Does anyone else find the character Mrs. Sammile creepy?
When she first showed up in the garden with Paulline and her Grandmother I thought she was only just strange. However, in chapter 6, near the end when she mysteriously shows up again. She acts more than strange, almost like there is something dangerous about her, but I'm not sure. This book is more than a little odd anyway. This is what I mean when I cast accusations against Mrs. Sammile for creepiness.
"The other murmured: 'Happy, rich. Insatiate, yet satisfied. How delicious everything would be! I could tell you tales that would shut everything but yourself out. Wouldn't you like to be happy? If there's anything that worries you, I can shut it away from you. Think what you might be missing.' "
But it doesn't end there, Mrs. Sammile goes on to promise even more:
" If you will come with me, I can fill you, fill your body with any sense you choose. I cam make you feel whatever you'd choose to be. I can give you certainty of joy for every moment of life. Secretly, secretly; no other soul--no other living soul."
It seems to me that Mrs. Sammile is recruiting for something terrible, something evil if she can promise and gurantee such things. Nothing and no one can give someone "certainty of joy" besides God and I have a sinking suspicion that He's not the one she's working for....if she's working for anyone. What does she mean by "no other living soul" can know ? Perhaps I'm looking to hard at it, but I think not. Does anyone else find her words unnerving and that her character is up to no good? I'd love to read everyone's thoughts on this.
When she first showed up in the garden with Paulline and her Grandmother I thought she was only just strange. However, in chapter 6, near the end when she mysteriously shows up again. She acts more than strange, almost like there is something dangerous about her, but I'm not sure. This book is more than a little odd anyway. This is what I mean when I cast accusations against Mrs. Sammile for creepiness.
"The other murmured: 'Happy, rich. Insatiate, yet satisfied. How delicious everything would be! I could tell you tales that would shut everything but yourself out. Wouldn't you like to be happy? If there's anything that worries you, I can shut it away from you. Think what you might be missing.' "
But it doesn't end there, Mrs. Sammile goes on to promise even more:
" If you will come with me, I can fill you, fill your body with any sense you choose. I cam make you feel whatever you'd choose to be. I can give you certainty of joy for every moment of life. Secretly, secretly; no other soul--no other living soul."
It seems to me that Mrs. Sammile is recruiting for something terrible, something evil if she can promise and gurantee such things. Nothing and no one can give someone "certainty of joy" besides God and I have a sinking suspicion that He's not the one she's working for....if she's working for anyone. What does she mean by "no other living soul" can know ? Perhaps I'm looking to hard at it, but I think not. Does anyone else find her words unnerving and that her character is up to no good? I'd love to read everyone's thoughts on this.
posted by Emily at 8:50 AM
1 Comments:
And to answer my own question, yes, Mrs. Sammile is indeed something more than she claims to be...something much more. In fact, she is Lilith, the first wife of Adam and cast out of Eden, herself.
It is interesting that she is the one providing the illusions and delusions of the people of the hill, like Wentworth.
I wonder why Charles Williams chose Lilith to be the "illusion keeper"? This would most likely go back to his occultist interests and the idea that some believed Lilith had the ability to cloak herself in another form, in the book Descent into Hell, this form was Mrs. Sammile, the busy-body that everyone saw but no one knew where she lived. I guess it would make sense that if she could cloak her true form, that she would be able to provide other illusions as well. Williams' does seem to consider her the matron of Gomorrah alongside of the Devil's patron role of the city.
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