Introduction
Kelly + Victor is a novel whose subject matter evokes a whole array of emotions: from excitement and fascination through distress to revulsion. The literary work is an example of a meticulous psychological study of a couple gripped with sexual obsession. Yet, the novel is not a merely undemanding love story; it abounds in symbolism and after a detailed examination reveals much more than could be expected at first glance: a deep reflection on an individual whose primeval needs and instincts still play a significant role in one's existence.
Chapter 1 will aim at examining a male-female relationship in which traditional roles are reversed: it is a woman who is a more domineering side. This facet is connected with the motif of violence, which in the novel is invariably related to sexual intercourses. I will attempt to prove that Kelly - the co-protagonist of the story - can be symbolically perceived as a goddess; and Victor - her sexual partner - as her sacrifice. This idea directs our attention to a concept of a society in which a woman is a higher and more worshipped persona - matriarchy. In what form has it survived - if at all - till contemporary times? How does it manifest itself in modern Western society?
Another aspect that is going to be discussed in chapter 1 is related to animal instincts that apparently have been deeply rooted in human nature during the evolution. In what way is this issue shown in Kelly + Victor? To what extent are we influenced by elemental nature? What is the role of the civilisation in unleashing primeval instincts in humans? Is there any link between the issue of matriarchy and animal instincts?
What is more, Kelly + Victor tries to explore the subject of aggression and the resulting violence. Why does it appear in human beings? Is it in any way connected with nature? If so, how can it be explained? It is such questions as these that chapter 1 of this thesis seeks to explore.
Chapter 2 aims at exploring the motif of violence in the life of a young boy who lives in a secluded part of Wales.
Chapter 1
I will start discussing Kelly + Victor by examining its form. The novel has a seemingly simple plot. It tells the story of two young people who meet during a New Year's party in a pub somewhere in the city of Liverpool. The novel consists of two parallel monologues, which tell the same story but from two different points of views. Kelly
possesses more narrative space: her monologue continues after her boyfriend's death so that her narrative is longer and occupies the time span which is not covered by Victor, whose monologue ends in the moment of his death (Bednarski 143).
Simultaneously, it is the first hint that allows us to argue that Kelly is a more dominant character in the novel. This issue, however, will be discussed in detail in due course. Two versions of the same sequence of events allow readers to analyse the characters' feelings and the reasons for they actions and behaviour.
Let us return to the plot. During this very night, when Kelly invites Victor to her flat for the first time, it can be easily noticed that the woman has the tendency to behave in an aggressive way. While analysing the first encounter between the lovers, it can be detected that the traditional pattern of a sexual intercourse becomes swerved. In fact, Kelly makes the first move when she invites Victor to her flat merely after a few hours of small talk. Even in the pub, she knows exactly what her actions concerning her would-be lover will be. She describes her feelings in the following way: “… the roughness, the friggin violence which I know will always come as soon as I'm with him, I can't help it, it always comes out. I can feel it buildin up inside me now, already. Grab an pull an pummel” (Kelly + Victor 173).
Kelly is perfectly aware of her violent nature; what is more, she does not try to hide or prevent it. The very first sexual intercourse between him and Victor releases huge, indefinable power that urges the female character to ravage her partner. In her monologue she reveals what she will do to Victor: “Bite him, gnash him, snatch, fuckin grab his head in me hands an suck at his face, suck the breath out of his lungs” (Kelly + Victor 86). Her sexual desire is combined with the need to destroy damage and kill. Kelly at some point admits: “A thumping, a thrashing inside me, this aggression always appears and I can't help it it just comes out. This desire to mash an maul an bite. Suck. Tear with me teeth” (Kelly + Victor 179). Such descriptions make the reader think about wild animals. In fact, Kelly is compared to them several times throughout the novel. An example of such a comparison can be found in the scene of pouring drinks for Victor and herself: she imagines how she is going to behave towards him soon: “Bite that neck. Have him craned below me, exposed, I'll pounce on him like a wolf” (Kelly + Victor 178). Kelly is like a bloodthirsty beast wanting to “fill [her] mouth with hot blood” (Kelly + Victor 179). Animal imagery amplifies the impression that the reader might get while observing the female character in the course of the novel: Kelly is becoming more and more immersed in the feelings of possession and sexual obsession. Moreover, nothing can prevent her from this due to favourable circumstances arising one after another in a very short span of time. What is meant at this point is the influence of Kelly's friend, Victoria, and Victor's vulnerability to the female protagonist's actions.
