As my graduate program finally came to a close, I figured that I should make mention of the novel which has been my albatross, The Jewel of Seven Stars. In a time where Egyptomania was all the craze, and imperialism reigned in England, Stoker penned The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903). The novel opens with the Egyptologist Abel Trelawney unconscious as a result of a mummy’s curse. This mummy is a bewitching Queen who has been in Abel’s possession for many years. Critics have categorized this novel as Gothic since the it shows the primitive past imposing on the present. While the novel does seem to be Gothic, the horror which is found seems to be less of the past haunting the present and more on the fear of the repressed yet powerful contemporary female. We see this fear of the powerful woman, through the implications of the patriarchy’s self-destructive attempt to right itself in response to her. Stoker’s novel implies that the patriarch’s imperialism is a double edged sword. In destroying the object the man control’s he also destroys his purpose. We see this most clearly by the evolution of Margaret into Queen Tera. By her eventual removal and the men’s death, the novel shows its concern with the power of the patriarchy.
Before fully revealing the evolution and its implications, a bit of back story is necessary. This novel really has it all, a love story, mummy, reanimation, and the let’s not forget about the possession. The novel opens with Margaret seeking assistance since her father has mysteriously fallen into a comatose state. She calls upon her love interest Malcolm Ross and she also receives help from Eugene Corbeck, her father’s friend and fellow Egyptologist. Once Margaret receives both men into her home, the reader begins to learn of the strange occurrences surrounding Abel Trelawney’s coma. Corbeck reveals that he is not aware how, but he is positive Abel has been made powerless by the mummy resting in his room. Corbeck was with Trelawney when they originally found this mummy, who is the mystical Queen Tera of centuries past. Corbeck explains that her mummified body was found with one exposed hand clutching a jewel of seven stars which was “a huge jewel of ruby; a great stone of wondrous bigness… its wonder lay not in its size or color but in that the light of it shone from seven stars, each of seven points” (Stoker 114). Three days later when Trelawney and Corbeck awoke from a trance, they realized all was not right. An Egyptian travelling with them had broken into the queen’s sarcophagus and violated Queen Tera’s mummy. The Egyptian broke open her sarcophagus and severed her hand from the rest of her body. It soon becomes evident that Tera still lives on through her astral body and she responds with swift violence anytime her body is molested. During this time it was not uncommon for British men to go to Egypt and unearth a mummy, then take it back to England. Stoker Gothicizes this imperial event by allowing a Victorian horror to enter the British man’s household. This imperial subject fights back. Tera first kills the Egyptian who violated her body and she has rendered Abel Trelawney unconscious for attempting to unwrap her body.
After Abel Trelawney is revived, he enlightens the readers and surrounding characters why, after all this time, Queen Tera has again lashed out. Trelawney had taken it upon himself to reanimate Tera’s body. The experiment was to reunite her astral or spiritual body with her physical body, a task which nearly cost him his life when he receives a brutal scratch. The blood and torn flesh shows Tera aggressively opposing the disruption of her body. This experiment had failed, but it does show the magical powers of Queen Tera. Now for a second time, she has violently rejected the violation of her body. For a second time a man has disturbed her corpse, and for a second time she has lashed out.
Despite the first failed experiment, Trelawney is incited to make a second attempt. This time he utilizes Corbeck and Ross to help him. To excite and intrigue his new assistants, Trelawney divulges more details about Queen Tera. He tells about how this queen had all of the power of both femininity and masculinity, and how she was even pictured in both man’s dress and woman’s dress (Stoker 129). She had many victories in her country including wars and victory over the dead, and as a result of this power, she has maintained her existence on Earth by living on in her astral body. Tera’s power would have been disturbing and horrifying for all Victorians. The Victorian woman was supposed to be the lady of the house, submitting to the men around her, but Tera was nothing like this. Her power extended beyond the physical world where she reigned over life and death. Her power rendered the men of the past, and now the men of the present, powerless. There was no place for this monster in the Victorian world.
