“Hide-and-Go-Seek” by Phin Upham
This article comes to us via author Phin Upham, who is a frequent contributor to blogs like theAcademic Ledger.
In the night Christabel, while watching Geraldine undress sees a “sight to dream of not to tell” and then the narrator breaks in and explicitly warns the reader that danger looms “Oh shield her! Shield sweet Christabel.” The interruption of the narrator without any seeming physical threat to Christabel seems to beg the reader to search for an answer. The reader might remember the dog’s ominous moan, or the moaning of the trees (for moaning, with all its connotations of pleasure and pain seems to follow Geraldine). Geraldine becomes almost a magical figure who exerts power over all around her and she refers to how she “worketh a spell.” But I question, indeed challenge, that Geraldine can be simplified into merely a witch. Perhaps she is modeled after Helen of Troy, whose beauty caused her such torment, and her beauty is her power. “Thou knowest tonight, and wilt know tomorrow/ This mark of my shame and this seal of my sorrow” (she could be blaming her beauty for her kidnapping). And yet she is unquestionably sinister. She is the incarnation of the snake that holds the dove in its embrace in the dream she later relates. She seems to bewitch Christabel into “dull and treacherous hate.” She reveals the sexuality of Christabel’s father to Christabel. When Christabel pleads for Geraldine to be sent away, her father turns away. But does Christabel want Geraldine to be sent away because of Geraldine or because of what Geraldine uncovers in her, some form of attraction and fascination?
About the Author
Phin Upham is a New York City and San Francisco based investor and author, who frequently contributes to blogs and local journalism. Read more articles by Phin Upham on blogs like the Academic Ledger.
