{"id":1708,"date":"2021-09-20T18:15:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T22:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1708"},"modified":"2021-09-20T18:15:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T22:15:57","slug":"a-mermaids-glimpse-into-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/09\/20\/a-mermaids-glimpse-into-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mermaid’s Glimpse into the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Passage: \u201cIn those troublesome dreams…safe and firmly rooted to the shore.\u201d (<\/span>pg<\/span>\u00a0244)<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this passage, Robert is having a disturbing dream about the fate of his\u00a0<\/span>uncle\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0manor<\/span>\u00a0and the sheer amount of figurative foreshadowing in this excerpt is startling. Foreshadowing is a process that we see throughout the book, but\u00a0<\/span>in this instance, it is very clear.<\/span>\u00a0The narrator\u00a0<\/span>describes the oncoming wave\u00a0<\/span>as the embodiment of destr<\/span>uction, saying that it aimed to \u201ccrush the house he loved\u201d (244).<\/span>\u00a0In his real life he fears a force coming to figuratively destroy what he has come to recognize as home.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>This obvious dan<\/span>ger<\/span>\u00a0is<\/span>\u00a0juxtaposed with the beauty found in th<\/span>at<\/span>\u00a0same wave which he describes as\u00a0<\/span>having a \u201cstarry face looking out of the silvery foam\u201d (244). This phrase does not inspire the same feelings of anxiety as much as it does create an image of some<\/span>thing very serene with the use of the word \u201cstarry\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(244)<\/span>, which also promotes the idea of Lucy looking celestial in some capacity, or at the very least other worldly<\/span>. The idea of a force with such capabilities of ruin looking\u00a0<\/span>so lovely is a direct reference to Lucy\u2019s beauty<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0which Ro<\/span>bert\u00a0<\/span>believes, she uses as both a weapon and a disguise. In describing her as \u201ca mermaid\u201d, the narrator\u00a0<\/span>summons the concept of sirens who lure men into the water with their beauty and then drown them. With this reference, the author implies that Lucy is mimicking this behavior in her marriage to Michael.\u00a0<\/span>There is a twist in this dream sequence when \u201ca ray of light streamed out upon the hideous waves\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(244)<\/span>\u00a0and the wave retreats. W<\/span>ith all of the other references to things that are happening at that very\u00a0moment in time, we are led to believe that, in continuing that pattern, this metaphorical \u201cray of light\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(244)<\/span>\u00a0is fast approaching.\u00a0<\/span>I theorize that this \u201cray of light\u201d (244) serves to symbolize Robert\u2019s own involvement in the situation in that he will be the one to thwart Lucy\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>scheming and preying on Sir Michael. Either way, this beacon of hope has to stand for something, as everything else in this dream sequence does.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passage: \u201cIn those troublesome dreams…safe and firmly rooted to the shore.\u201d (pg\u00a0244)\u00a0 In this passage, Robert is having a disturbing dream about the fate of his\u00a0uncle\u2019s\u00a0manor\u00a0and the sheer amount of figurative foreshadowing in this excerpt is startling. Foreshadowing is a process that we see throughout the book, but\u00a0in this instance, it is very clear.\u00a0The narrator\u00a0describes … Continue reading A Mermaid’s Glimpse into the Future<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4751,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}