Undoubtedly, while observing the connection between Kelly and wild animals, the reader is faced with the following questions: What is the purpose of comparing the protagonist to elemental nature? Is it just a stylistic device aiming at acquiring a drastic effect? To answer these questions a few more issues need to be analysed.
What is remarkable about the comparisons is that it is the protagonists themselves who create them. In both monologues the reader can observe a number of fragments that contain a variety of associations with wilderness and animal instincts. Such sections prove that the characters might identify themselves with certain elemental forces that were widespread before civilisation appeared.
Kelly is presented as a bloodthirsty beast who, in spite of her alleged love for Victor, does not hesitate to harm him and, in the end, to cause his death. However, in contrast to animals, she kills not because of her survival instinct instructs her to do so; after all, Victor does not pose any threat to her life. Anytime Kelly acts outrageously towards her lover (or other men, like the sadomasochist whom she canes), an unidentified, unstoppable force appears inside her. At this moment we need to explore the origins of violence in the novel.
Kelly fully realises the importance of her baffling, inner power after the `cane adventure'. Victoria, who works as a “professional dominatrix” (Kelly + Victor 211), asks her to assist her with a certain `job'. At the beginning, Kelly rejects the offer; Victoria, however, manages to persuade her. What particularly tempts Kelly is the opportunity to have her revenge on “every fuckin boss [she] ever had, every bastard bizzy [she's] ever had to hassle off, every control-freak cunt that's ever made [her] life a misery” (Kelly + Victor 207). Another aspect that appeals to her is the money that she has been offered for only half-an-hour job. Moreover, she admits that she is keen on new experiences. Finally, awareness that her sexuality is “an aggressive one” (Kelly + Victor 207) pushes her to engage in this job.
As soon as Kelly starts caning and abusing the man in the cellar, she discovers that this is something that she really needed in her life, something that allows her to dispose of her frustration and grief. She describes her feelings in the following words:
I am frenzied, a fuckin tornado, every moronic moment of my life from the day I was born paid for by this thrashing, every last hour of enforced boredom an frustration now compensated for in this battering I inflict. Sensation overwhelming, pure sensation overfuckinpowering (Kelly + Victor 221).
The result of this outburst of violence is a form of purification that takes place in her mind. Kelly has never experienced such emotions before; she feels the power to overcome all obstacles and to direct her life as she wishes. What is more, a sudden upsurge of strength makes her feel invincible. Such emotions can be addictive; in fact, Kelly appears absorbed in aggressive sexual behaviour, which ultimately leads to the destructive end of her relationship with Victor.
The heroine of the novel by means of violence becomes more visible and distinct among grey and shapeless society. It helps her break her inability to express herself and release her emotions and frustration. This is what can be observed when more discernible and straightforward level of reading is taken into consideration.
It has been pointed out earlier that Kelly's actions are detrimental to Victor in a physical way. Yet, simultaneously, the man is not deterred by her atrocious behaviour. During their second intercourse, he himself encourages Kelly to squeeze his neck. The reason for this is the light that bursts inside his head while having no access to oxygen; this unforgettable experience additionally connected with an orgasm compels him to submission. Victor describes it in the following words:
And again like a door swinging open in me head to let the light in, the bright burning light this wave of almost solid light so fucking amazing there's a shadow, a shape seemingly in that light altho not one of darkness in fact one even brighter whiteness if that could be possible (…). I want that light to be brighter I need the fucking light to be brighter… (Kelly + Victor 32).
