Terror, Love, and the National Voyeur: Gilbert Parker’s The Seats of the Mighty

Abstract

One of most popular Canadian novels of late nineteenth century is one that many non-specialists today may not have even heard of, Gilbert Parker's The Seats of Mighty (1896). The novel, which is set like many Canadian novels of time during fall of Quebec, received instant international acclaim (Ripley 9) and was first of Parker's novels to be published in a Canadian edition, which eventually became a standard highschool text (Adams 85). A theatrical version of novel was staged in 1897, attended by U.S. President Grover Cleveland at Boston performance and put on in London, England, for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (Ripley 9). There are some good reasons why this particular novel was so well known among English speakers at turn of century and so significant for anglophone Canadians especially, although these reasons have yet to be fully explored. The few critics who have recently looked at novel notice its racism in way it pits British-Canadian morality against French decadence. (1) However, what I am particularly interested in here is that this decadence is not merely condemned and dismissed but reformulated in such a way that it can be controlled by anglophone Canadians. Francophones in novel are both celebrated and disavowed through a complex process that involves an anxious surveillance to distinguish and categorize cultures that, on surface of skin, appear similar. Parker's manipulation of genre of historical romance is key in relation to this project. In A Purer Taste, Carole Gerson describes popularity of this genre in nineteenth-century Canada, indicating how early English Canadians were looking for same nationalistic affect in their own fiction that Sir Walter Scott had achieved in his for Great Britain (68). As Gerson points out, English Canadians often drew upon colourful history of French Canada in historical romances in order to establish cultural distinctiveness from Great Britain on one hand and United States on (111). Especially around turn of century, many English Canadians wanted this cultural distinctiveness, while still wishing for strong ties to Britain. Parker, born in Canada, was an imperialist who spent part of his life residing in Britain and eventually became a Member of Parliament there. Thus, his portrayals of Canada often seem to characterize it as interesting and distinct, but in ways that wouldn't alienate British readers. The task of glamorizing French Canada, without de-valourizing Britain, is one of key processes in early Canadian historical romances generally and Parker's work specifically. In The Seats of Mighty, voyeurism of protagonist juxtaposes two common elements of historical romance, gothicism and love story, in order to work out this process. (2) The novel centres on relationship between Robert Moray, a British soldier in captivity in Quebec, and Alixe Duvarney, a young Canadienne. Throughout novel, lovers' happiness is threatened by war, Catholic Church, and Tinoir Doltaire, a charming French villain who wants Alixe for himself. As several critics have noticed, The Seats of Mighty plays out through its love story conflicts between nations (what Carl Murphy calls the marriage metaphor of early Canadian fiction), with Alixe standing in for French Canada, Robert for British, and Doltaire for French; (3) that is, Alixe's choice of Robert represents Quebec's allegiance to Britain over France. However, critics have failed to adequately examine appeal, for both Robert and readers, and in such a pro-anglophone novel, of villainous Doltaire, nor have they really explained why heroine, far from being a damsel in distress, is a far more active character than Robert himself, or why Parker appears so obsessed with voyeuristic moments. Such elements, as I will demonstrate, are related to another understudied aspect of novel--the ways it contributes to and draws upon colonial discourses and processes present in other parts of British Empire in Parker's day. …