Magic-realism in Jeanette Winterson’s ‘The Passion’
Novels have become one of the most prominent literature outlets, owing to the appreciation they have garnered and inspired from multiple authors. With its prominence, a trend has arisen where authors tend to follow a standard line of thinking, be it regarding themes or writing styles. An example of a commonly adopted literature concept amongst most authors is the concept of magical realism, which is expressible through the use of magic in novel settings. Through analyzing Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion, the paper will determine why authors use magic realism in their literature pieces while connecting this concept to their themes.
Before delving further into details on how Jeanette Winterson has used magical realism in her novel, it would be necessary to understand what this literary style entails. Magical realism is often used by authors in literature as a means of efficiently driving fictional backgrounds. Authors use this literary technique to attempt to manipulate their fictional ideas by using magic to paint a realistic vision of them in the minds of the audience. However, it should be noted that magical realism and fiction are not the same. While magical realism seeks to widen imagination and creativity while being subject to real-world constraints, fantasy aims to think beyond reality. Winterson attempted to adopt this literary genre mainly to drive her fictional self-titled theme, that is, the theme of passion. To better understand how this comes about, let us analyze the idea of passion in The Passion. The novel is a manifestation of Winterson’s excellent story-telling skills, a literary style which she portrays through her characters Henri and Villanelle. The novel’s structure entails two accounts of a story narrated by both characters individually. In both stories, the theme of passion stands out through the various characters' passionate tendencies. The passion stretches further beyond emotional intensity and relationships to that expressed through deeds, though the former is the more common one. Throughout the storyline, we learn that Henri worships his boss, the Emperor Napoleone, which is evident from how passionate he is when he serves him. He is also passionate at historiography and story-telling. Napoleone, on the other hand, is ever power-hungry and is passionate about Josephine, and his chicken. He was also known for not only indulging in passion but also in inducing it in others. For example, he can inspire his soldiers to fight in wars as a result of having a pure desire for it, and not for any other reason. Passion is also expressible through addiction tendencies. For instance, the novel informs that Patrick is addicted to alcoholism and Villanelle’s friends to gambling. Despite all these instances of passion, Henri’s love for Villanelle stands out. Henri was so passionate in his love for Villanelle that he would never shy from killing for her. Villanelle, on the other hand, is intense in her bisexual tendencies.
As mentioned earlier, magic-realism seeks to explore imagination while staying within realistic boundaries. Jeanette Winterson drives her theme of passion by painting several instances where she surpasses historical and sexual certainty (reality). She uses magic-realism to drive such fantastic imagination throughout her storyline. Such regulated departure from reality is portrayable through Villanelle’s character. Villanelle, who was of Venetian origin, is presented as being an embodiment of sexual transgression. She was born with an abnormal feature, which left her with webbed feet that enable her to walk on water: “I raised my head fully…and saw Villanelle…walking on the canal and dragging our boats” (TP 129). In the Venetian culture, according to The Passion, it was a typical trait amongst male fishermen for them to have webbed feet for more productive fishing. This magic element is taken to a realistic extreme by asserting that if webbed feet were ever seen by someone not from the boatmen’s world, that person would become mad. That proved to be true: “the tourist was babbling incoherently and pulling at his toes with his fingers…They took [him] to the madhouse” (TP 50). However, the feet were just one of the characteristics that enabled Villanelle to reverse her sexual identities to drive her passion for emotional and sexual eccentricities. She uses her unusual male features to dress like a male, in a bid to seduce both men and women, despite the fact that she leans more to being a lesbian than being of vertical sexual orientation. Historically, fishing is an occupation often associated with the male gender. It, thus, comes as no surprise that Villanelle is the only narrator in the novel that survived the Napoleonic wars. Her masculine traits made it so that she was capable of doing what most males were stereotyped as being capable of doing. Two other characters embody the concept of magic-realism in the literary piece The Passion, that is, the narrators Henri and Patrick. One of the narrators, Patrick, tells his story to Henri, revealing him to be possessing various magic-realist traits. The prototypical Irish man’s storyline makes it clear that he is the principal magic-maker throughout the novel. Similar to Villanelle, Patrick’s character is shown to be having particular physical abnormalities. The brilliant story-teller, who prides himself on his story-telling tendencies and skills, had a literal telescope hawk-eye with a vision that resembled that of a satellite; “could put the best telescope to shame” (TP 21). In one of his narrations to Henri, Patrick reveals to him the goblin magic that shrank his shoe. Since Patrick was passionate about his story-telling tendencies, he was able to rely on magic-realism as a means of driving his passion. Henri, on the other hand, initially stands out as a character who believes in ancient laws and heterosexual love. He is portrayed as a person who lacks masculine qualities. Although he wants to be a drummer in the army, he is told that he is not strong enough to become a drummer. He says “The recruiting officer gave me a walnut and asked if I could crack it between finger and thumb. I could not and he laughed and said a drummer must have strong hands” (TP 7). He was a staunch believer in historical and sexual certainty.
However, this changed after his encounter with Villanelle. He had long been searching for that woman who would set his soul on fire, which drove him to meet Villanelle. Little did he know that them meeting would mess up his life, leaving him in a state of utter and endless disappointment. Magic-realism was used to express how his encounter with Villanelle left him mute and almost sexless. The result was the shattering of his belief in certainty. It is worth noting that the Winterson’s use of three narrators reinforces the efficiency of magic-realism. When Patrick and Villanelle initially narrate their stories, they seem as untrue and merely unrealistic. However, when Henri steps in and reaffirms some of the magical assertions made, such as Villanelle’s webbed feet, their stories become magical-realist.
Authors adopt various literary styles for different reasons depending on the themes that they intend to drive to their audience. For example, Jeanette Winterson embraces the concept of magic to establish a magic-realist storyline for The Passion. The central theme of passion relied primarily on magic-realism to paint a highly imaginative storyline in the minds of the audience. The aspect of passion mainly sought to deviate from the sexual certainty, something that could best be attainable through magic-realism. For instance, this literary style is used to explain the source of Villanelle’s passion for her tendency to reverse her sexual identities.