31 pages • 1 hour read
The Lifted Veil
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Symbols & Motifs
Veil
The motif of a veil is used throughout The Lifted Veil as a way to relate the revelations associated with death and truth that Latimer experiences during moments of double consciousness. Latimer’s power of insight acts to reveal the true natures of his family and companions, lifting the “veil” of Victorian manners and social personas to expose who they truly are as people (14). This is painful for Latimer, as the truth he discovers beyond this “veil” reveals those around him to be narrow-minded and often mean-spirited individuals. The lifting of a veil signifies the lifting of illusion and deception and is associated with the novella’s theme of how death contributes to a better understanding of other living individuals (and perhaps to the nature of consciousness).
Opal Ring
For Bertha’s 20th birthday, Latimer gifts her an opal ring—a symbol of the novella’s theme of public personas, private thoughts, and expectations in marriage. He is disappointed when he doesn’t see her wearing it to dinner that evening and confronts her, discovering that she instead wore it on a chain around her neck and hidden underneath her dress. She criticizes Latimer for his lack of faith and puts the ring on her finger: “It hurts me a little, I can tell you […] to wear it in that secret place; and since your poetical nature is so stupid as to prefer a more public position, I shall not endure the pain any longer” (17). The opal stone’s variations in color are associated with changeability, secrets, and beauty. In the context of the novella, Latimer’s opal ring symbolizes the changeability and mysterious nature of Bertha herself, whom he will never truly know until after they marry. That Latimer’s present is a ring symbolizes impending marriage in itself; that it is specifically an opal ring suggests the change their relationship will undergo after their marriage.
Mrs. Archer’s Reanimation
Mrs. Archer’s reanimation crystallizes the novella’s ideas about consciousness and sympathy. Throughout Mrs. Archer’s sickness, Bertha anxiously waits at her bedside to ensure that the maid does not accuse Bertha of trying to poison her husband. Mrs. Archer’s death seems to render Bertha’s secret safe forever, implying that death constitutes a final barrier between minds that even Latimer’s powers of insight cannot pierce: “I felt that Bertha had been watching for the moment of death as the sealing of her secret: I thanked Heaven it could remain sealed for me” (41).
However, after Mrs. Archer is revived by Meunier, she reveals Bertha’s plan before once again dying. The moment twists Latimer’s earlier remarks about death drawing the living closer together in sympathy; the insight Latimer gains from Mrs. Archer’s death marks his complete separation from Bertha. The physicality of Mrs. Archer’s “resurrection” also raises questions about the nature of consciousness. Although Latimer describes her “soul” as briefly returning, the fact that Meunier achieves this through a blood transfusion points to consciousness as material rather than spiritual. Finally, it is significant that Meunier performs this experiment on a working-class woman, as it speaks to the Victorian gender coding of (masculine) science explaining and systematizing the (feminine) irrational.
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