In A Glass Darkly Analysis

In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan le Fanu and Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn both reflect the culture and time period in which they were written, Victorian England and feudal Japan, respectively. The books emphasize how the supernatural is intertwined with the real world, but In a Glass Darkly uses this method to make the stories of the supernatural seem ambiguous, and Kwaidan accepts and propagates the role of the supernatural in the real world without casting doubt. The stories share a common thread in that the paranormal world has a visible effect on the natural world. In In a Glass Darkly, the paranormal physically affects Dr. Hesselius’ patients. Captain Barton, the main character in “The Familiar,” becomes so mentally unstable due to his haunting
The villagers accept the presence of the jikininki and obey his will by leaving the body because they recognize that he is a supernatural threat. When Muso tells them about the hideous creature that ate the corpse, the villagers said, “[This] agrees with what has been said about this matter from ancient time.” The current villagers haven’t seen the jikininki with their own eyes, yet fear a “great misfortune” if they do not leave the body alone (70, Hearn). This demonstrates the oral tradition of Japanese superstitions, as the warning to leave the body alone persists from generation to generation. “The Story of Aoyagi” describes a girl whose spirit is tied to a willow tree. The story highlights the “strong bond that the natural world and supernatural world have in Japanese culture…spirits are not viewed as anomalies” and instead are literally a part of nature (87, Reider). In fact, according to “The Emergence of Kaidan-Shu” by Noriko Reider, Japanese intellectuals viewed the occult as part of balance between yin and yang, the two main opposing forces of nature. The interaction between the living and the dead in the stories leave no room for interpretation as a coincidence, and the characters recognize and accept this. Conversely, In a Glass Darkly leaves much ambiguity, as each tale leaves significant room for doubt on whether the occurrences detailed were actually paranormal or not. The article “Ghost-Seers, Detectives, and Spiritualists” explains that Victorian literature presented “the strained relationship between seeing and objective truth,” saying that the anecdotes struck a tentative balance “between doubt and certainty” (110, Briefel). Mr. Jennings stays up studying pagan religions so his account could have been due to hallucinations caused by an addiction to green tea and little sleep. His visions could have been caused by