Tera’s power and autonomy is closely linked to the idea of the New Woman. The term was used in the late nineteenth century to describe women who were pushing against the limits which society imposed on women. The idea of the New Woman was a threat to many Victorians, and ultimately the patriarchy. Tera’s whole life seems to have been of her redefining what it meant to be female. Tera ruled over a country, she won wars, wore men’s clothes, studied witchcraft, and she executed violence all while being an incredibly beautiful woman. Tera’s life was full of examples of her pushing against the patriarchy.
Tera extends her power into the world of the living when she begins to take over the body of Margaret Trelawney. The first stage in Margaret’s evolution into Tera begins at her birth. This first connection drawn between Margaret and Queen Tera is by Eugene Corbeck. While he recounts his time with Trelawney in Egypt, he notes that Abel Trelawney’s wife died in childbirth while the two men were in Tera’s tomb. His narration reveals that Margaret and Tera’s connection began the very moment Margaret was born. Corbeck tells that on more than one occasion that Trelawney stated, ‘“She is unlike her mother; but in both feature and color she is a marvelous resemblance to the pictures of Queen Tera’” (Stoker 136-137). Malcolm also sees the resemblance. When describing Tera Malcolm narrates,
Her hair, glorious in quantity and glossy black as the raven’s wing, was piled in great
masses over the white forehead, on which a few curling tresses strayed like tendrils. I was
amazed at the likeness to Margaret…This woman – I could not think of her as a mummy
or a corpse – was the image of Margaret as my eyes had first lit on her. (Stoker 236)\
The narrator’s details emphasize the similarity between the two, “Miss Trelawny was of fine figure; dark, straight-featured. She had marvelous eyes; great, wide-open, and as black and soft as velvet, with a mysterious depth.” (Stoker 25) The resemblance between the mummy queen whom Trelawney had been with at the time of his wife’s death, and his daughter was too great to bear. As a result, Trelawney pawned Margaret off to other family. The physical resemblance between Tera and Margaret, which also alludes to Victorian interests in physical elements reflecting moral elements, sets the stage for the evolution of Margaret. Margaret is marked from birth, linked to the mummy queen. What’s interesting is that she also has a physical link to Tera. Margaret has a jagged birthmark on her wrist, one that is so red that it resembles a blood stain (Stoker 165). Her birthmarked wrist is on the same side and mark as Queen Tera’s exposed mummy wrist. From this point on the distinction between the two begins to blur.
Margaret’s link to Tera creates an interesting mother daughter relationship. Tera replaced Margaret’s mother when Mrs. Trelawney dies in childbirth. When Margaret is introduced to this queen, she begins to emulate her countenance. The more time that Margaret spends around the mummy, the more that she begins to become the “receptacle” for the queen’s spirit. Margaret begins to reveal little signs that she is slowly changing. The change is made clear when Margaret disagrees with her father regarding the experiment. Her protests begin silently, through facial movements, and evolve into loud vocal protests. Margaret shows that she is more the daughter of the mummy than the daughter of her father.
When we first meet Margaret she has only the birthmark and the resemblance that links her to Tera. Her evolution begins to move more quickly when her father is comatose. While he is in a coma she gets a taste of power. From this point on Tera’s influence and dominance are made clear. Margaret Trelawney entered on scene as queen of her house. She immediately mesmerized Malcolm, her eventual love interest, and she held the respect from the other people of the house. In the early stages Margaret still had something of Queen Tera, even if it was only her regal mien. Margaret is described as one who “seemed to rule all around her with a sort of high-bred dominance” (Stoker 5). This royal look was described plainly by one of Margaret’s servants. “‘No wonder the house is like a King’s house, when the mistress is a Princess!’” (Stoker 64) At the early stages of her evolution into a powerful mummy queen, Margaret was also an enchanting beauty, one who made Malcolm say, “once more, the wisdom of my manhood and the experience of my years laid themselves at the girl’s feet. It was seemingly their own doing; for the individual ‘I’ had no say in the matter, but only just obeyed imperative orders” (Stoker 40-41). Margaret’s physical beauty was like gravity pulling Malcolm in to her power Once Margaret began this evolution there was no turning back, and with each stage she was brought closer to her demise.
