In Literature, we read "The Moving Finger" by Edith Wharton. After we analysed the story, we had to make a literary essay explaining how love, obsession and control are explored.
Literary essay
How does the story explore ideas of love obsession and control?
The essay will be about “The Moving Finger” by Edith Wharton written in 1899. It is about how a wife’s death and her husband overcome her death.The author develops a relationship between Mr Grancy and Mrs Grancy’s portrait, and how the love he felt for her ended up turning into an obsession, and the need of having control over her.
 |
| Drawn by Michael Garmash |
In the first place, when Ralph Grancy married his first wife he suffered a deep depression which many thought he couldn’t get out. The narrator proved that he witnessed that when he said: “we had seen him sinking under the leaden embrace of her affection.” This quotation gives us the idea of how it was the relationship between Mr Grancy and his first wife was; even though they loved each other they harmed themselves and damage each other. Afterwards, when he fell in love again and married his second wife, he recovered; he burst into flower. The love little by little started to become an obsession. In the first place, after Ralph brought Mrs Grancy into New York his friend’s weren't expecting something positive, nevertheless, after meeting Mrs Grancy they accepted her and started thinking it was a good thing that Ralph had married her. This acceptance gives us the idea of Mrs Grancy as a perfect woman who has no defect. Mr Grancy’s friend, Claydon, was an example of how enthusiastic they were with their marriage. He painted Mrs Grancy’s portrait as a request of Mr Grancy. Ralph wanted to imprison her, as the quotation “You`re my prisoner now- I shall never lose you” shows. Here we can see how even when Mrs Grancy was alive, Ralph wanted to have some type of control over her and never lose her. When the time passed by and Mrs Grancy died Ralph started travelling and imagined her as she accompanied him. That is the reason why when Mr Grancy returned home and saw the portrait he felt that Mrs Grancy was leaving him behind; he felt perhaps for the first time the death of his wife. When time froze it is like being dead. That is the reason why Mr Grancy asked Claydon to change the portrait, to edge Mrs Grancy, to be equal to keep her alive. After the portrait became his wife, she was with him again. His obsession and lack of control obliged him to unfreeze time in the portrait.
In the second place, it can be interpreted that Claydon had a feeling for Mrs Grancy as well. He falls in love with this woman and pursues an affair with her before her death. When Claydon painted the portrait, Mr Grancy was so pleased about how he could paint Mrs Grancy unique look. With this, we can interpret that Claydon really loved Mrs Grancy. Nevertheless, if we think about Mrs Grancy enamored look to Claydon we can assume that Mrs GRancy also love him back. Claydon loved her, he was obsessed with her and wanted to have her for himself. When Mrs Grancy died the only thing he could have from her was the portrait she left. In the beginning, he did not want to change the portrait, but he ended changing it anyway. An explanation we can deduce is that Claydon did not want to lose his friendship with Mr Grancy, he wanted to maintain his relationship with him to win his trust and end with the portrait at the end; he was already elaborating a plan. Nevertheless, the third time he changed the portrait he painted Mrs Grancy with the face of a woman that knows that her husband will die. As a consequence, Mr Grancy died believing in his wife, the opposite of Claydon’s purposes. Claydon wanted to separate them, he wanted Mrs Grancy for himself, that is why he wanted Ralph to distrust her. However, he ended up bringing them closer. His obsession with the portrait is shown in the quotation “she belongs to me now.”
Finally, Mr Grancy and Claydon although they thought they had control over the painting they were actually suffering a lack of control over it; they were being controlled by the portrait. Mrs Grancy had the full trust of Ralph and Claydon she could manage both of them as she wanted. A clear example is when Claydon changed the portrait the second time because she asked him. She wanted that Claydon to obeyed Mr Grancy because she belonged to him not to Claydon as it is shown in the quotation "I'm not yours but his, and I want you to make me what he wishes." Moreover, Mrs Grancy wanted to tell Mr Grancy he was dying, that is why she told Claydon about it and made him deliver it. As a consequence when Mr Grancy saw the face of his wife telling him he was going to die and believed in her, afterwards he ended up in his grave next to her. The obsession both men had for the woman was so extreme that they did not even question themselves if what Mrs Grancy said was okay.
To conclude, “The Moving Finger” develops love, control and obsession throughout the story in the characters of Mr Grancy and Claydon. Neither of them could let go Mrs Grancy and the control they wanted to have over the portrait broke their relationship. Mr Grancy depended on his wife, on her affection that is why even after death he could not let her go. In the case of Claydon, he fell in love with something dangerous and prohibited which produce a bigger desire in him. Consequently, when Mrs Grancy died, Claydon couldn’t realise that even then Mrs Grancy was not for him, she still belonged to Ralph. That it is why Claydon wanted to break Mr Grancy and Mrs Grancy relationship in any way.
