Mamta Kalia

the Victorian legal system, run on the
concept of no tolerance to crime, is based,
itself becomes its limitation too. “Even
though there was no eye witness against
Allen, all the circumstantial evidences were
against him.” Even after a hundred years, in
government records Allen is still recorded
as a murderer.
Every narration gets enlarged and
transformed in the process of retelling. The
equation between the narrator and the
audience [reader, listener, spectator] leaves
its impression on the narration. The picture
of the James murder case that unveils before
us through the medium of the Editor, the
journalist, Fr Camillus and Major Alberto, is
that Allen is of course the murderer; but
whereas the Editor wants to search out the
possibilities of Allen being innocent, major
Alberto calls him a monster.
In diaries and personal
correspondences, one is less armoured and
more revealed; in the narrations here, there
is no direct interference of external agencies.
Large, powerful tellings generally do not
recognize these, but these companions of
neglected and unprotected realities still
have this much power that they can countertell
authorised narrations.
The other side of Allen’s personality is
revealed in Fr Camillus’ diary. In the
beginning Fr Camillus was relaxed in his
belief that Allen could be persuaded to
confess but ultimately he too writes:
“Throughout the hearing the court had
found him guilty, so in the beginning I too
had no alternative. But subsequently as I
kept meeting him, doubts kept arising in my
mind.”
Major Alberto’s belief that Allen will not
confess, transforms into reality here; here
he is not a monster but an innocent man who
does not require any confession. In Camillus’
diary itself there is mention of another
woman who has been given capital
punishment. She is accused of the murder of
her husband. Fr Camillus writes: “Did she
really need forgiveness? Her confession is
just for me and God and so I cannot write
about it but had I been in her place, would
I not have killed the husband? Who needed
confession? The murdered husband or the
murder-accused wife? It was difficult to
decide. I wonder why the dividing line
between sin and virtue is becoming so thin.”
The suggested meaning of the question
marks against a confession entered in the
personal diary of a catholic priest is indeed
a deep secret. The question mark is also
against the Victorian judicial system.
Every society and every culture has,
apart from its main narrations, some hidden
transcripts too. These transcripts are
occasionally presented before us through
individuals who are openly representatives
of the power system. Fr Camillus’ diary and
the letter written by Allen to the girl are the
hidden transcripts of contemporary events.
The apt use of these in the text of the novel
deserves praise. It is the information we can
get from these that gives the crime story the
dignity and depth of a love story. Madam
Ripley Bean’s ghost makes some letters
available to the journalist. The ghost story
of love begins to unravel here: “There are
some letters written by Allen in the bundle
that you can see in the Almirah in front of
April-June 2010 :: 157