{"id":668,"date":"2006-10-11T17:33:50","date_gmt":"2006-10-11T15:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terresdecrivains.org\/index.php\/2006\/10\/11\/jamaica-inn-a-reflection-of-daphne-du-mauriers-cornwall-ii\/"},"modified":"2021-06-25T20:29:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T18:29:21","slug":"jamaica-inn-a-reflection-of-daphne-du-mauriers-cornwall-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terresdecrivains.org\/index.php\/2006\/10\/11\/jamaica-inn-a-reflection-of-daphne-du-mauriers-cornwall-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamaica Inn : A Reflection of Daphne du Maurier’s Cornwall (II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
\n
A biography<\/a><\/p>\n

WRITING CORNWALL
\n
a Setting and plot<\/a>
\n
b Suspense and mystery<\/a>
\n
c Daphne du Maurier’s rewriting of Cornwall<\/a>
\n
d Fact versus fancy<\/a><\/p>\n

DAPHNE DU MAURIER AND GOTHIC IMAGINATION
\n
a Ghosts in Jamaica Inn<\/a>
\n
b The \u00ab\u00a0uncanny\u00a0\u00bb<\/a>
\n
c Boundaries of the self<\/p>\n

SYMBOLISM AND lMAGERY lN JAMAICA INN
\n
a Animal farm
\n
b Escape
\n
c Treasure island<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) WRITING CORNWALL<\/p>\n

a) Setting and Plot<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Jamaica Inn<\/em>, set in Cornwall, exemplifies Daphne du
\nMaurier’s greatest writing skills.
\nln this undeniably
\n\u00ab\u00a0Cornish\u00a0\u00bb novel, Daphne du Maurier obviously excels in
\npresenting Cornwall’s landscape and history,
\nfor her
\nknowledge of the area was unquestionable. Being a tremendous
\nwalker, Daphne du Maurier knew every inch of the county.
\nYet, Jamaica Inn<\/em>, the inn which inspired the subject of her
\nbook, was discovered by chance. While riding across the
\nMoors she and her friend Foy Quiller-Couch got lost in
\nsudden darkness, surrounded by the thick fog of the bleak
\nlandscape of Bodrnin Moor.<\/p>\n

Bodrnin Moor is a wild strech of moorland extending from
\nDartmoor to the Land’s End peninsula and the isles of
\nScilly. This striking landscape is characterized by its
\nareas of marshland, its few stunted trees and the rocky
\nformations known as tors. Held at the mercy of this hostile
\nplace, Daphne du Maurier recalls the circumstances of their hazardous expedition in Vanishing Cornwall<\/em>[[Daphne du Maurier. Vanishing Cornwall<\/em>, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1972 (145-146).]]. <\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Bogs, quarries, brooks, boulders, hell on every
\nside, we led the horses from the slippery track, and
\nthen got up on our saddles again. l remembered an
\nillustration from a book read long ago in childhood,
\nSintram, And His Companions where a dispirited
\nknight had travelled such a journey with the Devil
\nin disguise, who called himself The Little Master.
\nIt showed a terrified steed rearing near a
\nprecipice. This was to be our fate, and The Little
\nMaster would come and claim us.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n

After several hours spent in the desolate moorland, fear
\nfinally vanished when the \u00ab\u00a0gaunt chimneys of Jamaica
\nInn\u00a0\u00bb<\/em> suddenly appeared out of the darkness.<\/p>\n

Once inside Jamaica Inn Daphne du Maurier learnt about
\nsmuggling and wrecking, and about the different stories and
\nlegends of the Moors, where contraband may have been hidden.
\nThe isolated inn, situated almost halfway between Bodmin and
\nLaunceston certainly played its part during the heyday of
\nsmuggling for it was a halting-place for the contraband
\nintended to be distributed in the surrounding areas. The
\nunusual and exotic name (for such an area) \u00ab\u00a0Jamaica Inn\u00a0\u00bb may
\nhave taken its origins from the rum trade in which it was
\npossibly involved. The novel, inspired by the inn, its bleak surroundings and the smuggling activity of the area, became
\nDaphne du Maurier’s first huge commercial success.<\/p>\n

However, the novel’ s obvious connections with wrecking can
\nstill give rise to controversy. Indeed, if smuggling was an
\nactivity which allowed the poverty-stricken people of
\nCornwall to circumvent the duties regularly levied on goods,
\nthe tales of the wreckers could possibly be purely
\nfictional. Rescuing shipwrecks stranded on the reef because
\nof the area’s rough elemental weather was a routine activity
\non the inhospitable Cornish coast, and the locals certainly
\nleft the place with the few things washed ashore by the
\ntide. But this behaviour had nothing to do with the savage
\nand barbarie image of the wreckers echoed in sensational
\ntouristic stories. <\/p>\n

