Year of Wonders

1. Year of Wonders It is easy to underestimate the role of Michael Mompellion in the events that took place in Eyam in 1666. Six propositions

2. Proposition 1 Mompellion is the instigator of the key actions in the novel, which includes the final decision of Anna to leave Eyam. This makes him central to the action and the unfolding of events during 1666.

3. Proposition 1: elaboration • Preaches to quarantine Eyam • Had consulted Thomas Stanley • Thus a carefully considered decision • Had agonised over it: ‘had been thin lipped and taut as a bowstring as if struggling to control a terrible rage.” • The great burning when all villagers had to shed their possessions: villagers were ‘frowning’ and ‘shaking heads’ • Decision based on the death of Urith Gordon • Decides and announces end of quarantine • 2nd Sunday in August 1666 • The tragic moment

4. Proposition 2 Michael Mompellion is a complex character – more so than Anna and Elinor. He is a man of contradictions. This makes him more interesting than either Anna or Elinor. He is at once a loving husband, a caring priest, charismatic, physically strong, courageous, articulate and persuasive; but he is also ‘blind’, arrogant, proud and ultimately cynical. But then all the characters are ‘flawed people’.

5. Proposition 2: elaboration • Caring : takes in Elinor; stays with George Viccars and others throughout sickness; calms Anna when children eill; forgives Brand his theft; helps Maggie Cantwell • Charismatic: his voice focussed attention on what he said; ‘silken whispers’/’comforting’; gallant knight on Anteros. • Physically strong: lifts Viccars corpse ‘as if it were nothing’. • Courageous: confronts Col Bradford; confronts lynch mob; confronts Josiah Bont after Christopher Unwin’s grave is dug before he dies. • Intelligent and intellectual: his sermons are carefully thought through. • BUT:

6. Proposition 2: elaboration (cont) • ‘Blind’ to some things: fails to fully understand the developing relationship between Anna and Elinor. • Arrogant and proud: his treatment of Elinor throughout their marriage (despite loving her); ‘I thought I spoke for God. Fool. My whole life … based on a lie.’ • Capable of profound anger: Jane Martin

7. Proposition 3 Mompellion’s suffering is magnified because of The tragic and perhaps ironic fate of losing his wife, not to the plague, but to Aphra Bont who goes mad because of what the imprisonment during the plague does to her and her husband.

8. Proposition 3 - Elaboration • Ironically, it is Mompellion’s unwitting act in separating the skull of Faith Bont from her Corpse that sends Aphra into the frenzy that kills Elinor. • When the plague is over, there being no deaths in two weeks, Elinor is murdered. • Is he responsible for her death? Is he naïve?

9. Proposition 4 There is something tragic about how his life unfolds. He is a victim of his own arrogance and pride: he watches the villagers he came to serve suffer because of the demands he makes on them

10. Propsition 4: Elaboration • He watches villagers die knowing some may have survived had they been allowed to leave Eyam • Sees villagers turn in on themselves: Jane Martin, Kate Talbot, John Gordon, Martin Miller, Randoll Daniel, Aphra Bont, Josiah Bont. • ‘Wavers between rage and self-reproach … (becomes) more difficult to gather up words for sermons.’ • This becomes more articulate after the death of Elinor.

11. Proposition 5 Mompellion’s rise and fall is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the novel. His faith in God and his love for his people led him to argue that the villagers of Eyam self-impose a quarantine; he is betrayed by his faith and the people he chose to serve.

12. Proposition 5: Elaboration • His fall is the greatest: “I thought I spoke for God … all I have done, all I have said, all I have felt, has been based upon a lie.” (282) • Loss of his parish; loss of his wife; loss of faith – ‘And now it seems there is no God and I was wrong.’ • Because of ‘me’, many are dead and faith is lost. • The man who had worked tirelessly to help his villagers, will not rise to save Mrs Bradford – that is left to Anna.

13. Proposition 6 We empathise with Mompellion and want to overlook his faults because it is his lot as a preacher to tend to the dying, which he does with stamina and unflinching determination, while Anna and Elinor tend to the living. He realises his flaws and while he fails to help Mrs Bradford, he does offer help to Anna.