An epiphany is an unexpected burst of information that causes a person to change right away. A realization that can change your existence occurs in that "a-ha" moment. Epiphanies typically occur abruptly and are brought on by everyday life events. Since not everyone has a complete epiphany, the knowledge acquired in that situation can teach others a lesson or open their eyes. Many authors include epiphanies in their fictitious works because of this.
Epiphany is a literary term used to describe a turning point in a character's development that eventually leads to the resolution of a story. Epiphanies carry great philosophical, spiritual or personal insights which give readers a new and different perspective of life as reflected in the narrative. They point out a major character’s growth or maturity in the story. They also strengthen the literary narrative by providing plot twists and unexpected turn of events.
Two great masters of Western literature, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) and Herman Melville (1819-1891) employed epiphany in some of their novellas and short stories. Both writers lived in the same era where industrialization was taking hold in the world. Many of their works showed the plight of the working class, the struggles of the poor and how the Industrial Revolution had changed people’s lives. Their stories portrayed characters who find themselves in decisive situations confronting reality and, thus, undergo an awakening of sorts.
The Writers and Their Works
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens is considered as one of the greatest Victorian writers. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society (Wikipedia contributors). Many of his works such as Oliver Twist (1838) and A Tale of Two Cities (1859) among others, were social commentaries that drew attention to the poor and underprivileged in English society. He wrote about the inequality among social classes, the indifference of institutions on class exploitation, the ills of industrialization and his disfavor of child labor using compelling plots, livid satire and memorable characters. His most enduring work is A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol
Published in 1843, A Christmas Carol centers on the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge who abhorred Christmas, children and spending, and who later metamorphosed into the generous man he is at the end. The book is composed of five chapters, or staves as Dickens calls them, that told of the journey of change Scrooge underwent with the three Ghosts of Christmas one fateful London wintry eve. Here, he manages to describe almost in a documentary manner Christmas celebrated by the working poor of early-Victorian England (Diniejko). The vivid details of English Christmas tradition is important because they support the novel’s underlying themes of
class struggles, the power of relationships, forgiveness and redemption.
Prior to his metamorphosis, Scrooge is lonely, angry and greedy. When Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his long dead associate, Jacob Marley, whose soul was doomed to wander forever for being a miser, he becomes afraid that he will suffer the same punishment in the afterlife. This fear temporarily dissipates when the Ghost of Christmas Past brings him to happier times in his childhood where he sees his beloved sister, Fan, and relives the simple joys of a family feast with his first employer, the jovial Mr. Fezziwig. He sees his fiancée, Belle, and regrets his utter neglect of her that resulted in her leaving him for his miserly ways.
Shortly after, the second Ghost of Christmas Present, shows him happy scenes of present Christmas day and he begins to realize just how much he is missing in life. The ghost takes him to the poor but loving home of his hardworking clerk, Bob Cratchit, whom he had been exploiting at work for years. As he looks at the humble dinner, he notices the frail Tiny Tim, the youngest of the Cratchit brood, and pities the sick boy. He is taken to his nephew Fred’s home. He begs the Ghost to allow him to stay longer to watch the family playing games, but the Ghost says no. Just then, two sickly children, Ignorance and Want, emerges from the ghost’s robes.
Finally, the third Ghost, that of Christmas Yet to Come calls. He takes Scrooge to the graveyard and the miser soon confronts his own mortality. He learns about the recent death of disliked man and wonders who it was. He also finds out that Tiny Tim had died and was laid to rest in the cemetery. He feels remorseful at not having done anything to help the family. The silent ghost then brings him to the neglected grave of the wretched man. When he sees the name on the tombstone as his own, he realizes his folly and vows to the Ghost to mend his ways. He wakes up the next day, a rejuvenated and changed man.
Herman Melville
An American writer during the American Renaissance period, Herman Melville is best known for his whaling novel, Moby Dick (1851). He was an adventurer and used his experience as a sailor for inspiration for his works. He wrote in baroque style in his early works and later developed a writing style that was rich in imagery and allusions. His three most important sources, in order, are the Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton. (Wikipedia contributors) Later in life, he took to writing poetry for a time but returned to writing prose with the unfinished novel, Billy Budd, Sailor as his last work published posthumously in 1924. Although Melville was not politically involved, he touched on delicate social concerns in his works such as gender issues, oppression, poverty and injustice which he shares with his readers.
The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids
Considered as Melville’s lesser known work, the short story The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids (1855) is a two-part narrative of a seed man’s journey to places he equated to as heaven and hell. In the first part, the narrator visits a cozy apartment near the Temple Bar in London upon invitation of a friend. He finds the place was a haven for unmarried men, mostly lawyers and scholars, for fine dining, social drinking, good conversation and quiet meditation. Everything about the place spelled luxury, from the delicious food and choice wines served at dinner to the comfortable furnishings they lounged on. The narrator senses the brotherhood these men shared as they engaged in pleasantries that night, calling them modern Templars after the legendary nights of yore. As the evening came to an end, the generous host asks the narrator what he thought of the Temple and the lifestyle of those within and he answers, with much candor, it is a paradise of bachelors.
