Terribly sorry for the long wait, instead of weekly I managed monthly, good thing I'm not getting paid for this or else I'd starve!
"Wild Children" Richard Roberts: Morality starts getting trickier when the sin goes into hiding.
Act I Scene II
Following quickly on the heels of the first act; we find Bray and Mr. Thornback, her teacher cum owner, living in the capital city. Despite her status as a beast of burden, Bray seems fairly happy. It turns out that she’s being treated better than most like her. Being unable to speak is a great impediment, but she can still read and it will turn out that she can even write in her own fashion. Soon enough we’re made aware that there is another variety of wild children - doves. We meet Mourn, a dove boy who, like the other doves of the city is very much convinced that their form is a judgment from God. This idea that donkeys did something to deserve their lot in life was previously hammered into poor Bray but then a new wrinkle is revealed - suggesting that maybe, just maybe, fate could be changed. Next we meet Master Vick, the Baron’s son. Overall he seems to treat Bray quite well, and all things considered, is a fine example of someone who doesn’t hate Wild Children and is susceptible to falling under their sinful influence. Luckily, his relation to the Baron offers a significant amount of leeway. Bray convinces him to escort her to the library and it’s there she finds a book showing that there is a plethora of species of Wild Children and all sorts of theories about what they were.
We are then reintroduced to Hind, who is in many ways the polar opposite of Bray. She has very few donkey features, and is therefore worth a great deal, and was sold to the Baron. She was also very stubborn and obstinate - the exact type of person who would naturally become a donkey! She had taken to her position with aplomb and learned to be the perfect decoration for her master. So, when Bray mentioned to Hind that she had met a dove and was thinking that perhaps she could become something else… Well, it went how you might expect it to ending with a slap from Mr. Thornback. Most certainly a turning point!
In the aftermath, a disconsolate Bray searches for Mourn, though she only finds a dove girl named Egg. Egg leads her to the home of the Doves, in the steeple of a city church! There we meet Coo, leader of the doves of the city. Coo has been assisting those children of the city likely to become doves, like Wolfgang with the wolves. She explains that to become a dove one must be judged by an angel. Yet, the price is steep; for all intents and purposes, one must die. To transition from donkey to dove once again, the old Bray would need die and leave behind Mr. Thornback. This is a cost Bray was unwilling to pay and things slip into passivity for a time; until Mr. Thornback had a heart attack.
With Mr. Thornback on his deathbed he promises to arrange for the Baron to take Bray, it was an act of caring on his part but also the impetus she needed to accept Coo’s offer!
In a predictable wrinkle of the plot, Coo was found to have been captured and taken to the Baron’s, leaving Bray to find a way to get her out. While frightening, it was not exactly a dangerous adventure, since Bray was already on the ‘inside’ - she was essentially allowed to be there. Meeting up with Hind, they work out a plan to get the key so as to free Coo, which they do. The final escape isn’t any more difficult, but retribution is to be expected.
Once freed, Bray and Coo meet at the chapel where there is a ceremony for choosing the path of the dove, and she is given an elixir to drink, which turns out to be a poison! With mere moments to live, Bray runs to Mr. Thornbacks bedside. She reaches him moments before his death, and after a kiss, collapses.
When she wakes, she is in a city under a city, mechanical and filled with shades of people. Meeting up with Mourn he acts as her guide. Almost despite his guidance she traverses the challenges and gates meant to stop the unworthy, until she came face to face with the clockwork angel. In discussion between Bray and her the angel interlocutor it becomes obvious that it is the angel’s decisions what Bray’s fate will be, it appears the angel is not limited in the fashion the fountain of youth was. Because of Bray’s love for and her innocence she is able to convince the angel to bring Mr. Thornback back as a wild child. The angel examines both their souls represented as glowing balls and goes so far as to crack Mr Thornback’s in its ministrations. They would be lost to one another, but this was a fate she feels is much better than death. After that decision, the angel passes its judgment and renders Bray a phoenix. In passing, the angel imparts the wisdom that nothing that just happened is real, but that the after-effects very much will be.
Bray then wakes on the floor where she had fallen, hours later…and takes flight.
THE ANALYSIS:
The second scene is barely ten pages longer than the first but I feel like so much more happens here. I suppose that is because the mythos of the world is being given flesh and the first was more about characterizing Bray. This is vital, because if the reader is to accept the clockwork angel’s judgment we need to know Bray for exactly who she is.
Now that we have our base for viewing and judging the other characters, we can dig into what is truly going on. The first scene revealed the cracks we saw in imposing edifice of the Church’s Wild Children lore. Now, I think its safe to say that its broken entirely. From an outsider’s view we can see how the punishment ethos is not a justifiable explanation for why Wild Children exist. In comparing the clockwork angel and the fountain of youth as passages, we see that one is a trial of sorts and then other just sort of happens. It is vital to the story that ‘judgments’ are not permanent - they CAN be changed by opposing powers! While this view is opaque, I believe that a parallel can be drawn between the major religion described through the cathedrals in this world are is an analogue for Christianity. This means that in this world there are opposing powers above and beyond just the God/Devil dichotomy - there are multilateral powers than can override one another. The paths to access this power that we have seen have involved drinking a cordial and a beer - which is interesting. The former was described directly as a poison, and the beer had the same end result but none of the adventure of the city. Both a cordial and the beer are intoxicants, its heavily implied that its drinking that strong beer that causes the first set of changes, but we its considerably more complex than that with the cordial As the blocks fall into place there are many questions we still want answered, but it is clear that the answers we’d been given up until recently were a convenient fiction as told by the Church - but to what ends?
Let’s dip a bit deeper into mythology here. I’m rather excited that I get to bring up one of those high-scoring words, Psychopomp. A Psychopomp is a being that leads souls/etc to their judgment/afterlife. I am going to argue that both Wolfgang and Coo are just that. They do not judge themselves, but rather, act as guides and conduits in connecting those passing to their destiny. Clearly, no-one is dying when they become a wild child, that is, beyond a metaphorical idea of death. And yet, the “lost” are lead to spots of judgment and given a drink which takes them to their destiny. The best example for now is Hermes and Charon - Hermes would lead the souls to the edge of river Styx and then Charon would ferry them to the underworld. This matches quite well up with Wolfgang, Coo, and the Clockwork Angel. This means that I am considering the long extended life of a Wild Child to be an afterlife of sorts, but if you will bear with me, I think it actually an alternative life. We have seen the phantom cities, the twisted creatures adults become, and we have met the clockwork angel. There is obviously more to this world than what we can easily see. There is a whole world to explore here but we have only the barest peek as of yet.
We’ve not even touched on the new knowledge that some Wild Children are mythical creatures, nor that a Phoenix is immortal and ascribed all sort of powers. We also cannot be sure which of these powers that Bray may possess, but this lends credence to the existence of dragons and other mythics as well, competing demi-gods! I think I must leave these fascinating possibilities alone for now, but I hope your whistle is as whetted as mine!