\"5.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Yet, it would be inappropriate to think that Daphne du
\nMaurier’s Jamaica Inn<\/em> could, at first sight, be part of the
\nsensational stories relating unfounded facts. Moreover, as
\nno official document seemed to have established any real evidence about the ‘terrifying’ wreckers[[Jenkin, A.K Hamilton. Cornwall and its people<\/em> London : David and Charles INC, 1970 (42).]], it gave any
\nwriter a free hand to rewrite this aspect of Cornwall’s
\nmythical past. Impassioned by what she called the \u00ab\u00a0what has
\nbeen\u00a0\u00bb<\/em> Daphne du Maurier’s endless interest in the past is
\nfor example beautifully expressed in the fifteen chapters of
\nher ‘almost Cornish’ biography, Vanishing Cornwall<\/em>.
\nAnd it is also in Jamaica Inn<\/em> that Daphne du Maurier’s
\nknowledge of the past is revealed, particularly through her accurate descriptions of the smuggling process. ln this
\nextract, the reader discovers simultaneously with Mary some
\nof the smuggling methods :<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0she began to understand. Packages were brought by
\nthe waggons and unloaded at Jamaica Inn. They were
\nstored in the locked room. [ … ] as soon as the
\nwaggons were unloaded
\nthey would take
\ntheir
\ndeparture, passing out into the night as swiftly and
\nas silently as they had come.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em> (46)<\/p>\n

During the golden age of smuggling, the law hadn’t been
\ninstantly or efficiently enforced by the government, and the
\nsuppression of the smuggling industry only gradually
\noccurred between 1820 and 1850. As the plot of the novel was
\nimagined around 1815, the reader discovers more
\nabout the historical facts of that time in the Vicar’s words : \u00ab\u00a0If the
\nlaw was stricter, there would be greater supervision\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>, and
\nlater in the novel we are informed that <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00bb His Majesty’s
\nGovernment were prepared to take certain steps during the
\ncoming year to patrol the coasts of His Majesty’s country.
\nThere will be watchers on the cliffs instead of flares<\/em>
\n[ … ]\u00a0\u00bb(152).<\/p>\n

Daphne du Maurier did not only fuel her writing with
\nhistorical facts.
\nAmong the various places that Daphne du
\nMaurier borrowed from reality was the village of Altarnum
\nand its vicarage which shelters the wicked Vicar in the
\nnovel, and the magnificfent church known as the \u00ab\u00a0Cathedral
\nof the Moor\u00a0\u00bb which dated from the fifteenth century and
\nhasn’t faded with time. It is also said that there is still a ‘Jory’ family living in one of the villages of the Moors that might have inspired one of the character’s names (Tom Jory) in Daphne du Maurier’s novel. Maybe her borrowings
\nfrom reality find an explanation in one of her letters to
\nOriel Malet. Mentioning the relation between her fictional
\nworks and readers she wrote, \u00ab\u00a0It is the mixture of reality
\nwith fiction that gets them\u00a0\u00bb[[Letters from Menabilly. Portrait of a friendship.
\nEd. Oriel Malet (the writer Oriel malet was one of Daphne du Maurier’s intimate friends.)
\nLondon: Orion Books Ltd, 1994. (246)]]. The mixture between reality
\nand fiction obviously succeeded in drawing an impressive
\nportrait of Cornwall, for the descriptions of the moors are,
\naccording to Martin Shallcross, \u00ab\u00a0undoubtedly some of the finest in any Cornish novel\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>[[Shallcross, Martyn. Daphne du Maurier Country<\/em>, St Teath, Bodmin, Cornwall: Bossiney Books, 1987.(29)]].
\nYet, however accurate the real details used by the writer,
\nit seems nececessary to set the novel back into its purely
\nfictional context to understand the subtleties of du
\nMaurier’s writing. ln fact, the Cornwall described by Daphne
\ndu Maurier was entirely fashioned from her imagination and
\nit is this very imagination that allowed the writer to
\nrecreate a sense of the past. On this point, Daphne du
\nMaurier wrote \u00ab\u00a0imagination, yes, but so that you use it to perceive the past and relive it\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>[[Letters from Menabilly. Portrait of a friendship<\/em>. Ed. Oriel Malet
\nLondon: Orion Books Ltd, 1994. (131)]].
\nBut Daphne du Maurier’s imagination did not only fulfil her
\ndesire to uncover the past, it also allowed countless readers to enjoy the sheer suspense and thrill maintained right from the first chapter when Mary is on the road ta Jamaica Inn, to the denouement when she escapes from the criminal Vicar’s clutches. A study of Daphne du Maurier’s treatment of the plot will reveal how suspense and mystery govern the whole story.<\/p>\n

A suivre…<\/p>\n

Copyright : Ombeline Belkadi (odalavie@wanadoo.fr).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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