The evolution process begins to move more rapidly once Abel proposes that they begin to unwrap Queen Tera. Malcolm describes Margaret’s reaction to Abel’s suggestion. “As he spoke she continued to hold his hand. But there came over her face that change which I had so often seen of late; that mysterious veiling of her own personality which gave me the subtle sense of separation from her.” (Stoker 220). Ever so slowly Margaret is changing, her reactions getting bolder and her words and feelings fall out freely. Malcolm notes that she is changing, and points out that this change seems like possession from an outside force.
While the men prepare for the unwrapping, Margaret’s evolution process continues. This scene of unwrapping is a disturbing image of the patriarchal society of Victorian England. These moments leading up to the unswathing and then the actual unswathing show the tug of war between female and male power. Margaret, nearing the end of her evolution process, opposes her father not only for her own sake, but for the sake of all women. Her protests are clear: “Father, you are not going to unswathe her! All you men…! And in the glare of light!… Just think Father, a woman! All alone! In such a way! In such a place! Oh! It’s cruel, cruel!” (Stoker 238). The influence of Tera power enables Margaret to reveal the anxieties she feels as a woman and to voice the helpless reality a woman has under the patriarchy. Her father reaffirms the patriarchy by stating “Not a woman, dear; a mummy! She has been dead nearly five thousand years!” (Stoker 239). The volleying continues and Margaret argues, “What does that matter? Sex is not a matter of years! A woman is a woman, if she had been dead five thousand centuries! And you expect her to arise out of that long sleep! It could not be real death, if she is to rise out of it! You have led me to believe that she will come alive when the Coffer is opened!”(Stoker 239). Abel Trelawney is not persuaded by his daughter’s protestations; he continues in the only way he knows:
‘I did, my dear; and I believe it! But if it isn’t death that has been the matter with her all
these years, it is something uncommonly like it. Then again, just think; it was men who
embalmed her. They didn’t have women’s rights or lady doctors in ancient Egypt, my
dear! And besides,’ he went on more freely, seeing that she was accepting his argument,
if not yielding to it, ‘we men are accustomed to such things.’ (Stoker 239)
Her father’s complete disregard for her feelings, and for all women, exemplify the male uneasiness with the powerful woman. Female rights over their own bodies mean nothing to Abel and this attitude disturbs Margaret. She is enraged by this and never stops protesting. Unfortunately, her protests were ineffective. Even though she had begun to evolve into Queen Tera, Margaret on her own, was still not able to do anything to stop Tera’s unwrapping. However, despite her lack of success she was still in opposition to the patriarchy, and this could not go without punishment. Margaret had to die and her source of power, Tera, also had to be eliminated for the patriarchy to clearly show its power.
Before coming to this resolution, Stoker builds up even more tension. Lavishing the reader with details of the body of Tera, this moment of her unwrapping becomes a voyeuristic scene. The men stand around and gape at her body while Margaret makes feeble attempts at showing the mummy queen respect. Malcolm narrates the moment:
We all stood awed at the beauty of the figure which, save for the face cloth, now lay
completely nude before us. Mr. Trelawny bent over, and with hands that
slightly, raised this linen cloth which was of the same fineness as the robe. As he stood
back and the whole glorious beauty of the Queen was revealed. (Stoker 244)
The most interesting part of this section is that the mummy can be feared and also objectified within the same few sentences. This lack of respect for the female body is evidence that the men were not concerned with the rights of a woman, especially if she posed a threat to him. This undead woman is described in terms of her beauty and vitality, and yet within this description there is a hint of fear of the unknown. The men are aware of her powers and at first keep their distance and only touch her with their eyes. While the men shamelessly gape at Tera, Margaret shows her opposition to them and covers Tera’s body. “With a womanly impulse; with a mouth that drooped with pity, with eyes that flashed with anger, and cheeks that flamed, Margaret threw over the body the beautiful robe which lay across her arm.” (Stoker 245). Again we see here that Margaret feels the weight of shame not only for Tera but for all women. Even in this silent action she reveals that she is in no way on board with this unwrapping, and that her true allegiance lies with the mother figure Tera, not with the father. After this point, there is little to distinguish between the two women. Margaret’s evolution into Tera or her evolution into a “monster” happened as a result to her opposition to the patriarchy.
