Sheila Watson's The Double Hook

This essay will discuss the development and meaning of the symbolism and imagery used in Sheila Watson's The Double Hook. Northrup Frye, a well known Canadian critic, states that symbolism "... means any unit of any literary structure that can be isolated for critical attention. A word, a phrase, or an image used with some kind of special reference... ... are all symbols when they are distinguishable elements in critical analysis"¹. This is a broad definition, but we will concentrate on images in particular that are appropriate to Watson's metaphorical style. Watson's symbols tend to be comprised of objects in nature which take on a human or spiritual cast; for example, the coyote, honeysuckle or thunder. The novel's geophysical landscape is barren and inhospitable, and one may make a connection between this setting and Watson's own home in northern British Colombia. The bleak feeling of the setting of this novel is also enhanced by Watson's own sparse style. She is very economical in her descriptions, preferring to utilize a "bare-bones" structure upon which she weaves her characters. This structure allows Watson to introduce many different levels of meaning into her novel, both in the realm of symbolism, and those of diction, syntax and positionality. Moss notes that "in Sheila Watson's The Double Hook, the land is an interior experience, disembodied from a specific geography, yet specific, concrete, actual - providing the touchstones of a more cerebral universe."². The main focus of this essay will be on the symbolic associations Watson employs, especially in relation to the metaphysical quest.

 

Mrs. Potter

In the first chapter of the book we are introduced to numerous characters, including Coyote and the old lady, Mrs. Potter. Mrs. Potter is killed in the first chapter, by James; we learn this in the passage "James walking away. The old lady falling. There under the jaw of the roof. In the vault of the bed loft. Into the shadow of death. Pushed by James's will. By James's hand. By James's words: This is my day. You'll not fish today."(DH, p. 11). There are excellent starting points in this passage to introduce the symbolism that runs throughout the book. For instance, in the first line, "James walking away" we are provided with a foreshadowing of events that come later in the book. James is the catalyst to the story, he provides the change in a otherwise static situation. He actually does ‘walk away', eventually leaving town, after blinding Kip and striking Greta and Lenchen. In the line "... under the jaw of the roof." We may infer more hints towards what is coming, the house seems to be predatory, possessing jaws; and in the end does indeed consume two people, Mrs. Potter, and Greta. We are told also that the bed loft is a "vault" which was presumably used by James and Greta to ‘imprison' the old lady. The "shadow of death" in the next sentence is familiar throughout the book; darkness and light being metaphors extensively used by Watson. Finally, at the end of the passage, James's words "this is my day. You'll not fish today."; we are confronted with the first of many allusions to fishing. It is a fitting metaphor for Watson to use, fishing is an everyday part of life for many Canadians. However, the fishing that James is talking about has less to do with catching fish than with searching for something. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols says that "fishing, in the psychoanalytical sense, is a type of recall process of abstracting elements from the unconscious under no logical or predetermined plan, but by allowing spontaneous forces to operate and then collecting their chance results."³. Mrs. Potter is trying to find meaning, in a very broad scope. She is the seeker in the darkness, trying to unravel a mystery that is ineffable and inaccessible to most. In section three the old lady "... fished on with a concentrated ferocity as if she were fishing for something she'd never found."(DH, p. 12). Margaret Atwood helps to clarify the old woman's search: "While alive the old lady's sin had been her refusal to accept life whole, the ‘darkness' along with the ‘light', the cyclical processes of Nature as well as man's structures, houses and straight lines. The ‘something she'd never found' is her own completeness."⁴. Again we're told by Greta that she has "...seen Ma standing with the lamp by the fence... ...Holding it up in broad daylight."(DH, p.22). Her lamp in this case symbolizes the quest she is making, and provides a nice connection with the dark/light imagery that is being used by Watson. Indeed, the lamp and fishing can be used quite interchangeably in this case. The lamp does suggest a more disciplined search; even though that search is in ‘broad daylight'.