On the other hand, let us have a look at the issue from a different perspective: Kelly uses her boyfriend to make her pregnant (which we know from another novel by Griffiths, Stump). Having attempted this, she murders him mercilessly. Such behaviour is commonly observed in nature; for instance, praying mantis kills her sexual partner straight after copulation. This can lead us to the conclusion that elemental forces are widespread among mankind and even the culture that we have created over the centuries is not enough to relieve individuals from emotions and powers that are hidden deep inside our psyche and have a direct influence on our actions. Yet, perhaps there is another way to find an outlet for these powers?
This theory can be used to extract an underlying level of the story and allows reading Kelly + Victor in a metaphorical way. The elemental forces appear on the surface of Kelly's personality in the form of violence. To prove this point of view we need to direct our attention to the setting of the novel. The action that is set during the carnival reinforces the impression of universality. The two most important events that mark the beginning and the ending of the story are the New Year and the Chinese New Year. Surely, the two festivities belong to different calendars, which leads us to belief that time is perceived in an arbitrary way: it is understood differently by various people. As Bednarski, following Bahtin, points out:
Such a temporal setting has significant consequences for the whole fictional world. As shown by Bahtin, a carnival (…) implies `temporary liberation form the prevailing truth and from the established order … rank, privileges, norms, and prohibitions' (Bahtin C10). Carnival turns the world upside down, elevates the low and debases the official. It `combines the sacred with the profane, the lofty with the low' (Bahtin A123), brings together birth and death (140).
The conclusion that can be drawn is that the carnival is the time when everything that has been suppressed through the centuries comes to the surface again. When we apply this theory to Kelly +Victor, it can be noticed that the protagonists fulfill their concealed desires and dreams during the very carnival. This is the time when “the world is taken out of its normal everyday rut and submerged in endless festive folly. (…) In Kelly + Victor the carnivalesque atmosphere seems to encompass a whole reality” (Bednarski 140). Both protagonists decide to quit their jobs and enjoy themselves till financial issues prevent them from doing it and they have to find some solution to ensure an income. In the novel, time stops for the protagonists.
The suspension of time is also characteristic of fairy tales, legends or myths, which function as universal stories carrying a deeper meaning. Kelly + Victor can also be perceived as such a universal story. To prove this issue let us direct our attention to myths and ancient beliefs. Therefore, it is essential to have a deeper look at the notion of myth. According to Diniejko, myths “embody the sacred stories and traditions of a people as regards their origins, gods, early history, etc., which explain natural or historical events” (29). Such stories are usually highly symbolic and tend to generate archetypes, i.e., “image[s] or symbol[s] which recur in collective awareness and therefore, [they are] often used in literature” (34). If we follow this track it might appear logical to compare the female protagonist to an ancient goddess who treats men as a sacrifice. What is more, Kelly identifies herself with such a supernatural being; she sees Victor “laid out like a sacrifice” (Kelly + Victor 269) `on an altar' (Kelly + Victor 256). At one point she even says: “[I feel m]ore than human” (Kelly + Victor 218). Such fragments clearly indicate that we can talk about higher spiritual dimension as far as the heroine is concerned. Contrary to the image of her that might be extracted from the novel, Kelly emerges as a more complex character, who possesses also some features of a demiurge. During the conversation with Victor she confidently maintains: “I'd make you” (Kelly + Victor 264).
What is more, drawing on Girard's analysis of the issue in question, Victor would be a perfect example of a sacrifice: he does not feel incorporated into a society. His hostility towards the `regular' social order and his aloofness determine his fate (17). The inevitable conclusion that can be reached while examining the novel is that for both characters the sexual intercourses serve as a rite aiming at soothing internal tension (Girard 29). Yet, contrary to Girard's opinion that sacrificing a victim should prevent an individual from spreading violence (24), the situation in the novel presents itself differently. The characters find themselves in a vicious circle of their insatiable lusts.
