Charles Discovery Of A Painting Of Chatterton example essay topic

Time strips our illusions of their hues And one by one in turn, some grand mistake Casts off its bright skin yearly like a snake. Lord Byron, Don Juan, 5.21 In most detective stories, time plays a major factor in the deciphering of the puzzle for both the reader and for the narrator. Through the use of time, the characters are able to recreate the events of the mystery surrounding them in order to hopefully solve this mystery. But time plays a different role in Peter Ackroyd's novel Chatterton. On one hand, time is one of the causes of the mystery in the story; on the other, Ackroyd uses it anachronistically in order to unite different periods in his novel as well as different characters, specifically Charles Wynchwood, Thomas Chatterton and George Meredith. This essay will attempt to demonstrate how Ackroyd accomplishes this anachronistic merging of three time periods through his narrative.

The novel is divided into three distinct parts. The first part consists of Charles' discovery of a painting of Chatterton, supposedly at the age of fifty, along with a number of manuscripts of his. Through these discoveries, Charles becomes enamored with the idea of uncovering the truth behind Chatterton's death, since it was believed that he had died at the age of eighteen. The second part of the story is used to confirm many of Charles' beliefs and discoveries.

He discovers that Chatterton was forging works under the names of other authors, and selling them as their own masterpieces. The final part of the story "ingeniously deconstructs the whole concept of authenticity". (Finney, p. 256) The painting of Chatterton is found out to be a forgery, the other characters in the novel discover that Chatterton' works were forgeries, and Philip begins to write the book that Charles was going to write before his death which proposes the imagined assumption that Chatterton's works are indeed authentic. But the story is also divided into three parts chronologically. The first part takes place in the eighteenth century, where we learn the story of Thomas Chatterton's life, his writings, and his death. The second part consists of the nineteenth century painter Henry Wallis painting a portrait of Chatterton's death, using George Meredith as his model.

This takes place some 80 years after Chatterton's death. The third and final part is located in the twentieth century. This story consists of Charles Wynchwood's discovery and investigation of the painting and of Chatterton's manuscripts. But while these three story-lines are separated in time, they appear to have some consequence upon each other and merge on a few occasions into one another. "Ackroyd's vision is essentially a temporal; past and present interact in the moment". (Finney, p. 257) Keeping with this theme, Ackroyd juxtaposes these time periods in a bizarre manner throughout the novel.

The story opens with Charles, in the present, discovering the painting of Chatterton. Throughout the novel, we are returned to the past, to the nineteenth century, where Wallis is painting the portrait; and the book ends with Chatterton's death in the eighteenth century. The book presents the series of events in a reverse sequence. Chatterton's death occurs long before Wallis paints the portrait, and even longer before Charles finds this portrait. Within the frame of the novel, Chatterton's death occurs only after Charles' death. This historical anachronism is not unique in the novel.

The painting which Wallis paints depicts Chatterton's deathbed scene. The portrait was entirely a work of fiction, since Chatterton died some 80 years before the painting was produced. No one knew with certainty how Chatterton had died, or in what condition he was found. But the details of the painting are reflected in the end of the novel in Chatterton's actual deathbed scene. And these very same details are again presented in Charles' deathbed scene. His right arm fell away and his hand trailed upon the ground, the fingers clenched tightly together; his head slumped to the right also, so that it was about to slide off the hospital bed.

His body arched once in a final spasm, quivered, and then became still. 'Chatterton' was finished. (p. 170) This passage describes Charles' death. The last line quoted ties together the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As Charles dies, Wallis finished his portrait of Chatterton's death. It is almost as though it was Charles' death that Wallis is portraying, not Chatterton's. Charles' death somehow completes the painting which was created 130 years earlier.

To corroborate this argument, shortly after Charles' death, his son Edward visits the Tate Gallery. When he looks at the picture of the deathbed scene, he "sees his father lying on the bed in place of Chatterton (who at any rate is Meredith)". (Finney, p. 258) Here Edward realizes that his father will never wholly die, because he will live on in this painting. Nevertheless, Chatterton's death still echoes the portrait left by Wallis. He has the same pose, and characteristics as bestowed upon him by Wallis. He ends up "dying not with the grimace produced by the effects of arsenic but with the smile that both Wallis and now Ackroyd bestow on him".

(Finney, p. 258) Throughout the novel, the past plays an important role on the present. All of the writers presented in this novel (Charles, Harriet Scope, Philip, Andrew Flint) are influenced by the past. Charles tries to write a book about Chatterton and his forgeries; Harriet plagiarizes plots from obscure nineteenth century novels; Philip wants to write the book on Chatterton which Charles had begun before his death; Andrew peppers his language with quotations from past works and classic authors. But at the same time, the present seems to influence the past.

As we have already shown, Wallis' portrait is only completed upon Charles' death, and the elements of this painting come to reflect what has happened in the past, at Chatterton's death, as well as those in the present during Charles' death. Upon his death, Chatterton's face has the smile which was given to him by Wallis in his painting. Had he not painted his death this way, would Chatterton have had a grimace of pain due to the horrific death he encountered rather than a smile During the nineteenth century narrative, Meredith tells Wallis that "I dreamed of Chatterton the other night. I was passing him on some old stairs". (p. 139) Charles also had a vision of Chatterton while sitting in the park. "Charles looked down again in despair and, when he glanced up, the figure of Thomas Chatterton had disappeared". (p. 3) Here we find one of the anachronisms which Ackroyd has used in the novel.

As he dies, Chatterton sees Wallis and Charles. "I will not wholly die, then. Two others have joined him - the young man who passes him on the stairs and the young man who sits with bowed head by the fountain - and they stand silently beside him. I will live for ever, he tells them". (p. 234) In seeing these visions on his deathbed, Chatterton realizes that he will live on through the eyes and lives of others after him. Ackroyd is thus merging the three time periods together. In so doing, he is forcing the reader to perceive the three time periods at once.

The time continuum is shattered, and all time becomes one. The end of the story is timeless, since Chatterton dies and is united with both Wallis and Charles, who will only live long after his death. In forcing the reader to question the one element which is usually constant in a novel, time, Ackroyd is unsettling his audience. They are forced to accept what is being presented to them even if in their own rational mind it is impossible. The reader usually tries to identify secure elements in a novel to hold on to. In this case, many of the characters are plagiarists and time has no real meaning.

What is there left for the reader to hold on to By bending the rules and boundaries of time, Ackroyd can create a world in which Charles Wynchwood, Henry Wallis and Thomas Chatterton can all be together for a brief instance. Bibliography

Bibliography

Ackroyd, Peter. Chatterton. Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1993.
Finney, Brian. "Peter Ackroyd, Postmodernist Play and Chatterton". Twentieth Century Literature, 38, 2 (1992): 240-261.