Melmoth the Wanderer
by Charles Robert Maturin
Listening Time: 88 minutes
Quote: “There is no error more absurd, and yet more rooted in the heart of man, than the belief that his sufferings will promote his spiritual safety.”
Theme: Grace
This edition is an edited version of the whole story. Apparently the narrative of the original version of the story is a bit rambling. In this version, the narrative of is nested: like a story with in a story. (If you've ever tried to read the original 1001 Arabian Nights, you have an idea of what it's like). I could see how this form of storytelling can get out of hand and be confusing. But I'd still like to read the original...eventually.
The story told primarily through two people: John Melmoth, the student, and the diary of a traveler named Stanton.
- The Melmoth Family:
John Melmoth, the student, goes home to take care of his ailing, miserly uncle. On his uncle's deathbed, he tells him about their family's secret: they have an ancestor-also named John Melmoth, who is immortal and still wanders the earth.
(So there are like, three Melmoths so far...read carefully, this can get confusing!)
Uncle Melmoth leads John Melmoth, the student, to a manuscript by Stanton, a guy who spent a long time hunting/being hunted by Melmoth The Wanderer.
This is where the fun begins:
- Stanton's Manuscript:
Stanton's manuscript gets pretty intense. The Wanderer first appears as a mysterious bystander at some tragic 'accidents'. And slowly it's pieced together that he's making some really sinister stuff happen. Stanton follows this guy, and he watches some terrible things happen over and over again...but he's unable to catch him as the culprit.
Watching it all, and being powerless to stop it, literally drives Stanton insane and his family members have him institutionalized.
By the time he gets to this point, Stanton is completely miserable. And, in the midst of this really horrible insane asylum; with rat feces, crazy people clawing and screaming and icky stuff like that...John Melmoth, the wanderer, appears before him again. And we get to learn his motive:
Everything he did was basically designed for Stanton as a demonstration of his power. His aim is to coerce Stanton to accept a deal: to assume Melmoth the wanderer's soul-pact with the devil.
The pact gives Melmoth not only immortality, but also immense power over the lives of morals. (As we've seen demonstrated through Stanton's travels). Pretty much the only power he doesn't have his the ability to violate the freewill of others: He can't make people do something they choose not to do.
I don't know if it's the realization of exactly how evil The Wanderer is (that he would actually make such a pact), or the fact that Melmoth would prefer the life of someone who's literally locked in a straight-jacket in a 1700's-era mental institution to his own life (where he's got all these superhuman abilities and all of this power), but Stanton's not touching that pact with a ten-foot pole.
- My impression:
Maybe it's because his Stanton's discriptions of misery and woe are so intense, but by the time I got to this point I was like: "WHELL THAT'S JUST GRrREAT! He's still crazy and still locked in this horrible mental institution place...but he's not damned, so I guess that's good..."
But actually it got better! Because everything horrible that was going on in his life: all the misery that he thought was permanent...and as hopeless as he thought his situation was...it was all actually temporary.
Eventually he got out of that situation and back to his normal life as a happy guy. He never got to track down The Wanderer again, but he did find the surviving members of Melmoth's family and gave them the story of what had happened to their ancestor.
It's actually really uplifting. All problems are temporary (unless of course you're Melmoth, and your soul is on loan from the devil...)
- Melmoth Reconciled
At the end of the story, there's a reference to a sequel called "Melmoth Reclaimed". I wasn't paying proper attention, so I didn't realize that Melmoth Reconciled is not an authorized sequel. It's by another author.
So as I was listening to it, it started out all serious and then it started getting more and more hokey...like satire. I don't think it was a completely horrible story; it was actually really funny. And it definitely made a memorable statement about how corrupt human nature really is. ("People sell their souls on the stock market every day" type thing) But I was reading it as a legit sequel, and that's not what it was.
It got me thinking, though, what would it take for Melmoth to really be "Reconciled"? Well within Christian theology, he'd really need to address the Savior. He keeps going around trying to terrorize and coerce humans to save him...wouldn't it be interesting if he actually got apologetic about it? Like, he wants to make it right, but he know he can't...so he (completely humbled and and meek) appeals and submits to the will of God, and he finds that the price has already been paid, he just had to repent and reclaim it?
Yes it's really sappy and whatever, but I don't care. Melmoth is not going to get saved by accident. Finding someone who's sucker enough to assume his soul-pack isn't going to absolve him of the horrible stuff he's done (It just means he's ruined yet another person's life!).
There's only one way to set this right, he probably already knows what it is. It's just a matter of whether or not someone like him is willing to do it.
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