In Girard's book, violence and rites are linked with religion. The author
proposes the view that violence is inherent in human nature and is mimetic; that religion (or ritual sacrifice) and the judicial system, two evolutionary extremes in the control of human violence, attempt to divert and control inherent and mimetic violence. Girard sees the modern judicial system and primitive religion as basically similar in two aspects: in the use of violence to quell violence, and the use of sacrificial thinking (Hughes 959).
Girard's theory tries to give a good justification for violence as far as the novel is concerned. Both protagonists indulge in it because of the absence of religion in their lives, which as a result does not protect them from sudden outbursts of atrocious behavior. What is more, such behaviour can be linked to the notion of elemental instincts that could be noticed in animal world and among primitive tribes as well, where the role of nature and basic needs is essential for survival.
Primordial societies that do not possess judicial system, claims Girard, are forced to accept violence in a form of the sacred (40). Yet, this cannot be discussed in regular, religious terms as far as the novel in question is concerned. Due to lack of any straightforward religious elements in Kelly + Victor, stress must be put on internal purification of both characters, which might correspond to Holy Communion with God or any other higher entity in traditional beliefs. The conclusion that can be arrived at is that violence plays various roles in the protagonists' lives. On one hand, it elevates them so that Kelly and Victor can be perceived as a goddess and a sacrifice, respectively; on the other hand, it puts the characters in an unfavourable light showing them as savage creatures having no humane traits. Girard, however, gives us a justification for such behaviour. From the psychological point of view, suppressed sexuality gives way to violence (47). This theory might be proven by Kelly's `cane adventure', which releases her true aggressive nature. Only after this event does she realise how strongly the violence that she inflicts helps her find her own identity. Apart form this, the courage that is born inside the woman forces her to cross boundaries between internal and external parts of a human body. She says:
Me fingers pinched together into a point an then that point inside him. Twist an push, fuckin shove against the muscle resistance. (..) I'm wearing him like a puppet an me fuckin head roars. Inside him I am, fucking inside him, me fingers flexing among the vital parts of him an ther heat, ther fiery heat. (…) His heartbeat on me bunched knuckles so fucking close, I push me arm in still further (Kelly + Victor 275).
Let us explore the motif of the goddess in greater detail. In the Greek mythology, we encounter a whole array of women with supernatural forces who symbolise various phenomena and notions. One of the most significant ones is Demeter, the goddess of fertility and nourisher of the youth and the green earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death. I will present this particular myth as an illustration of a general belief regarding the superiority of women. The central and best well-known account concerning Demeter is her relationship with her daughter Persephone. She is kidnapped by Hades, the underworld god of wealth, and forced to become his consort. Demeter has a huge scope of abilities. Apart from being the goddess of the harvest, she also controls the seasons, and because of that she is capable of annihilating all life on earth. In fact, her powers are able to persuade Zeus to make Hades bring her daughter Persephone up from the underworld. But before she is released, Hades deceives her into eating six pomegranate seeds, which forces her to return for six months each year. When Demeter and her daughter are together, the earth flourishes with vegetation. But for six months each year, when Persephone returns to the underworld, the earth once again becomes an infertile land.
When the Demeter's story is shifted onto the level of Kelly + Victor, some comparisons can me made. The heroine in Griffiths' novel is both: a creator and destroyer. Kelly kills Victor but simultaneously she is a source of a new life. Similarly, Demeter can make the world flourish but she is also capable of destroying it mercilessly. Both women possess similar potential; they feel powerful enough to devastate somebody's life.
