The Portent · Chapter
XXIII: My Old Room explained
Duncan returns to his old room at Hilton Hall, where the past vividly resurfaces.
What happens
Duncan returns to his old room at Hilton Hall, where the past vividly resurfaces. He experiences a strange merging of past and present, and soon Lady Alice sleepwalks into his room, appearing unchanged and unaware of the twelve years that have passed. She believes it is still the time of their earlier secret meetings. Duncan, overwhelmed, realizes she has no memory of the intervening years. He gently persuades her to leave, and afterward resolves to find a way to help her, even as he contemplates the risks of her being discovered.
Themes in this chapter
Memory and the Past
The chapter is steeped in the return of the past, with Duncan experiencing time as a form of thought and the past becoming the present. Alice's memory has been severed, causing her to live in a past moment.
Love and Sacrifice
Duncan's love for Alice is evident in his careful handling of her sleepwalking state and his concern for her well-being, even as he fears the consequences of her being discovered.
Madness and Identity
Alice's insanity is central, as she is unaware of the passage of time and her identity is tied to her sleepwalking state. Duncan fears the moment she wakes and the 'dreadful difference' that will be revealed.
Characters to notice
- Duncan Campbell
Returns to his old room, overwhelmed by memory and the return of the past. He is reunited with the sleepwalking Alice and must navigate her lack of awareness of the twelve years that have passed.
- Lady Alice
Sleepwalks into Duncan's room, appearing unchanged and believing it is still the time of their earlier meetings. She is unaware of the years that have passed and shows no signs of suffering.
- Mrs. Blakesley
Extemporises a bed for Duncan in his old room and is mentioned as a potential observer who might discover Alice's absence.
Key passages
“Time became to my consciousness what some metaphysicians say it is in itself—only a form of human thought.”
Duncan feels that time is not absolute but a construct of the mind, as the past becomes indistinguishable from the present.
Reflects the theme of memory and the past.
“The whole of those dreary twelve years was gone. The thread of her consciousness had been cut, those years dropped out, and the ends reunited.”
Alice has no memory of the twelve years that have passed; her mind has skipped over them, and she believes she is still in the past.
Highlights the theme of memory and madness.
“I felt as if the very face I wore, with the changes of those twelve forgotten years, which had passed over her like the breath of a spring wind, were a mask of which I had to be ashamed before her.”
Duncan feels that his aged appearance is a mask that reveals the years Alice has forgotten, and he is ashamed of the changes time has wrought on him.
Illustrates the theme of memory and identity.