"Figures of the Light" - a novel about a girl whose mother is obsessed with the struggle against evil

And that you should not choose between duty and happiness

Literary critic Galina Yuzefovich tells about the novel by the Englishwoman Sarah Moss “Figures of the Light”. The main character is growing in Victorian England, in the progressive family of the artist. But it gradually becomes clear that her life is not so simple: a strict mother, who helps orphans and poor, makes her own children constantly choose between comfort and duty. But how fair is this choice?

Sarah Moss. Figures of light. M.: Phantom Press, 2022. Translation by A. Zavodzova

Perhaps if the key idea of ​​the novel by the Englishwoman Sarah Moss had to be reduced to one simple opposition, would she sound like this: asceticism or happiness? It is on this question that all the heroines of the “figures of the Light” are trying to answer one way or another - the English choseners of the Victorian era, forced to constantly choose: comfort or service to the poor, peace or eternal struggle, kindness or unbending firmness, vocation or family, prosperity or freedom.

From the distant prospect, the Victorian era is seen at the same time romantic and cozy, shine of great English literature of that time, captured in the infinitely beautiful canvases of prescription artists, rooted in warm nostalgic reflections of later cultural readings, references and blockages. Sarah Moss in his novel does not seem to be a direct conflict with a similar vision: her main character, young Alli (full name is Alethea, “Truth” in Greek), Mobertli grows in the educated and progressive family of the decorator artist, her beauty and prosperity surround her education, no one interferes with her education in every possible way. And become a doctor. Lovely games with a sister on a soft carpet in the nursery are shaded by diligent classes (Latin, mathematics, even not a girlish chemistry), maternal severity is at least partially compensated by the kindness of the father and his friends, walks and plenaters alternate with house troubles.

However, through this almost idyllic picture, details begin to appear little by little, lurking in the shadows for a long time, marked only by vague hints. The rights of women in this comfortable and aesthetically verified world (mountain ash on the wallpaper created by the father of Alli, burns brighter than the flame, in the rooms there is a lot of light and air, verified simplicity prevails in the furniture) not just a swell - they do not exist.

The law on the fight against sexually transmitted diseases allows you to grab on the street and forcibly examine any woman - even if she just went out into the street to call a doctor to a sick child or buy a beer to her father. Men quite legally buy small girls for their fun-so less likely to catch some infection, do everything they want with them, and then they simply throw it away. Women have only recently received the right to use money that they themselves earn, but most professions are still inaccessible to them. Hundreds, thousands of women and children from working quarters never eat hot food in their lives, do not sit at a burning hearth, do not see grass and trees. For the time being, this is egregious inequality, this tragic and comprehensive injustice, affecting not only the poor, but also the so -called “cultural society”, can be ignored, but once you see it, it is impossible to develop it.

Mother of Ally, Elizabeth, from among those who do not take their eyes off the vices and ulcers of the world. With an impeccably straight back, she bravely enters the streets, who never saw a decent dressed woman, without sparing herself, she works for the benefit of prostitutes, orphans and poor people. But her heart is crowded not only and not so much compassion as with fury and anger, which inevitably acquire destructive forms.

Elizabeth keeps daughters in monstrous severity: in fact, they are deprived of all the advantages that give them their social status, and for the little that they still manage to get, they must be ashamed. Girls go in castings, do the black work in the house, and when a nervous breakdown occurs with alli, the treatment turns out to be worse than the disease itself: Elizabeth cauterizes the daughter with a candle, limits in food, deprives sleep and loads even more.

In the world of Elizabeth there is no place for compromises: her whole life is a war against evil, and as long as she was won, until women were equal to the rights with men, the joy of peacetime cannot be accessible to her or her children. Ally must also put all of himself on the altar without a trace-to become one of the first certified female doctors in the country, and, having rejected the possibility of personal happiness, the cost of his whole life to lay the way to the light of other girls. The unconditional moral imperative, an honest and conscientious inability to “just live your life” surrounded by suffering and injustice turn into an Elizabeth into a trap, from which at first glance there is no way out: as an instrument of struggle with pain, she chooses a new pain, suffering overcomes new - even more - suffering. Seeking to help distant, sacrifices loved ones easily and without regrets.

In fact, the whole story that Sarah Moss tells us is the history of the escape from this trap. Little by little, freeing himself from the power of his mother, Allo gains her own will. Taking her goals, reviews her methods. Hatred and rage replaces love. Step by step moves Alli from ruthless and barren maternal righteousness towards compassion. Giving himself small concessions, accustoming not to exhaust herself beyond measure, Alli comes to an important understanding: not a single person is holistic and impeccable, no one - neither she, nor her mother - are like a rock. In their weakness, their vulnerability contains genuine power, and in order to treat imperfect patients, you need the same imperfect, fragile and vulnerable doctor - only he will be able to share and feel their pain.

And at that moment the dark corridor of the need, which seemed endless, suddenly parted as out of magic, and Alley goes into a bright light. The service of good should not be torture. Kindness and firmness are not opposed to each other, clarity and sobriety of gaze does not exclude joy, and love is quite compatible with dignity and heroism. Thoughts, it seems, are very simple, but for their formulation, Sarah Moss finds surprisingly accurate, poetic and quiet words - perhaps precisely those that today it is so important for us to hear.

Galina Yuzefovich