Similar goddesses can be also found in many other mythologies. Let us focus on the Celtic myths where one of the major deities is Danu. She is the mother of the generation of gods called Tuatha De Danan and the goddess of harvest and fertility, as well as the goddess of destruction and death. Plenty of researchers believe that human sacrifices were made to her in order to ensure fertility of soil and well being of their families (online: Bogowie Celtyccy). Danu is also worshipped as a matriarch: Tuatha De Danan means “the tribe of the goddess Danu”. This leads us to the notion of matriarchy. According to Britannica, it is “social system in which the mother or a female elder has absolute authority over the family group; by extension, one or more women (as in a council) exert a similar level of authority over the community as a whole” (online: Encyclopædia Britannica). Matriarchy is believed to be the earliest stage in the evolution of society.
Nevertheless, Finnish researcher Jaana Holvikivi maintains that
societies that are not patriarchal can be found all around the world. There are abundant accounts from different societies of women negotiating, contesting, exercising and holding power as autonomous agents and individuals rather than as dependents or subordinates of men” (online: Alternative social relations and organizations).
She discusses some of them in her article entitled Contemporary matriarchal societies. Among the people of the tribe Nagovisi - who live on South Bougainville, a large tropical island west of New Guinea and north of Australia - it is a woman who is the breadwinner. She takes pride in her gardening tasks and it is a man who is dependent on her cultivation for provisions. Moreover, “Nagovisi women share leadership with men; a strong matrilineage system having political functions exists, with women playing significant roles in decision making and ceremonialism” (online: Contemporary matriarchal societies).
Another example of a matriarchal society used in the article by Holvikivi is the tribe of Khasi. The author describes the role of women in the following words:
In the folktales of the Khasi, the earth Ka Blei is the mother of celestial bodies, fire and water. The sun is her daughter and the moon her son. Because of his bad behaviour against his sister, the moon was punished and his face tainted by soot forever. A Khasi clan mother is viewed as the worldly equivalent of the Primal Mother, Ka Blei. She is the most important person of the community, its chief and priestess, who administers the clan property. Every young Khasi girl takes part in a ceremonial dance where she absorbs the powers of the earth: girls dance in a large square protected by youths who wave yaks tails to keep evil spirits away. The girls' postures remain upright while the only movement is the rolling of their feet from heel to toe thus absorbing power from the earth. The forces flow through the spine into their heads. Later in their lives they need these forces to fulfil their role in the society as women and mothers (online: Contemporary matriarchal societies).
The third tribe mentioned in the article in question - Garo - lives in Meghalaya state in North-Eastern India. Characteristic feature of their tradition is that “[b]oth inheritance of property and succession to tribal office run through female line, passing from mother to youngest daughter” (online: Contemporary matriarchal societies).
All the examples mentioned above clearly illustrate the existence of the matriarchal system among tribes, which have not been transformed by contemporary civilisation. This social system largely manifests itself by the roles that women play in a social hierarchy. In Kelly + Victor, however, matriarchy is shown from a different point of view: it is sexuality that sets the rules of the game.
Indisputably, as pointed out above, the notion of matriarchy and myths connected with goddesses are closely linked to each other. It is in matriarchal societies that goddesses are worshipped more fervently than gods. When patriarchy becomes a more common social system, cult of goddesses and fertility starts to disappear gradually.
Let us now concentrate on Kelly + Victor as the story deeply saturated by the idea of matriarchy. The immense control, which Kelly has over Victor, clearly indicates that the traditional roles in this relationship are reversed. While examining Kelly and Victor's relationship, we can observe that the woman is a more domineering side; she initiates their first encounter in the pub; the same can be said about sexual intercourses during which the heroine performs most obnoxious actions to her lover. Victor is a vulnerable person who cannot even defend himself. Yet, this is only one side of the coin, it must be underlined that the male protagonist craves for Kelly's sadistic behaviour equally fervently as she does. The reasons, however, are different. The mysterious light that appears in his head during suffocation takes its origin during his birth. From Victor's sister's relation, the reader finds out that he experiences a clinical death immediately after he has been born:
…umbilical cord (…) [w]rapped around his neck it was when he was being born. Chocked him, like. Apparently he was actually dead, like, for a while. He doesn't know, he's never been told cos me mam thinks it might upset him (Kelly + Victor 291).
