Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)
Studies - Szilvia Nagy: I Can Operate in the Dark—Bodies are Phosphorescent... Occult Modernism and Myth-Making in Djuna Barnes 's Nightwood
The myth of the "slain white bull" (70) also asserts that the death of the bull and the creation of the world brought along the struggle of Good and Evil on earth (The Legend of Mithras). In light of this, then, day and night inevitably entail the conflict of good and evil, a conflict that can be resolved by embracing both and neither. Matthew says that '[a] man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow as well as himself' (101), simultaneously referring to the bestial and the sinful side of the psyche. Matthew maintains that the struggle of good and evil begins in a person's life soon after they are born, but that "every child is born prehistorically" (115), equally "damned and innocent from the start, and wretchedly —as he must —on those two themes — whistles his tune" (102). Habit conditions people to suppress their evil side, but "[tjhere is not one of us who, given an eternal incognito, a thumbprint nowhere set against our souls, would not commit rape, murder and all abominations" (75). One becomes One only if they counterbalance the two opposites, which, in turn, will eventually neutralize each other: Don't I know that the only way to know evil is through truth? The evil and the good know themselves only by giving up their secret face to face. The true good who meets the true evil (Holy Mother of Mercy, are there any such!) learns for the first time how to accept neither; the face of the one tells the face of the other the half of the story that both forgot (116). This passage is analogous with the one about "neither man nor beast deprived" (36), and as animals are usually thought innocent by virtue of having no volition, it follows that Robin —a "beast turning human" (36)—is halfway between good and evil, "meet of child and desperado" (34). It is captivating that ever since her first scene where she was being awakened in the hotel room by the doctor, Robin had become part of culture in more ways than one: though reluctantly, she began to participate in public culture and take up habits and positions available within the framework of society. She got married, bore a child, visited the circus, and got involved in a relationship with Nora. She even "took the Catholic vow" (42), a move that was probably part of her "turning human" (36); but this move toward 'legitimate goodness' held no reward for her: 80
