Wieland

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1798

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapters 21-23

Chapters 24-26

Chapter 27

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 24-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 24 Summary

Carwin reiterates his innocence in the matter of the murders, although he acknowledges that perhaps his mischief set something in motion that he did not anticipate. As he is concluding his statement, Carwin and Clara hear footsteps on the stairs, and Theodore enters the room. Theodore clasps his hands to his breast and thanks God for leading him to Clara, but he also asks God to confirm again that it is his will that Theodore should kill Clara. He stands a moment, listening. Apparently, he hears no reply because he castigates himself for “eternally questioning the behest of thy maker!” (112)

Clara hopes she can save herself and restore Theodore’s sanity by showing him the devil—Carwin—who deceived him. She tells Wieland that Carwin tricked him with feigned voices pretending to be an angel. Carwin stammers out an incoherent confession. An enraged Theodore orders Carwin to flee, and Carwin does.

Chapter 25 Summary

When Carwin leaves, Clara sees Theodore’s lips moving. He gazes up to heaven then drops his eyes and looks about as if expecting someone to appear. Each time he does this, he seems to grow more confused.

Clara carries a penknife in her pocket and now takes it out. A moment later, she realizes in horror that she is considering killing her own brother. She throws the knife aside. Theodore picks it up and studies it. He hands it back to her and tells her that he no longer means to destroy her. He believed he was instructed to do so by heaven, but he realizes now that it was a demon in disguise.

Clara wonders if he has come to his senses or if his mental illness is taking a new form. Involuntarily, she mutters, “O! Carwin! Carwin! What hast thou to answer for?” (116)

Theodore tells her that Carwin was merely a tool that has done its work. When he heard Carwin’s confession, Theodore at first thought he had been deceived by human malice. Now he realizes that Carwin is actually a demon in human form who took the guise of an angel when he told Theodore to kill his family. However, the command nevertheless came from God.

While Clara struggles to think of some way to escape, Carwin again enters the room. Clara begs him to do something to help her. Carwin seems unmoved, then he turns and glides from the room. Theodore has his attention fixed on the clock and seems not to have noticed Carwin’s intrusion or departure. Three minutes pass, and Theodore turns on Clara, his face distorted with an ungodly fury. He seizes her arm.

Chapter 26 Summary

At that moment, a loud, inhuman voice bursts from the ceiling, instructing Theodore to “Hold!” Theodore releases Clara and stares wildly about the room. The disembodied voice tells Wieland to reject his delusion; he has been misled by his senses: “Shake off thy phrenzy, and ascend into rational and human. Be lunatic no longer.” (118) Shaken, Theodore begs incoherently for guidance from heaven and asks whether he has been misled by mental illness. The disembodied voice of Carwin tells him that yes, he has been “mad.”

Thrust back into sanity, Theodore is crushed by the realization of everything he did. Clara tells the reader that when weighing his own guilt, Theodore did not take into account the fact that he genuinely believed himself to be doing as God commanded. He took on the full weight and responsibility for his actions. Looking back, Clara wishes he had never been restored to sanity. Clara allows the knife to fall from her fingers, and Theodore snatches it up and plunges it into his neck.

Since then, Clara has refused to leave her house. Her uncle and all her friends have tried to coax her and even drag her out by force, but she refuses to go. “I will eat—,” she says to the reader. “I will drink—I will lie down and rise up at your bidding—all I ask is the choice of my abode… This is the spot which I have chosen in which to breathe my last sigh” (120).

Carwin has confessed everything to Clara’s uncle, and her uncle has determined that none of Carwin’s actions were a direct cause of Theodore’s condition. He has allowed Carwin to go on his way. Clara still blames Carwin at least in part, but all she wants is to die, which she believes she will do now that her story has been written.

Chapters 24-26 Analysis

Clara still hopes to save her brother along with herself by sacrificing Carwin. It almost works. As Theodore struggles to incorporate the revelation of Carwin’s interference, Clara wrestles with her own moral dilemma: She questions whether she could kill her brother even in self-defense. To a reader, it might seem justified, but the author is sensitive to the fact that normal humans have a powerful taboo against murder. Clara finds that she simply cannot overcome her love for her brother.

Clara hopes that by placing all the blame on Carwin, she can persuade her brother that the “angelic” voice he hears is actually that of a demon—either Carwin himself or a spirit controlled by Carwin. It seems to work temporarily, but Clara makes the mistake of buying into Theodore’s delusion. He falsely believes that he is being spoken to by a supernatural entity, and Clara believes that Carwin is in command of supernatural entities even though she has been told otherwise. Because Theodore remains in his delusional state, he simply distorts his delusional beliefs and reverts to his original conviction that his orders come from God.

Some readers conclude that Carwin was the source all along of the voices telling Theodore to kill. They cite as evidence the fact that in these chapters, when Theodore calls on God to confirm his commands, he apparently receives no answer until Carwin himself comes on the scene. The counter to that argument is that archetypal tricksters restrict themselves to mischief that rarely results in permanent, dire consequences like death. They inject chaos to test and transform, not to kill. From the trickster’s perspective, Theodore’s murder of his family accomplishes nothing of value.

It is typical of the trickster that their tricks may get out of control, cause more trouble than anticipated, and backfire on themselves. At that point, the trickster restores order, makes amends for their misdeeds, and returns the situation to a new homeostasis based on a new and deeper understanding of reality. This is what Carwin does when he tells Theodore to return to sanity.

Unfortunately for Theodore, his new understanding is more than he can endure. In fairness, he was not in his right mind when he committed the murders. However, the potential for his actions was there. He willfully sought a transcendent relationship with God rather than being content with what he was given. Moreover, Theodore had the power to refuse even God if he had adhered to his own moral code, which he stated in Chapter 5 when he told Henry that he lived to care for his family, not to dominate them. Restored to a true understanding of what he has done, Theodore judges and executes himself.

The shock throws Clara into a deep depression, and she retreats for several months into a state of dormancy, refusing to leave her house. She is convinced that she is going to die and, as she says at the opening of her narrative, she is not devoid of tranquility. Metaphorically, she is letting go of her former life.