Victor is unaware of the grounds of his desires but as soon as he discovers that sex with Kelly can give him an immeasurable pleasure, he immerses himself totally in the relationship that is going to lead to a tragedy from the very beginning.
Let us return to the idea of matriarchy in the novel. This point of view might be supported by another symbolic item in the story: a purple coat that Kelly buys with the money earned after `the cane job'. According to Kopaliński, purple is the colour representing royal power (10). In Kelly + Victor it stands for control that the woman has over her lover in each respect of his life. Kelly influences the male character to such an extent that he is willing to put his life at stake. Such authority used to be given to women in ancient times by matriarchal system.
It might appear that the messages that can be extracted from Kelly + Victor are ambiguous. On the one hand, the protagonists' outrageous behaviour proves what seems obvious while reading the story for the first time: despite of the fact that society masks certain elements by the development of culture, mankind does not differ significantly from the animal world. Some suppressed powers appear on the surface of the established order and cannot be stopped by any means.
On the other hand, the novel implies that there must be something above all these basic and primitive needs and which would provide the humanity with a goal to achieve and with a purpose that would give an individual the strength to overcome obstacles. The most visible symbol in Kelly + Victor that supports this point of view is the image of the cathedral. The Catholic and Anglican cathedrals appear in both monologues in a number of moments and they are perceived as something grand and unique. The protagonists have the impression that the buildings are ubiquitous in their lives: they can be seen form every part of the city. What is more, each time when the characters mention the sacred places it can be noticed that the atmosphere of mystery and vagueness surrounds them. In Kelly's eyes they are “so fuckin giant an lit up all misty blue, clouds around ther steeples” (Kelly + Victor 174). She often ponders over their importance and role: “[t]her like cities in themselves, the size of them; you could spend a lifetime exploring one an never see all of it” (Kelly + Victor 190). At another juncture she says:
“the fuckin sheer size of it something I can never get used to an the way it swells unstoppable from the ground towards the sky so bleeding immense. Why is it there? Why in the name of fuck is it there? From its top, you'd see the planet's curve; from the top of it, you'd see the ball we're lining on.” (Kelly + Victor 325).
The meaning of the cathedrals is not clear enough. The reader has to take into consideration the remaining symbolic constituents of the novel to extract the precise significance of the buildings. Perhaps the cathedrals in the protagonists' view symbolise the sense of human life as something that is so mysterious and complex that it is extremely difficult to define. Similarly to the question: `why were the cathedrals built?' the question about the sense of human existence will probably never be answered. For Kelly this is the source of constant longing for an unidentified feeling:
[m]y God. My fuckin … how much fuckin longing can we hold? How much more can we stand, without fuckin exploding into little bits? Look around an it seems that we most surely burst. Stuffed so fuckin full we'll shatter, any day now, skywards (Kelly + Victor 329).
The image of the cathedrals might imply the spiritual side of the human nature. The conclusion is that an individual consist of two components: more physical one, which is responsible for deviant behaviour; and the more sophisticated, numinous one that forces the characters to immerse themselves in the incomprehensive feelings and emotions.
Perhaps the most important task that the reader is faced with is to answer the question why the very bodily side of the human nature very often outweighs the spiritual one. What factors are responsible for this?
Chapter 2
The second work that is to be discussed in present dissertation is Runt. Compared to his other novels, Griffiths's latest work differs significantly. First of all, it is much shorter and it can be classified as a novella rather than a novel. Also, what is characteristic about this piece of writing is that it contains distinct supernatural elements clearly distinguishing it from the previous novels by that author. Another difference concerns the way the novella is narrated: the character's monologue is not interrupted by any means. Finally, contrary to most of the remaining novels by the author, its action is set in the countryside.
