In The Bondswoman’s Narrative, Hannah tells of the portrait-lined drawing room in her master’s mansion with eerie qualities. His ancestor Sir Clifford De Vincent is said to have “ordered his portrait and that of his wife to be hung in the drawing room, and denounced a severe malediction…against any possessor of the mansion who being of his name and blood should neglect to follow his example” (16). Judging by the story of the old woman, the dog, and the linden tree, Sir Clifford was an incredibly cruel man who represented the pure evil of slavery, and the portrait hall remains as a haunting, aristocratic reminder of his legacy. The portraits of generations of slave owners seem to be watching and judging every move made by the room’s entrants, and they serve as slavery’s constant reinforcers in a mansion that is now in the hands of a relatively “good-tempered” (6) master. The drawing room is a fascinating setting that seems almost to be alive, as it shifts, warps, and moves to punish those who challenge the tradition of slavery that Sir Clifford and the white south worked to uphold and build society around.
The room’s strange atmosphere and supernatural qualities lend the evil of slavery a palpable presence at Lindendale. The first time Hannah enters the drawing room, it seems to react to her presence, as she feels “surrounded by mysterious associations” and “filled with superstitious awe” (17). She describes how “movements like those of life came over the line of stolid faces as the shadows of a linden played there” (16). In her eyes, many of these white, slave-owning faces soften and change for the better, becoming “relax[ed],” “gracious,” and even angelic (16-17). Subsequently, a rush of power and enlightenment comes over Hannah and she states, “I was not a slave with these pictured memorials of the past,” and “they could not enforce drudgery, or condemn me on account of my color to a life of servitude” (17). While her thoughts are powerful, her dreams of autonomy are unachievable at Lindendale under the grasp of slavery (as demonstrated by the banishment of Aunt Hetty, the primary source of Hannah’s freedom and self-fulfillment). The face-shifting of the mansion’s past slave owners hints at deception, and it is as though they are enticing her with the prospect of freedom, challenging her to disobey the system of slavery they have built. The rush Hannah feels is stemming from the mere fact that these people no longer physically exist to inflict their wraths on her, and she feels power in that they are confined to death and frames while she is alive, looking at them. But the portrait subjects still manage to inflict their wrath upon deviants in supernatural ways.
The space also reacts to the fact that Hannah’s master has unknowingly married a born slave. When the wedding party moves through the room, the guests are disturbed by its eeriness and the creaking of the linden tree just outside. Moments after the master declares that he plans to cut down the tree, Sir Clifford’s portrait clashes to the floor. This event carries an overt supernatural quality and is a direct expression of Sir Clifford’s disdain towards his descendent’s tainted marriage and decision to remove the tree, which serves a reminder of his relentless pursuit of dominance over his slaves. Later in the text after the master learns the truth about his mistress, he commits suicide in the portrait room under the gaze of his Sir Clifford and the rest of ancestors. The master has carried out his own punishment for violating the laws of slave-owning, and his ancestors serve as witnesses, pressing him to carry out their will. All of this was foreshadowed by the premonition Hannah had when she entered the room for the first time that “some fearful tragedy” was soon to take place, and she witnessed the portrait of her master’s face “change from its usually kind and placid expression to one of wrath and gloom” (17). The atmosphere in the room palpably shifted to warn her and create this sense of doom. On multiple occasions, we see that the room serves as more that a static setting where events take place; rather, it plays an active role in guiding its entrants to take certain actions and think certain thoughts through atmospheric and visual shifts, disturbing sounds, and supernatural events. This insidious setting reinforces the text’s obvious critique of the sinister entity of slavery and its deep-rooted, generational nature.
Questions:
How does the linden tree outside the room contribute to this setting (the drawing room)?
List a couple of adjectives you would use to describe/characterize the drawing room.