The final evolutionary stage of Margaret is seen within the last few paragraphs of the novel. The Great Experiment was successful and unsuccessful at the same time. All who were involved were killed. As the mummy queen began to regain her life, she angrily lashed out on all those involved. She struck down the men and took over the body of Margaret. Yet, something went wrong. Stoker doesn’t allow the reader to see or know exactly what happens since the narrator, Malcolm, was told to wait outside on watch in case the experiment failed. Since Malcolm had posed no threat to Tera there was no need for her to strike him down. After he heard a loud flashbang, he ran inside to inspect the damage where he found Margaret’s dead body and quickly carries her out. He sets her down and goes to inspect the rest of the experimental party. There he discovered the men lying dead. He rushed back out to find that “Margaret’s body was not there. But on the spot where I had laid her was Queen Tera’s Bridal robe, and surrounding it the girdle of wondrous gems. Where the heart had been, lay the Jewel of Seven Stars.” (Stoker 244). The line between Margaret and Tera had now fully been crossed. Within the final moments Margaret had evolved into Tera.
The male anxieties regarding female power become actualized when Tera’s spirit finds a home within the body of Margaret. Their biggest feared was realized: a woman usurped their power. The men were able to unwrap her body, but Tera took their lives. Further, the Eastern mummy had possessed the Victorian woman of the house and in that action also took their lives. The idea of a foreign body reigning over a Victorian body would have been horrifying. And yet, right when the horror seems too much to bear, this dominant female is put to death. Stoker builds Tera’s power so high up, all the way up to the point of overpowering a roomful of men, only to exterminate her. However, this patriarchal outlash was self-destructive, in taking the life of Tera and Margaret it exterminates potential future generations. Meaning, Margaret and Malcolm were to be married after this experiment, now the Trelawney line has died off. Additionally, without any power or anyone to rule over their presence is made obsolete.
Stoker’s novel elaborately shows the Victorian anxiety of the female in power. For Victorian’s the woman’s role was as an object for the men to enjoy. Tera’s existence and Margaret’s evolution into Tera made them Victorian threats. Despite her efforts, Tera is unable to triumph over the patriarchy. Since she opposed the dominance of males, she had to be made into a monster and the societal norm attempted to reassert itself. What is interesting about this novel is that it destroys the threat to the societal norm, but it also leaves the reader with questions. Why were the men exterminated? Stoker’s actions reflect the unease that Victorians sometimes had with Imperialism. It raises the question, “is it always good to conquer and colonize?” Stoker leaves a lot of questions unanswered. He doesn’t allow the readers to see the Great Experiment or much of the aftermath. Stoker’s ambiguous ending paired with the events of the novel definitely show the fear of the powerful woman, but it also questions how we should deal with such powerful characters. The novel seems to state that it is the man’s place to conquer and rule, but also seems to question if the patriarchy always doing the right thing. The destruction of the patriarchy leads me to believe that whether Stoker was aware of his actions, he wrote a novel that questioned the patriarchy and imperialism. A risky topic enshrouded as a mummy experiment.
Sources:
Stoker, Bram. The Jewel of Seven Stars (Penguin Classics). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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