.Lovers often do portray their beloveds as floral beings.The transformation of Chloris into Flora may echo the development of Fevvers,from being an ordinary child to a winged bird-like female.Also the fact that both,Fevvers and Flora are famous females;that is, Flora could have her picture,wearing the Floral crown,on the sides of the coins of her republic, whereas Fevvers' pictures,on the other hand,are widely spread in Europe and America. 3. Sacrifice in Carter's Nights at the Circus The action of Christian Rosencreutz,in the novel, illustrates the paradox shown in the choice of his name as Christian Rosencreutz.He might be used by Carter as a device, depicting the ironic side of the modern age,for, all Rosencreutz's manners and actions do not fit a religious man, as long as he tries to do something thoroughly prohibited not only in Christianity, but in all other religious faiths and beliefs,that is giving Sophie Fevvers as a human sacrifice in order to have specific gains in return, immortality essentially. Rosencreutz meets a man called Signer Gaurdi, a man who could preserve his youth for three hundred years, after he sacrificed a dozen of young girls, seizing their essence as a chemical material that kept him young and vital all that time.The story of King David and how he could live other three hundred years without aging is hinted at.All these factors heightened the idea of sacrificing Fevvers and made him more deterministic. Furthermore,opines Mr.Rosencreutz,didn't king David,when he grew old,take Abishag the Shulamite to lie in his bosom,and thereby he got heat, and lived two,three hundred years, and turned into one of the Worthies?He went on, too,about certain Signer Gaurdi,who Rosencreutz himself had met in Venice,how this Signer Gaurdi possessed a portrait of himself as a young man painted by Titian. Proving that this Signer Gaurdi was a cool three hundred years old,or so,and he told Mr.Rosencreutz how he had himself rubbed up all over by a baker's dozen young girls from the Apennines.Their massage oil consisting of a distillation of spring flowers and chemical extracts known only by himself.But there came an exceedingly furtive expression over Mr.Rosencreutz's face, when he spoke of Signer Gaurdi'sprescription,there's something he's keeping for himself[p.53]. Thus,human sacrifice can be defined as the offering of the life of a human being to a deity. Considering the blood of human beings something sacred, the killing of humans or the substitution of an animal for a person shows the attempt to commute with a god and share a divine life.As sacrifice should be an offering of the most valuable things to gods, human blood seems to be the material that fits the purpose (Encyclopedia Britannica,2013). The idea of human sacrifice involved in the novel by Carter is her effort to direct the scope towards English archeology,concerning human sacrifice, in the twentieth century, and how some beliefs were shaken. At the end of the twentieth century,however,the archaeological evidence did not support the claim of human sacrifice.Earlier,Christians were accused of Cannibalism,that is, it was earlier said that Christians practiced human sacrifice in some of their rituals.In Mexico,there had been the belief that the sun needed human nourishment,which got many human victims sacrificed annually in the Aztec and the Nahua calendar of rituals (Encyclopedia Britannica,2013). Another fact about Christian Rosencreutznot being worthy of the name is that religious people do not usually fear death,because Christianity believes in the afterlife in heaven or hell depending on one's conduct that whether s/he believes in God or not.Religious Christians face death without fear because they believe that bodies are transient and mortal whereas souls are permanent and immortal.They also believe that death grants them union with God (Bacchiocchi, 2001: p3): “The word, 'death,' had its electrifying effect upon him;brayed and neighed,quivered whinnied,clinking on the casement frame,as if,without its support,down he would flop,but,the spasm soon over, then quavered!”[p55] Human sacrifice is,in fact,mentioned in the Bible as an example, showing how the faith and obedience of Abraham were tested by God in the Old Testament,the Book of Genesis 22.When God called unto Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son,Isaac,and how Isaac's life was spared at the last moment by the ram: 2    And he said, Take now thy son,thine only son,I'-ssac,whom thou lovest,and get thee into the land of Mo-ri'-ah,and offer him as burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of(Genesis 22:2). 11   And the angel of the Lord called unto him,out of heaven,and said,A'-bra-ham,A'bra-ham,and he said,Here am I (Genesis: 22). 12   And he said,lay not thine hand upon the lad,neither do thou anything unto him:for now I knew thou feared God,seeingthou has not withheld thy son,thy only son from me(Genesis:22). 13   And A'-bra-ham lifted up his eyes and looked,and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns : and A'-bra-ham went and took the ram ,and offered him up a burnt instead of his son (Genesis:22). But for Rosencreutz,Fevver's sacrifice is more expensive than a ram.He buys her fortwo hundred pounds from Schreck,pretending that he is putting his money on Fevvers just because of her uniqueness. The first time Madame Schreck lifted up the curtain on me, he jumps half out of his skin and calls out: 'Azrael!' After that, he comes only to see me. He wants nothing of the Beauty but has me hauled up to the upper room by myself and walks round me, whickering to himself and playing with himself under his petticoat and Fanny, to tease me, calls him my 'fancy boy[p. 47]. But Rosencreutz's intentions go further than keeping what is precious, forFevvers is the crucial part of his ritual,which is of giving her up as a human sacrifice at daybreak.He starts hinting to Fevvers about her importance to him as focal tool of this ritual. Lady of the hub of the celestial wheel, creature half of earth and half of air, virgin and whore, reconciler of fundament and firmament, reconciler of opposing states through the mediation of your ambivalent body, reconciler of the grand opposites of death and life, you who come to me neither naked nor clothed, wait with me for the hour when it is neither dark nor light, that of dawn before daybreak, when you shall give yourself to me but I shall not possess you[p54].