 

Elemental Symbols

Symbols utilizing the elemental properties are extremely commonplace in this novel, perhaps a reference to the old Indian mythology that was in place before colonial times; also we see parallels drawn to Celtic and Eastern mythology. Why are these symbols so potent and used to such impact in this setting? We may rightly say that air, earth, fire and water are all universal tangibles; most people alive today have had some experience with most of them; and the elements we will discuss extend from specific perceptions of individuals to the conditions of universal being.

 

Air

Air is the medium of thunder, lightning, light, darkness and moonlight, a paradoxical symbol containing both light and dark, warm and cold. Ara's preoccupation with the wrathful God of her beliefs can be translated into the crack of a bull-whip heard within a thunder strike; God punishing the recalcitrant humans. The Dictionary of Symbols says of thunder that it "displayed God's power and especially his justice and anger. It stood for the divine threat of annihilation (Job36: 29-33) or else heralded revelation."⁵. This is well illustrated when Ara sees Mrs. Potter down by the creek, Ara reaches down to touch the water, but is startled when the ‘thunder' speaks "And in a loud voice/ Coyote cried:/ Kip, my servant Kip." (DH p.26). This gives us an immediate link between Coyote and Kip, and the coyote and thunder; therefore between Kip and thunder. We are then told that Kip "...had risen in his stirrups until the leathers were pulled taut. His hand reaching to pull down the glory." (DH p. 26). The glory mentioned is a strange mixture of good and bad, gold and rust, or easy and hard. The double hook concept applies here, with one side glory and the opposite hook darkness or failure. The glory in this case also could possibly mean the ‘divine annihilation' that we spoke of earlier, the raw power of nature as it runs through the cycle between coyote (true nature) and human (distance from nature) that resides within Kip. The thunder at the end of this revealing paragraph is seen by Ara as being "... filled with adder tongues. With lariats. With bull-whips." (DH p. 26); again illustrating her reluctance to embrace Kip and his natural glory as her own salvation.

 

Fire

Fire is an especially intriguing symbol for Watson to use in this context; it contains both light (or glory) and darkness (or death/destruction). We see that to Felix Prosper, fire is a good thing, a constant, a friend; "at last he threw his bones into the stove. The heat from the stove, the heat crept in from the day outside, anointed his face. Blest, he sat down again in the rocker, and the boards creaked and groaned as he fiddled." (DH p.16). Symbolism related to fire is a huge subject, but in relation to this quote, we may find enlightenment in: "Flames rising skywards depict impulses towards spiritualization."⁶. Felix is drawn to the fire, he is seemingly not affected by the old lady or the water, he prefers a more sedentary life, enjoying his fish (or glory) alongside his fire in his stove (or spiritual distancing from his intellect) as in "Saint Felix with a death's head meditating." (DH p.16). This line suggests strongly that Felix is one of the intermediary characters in this story, he knows the glory and the darkness, he has witnessed it before. However, his destiny seems to be to endure it benignly, to simply watch as it all comes to pass.

The main scene in which fire is of symbolic importance is when Greta burns down her mother's house. The chapter starts with a beautiful allusion and another instance of foreshadowing in Greta's lines "What have I done?... ...What's a moth done that a man strikes it away from the lamp?" (DH p.72). William then replies "They interfere with a man's proper business. Some eat cloth that's needed for human flesh." (DH p.72). Lastly, Angel retorts "What do you know about moths? You never felt the flame scorch your wings. You never felt nothing." (DH p.72). This image of a moth attracted by the light of a fire (or glory) and then a man slapping it away before it can singe it's wings is a very peculiar one that warrants further thought. Greta is symbolically linked to the moth, the flame (glory) she sought was most probably her mother's house, which she coveted; "Now Greta'd sit in the old lady's chair. Eyes everywhere." (DH p.33). However, she could not even attain the thing she desired most of all through the death of her mother, James still stood in her way, he has an affair with the Widow's girl Lenchen, and calls attention to the life that Greta desired to be all her own. Therefore, "Greta reached for the matches. She laid the box on the stove and poured kerosene from the tin... ...She picked up the box of matches... ...Greta lit a match and dropped it into the stove. The flowers raised gold filaments anthered with flame. Greta reached for the tin and emptied it into the fire." (DH p.74-5). The fire is finally attained, the moth singes it's wings, and Greta dies in the flames that are glorious to Felix; in the house she loves too much; without the man she lived with.

