I’ve been reformulating my argument for my reading paper. My initial thesis for my draft was that there was no substantial evidence that Coverdale was interested in Priscilla romantically (contrary to what he says about his admission of love being a clarifying pronouncement in the last section of the book). The only problem is that although I can find a number of situations where he does not express interest in Priscilla to use as evidence and thus support my thesis, the paper feels like an uninteresting presentation of the facts. There is no real global insight into the novel or Coverdale’s account specifically- the paper simply offers up evidence that his last statement was not accurate.
One possible argument that I’ve considered is to focus on what this says about Coverdale’s account. In this case, I can employ some of the line of argument I was using before. First, I establish what I did in my original draft, that Coverdale was not entirely honest in his last comment. I can then use this omission as evidence of the broader account being dishonest. Although it’s not unreasonable that an author may neglect to mention some of his personal feelings, the conspicuous lack of evidence of his feelings for Priscilla is certainly worth noting. It is suggestive of some sort of revisionism taking place, most likely intentionally. Why, unless he was consciously trying to mislead the reader, would he focus so intimately on the details of Zenobia while showing little obvious interest in Priscilla? Coverdale’s account portrays him as being almost unreasonably distant from the affairs of those around him, which may be a side effect of this deliberate attempt to suppress anything which may suggest he has feelings for Priscilla.
Another argument could be made for this saying something about the novel.
3 comments:
Maybe all the lack of evidence IS a piece of evidence. I agree that the entire novel leads us into thinking that Coverdale is in love with Zenobia. However, if we assume his statement is true at the end of the novel, then we can probably assume he is a very unreliable narrator. The lack of evidence of his love for Priscilla shows he has been covering up facts throughout the novel - i.e. pretending to love Zenobia. Just some thoughts.
Good point, Rohit. The problem is that the inconsistency between the last chapter and the rest of the book only shows that he is unreliable, not how. I.e., should we believe Coverdale in the last chapter, or in the rest of the novel?
To me the weirdest part about that last section is the way that Coverdale frames it (as Wesley pointed out last week) as something that's going to explain everything.
Actually throughout the novel I think there are signs that Coverdale is in love (or is falling in love) with Priscilla. [some evidence in my post].
Coverdale does speak highly of Zenobia as beautiful and womanly but in contrast comparing his speech of Priscilla, he speaks of Priscilla more admiringly. I think Coverdale is only interest in Zenobia as a strong womanly figure he can converse with.
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