The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Brocken spectre with a glory, an atmospheric effect of light which has powerful instrumental effect in one of the scenes from the novel Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, (Full title, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor) is a novel that was written by the Scottish author James Hogg and published anonymously (although his reputation was well established) in 1824.

Considered by turns part-gothic novel, part-psychological mystery, part-curio, part-metafiction, part-satire, part-case study of totalitarian thought, it can also be thought of as an early example of modern crime fiction in which the story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of its criminal anti-hero. The action of the novel is located in a historically definable Scotland with scientifically observed settings, and simultaneously infers a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession.

After its publication, the novel suffered from a period of critical neglect, especially in the nineteenth century, but since the latter part of the twentieth century has won greater critical interest and attention, perhaps most especially as a study of religious fanaticism through its deeply critical portrait of the Calvinist concept of predestination. It is written in English, with some sections of Scots that appear in dialogue.

Contents

Plot

Justified Sinner at its simplest contains the memoir of a young man, Robert Wringhim (or Wringham), who encounters a shape-shifting figure only ever identified as "Gil-Martin". This urbanely mephistophelian visitation — an early instance of the doppelganger in fiction — appears after Robert is declared by his "adopted" father to be one of the elect, and therefore a "soul" predestined to attain salvation. Although this invests Wringhim with a sense of infallible moral justification, he is at the same time tortured with self-doubt. Ostensibly co-erced by Gil-Martin (who the reader clearly sees exploiting these two mental states) Wringhim is led to commit a long series of offences, including multiple murders.

Wringhim's own account of the dark counsel of his visiting angel forces questions regarding how self-aware he may in fact be. But the novel's dilemmas are not merely psychological; as the narrative progresses, the material relation between Wringhim and Gil-Martin, and between Gil-Martin and the historical events of the story itself, become increasingly problematised.

The novel opens with the unhappy marriage of Rabina Orde with George Colwan, the Laird of Dalcastle. This event has repercussions throughout the book, setting the scene for conflicts to come. Rabina is a prudish bigot who disapproves of her new husband because he dances and drinks alcohol. The couple soon separates. However, Rabina Colwan gives birth to two children. The first, George, is the son of the Laird of Dalcastle, but the second, Robert, is most likely the son of the Reverend Wringhim, Rabina’s spiritual advisor who lives with her.

The two brothers live apart and never interact until the main events of the novel take place. George, raised by the Laird of Dalcastle, becomes a friendly, typical young man who enjoys sports and socializing with his friends. Robert, educated by his mother and adoptive father Reverend Wringhim, is quite the opposite, priggish, malicious, and conceited. He is indoctrinated into Reverend Wringhim’s radical sect of Calvinism, which holds that only certain elect people are predestined to be saved by God. According to these extremists, these chosen few will have a heavenly reward regardless of how their lives are lived. Everyone else will be damned. Robert Wringhim takes this already extreme belief to the furthest boundaries of wickedness, using it to justify a degenerate life of crime.

In the first part of the novel, Robert Wringhim appears as a force so spiteful and malevolent as to seem almost inhuman. His main intent is to destroy his brother George. In this section of the novel, the reasons for his behaviour are unclear, making him a truly terrifying presence.

Robert begins by stalking George through Edinburgh and making mocking remarks. Robert’s interference with his brother’s activities leads to confusion and bloody brawls in the streets. George is alarmed to discover that his stalker has the uncanny ability to follow him everywhere he goes. Even when attempting to find solace in the quiet countryside, George sees a terrifying vision of his evil brother in the sky and turns to find him lurking behind him, preparing to throw him off a cliff. Even though George tries to reach out to his brother, Robert literally kicks the hand offered in way of friendship.

Finally, George is murdered, stabbed in the back, apparently during a duel with one of his drinking buddies. The only witness to the murder is a prostitute, who claims that the culprit was Robert, aided by what appears to be the double of one of George’s friends. Before Robert can be apprehended by the law, he disappears and many puzzling details are left unexplained.

The subsequent confession of Robert is the most fascinating part of the novel as it takes us deep inside his deranged mind. After the distanced rendering of his character during the first section, Robert is revealed to be strangely delusional and naive. From earliest childhood, he is predisposed to be bad, having every manner of ill trait, from jealousy, to lying, to arrogance. He engages in petty schoolroom crimes and blames them on others.

Eventually, Robert is joined by an enigmatic companion who says his name is Gil-Martin. This intelligent and compelling stranger soon directs all of Robert’s pre-existing tendencies and fanatical beliefs to extraordinarily evil purposes, convincing him that it is his mission to “cut sinners off with the sword.”

Able to morph into anyone, Gil-Martin is one of the first examples of a doppelganger in literature. He transforms into many other characters, including Robert himself, thereby enabling him to commit murders with impunity. Thus, Robert has unwittingly entered into a Faustian compact, exchanging everything for short-lived power.

The confession traces his gradual breakdown into despair and madness, as Robert’s doubts about the righteousness of his cause are counteracted by the diabolical Gil-Martin’s increasing domination over his life. Finally, Robert loses control over his own identity and even loses track of time. During these lost weeks and months, it is possible that Gil-Martin assumes Robert’s appearance in order to commit further crimes... Or perhaps Robert commits the crimes himself and blocks out the memory... It is up to the reader to decide.

Structure

Early photograph of Grassmarket, one of the locations in Confessions, taken around 28 years after publication of the novel.

