Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)
STUDIES - Anna Jakabfi: Regionalism and the Surgeon Figure in Hugh MacLennan's Fiction
The wish to operate is nearly a superhuman feeling which is connected to the desire of healing others' wounds, to cure people, to serve people in the noblest sense of the word. This is what Angus Murray is doing and plans to do when his plans for a happy private life with Penelope crumble, this is what Daniel Ainslie had been doing all his life, and this is what Jerome Martell is hoping to do once again in the West. The doctors achieve confidence, trust, respect, reverence and consequently authority in their community. When Angus Murray sets up his hospital in the Wains' house and takes hold of the place, even Aunt Mary, who had intensely disliked Murray "She hesitated, then looked directly at him. 'I have every confidence in you, Doctor.' He had heard this remark hundreds of times"... 4 Daniel Ainslie's hospital is called "the lighthouse over the whole town". 5 Daniel Ainslie tells a patient: "..this is the place where people are made right again. We're going to take good care of you. You're in the best and safest place in the world." 6 The hospital along with the doctors represents education, learning, culture, a behaviour set by a code of morale, consequently the surgeons reach out to the sick, the uneducated, the wretched, and want to save them. They want to cure the sick, educate the uneducated, psychologically heal the wretched, and serve society at large. They do not spare themselves in the process. As duty calls them, surgeons work irregular hours up to the point of complete physical and mental exhaustion. The fourth day after the explosion Angus Murray is on the verge of collapse. "Since Wednesday morning he had not had more than six hours' sleep, and although the strain and fatigue and the constant throbbing of his injured arm bowed his shoulders and made him appear like an old man, he was too nervy to want to rest. He wanted more than anything to be alone, he wanted to see something that had not been maimed or destroyed; above all, 4 Cf. op. cit. pp. 2, 173. 5 Hugh MacLennan, Each Man's Son (Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1971), p. 43. 6 Cf. op. cit pp. 5, 47. 50