When the time has come, Fevvers is sitting on the coffee table; Rosencreutz approachs her in a horrible manner,then Fevvers catches sight of a hidden blade under his robe.It is the time when Rosencreutz was to execute what he has planned, but Fevvers could still have the sword of Ma Nelson with her,with which she could defend herself and force Rosencreutz to withdraw. Wondering, I stretch out face down on the coffee table.He approaches with a purposeful stride. I'd have clenched my teeth and thought of England had not I glimpsed, peering over my shoulder ,a shinning something lying along his hairy old, gnarled old thigh as his robe swung loose. This something was a sight more aggressive than his other weapon, poor thing,that bobbed about uncharged,unprimed, unsharpened in the cold,gray light of May morning.I saw this something was a blade.[p56] Again the angelic sword of Fevvers,which she calls it 'Victory's Sword' (p.32) savesFevvers' bloodshed: "Quick as a flash, out with my own! How I blessed my little gilded sword! He fell back, babbling, unfair, unfair. . . he'd not thought the angel would come armed. Yet, sir, strike I could not, nor harm another mortal even in self- defense …'[p56],and this can be associated with the angelic voice,which called unto Abraham and saved Isaac's blood from being sacrificed in the Book of Genesis 22: 12. 	  Still,the idea of human sacrifice is mentioned in the story of Jephté,one of the judges of Israel.His name is mentioned in the Book of Judges,chapters 11 and 12.Jephté was about to launch a campaign to restore his territory.Before launching his campaign,he made a vow to the lord and said:"Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Am'-on, shall surly be the Lord's, and I will offer it up a burnt offering."(Judges 11: 31 KJV). So,on his triumphant return to his residence in Mospha,the first to receive himis his only daughter,accompanied by a chorus of women. Jephté told his daughter about his vow,and finally,she surrendered to her fate.Jephté took his only daughter and offered her as a burnt offering(Driscol,1910,844). The Bible,in fact,has related stories depicting the deeds of those who practiced human sacrifice,but simultaneously,the Bible strongly stood against such an act*,forit is against humanity in all its forms and against the peace that Jesus Christ has come with: “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech,for you must not profane the name of your God.I am the Lord" (Lev 18:21), or “He desecrated Topheth,which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice his own son or daughter in the fire of Molech”(Kings 23:10 KJV). This shows the attitude of Christianity towards the idea of sacrifice,and how it is detestable to the Lord,and this is how Christian Rosencreutz is supposed to think as a Christian.But the word,Christian,which is preceding his name seems to be ironical,because he has violated the commandments of God. Everyone agrees that the religious culture has become far more secular and hostile to Christian faith over the past two generations.Many of the Evangelical and Reformed world see decline in the early decades of the twentieth century,when many denominators and their academic institutions and foundations fell into the hands of theological modernists and liberals(Keller,2012: p1). 'Unlike David,hisfather,he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. 3  He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire,following the detestable ways of nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.'(Kings 16:3)
 * Such acts are referred to in the Bible like King David’s or the Kings of Israel:

Conclusion What makes sense of this long comparison is the idea of centering man as the source of destruction, and how he can easily be subject to the encompassing change bywhich man might be rapidly affected and driven and is eventually directed towards sin. It all begins with the disobedience of Satan andreaches the fallof the modern woman; and this is what is tackled in thefirst section of the present paper.It might be Carter's endeavor to depict this problem by dealing with it artistically. The twentieth century marked the indulgence of people in loose principles and shaken values, especially women, who were restrained in all the previous eras. Thus, women havesought this freedom hysterically the outcome of which is immorality and prostitution. The novel, in fact, does not stop at the feminist aspect, but it goes deeper, showing the decline of faith of many people, and how some beliefs were shaken and changed following what is religiously prohibited, just like Rosencreutz's attitude.Materialism has its own effect on peoples' minds and spirits. It plays such a strong role by evacuating people's principles and morals. Like when Fevvers accepts to be sold to Christian Rosencreutz. Materialism can be connected to every single detail which is found in the novel, that is, it is the main reason behind man's greedy interests, by which he grows blind and stone-hearted.

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