The Private Memoirs and Confessions was published as if it were the presentation of a found document from the previous century offered to the public with a long introduction by its un-named editor. The structure thus is of a single, self-contained publication offering a historically contextualised story, but the effect is unsettling. When taken together, the different elements create a strong impression of ambivalence and inconsistency, as if they have been silently arranged with a deliberate intention to present the reader with a conundrum. Because Hogg's novel appears to test concepts of internal validity, historical truth or a single rational world-view, contemporary critics sometimes regard it as an early anticipation of ideas associated with postmodernism.

The Confession (which comprises the middle section of the novel) is an autobiographical account of the life of Robert Wringhim and, passim, his statement on the crimes with which his name was associated. The document is ultimately revealed to be the sole remaining printed copy of a first edition of his manuscript (all of which is otherwise destroyed) that had been intended for publication.[1] The account is in two parts: the first is the retrospective printed narrative itself up to the date when its author was setting the first edition of the "completed" True Confession; the second is its immediate continuation, as entries "in real time" on the actual remaining document, describing terrifying events during (as we may believe) his last days on earth.

The Editor's Narrative "introduces" this memoir with "factual" descriptions "from local tradition" of events associated with Wringhim up to the murder of his estranged brother, George Colwan. This Editor's Narrative later resumes at the end of the novel as a post-script appending further details that supposedly comment on the text. This includes the transcript of an "authentic letter" published in Blackwoods Magazine "for August 1823" by a certain James Hogg.[2] The ending finally places the novel in the present time of the reader by relating the mystery of a suicide's grave, the exhumation of its remains and (only on the very last pages) the "recovery" of the manuscript. In effect, this post-script reveals what a real "editor" may more properly have set at the beginning, and casts it as the "conclusion".

Discounting any transcendental inferences, there are two material time-frames in the novel, both of which can be specifically dated. The events of the memoir are set in a carefully identifiable period of Scottish history between the late 17th century and early 18th century. (The first date on the opening page is the year 1687.) The editor's narrative is even more concretely dated and situated in actual present time, external to the novel, through the device of the letter by Hogg included by the fictional editor (which was in fact published in Blackwood's Magazine as described).[3] Hogg's brief cameo role in the final pages of the novel is effectively his "signature" appended to the otherwise anonymous original publication.

Influence

Cairn on the reputed site of an 18th century suicide's grave, Scotland.
  • The novel has been cited as an inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, examining the duality of good and evil.
  • The Scottish film maker Bill Douglas (d.1991) left a screenplay treatment of the novel that has, as yet, not been filmed.
  • The novel "Gilchrist" (1995) by Maurice Leitch is a reworking of Confessions in a contemporary Northern Ireland setting, with a central character loosely based on Ian Paisley.
  • James Hynes' gothic horror novel, The Lecturer's Tale, features a Hogg scholar whose intention to write his dissertation on guilt and predestination in Justified Sinner, is deflected into writing on the more fashionable Conrad.
  • In James Robertson's novel "The Testament of Gideon Mack", the protagonist Gideon Mack, a minister of the Scottish kirk, comes across a copy of a book on elves, fauns and fairies in his father's study. Gideon learns that the book was signed for his father by one "G.M.". Like the anti-hero of Hogg's novel, Gideon claims to have had an encounter with the Devil and begins to think that his father has met him as well. He suggests that "G.M." might be short for "Gil Martin" (p. 355).
  • Eve Sedgwick, in her book Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, views Robert Wringhim's character as failing to successfully negotiate the demands of the configuration of male homosocial desire existing in his society by being too manifest in his desire for other men.
  • Boucher and McComas described the 1949 edition as a "forgotten classic," praising "this terrifying picture of the devil's subtle conquest of a self-righteous man" as "a masterpiece of the supernatural."[4]

Portrayal of Calvinist theology

Many proponents of Calvinist theology argue that James Hogg was lacking in his understanding of Calvinism. It is true that Calvinists believe that once a person reaches a state which fulfils the conditions for salvation (i.e. once someone has experienced true conversion), they cannot subsequently fall from this state ("once saved, always saved"). This doctrine of Calvinist theology is known as the perseverance of the saints. Calvinists also argue the doctrine of irresistible grace, which says that if God has elected to save someone, he will overpower all of that person's resistance, resulting in that person's repentance and consequent salvation. However, proponents of Calvinist theology would argue that even with the Five points of Calvinism, a genuinely converted person is easily recognisable and the protagonist shows no signs of having been born again, pointing to biblical passages, such as Matthew 7:16, where Jesus says during the Sermon on the Mount that people will know each other by their fruits and James 2:20, which says that faith is dead unless good works come as a consequence thereof. This is discussed by Dr. Peter Masters, the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Elephant and Castle, London, a calvinistic church, in the book Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion[1], where he outlines how a person who is born again will differ from someone who isn't.

Theatrical Productions

Film

  • 1985 Polish film adaptation by director Wojciech Jerzy Has, Osobisty pamiętnik grzesznika... przez niego samego spisany, (English title: Memoirs of a Sinner)
  • Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin, creator of the famous Inspector Rebus novels, has written a script for a film based on James Hogg's Memoirs and Confessions. According to his website, his team are 'still on the hunt for the right director.'[5]

See also

Book collection.jpg Novels portal

References

  1. ^ James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Ed., John Wain. Penguin, 1983. pp.215-6.
  2. ^ James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Ed., John Wain. Penguin, 1983. p.230.
  3. ^ James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Ed., John Wain. Penguin, 1983. Introduction, p.7.
  4. ^ "Recommended Reading," F&SF, February 1950, p.107
  5. ^ www.ianrankin.net December 2010 Newsletter

External links


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