The second part of the narrative takes our seed man to a New England paper mill to purchase paper. He finds himself in a bleak and hellish landscape covered in heavily in snow. He makes his way to the paper factory he calls the Devil’s Dungeon where he finds pale, cold and sad women with blank faces working quietly on the machines. After establishing his intent for the visit, he takes a tour of the factory with Cupid, a cheerful young man who knew and understood the process of paper making but is completely oblivious and indifferent to the plight of the women around him. The seed man meets the factory owner, another bachelor, whom he asks why he calls his workers girls when they clearly were older. Then he finds out that the factory only employed single women – virgin maidens they were – who worked hard and long for so little recompense. After he completes his business, he departs with haste from the cold Tartarus, referring to the Grecian hell, and its tormented souls, yearning for all the comforts Paradise can offer.
Matching the Works
Set in the same time frame, both works are a record of the dark side of industrialization and its twin, urbanization. They are a grim reminder of the social ills prevalent even making them more serious through the pairing of the rich and poor, of men versus women, as well as American and British traditions.
One aspect of the stories that stand out is the professions of the characters. Scrooge is depicted as a cold hearted money lender. Money makes him powerful and he uses it to oppress others. The bachelors in paradise are lawyers who are blissfully unaware of the sacrifices women folk make for their benefit. Yet it is their ignorance and non-action that makes them oppressors just the same.
Often playing the victim, the fair sex is shown in a different light in both stories. Belle and Mrs. Cratchit, the female characters in A Christmas Carol, are women who live and love. Fully aware that Scrooge loves money more than anything, Belle accepts her fate and leaves him to marry another. She was Scrooge’s chance for happiness but he was consumed by greed and lost her for good. On the other hand, Mrs. Cratchit is a loving and protective mother. She constantly points out how badly Scrooge treats her husband while the loyal Bob defends his employer. Women may not play an active role in society during those times but they are the heart of the home and family.
Sadly the maidens in the paper mill may never have the chance at motherhood. Children, the men say, can only distract their productivity. If is as if, the maidens exist to work, work and work in the mill till they die or are incapacitated. They become pale, almost white like the paper they are making, because of the cold and other conditions they have to keep up with. They blend in with the bleak surroundings and lose their youth. Their vitality is sapped away by the machines they operate in the long 12-hour working day. They are supervised by men who do not care for their well-being but only for profit. Seeing no need for communication with each other, they lose their voices. In a way, they have become a part, an extension of machines they work with.
Epiphany?
Scrooge’s transformation is brought about by his journeys to Christmases past, present and future. These scenes are filled with holiday traditions where good relationships are treasured more than earthly possessions. These memories bring a surge of feelings through Scrooge that led to his change of heart. As these scenes pass before him, Scrooge witnesses how much money, or rather his love of money, digressed his nature from the loving and generous person he was in his youth to the miserable old man he had become. Despite an unhappy childhood, he is able to live a fairly good life during time where family relations were greatly valued and where employees respected, not feared, their employers who treated them like family. Then the wave of industrialization happened, changing the very way people lived and widening the gap between the rich and poor. The pursuit of money became the focus of his life and for this, Scrooge loses his own humanity.
After the ghostly visits, he realized that he can still change his destiny by changing his present. He did not want to die alone, unloved and forgotten. His full transformation is, albeit, more personal and introspective, even religious to some extent. Yet, this individual redemption is a big step towards social transformation. After all, the “new” Scrooge makes the world a better place through a ripple effect.
Meanwhile, the narrator’s eureka moment in Melville’s work is not as profound as Scrooge’s but it is more realistic in its treatment. The seed man’s exclamation at the end of the story, Oh! Paradise of Bachelors! and oh! Tartarus of Maids!, is an expression of acceptance of the truth. (Melville, 2454) Such is the disparity between wealth and poverty – it is ugly but real. So are the horrid working conditions in the paper mill. But with progress comes the trade-off, in this case, the very lives of the poor women.
The narrator’s reference to the deep abyss of torment of Greek mythology expresses the initial shock he had the moment he stepped into the hellish confines of the paper mill. But alas, he realizes that he, as an individual, cannot beat the higher system and the machinations of society. He reflects the same feeling of hopelessness and resignation that everyone feels when confronted by something bigger than himself.
As the seed man tours the cold paper mill, the readers follow him closely and share his journey. In a way, his insight becomes the reader’s as well.
Conclusion
Dickens and Melville deftly used epiphany as a literary device in their stories. Set in the background of the Industrial Revolution, their stories are filled with real problems and social ills of the period. The sudden insight or realization of knowledge may come in different ways to the characters. Usually marking the conclusion, an epiphany is triggered by an ordinary incident that ultimately changes the life of the character in the story.
As shown in the featured works of the two writers, there is a higher purpose to narratives they had crafted that they become tools in the readers’ own epiphany.
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. New York: Atria Books, 2013. Print.
Diniejko, Dr Andrzej. “ Charles Dickens as Social Commentator and Critic.” The Victorian Web.
Ed. George P. Landow. February 2012. Web. 22 April 2017.
< http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/bioov.html>
Melville, Herman. “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids.” The Heath Anthology
of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 2437-2454. Print.
Wikipedia contributors. "Charles Dickens." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc. 28 March 2017. Web. 21 April 2017.
< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens>
Wikipedia contributors. "Herman Melville." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc. 23 April 2017. Web. 24 April 2017.
