Reginald is still obsessed with alchemy and magic, the stranger’s secret. He brings Hector in while he is working on this all behind Marguerite’s back, of course. Hector sees what is going on, but has been sworn to secrecy, (not telling the family) but he falls in love and eventually tells his girlfriend after she uses her ‘women’s ways’ on him. Hector asks her not to say anything to anyone but it would seem that Hector is not her only lover. So everyone finds out.

Marguerite has got the family located out in the country again where there is a sense of freedom and no arbitrary influences on Reginald. He locates a hide-a-way on his property where he can play with his secret when he isn’t busy. He even states that the situation would be ‘troublesome’ to Marguerite if she knew. So Reginald goes against what he was told when he was given the secret and tells Hector thinking that Hector is too simple-minded to realize what is going on.

That shows how self-centered St. Leon is because he feels that just because Hector’s skin is dark he isn’t smart enough to figure out what is going on. Reginald is headed down the same road as he was before, thinking that he is rich, unimpeachable, and has fame. And where did the money come from? The death of Charon, beating and eventual death of Hector, and the loss of Reginald’s “reverential awe” were all the result of his unethical decisions. At the same time, Marguerite is having to deal with all of this while her health continues to degrade. Fortunately for her, Reginald has been keeping most of the truth from her as usual. Naturally, all of the problems that he faced were blamed on someone else, including the death of Marguerite!

St. Leon decides to take the stranger in, mainly because he is tempted by what the stranger will give him. He says “I considered my honor as pledged for the protection of the man…” but his intentions are to find out what the stranger has and knows, which will give him recognition and wealth again. He is upset when he finds that he can’t tell his family or anyone else what the secrets are but in the eleventh chapter the reader is given the impression that Reginald will reject the strangers’ offer in favor of being happy with his family. The next chapter sees him trying to wheedle the information out of the stranger. This guy just doesn’t know what he wants unless it is to benefit him!

This trend continues when the Bishop’s officers show up and he denies knowing anything about the guy. He could get into a lot of trouble by harboring a fugitive, but if it is for his honor and maybe some wealth too, oh well. He couldn’t get the information out of the stranger but maybe he can get some information out of the officers? Marguerite, of course, is very upset about this situation. When Reginald consoles her, she backs off and in essence says, “Hey, this is your secret, keep it if you want, I’m just your wife. ” It is a very uncaring husband who continues to keep his secrets so that he can bring honor and wealth to himself again. He continues to put forth the excuse that this is for his family also, but with his addiction to gambling, his past history, and his obsession with ‘honor’ and recognition, this is just a facade. There is foreshadowing in each of these chapters: the questions of little Marguerite, Reginald’s decision to reject the offer and then changing his mind, and the fact that the stranger had this information but never used it. Is this a foreshadowing of Reginald’s use (or non use) of the same information?

Reginald’s plans are addicting to him and all he can think about is what he will do with his new wealth. He does realize deep down that it’s causing strain on the family but he doesn’t seem to be able to pull himself to reality or maybe he just doesn’t want to.

Percy Busshe Shelly was born into the aristocracy, his father being a Whig member of Parliament. His feelings about poetry was that a true poet needed a soothing and calm mind to write. A remark by him “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world” suggests his awareness of linguistics as a tool for independent freedom as well as a vehicle for political and social subjugation. His main concern in his writing was to explain the moral function of poetry. I do not believe that it was his intention to actually be a legislator or government official.

Shelley looked at poetry like a painter would look at his art, as a thing of beauty and in “Ode to the West Wind” the first part of the poem reflects the power and the role of the wind as both “destroyer and preserver”. In the fifth stanza, Shelley transforms the wind into a metaphor of his own art while asking for Spring to hurry up and arrive. The Spring is a metaphor for imagination, liberty, or morality, all the things that Shelly wished to bring out in reader’s minds. He wanted people to be able to choose for themselves what their ‘art’ was to be. He invokes metaphors from nature to characterize his relationship to his art.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.