Runt is a novella that combines several seemingly unrelated elements: beauty of nature, shamanism and connected with it violence. Bednarski points out:
What is striking in Griffiths's oeuvre is a strong interest in painful, gruesome and bitter aspects of life but at the same time a great sensitivity to nature, land and human suffering” (117).
Beauty of landscape is more visible in the plot than in previous Griffiths's novels mainly because the protagonist lives in a village in a wild and remote part of Wales. Civilisation has not polluted this area in such a large degree as the remaining regions of the Western culture. Simultaneously, idyllic descriptions of the surroundings are clashed with brutal reality of human desires and instincts which on one hand, allow the protagonist to develop his faculties; on the order hand, they contribute to tragic events resulting in demises of two key characters: Arthur's - the malevolent character of the story - and the teenager's dog, Arrn.
The protagonist, the innocent and aloof boy is not an ordinary teenager. His strong antipathy towards his schoolmates and other habitants of the village are the first symptoms suggesting that the boy will displays rare attributes. Gradually, in the course of the short story more facts are revealed thanks to which the real nature of his personality can be discovered. The boy is not just an epileptic experiencing his disorder in an extremely profound and intensive way. He is a shaman, sensitive to all the details of the surrounding world, who undergoes shape shifting and sees unbelievable to regular people visions in `His Times' (this is how he calls his epilepsy seizures). The boy's disease helps him learn how to use his natural talent of shamanism to help people.
Runt, similarly to other works by Griffiths, is a deeply symbolic novella. Although the narration does not cover a long span of time, the story is rich in symbolism. The central figurative constituent is a persona of a shaman. Apart from this, Chapter 2 will focus on the figure of Rhianon and the title `runt'.
As far as shamanism is concerned, the protagonist, in fact, presently starts to undergo typical of this phenomenon experiences: “shape shifting and visions, the descriptions of which could have been taken straight out of Mircea Eliade's analyses of archaic techniques of ecstasy” (Bednarski 117). The protagonist displays plenty of features characteristic of a shaman. In order to understand the full extent of the principal issue of the novella I will provide some theoretical basis that are fundamental for further interpretation.
According to Mircea Eliade, the most knowledgeable person in this field of study, “Shamanism is sensu stricto a Siberian and middle-Asian phenomenon. The word originates from Tungusic `šaman' and means `he or she who knows'” (16, my translation). Although several types of shamanism can be distinguished all over the world, some features apply to all of them.
Among tribes inhabiting the above mentioned areas, the shaman has always played a significant and irreplaceable role as far as social life of a community is concerned. He or she is a spiritual and religious leader who can communicate with spirits, not necessarily always the good ones. The shaman keeps a constant contact with his or her spirit guides since the moment of initiation which usually is a near-death experience very often involving torturing or parting the body of a person into hundreds of pieces. In basic terms, the shaman is a mediator. However, the central responsibility of the shaman is healing both physical disorders and mental afflictions. Other significant skills include the ability to interpret dreams, the ability to control the weather and the ability to predict future. The shaman is also responsible for leading sacrificial ceremonies which are a vital element of tribal social life. What is more, he or she is the only person that is able to travel between upper and lower worlds.
On the level of the short story in question a significant number of the above mentioned features can be discerned. The first one has already been pointed out: the protagonist's alienation from the society. Eliade in his work observes:
as early as in his or her childhood a would-be shaman turns out to be a recluse who is prone to diseases and likes spending his or her time on contemplating. (…) Also, he experiences prophetic visions and sometimes undergoes convulsions during which he loses his conscience (31, my translation).
matriarchy. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 22 Sep. 2008 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/369468/matriarchy
Danu. Bogowie Celtyccy. 02 Nov. 2008
http://www.archiwum.gildia.pl/teksty/kormak/celtowie/panteon
Contemporary matriarchal societies. 02 Nov. 2008
http://www.saunalahti.fi/penelope/Feminism/KhasiGaro.html
Alternative social relations and organizations. 03 Nov. 2008.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/penelope/Feminism/matrifoc.html
8