Note: The story reviewed below deals with violent imagery and sublimated sexual violence as well as not so sublimated racism.
2) “Circumstance” by Harriet Prescott Spofford
Plot:
Walking home from visiting a sick neighbor, through a “wilderness untrod save by stealthy native of deadly panther tribes,” our heroine sees a winding sheet fluttering in the wind. She is in a meadow about to enter the woods. It’s nearing evening, and she faces a three-mile journey. What appears to be a corpse is outlined underneath the winding sheet. It waves “by the likeness of four wan hands.” A voice repeats three times, “The Lord have mercy on the people.”
But the woman is of sterner stuff than most. She thinks of her baby at home and forges on, hardly upset about such silly things as visions, signs, or ghosts.
In the woods, an animal attacks her, biting her arm and pinning her down. This is the so-called “Indian Devil.” Its claws get caught in her clothing. She screams, and the animal hesitates, then proceeds. She screams again, giving the animal pause.
Our hero notes this; she can’t scream all night. She sings. The first thing that comes to mind is lullabies, the sort of things she would sing to her baby, safe at home with her husband. She pictures them. The baby is fast asleep, and the husband is rocking the cradle with his foot. As long as she sings, the animal seems content to let her live.
When our hero runs out of lullabies, she begins to sing sea songs. She despairs of her only hope of her husband ever finding her, and turns to singing hymns she learned as a child. Worn out, going without sleep, and terrified, she undergoes something of a religious rapture and reconciles herself to the idea of dying.
Thoughts:
Aside from the vision(?) of the winding sheet, there are no supernatural elements in this odd little tale.
Outside of having teeth and claws, the attacking animal is never described. I’d never heard of anything called an Indian Devil, but I assumed that because the author spoke of panthers early in the story, a panther attacked our hero. A Google search returned the rather unhelpful answer “wolverine.” While they’re bad-tempered critters, I couldn’t remember hearing about one attacking a human. According to the Wolverine Recovery Strategy, there has never been a documented attack on a human by a wolverine, though, I imagine, like any animal, a cornered one will defend itself.
Some literary criticism of this story treats it as an allegory. For example, our hero, pinned down by the panther, is forced to sing for her life. The author was forced to write to support her siblings. This speaks to the limited opportunities for women in the 19th century.
Maybe. Smart people with degrees that I don’t have make solid arguments about this stuff. What I found more interesting was that she saw a winding sheet—a harbinger of death—and shrugged it off. What choice did she have, really? Not like she could call an Uber. It was 1860-ish. Yet when she was facing what seemed like certain death, leaving her husband and baby behind, she turned to God. She sang hymns from her childhood, many of them dealing with death. She was already leaving the mundane world behind.
The imagery of the panther pinning her down by her arms is also sexual, ImseldomHO, and the violence surrounding it—our hero is seized and borne aloft into a tree—speak of rape—things no one discussed in the 19th century. People can hardly speak of them in the 21st. But that’s an argument for another day.
The author’s great-grandmother was said to have been attacked by a panther. I have been unable to find out anything more about this, however.
This is an interesting and intense story to read with several layers to read, however, it is not free from the prejudice of the times in which it was written. It is engaging to read—the reader feels for the main character and her increasing desperation—but it is also difficult to read because of what the author is saying without saying.
For a discussion:
Narrating Violation: Harriet Prescott Spofford’s “Circumstance”
This story can be read here:
This story can be listened to here: (35:43)
Bio: Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835-1921) was an American short story writer, novelist, and poet who was born in Maine and lived much of her life in Massachusetts. She initially turned to writing to support her invalid mother and younger siblings. Her first (serialized) novel was Sir Rohan’s Ghost, published in 1860. Her writing tends to show the commonplace, alongside the supernatural, and depict the New England dialect, with which she was familiar.
Works consulted:
The Circumstances of Harriet Spofford’s “Circumstance”
By Jacob Frechette and Jon C. Adams
Heath Anthology of American Literature:
Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Wolverine Recovery Strategy:
Title: “Circumstance”
Author: Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835-1921)
First published: The Atlantic Monthly, May 1860
Length: short story
