Introduction
Mrs. Caliban is an unusual book both for the time of its publication and for modern readers. The novel immediately gained popularity with readers and laudatory reviews from critics, which brought fame to the writer. The writing style of Ingalls surprises me with its uniqueness and unusualness (Harlin, 2018). Some critics attribute her work to the genres of surrealism, while others refer to magical realism. Her work contains many aspects that point to both genres. However, the differences in the plot between them could be pretty significant. Therefore it is worth figuring out which genre the novel should be attributed to.
Story Plot Review
The novel Mrs. Caliban is about a housewife Dorothy from a suburb of California. Dorothy’s marriage slowly unravels after she and her husband lose their only child in an accident. The woman is overcome by loneliness and despair. Moreover, one day, a two-meter creature resembling a frog appears on the threshold of her house. The creature claims its name is Larry, which is already a rather odd turn of events. Dorothy remembers the message announced on the radio. It was about the Beast Aquarius, who had escaped from the Institute of Oceanographic Research. Larry is surprised at their sympathy and understanding of Dorothy, although he tells her that to save his own life, he had to kill his captors. Soon a romantic relationship develops between them. They can understand each other well despite the significant difference between them as species and the difference between their injuries.
Magical Realism or Surrealism
Magic realism is a literary device characterized by interweaving fantasy and myth into everyday life. So in magical realism, the familiar acquires the ability to surprise, and magic becomes an ordinary phenomenon. Also known as “fantastic realism,” magical realism is not so much a style or genre as it is a particular approach to appreciating the nature of the real. In novels, poetry, short stories, plays, and films, factual storytelling blends with boundless fantasy to reveal the essence of the individual and society (Chanady, 2019). The term “magical realism” applies to any works of art – paintings, drawings, sculptures – which, combining the realistic and metaphorical, have a hidden meaning.
The concept of surrealism is understood as a direction in bourgeois contemporary art, the purpose of which was to know the depths of the human subconscious, familiarize ourselves with supernatural phenomena and create a different reality, absolutely different from the existing one. He became the personification of the crisis of the capitalist system and achieved particular popularity during the First and Second World Wars (Bucur, 2020). Surrealist writers tried to free their spirit from the power of the mind, and for this, they used various methods and methods, for example, such as sessions of hypnotic trance or collective discussion of the dreams seen by each of them.
The plot itself is unusual and pushes the reader to suspicions about whether Larry exists. Such thoughts may arise because the sequence of events is too similar to that everything that happened after breaking up with her husband was Dorothy’s invention. An unhappy marriage, unsuccessful attempts to have children, and an unbearable life that the main character tried with all her might to avoid. Dorothy has a lot of problems and mental trauma, so it is not surprising that she began to fantasize and imagine her life differently. Such as she would like to see her at the same time with an unusual roommate in the form of a frog-like creature (Langer, 2019). All this may be a consequence of the misfortune that haunted her all the time while she lived with her ex-husband.
In the book, in addition to those mentioned above, readers can notice many details that push Dorothy to be an unreliable source of information. For example, a friend says to Dorothy, “If we all only owned the things we needed! You do not understand the nature of desire” (Ingalls, 2017). In this case, we are talking about the dress that the woman chose, but in the context of the whole story, this phrase can take on a different meaning. These words may have subconsciously pushed Dorothy to the fact that she imagined for herself a being who would understand and love her. All her life, she was guided only by what she needed and what would be practical and appropriate in a given situation. Previously, Dorothy had never satisfied her needs completely, being utterly content with only what had to be. After this dialogue, she could completely rethink her life and dare fantasize about topics she had not thought about before. This, as well as a lucky coincidence and the fact that Larry somehow understands English and can communicate in it, may indicate that he is her invention. In that case, Mrs. Caliban’s novel is surrealism, not magical realism.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that Mrs. Caliban is a surrealistic novel in which the main character Dorothy invents the perfect match for herself. Looking at the book from this perspective, many behavioral motives of the main characters become clear as to why they behave in this way. Her brutal fate can explain the presence of fantasies and hallucinations in Dorothy. She was looking for a way to escape from reality in every possible way and plunge into her fantasy world where she could be happy. This makes the novel a truly unique work of art that brings novelty to the fantasy genre and, at the same time, shows the plight of a particular person.
References
Bucur, B. M. (2020). Surrealism in Literature-Mood Indigo by Boris. Vian. Web.
Chanady, A. B. (2019). Magical realism and the fantastic: Resolved versus unresolved antinomy. Routledge.
Harlin, T. (2018). MRS. CALIBAN. TLS. Times Literary Supplement, (6006), 31. Web.
Ingalls, R. (2017). Mrs. Caliban. First New Directions paperback edition. New York, New Directions.
Langer, E. (2019). Rachel Ingalls, author who found belated fame with’Mrs. Caliban,’dies at 78. The Washington Post. Web.