Q) How does Edith Wharton make “The Moving Finger” such an uncanny tale?
A) Edith Wharton’s “The Moving Finger” is a short story encapsulating the romantic affairs transpiring between Mrs.Grancy, Mr.Grancy and a painter, Claydon. Edith Wharton adroitly establishes themes of captivity, obsession and infidelity, while persistently manifesting an eerie atmosphere in the story, coupled with the pervaded use of pathetic fallacy to institute an uncanny feeling in the readers’ minds.
Throughout the story, a macabre undertone is perpetuated through the portrayal of Mr.Grancy’s wretched fate. Mr.Grancy’s first wife is characterised to possess an “insidious egotism” and her oppressive nature depicted in the simile “seen him sinking” in her “affection like a swimmer in a drowning clutch”, which became so intense that the narrator claims that her death seemed to “release him” rather than devitalize him. Furthermore, he is shown to have surmounted various impediments such as ill-health, poverty and misunderstanding, and when a sign of hope enters his life in the form of the second Mrs.Grancy, it is ceased by her death only three years later. Following that, he is removed from office and isolation causes his mental health to deteriorate, leading to his demise. This series of misfortunes for Mr.Grancy is strange as it persistently highlights a sense of death and gloom that makes the atmosphere in the story uncanny.
The theme of entrapment is not only present in the relationship between Mr.Grancy and his first wife but is also prevalent in his relationship between the second wife. Mr.Grancy is so imbued with adoration for Mrs.Grancy that he claimed her his “prisoner”, signifying a strange transposition where Mrs.Grancy is in the situation Mr.Grancy was in with his first wife. . He appoints Claydon to paint a portrait of her and is awestruck after realising that it perfectly encapsulates every essence that makes him adore her, signified in “Ralph knew his own at a glance”. His fixation towards the painting depicts his proximity with the figure, evoking uncanny feelings for the readers as he initiates an emotional connection with an inanimate object, neglecting the real woman that it depicts.
Pathetic Fallacy is deployed to render emotions and soul to the painting, augmenting the essence of peculiarity in the story. Grancy states that “she stared at me coldly” and he “could hear her beating against the painted walls and crying”, showing that Mrs.Grancy’s spirit was embedded in the painting. He also makes an odd request to Claydon to alter the portrait to make her look his age, in order to “regain” his wife, thus accentuating his inexplicable attachment to the portrait. It is as though the painting replaces the wife, and it has such a severe impact on Mr.Grancy’s mind that when Claydon alters her face to that of a woman “who knows that her husband is dying”, it prompts Grancy’s death. Here, the readers perceive Grancy’s bizarre hamartia and witness its extensive influence on his destiny, heightening the uncanny feelings.
Obsession plays a significant role in highlighting queerness in the story. Not only is Ralph obsessed with Mrs.Grancy’s portrait, but Claydon too has an evident and profound fondness for it. His obsession is apparent since he would make recurrent visits in order to see her portrait, and would “sit as it were listening to the picture” when Mrs.Grancy would speak. The romantic affair between Claydon and Mrs.Grancy is insinuated when Ralph wonders how Claydon knew how she looked when at him when they were alone. Eventually, after Ralph dies, Claydon claims that “she belongs to me”, confirming the implication and instituting themes of infidelity. This, coupled with Claydon’s sentimental possessiveness towards the painting, significantly amplifies the uncanny essence that pervades in this story.
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