The Portent · Chapter
XIV: Jealousy explained
Duncan is consumed by jealousy during the seven days between Lady Alice's visits, tormented by the possibility that she might lead a second existence in her sleepwalking state and love another.
What happens
Duncan is consumed by jealousy during the seven days between Lady Alice's visits, tormented by the possibility that she might lead a second existence in her sleepwalking state and love another. When she returns, he confesses his fears, and she reassures him, explaining that she always comes to him in her visions. She then reveals that her initial pride and fierce behavior were due to a strange, undefinable attraction she felt toward him from the very first moment she saw him.
Themes in this chapter
Madness and Identity
Duncan's jealousy borders on madness as he contemplates Alice's dual existence, questioning the nature of her identity and his own sanity.
Love and Sacrifice
Duncan's love is tested by his jealousy, and he struggles with the idea of forcing Alice's presence, showing a willingness to sacrifice his own desires for her sake.
Characters to notice
- Duncan Campbell
Consumed by maddening jealousy during Alice's absence, tormented by the thought of her having another love in her unconscious state.
- Lady Alice
Returns after seven days, reassures Duncan of her fidelity, and explains that her initial pride was due to a strange attraction she felt for him from their first meeting.
Key passages
“I could not now endure the thought of compelling the attendance of her unconscious form; of making her body, like a living cage, transport to my presence the unresisting soul.”
He could no longer bear the idea of forcing her unconscious body to come to him, as if it were a cage for her soul.
Duncan's internal conflict about his power over Alice.
“If ever I find it so, I will kill myself there, that I may go to my Hades with you.”
If she ever discovered she was dreaming of another, she would kill herself in that dream world to be with him in the afterlife.
Alice's dramatic reassurance of her loyalty.
“It was because, when I passed you on the lawn, before ever you entered the house, I felt a strange, undefinable attraction towards you, which continued, although I could not account for it and would not yield to it.”
Her initial pride was due to a strange, inexplicable attraction she felt for him from the first moment she saw him on the lawn, which she resisted.
Alice explains the origin of her former haughty behavior.