Psychological black magic, the illegitimate use of subtle forces, is an unseen influence of particular interest. This blog is full of examples of and references to it. I have learned what to look out for over the years, and I have recently seen some material in Carole Angier's biography Jean Rhys: Life and Work that suggests to me that psychological black magic was at work in Jean Rhys's life.
This article covers a small coincidence involving names that reminds me of something similar in the life of Charlotte Brontë, with whose work Jean Rhys was very familiar.
First, some basic information.
Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre
Jean Rhys read Jane Eyre as a girl in Dominica. It made such an impression that decades later she wrote a prequel in the form of Wide Sargasso Sea, her most admired and commercially successful novel.
I suspect that her imagination was particularly stirred when she read that Mr Rochester's wife also came from the British West Indies – Mr Rochester brought Bertha Mason home to England from Jamaica.
I also suspect that Jean Rhys wished that an English gentleman, someone similar to the romantic Mr. Rochester, would do the same for her! He would rescue her; he would take her away from her unsatisfactory life.
She was sent away from Dominica to school in England in 1907, the year of her 17th birthday. She hoped to find a feeling of belonging there. She may also have hoped to meet the English gentleman of her dreams there. As Mr Rochester says to Jane Eyre:
“...the mountain will never be brought to Mahomet, so all you can do is to aid Mahomet to go to the mountain...”
Lancelot, Leslie and two men called Arthur
It is my first-hand experience of several intriguing cases involving two names that sound or are spelled much the same that has caused me to notice similarly significant names in the lives of people of interest.
I see a big clue in the names of two men in Jean Rhys's life; one was her first 'saviour' and the other was her second husband.
She found her wealthy English gentleman, an aristocratic stockbroker, in 1910. His name was Lancelot Hugh Smith. He did not offer marriage however, and he ended the affair around two years later. He was the great love of her life and she never forgot him.
Her second husband, a literary agent, was called Leslie Tilden Smith. They met in 1926 and married in 1934.
The similarity of the two names, including two letter Ls in both first names, makes me think it likely that Jean Rhys wished and wished that Lancelot would take her back, but Leslie eventually got sucked in instead. This may seem very far-fetched, but it is less so when put into various contexts.
There are other examples of such wishing and getting on here, including one involving Charlotte Brontë and two men with the same first name.
It was many years ago that I first noticed a possible connection between Charlotte Brontë's passionate interest as a girl in the dark and romantic Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington and the later appearance in her life of a dark man called Arthur Bell Nicholls, the man she eventually married. This was first mentioned in the article about being careful what you dwell on.
Supporting material
Another clue is that both of these English gentlemen were very different from what Jean Rhys thought they were and wanted them to be. As Carole Angier reports, they were similar to her on the inside; they were shy, nervous, uncertain, fearful, insecure and weak as opposed to being the strong, stable protectors of her dreams.
This to me is a dead giveaway.
Getting the opposite or a travesty of what was hoped for is very common when people use illegitimate methods to get something they want, as is the 'last person scenario'.
Falling for a glamorous image or false front, wishful thinking and even desperation are often found, as is the spiralling down feature. Lancelot Hugh Smith was not tough, passionate and aggressive like Mr Rochester, but he was at least rich and high class; Leslie Tilden Smith was on a lower level in every respect. The difference between the Arthur that Charlotte Brontë wanted and the Arthur that she got is relevant here.
Incidentally, the Duke of Wellington was part Irish and Arthur Bell Nicholls was Irish. It may be relevant that both Jean Rhys and Charlotte Brontë were of Celtic origin.
One of the many editions of Jean Rhys's final and most successful novel:
