Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

32. A Fearful Prophecy? Corona Virus? Shelley's The Last Man!

                                  Faith Beyond the Grave in Mary Shelley's The Last Man

         "Neither hope nor joy are my pilots—restless despair and fierce desire of change lead me on. I long to grapple with danger, to be excited by fear, to have some task, however, slight or voluntary, for each day's fulfillment. I shall witness all the variety of appearance that the elements can assume—I shall read fair augury in the rainbow—menace in the cloud—some lesson or record dear to my heart in everything. Thus around the shores of deserted earth, while the sun is high, and the moon waxes or wanes, angels, spirits of the dead, and the ever-open eye of the Supreme, will behold the tiny bark, freighted with Verney—the Last Man" ( Shelley 342). This passage from Mary Shelley's The Last Man suggests the courage and perseverance of Lionel Verney, the last survivor of an epidemic that decimates the world population in the 2100. Shelley's futuristic tale traces Verney's heroic quest to save his family, his society, and ultimately, civilization itself, from the pervasive effect of the plague as it spreads from city to country to continent. Like Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the protagonist alone miraculously recovers from the disease, as one condemned to sail the seas in search of a listening ear.  Ironically, mankind is struggling today against a similar plague as the corona virus rapidly sweeps across the face of the earth.

              Shelley initially uses the concept of fate to create sympathy for Verney who has lost his family, home, and friends. As the story opens, Lionel tragically recalls the misfortunes of his life. The hero considers the inexorable power of mutability over the fortunes of men. The cruel hand of fate, or change, has robbed him of all sense of dignity and self-worth. He recounts how his father's pandering to the king and impulsive gambling lead to his loss of status, a tragic event resulting in the deaths of his parents, his rebellious association with a reckless band of youths, and his transformation into a spiteful "savage" (9). Resentful of the abundance of others in comparison to himself, the destitute young profligate frequently stole sheep from the landowners, and on numerous occasions suffered for his offenses in the county jail. Incarceration only served to whet his hatred for his oppressors; consequently, he devised various schemes of revenge (11). Even worse was his hatred for Adrian, the son of the deposed Earl of Windsor who was Lionel's age, yet retains the royal title, wealth, and accompanying property in Cumberland to which Verney felt royally entitled. The young protagonist admits to himself that that "all this grandeur was but more glaring infamy" which caused him envy and "tormenting bitterness" (14). As a result, Lionel devised a scheme of poaching on the property to avenge himself, whereupon he was captured and sent to prison (16). Ironically, upon Adrian's learning of Verney's predicament, the young noble freed his antagonist and declared that they were "born to be friends" through a "hereditary bond which he trusted would forever unite them" (17). Overwhelmed by Adrian's kindness and generosity, Lionel gradually came to love him as a friend and brother 19). Lionel, in this case, experienced admiration and love, emotions unknown to him, and the desire to be wise and good, for the first time, swelled in his bosom until he was quite overcome and wept aloud (19). The recognition, like Bernard's in Mauprat, marks the initial phase of the hero's spiritual transformation.

               The next phase of the hero's coming-of-age includes his fierce "craving" for knowledge. As Lionel admits to himself in later years, "Poetry and its creations, philosophy and its researches and classifications, alike awoke the sleeping ideas in my mind, and gave me new ones" (20). The hero confesses that his "insatiate thirst for knowledge and his boundless affection for Adrian" made him very happy, and filled him with "hope, glory, love, and blameless ambition." With these attributes as his "guides," the hero proclaimed that his "soul knows no dread." This quality of moral fearlessness denotes the next stage of the protagonist's transformation. At this point, Verney sensed that the "present is good only because it is about to change." This psychological awareness compels the hero to prepare for new encounters, which he will confront this time with courage and virtue as his standards (24-26). On a return trip from England, the main character met Adrian's sister Idris whom he immediately described as the "object of my mad idolatry" whose "charming countenance" radiates with "goodness, frankness, simplicity and heavenly benignity." He further described Idris as "a winged angel new alit from heaven's high floor" (35). Until now, Lionel's heart had never been softened by such tenderness, which he demonstrated in his rescue of Idris from her mother's treacherous attempt to thwart their marriage (63). This newfound compassion also filled the hero with an earnest desire to save his sister's marriage to Raymond, a renowned politician, soldier, and the eventual Lord Protector of England (103). In essence, Verney's love for others denotes the next phase of his emotional transformation. To illustrate the depth of the protagonist's love for others, Shelley uses the main character's own words as he recalls those joyous days with Idris: "Years pass thus—even years. Each month brought forth its successor . . . truly our lives were a living comment on that beautiful sentiment of Plutarch, that 'our souls have a natural inclination to love, being born as much to love, as to feel, to reason, to understand, and remember" (66).