If Titus Groan was the story of the rise of
Steerpike and forced the audience to sympathize with him, Gormenghast is
the fall from both power and grace, only coming after attaining his highest level
of power. Titus Groan was set around
the first two years of the 77th Earl of Gormenghast’s life while Gormenghast
covers the much larger period of Titus’ adolescence as he grows into adulthood
and usurps his father’s murderer. While
this is the main thrust of the novel, Mervyn Peake once again makes much of the
novel weave in and out of several subplots and explorations of the castle of
Gormenghast itself. Be it Irma Prunesquallor’s
wishes to find a husband among the schoolteachers of Gormenghast, Titus’ foster
sister inspiring Titus through her feral ways, or the normal goings on of the
castle, Peake’s prose is beautiful from the first page and the insanity of the
characterization has only increased since the first novel. Titus as a character is allowed to have far
more focus in this second installment, mainly because he is no longer a baby,
although Peake does spend plenty of time around Titus. Titus grows to be a generally isolated child,
the only one of his family to truly see the world for what it is and the possibility
of life outside of it. He comes into conflict
with his schoolmasters and family at several points, and his focus is largely
on unmasking Steerpike before it is too late.
Peake also keeps going after Steerpike’s life is ended, if only briefly
to bring into focus Titus’s isolation and longing to leave the castle and see
the world. The novel ends with Titus’
exit with one final installment to follow that thread in particular.
Gormenghast castle as a setting is once again fascinating
as it has expanded since Titus Groan, the reason Gormenghast is
named after the castle is because it is also a central character with its own
quirks and wishes. Its inhabitants continue
their routines and rituals, one of the most engrossing sequences of the book is
a ritual during Titus’ tenth birthday where Titus is constantly questioning the
need for these rituals, why Sepulcrave would have left the Earl alone, and just
what it means to really hold power.
Steerpike’s ambition is representative of unchecked power, he has committed
five murders and is responsible for a sixth death, the death of Fuschia. An early death is of Nanny Slagg, part of his
plan to isolate Fuschia and take advantage of her in more ways than one so he
can drive a wedge between her and the family.
While Titus Groan established Fuschia as especially naïve, Peake develops
her character further in Gormenghast, exploring her relationship with Titus
and their mother, Countess Gertrude, to great effect. The death of Nanny Slagg is actually only a
minor sequence in the novel, but it is still one of the integral sequences to
what makes Gormenghast work as a novel.
Steerpike isolates Fuschia, kills her aunts after isolating and hiding
them away from the rest of the castle, and is only brought down when a
delirious Fuschia ends up dead. Steerpike
is also prone to the madness of the castle, amplifying his villainy with his
own madness. Peake is careful to show us
Steerpike’s actions outside of his mental processes in Gormenghast so
the fall is put in sharp contrast with the ambitious man who wished to change
the castle with his power out of stagnation, something despite everything he
manages to do just not in the way that he expected. Titus is the Earl that can affect change and
that’s the brilliant thing about the novel, that it’s all really about this mad
castle.
Overall, Gormenghast despite being longer and
equally as dense as Titus Groan it excels far more than the first with
Mervyn Peake bringing together a far more interesting plot and adding more over
the top characters into the mix. It’s a mad
ride of a novel from start to finish that weaves in and out of the madness of the
isolated upper class of a world that makes no sense while one boy tries to find
his place and meaning into it. 9/10.
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