The Phantom Coach
Amelia B Edwards (7
June 1831 – 15 April 1892) an English novelist, journalist and traveler wrote The phantom Coach. A
really creative way of expression of the political and social conflicts in the
era of 1864 through a ghost story which is still famous now days. This is one
of the first ghost stories published in England and America between 1864 and
1912.Edwards shows in the story how people struggle to be accepted in society
and being different or believing on something dissimilar could isolate people.
Also the story let the reader with the impression of: is the phantom coach a
supernatural reality? Or is that just an experience that the main character in
the story had from perception and feelings?
The story starts when James Murray loses his way to the bleak moor in
the far north of England. He is in a vast and lonely place, besides a strong
winter is almost killing him. He encounters a man called Jacob. This one was a
servant and lived in a farmhouse with his master. The two men go the farmhouse
and Murray meets the old man who was a knowledgeable scholar. This old man
first was disagree that Jacob let enter an stranger in the house but James
begged him to let him stay for hospitality due to he was twenty miles away and
promised he will leave soon because he wanted to see his wife.
The master accepts the new visitor and gives him sustenance. Then they
sit in front of a bonfire and start discussing. The traveler notices that the
house is full of old books, a telescope, jars of chemicals, maps and an ornately carved organ of medieval saints
and devils. Moreover, he realizes that all doors are locked and that they are
completely isolated.
When the men start talking, this intellectual man says to Murray “Sir, I have
lived here in strict retirement for three and twenty years. During that time, I
have no seen as many strange faces, and I have not read a single newspaper. You
are the first stranger who has crossed my threshold for more than four years”.
Then this man starts speaking about the soul and its aspirations, of the spirit
and its powers, of second sight, of prophecy, of ghosts, specters and
supernatural appearances which have been denied by sceptics and attested by the
credulous who had ridiculed him.
James finds him sad and depressed but he does not say a word about the
dead. The time to leave arrives. Jacob is sent to accompany the traveler some
miles until James has to start walking alone at midnight under the snow. He
keeps going but the cold was so intense that he was starting to freeze his
bones. He is wondering if he is lost again. He walks miles away thinking about
his lover.
Suddenly he sees a light approaching to him really fast. As he was advised
before by the wise man about taking a mail coach to go his destiny, that is
what he exactly does. He gets excited to reach the coach which had grey horses.
He gets into the coach and see three passengers, so he starts setting a
conversation with them until he is aware that they all are dead. James starts
to feel extremely sick and terrified.
He strove to open the door, in that single instant he beheld a landscape
and summer lightning. He felt if years had gone when he awoke one morning from
a deep sleep and found his wife by his side.
She relates him a tale crying about an incident that happen to him. He had
fallen over a precipice, close against the old coach road and had been saved
from death by a couple of shepherds, who carried him to a shelter and brought a
doctor. He was in state of delirium, with a broken arm and some fractures of
the skull. The place of his accident was the same where nice years before a
terrible accident had happened. James tells the story to the doctor but he says
that was just a dream of the fever in his brain.
The story of The Phantom Coach is a great simulation of man´s looking for
acceptance in society. That was one the problems people had in the era of
Amelia Edwards. Many philosophers and scientist were isolated due to
discrimination of society while other intellectual were hidden for their own
decision. Being different or believing on something that is diverse from what
common people is use to believe, sometimes causes indifference and even
desolation.
Amelia writes this story to express
many problems that society in that age were having. Such as: discrimination,
ridiculing, oppression, lack of support for women writers, critics and lack of
respect for philosophers. She breaks the social standards and develops a way to
voice her thoughts without social ridiculed.
The main character in the story is James Murray. The old wise man is a very
important in the lecture because he represents the philosophers, Jacob is the
old man´s servant. The story relates that Jacob and the old scholar had lived
isolated in the cabin for more than twenty years because of social ridicule
when the old wise man started to share his experiences about soul, dead,
spirits, powers and supernatural appearances of ghosts. These represents the
isolation that philosophers, females, scientist and people looking for
information were having in Amelia´s era. The old books represent the wise that
the old man had. The telescope shows the desire he had to keep remembering the
life he once had and the freedom. The locks on the door denote keeping people
out of their life and also the guard of oppression in the outside world.
Also, the cabin symbolizes the oppression and discrimination women had had
in that time. According to Kent (1990)” the separate spheres framework holds
that men possessed the capacity for reason, action, aggression, independence,
and self-interest. Women inhabited a separate, private sphere, one suitable for
the so called inherent qualities of femininity: emotion, passivity, submission,
dependence, and selflessness, all derived, it was claimed insistently, form
women’s sexual and reproductive organization”.
That means that in that period men controlled their mind to dominate
society. Leaving the impression they were strong, smart and independent. Women,
on the other hand, were dominated by their sexuality, they were seen as weak
and they had to be submissive to be seen “normal” for society.
In the Victorian age it was extremely important women got married to ensure
stability. Society prevented women to have a free life style, for this reason
it was just necessary for survival. When Edwards relates the life the two men
had in the cabin under the cold. It reflects the depravation women and other
people had. Even though these people were wise and women were strong as men
they were suffering. The same as the story, the old men was knowledgeable but
it did not care for society.
“The world is not contradicted with impunity, and he who sets himself
against the world's belief will have need of all a man's endurance and all a
man's strength.” (More, 1910). Paul More says in his essay if one fights
against the world, the world is going to fight against him. It also happens now
days, if one is different from others and one tries to teach others what one
have learned, sometimes it is looked as odd and that is the precise moment when
discrimination starts.
As in The Phantom Coach that the old scholar had diverse ways to see the
world. He had encountered spirits and he tried to share that with society but
unfortunately they rejected him and also they ridiculed him because they had
different views and devotion for their religion.
Unfortunately, as it was mentioned before, that situation still happens.
Relativism is affecting our society because people use to believe what they
have been trained to believe, losing the desire for own research and own
thought. For example: many people believe all they see on television and
advertising, or everything a priest says but they do not investigate deeper so
the consequence of being a relativist is that comfort and deceive have taken
many people´s minds. Subsequently, when there is a clever individual who comes
with the real truth, many people get upset or they just keep believing the same
to avoid open their minds for a change.
It is important to remark that in the Victorian Time science and
religion had dramatic changes. Religious devotion and science were the
principal topics people were investigating. The study of god, the bible, the
human existence and nature were aspects that some philosophers were trying to
probe. When philosopher´s theories came, many Christians felt insulted and
philosophers were criticized.
Although the Victorian age had scientific and technological development,
many people were interested on paranormal activities, supernatural and
occultism. An example of this is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was fascinated by
the communication with dead souls. “Fascination with Spiritualism and psychic
phenomena reached a high point in Great Britain in the late nineteenth century.
A rich diversity of people during that period shared the fascination, formed
organizations to pursue the subject systematically, and patronized a
spiritualist press that served to publicize the activities of spiritualist
circles around the country”. (Diniejko, 2013)
In the ends of Victorian era, many people confessed to have messages
with ghosts. This is known as spiritualism movement which started in the late
nineteenth century. Even Queen Victoria was attractive by this movement. This
period was very attractive for women because they were considered more
spiritual than men. This is opening for women to start becoming independent,
this culture leaves possibilities for opportunity and attention to females.
The world of ghosts, spirits and souls in the story is really appealing
for the reader. The lecture is really attractive because it guides the reader
into a thriller of what is going to happen next to the poor James? It is really
intense even at the end of the tale due to it leaves the reader wondering if
all the story was a supernatural reality or if it was just an experience of a
dream.
The story really caught my attention regarding ghost, soul and itinerant
spirits, research was done about it to be explained and analyzed. Complete
Paranormal Services is a team located in Pennsylvania focused on research and
documentation of paranormal activity. They also assist people who is
experiencing paranormal phenomena.
According to Complete Paranormal Services, there are different types of
ghosts. There is a type of ghost that cannot be seen, it only shows its energy
such a cry, screaming, laugh, footsteps but they do not appear to people. There
is another kind of ghost considered playful that interacts to people by moving
objects, try to talk or even touch people. But there are also demonic
apparitions of ghosts that can walk, fly, disappear and have malefic powers. Moreover,
there is as well a benevolent sort of spirits that protect people within an
area in which a demon exists. CPS has pictures, videos and plenty information
about appearances and they do their job to advise and help people without
charging for the service.
After reading the amazing tale The Phantom Coach and analyzing the story
and its context, one could end up expanding more our minds. This sort of
investigations are great for our thoughts and for the beautiful gift of life.
If we do not exercise our brain investigating or if we ridicule others for
having different ideas, we will keep doing the same as people in the twentieth
century.
An adventurous soul who is against the constructivism, would not be part
of the same corrupt government or civilization that is being deceive, but might
find himself exposed to an isolation and receive terrible treatment by society
who has already stablished a way of living. But if one is looking for a better
world, one would have to start by a change.
For world progress, it is essential to be creative, to have a strong and
own defined personality and to stop being relativist. Self-learning,
investigation, philosophy and values are some characteristics that can change
the world.
References
Kent, Susan. (1990) .Sex
and Suffrage in Britain 1860-1914. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Edwards, A. (1864). The Phantom Coach. All the year round.
England.