 

Water

The final elemental symbol we will discuss is that of water. The Dictionary of Symbols states "The symbolic meanings of water may be reduced to three main areas. It is a source of life, a vehicle of cleansing and a centre of regeneration." Also "Water is the symbol of unconscious energy, the formless powers of the soul, of hidden and unrecognized motivation. Often in dreams, the dreamer may be ‘sitting on a riverbank, fishing. Water, symbol of what is still unconscious of itself, holds the contents of the soul which the fisherman tries to bring to the surface and which should be his food. The fish is a creature of the psyche.'"⁷. Water plays many of these roles at various times in the novel. We have already discussed the significance of fishing and the old lady, but what of the medium that the fish come from? In chapter three we get a clue, the old lady fishing brings Ara to see "The water was running low in the creek. Except in the pools, it would be hardly up to the ankle. Yet as she watched the old lady, Ara felt death leaking through the center of the earth. Death rising to the knee. Death rising to the loin."(DH p.13). This premonition is catalyzed by the low water level in the creek. If the water drops too far down, it will mean sure death for the many amphibious creatures in the creek, not to mention the plant life that lines the creek's banks. We are told later that "Ara wasn't sure where water started."; she is unsure of her own visions and insecure in her spirituality. The water in this case is symbolic of the body of information and emotive values that all the characters in the novel are looking for, each in their own way. Jones notes that Greta is identified not only with the fire in her house, but also strongly with water. He elaborates and draws the tentative conclusion that the old lady and her daughter Greta are types of Lorelei which ("... symbolize the fatal enchantment of sensuality, overpowering reason and leading the individual to ruin"⁸).This archetype fits our image of Greta and Mrs. Potter: introverted, narcissistic and caught in the past. This is seen within the connection between the old lady's fishing, the weeds and flowers on Greta's coat and Coyote that is associated with all manifestations of the quest and nature⁹.

 

In conclusion, The Double Hook is a book about fear. Kip sees this fear infecting the community; "Fear making mischief. Laying traps for men. The dog and his servants plaguing the earth. Fear skulking round. Fear walking round in the living shape of the dead."(DH p.50) the fear is anthropomorphized into the form of the coyote. Kip, being the messenger of the coyote, and presumably possessing the wisdom of the ages thinks of James "He's like his old lady... ...There's a thing he doesn't know. He doesn't know that you can't catch the glory on a hook and hold on to it. That when you fish for glory you catch the darkness too. That if you hook twice the glory you hook twice the fear." (DH p.50). Kip is indeed the one to bring us full circle to the short poem that is the introduction to the book. However, fearfulness is not the end of this book, fear does not stultify all reason and movement in the characters, there is hope left - in James. James breaks down the barriers of fear with action: he kills Mrs. Potter, he leaves the town, he blinds Kip, he has the affair with Lenchen. Without this action, the book would not progress towards a resolution, the baby Felix would not have been born, and the town would have remained the same. As it does end, the death at the beginning of the book is but a part of the entire natural cycle, and it ends on a happier note with the birth of Lenchen and James' child. This birth is not entirely devoid of the old fear or problems of the community however, in the last lines Coyote cries out "I have set his feet on soft ground;/ I have set his feet on the sloping shoulders/ of the world." (DH p.118). This is a little hint from Watson that the game is never over, and things don't change that much in the end.

 

1 Frye, Northrup

Anatomy of Criticism - Four Essays

Princeton University Press, 1957

2 Moss, John

Patterns of Isolation

McLelland & Stewart Ltd., 1974

3 Chevalier, Jean & Gheerbrant, Alain

The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Penguin Books Ltd., 1982

4 Atwood, Margaret

Survival - A thematic guide to Canadian literature

House of Anansi Press Ltd., 1972

5 Chevalier, Jean & Gheerbrant, Alain

The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Penguin Books Ltd., 1982

 

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Jones, D.G.

Butterfly on a Rock

University of Toronto Press, 1970