The Devil’s Elixirs is predominantly a first person narrative related by the Capuchin monk Medardus. Although the majority of the action is related from the viewpoint of this monk, the immediate difficulty for the reader is that Medardus is perhaps the most unreliable narrator in the whole of European fiction. He is ignorant of his family history and is only dimly aware of his own childhood; while what he does know is based upon fragments of memory and a few events his mother has explained to him. He seems at times unable to distinguish a work of art from a real person or differentiate reality from dreams and mental aberrations. He seems uncertain in his own mind whether his actions spring from divine or diabolical motives. His ability to lie convincingly to others frequently leads him to deceive himself. He dissociates himself from his crimes to such an extent that he becomes convinced that they were committed by someone else, while he is able to rationalise away other acts of wickedness on the most specious of arguments. He has a tendency to form a hostile opinion of others very rapidly if they disagree with him, often ascribing a paranoid malice to their motives. When he discovers that he has erred in his judgement, he is apt to form an opposite and equally unreliable opinion of them based on his own remorse. He does not write this manuscript of his own free will, but as an act of penance and this too colours the manner in which he presents himself.
One would scarcely trust such a monk to read the evening sermon, never mind letting him loose on compiling an authentic account of his own life. It is impossible to rely on either his interpretation of events or even at times the events themselves so much are these distorted by his own idiosyncratic personality. Although a large proportion of his historical circumstances and family history are revealed throughout the course of the novel via independent corroboration or by individuals who have a more ready grip upon the world, many specific and discrete episodes defy definite explanation.
The Devil’s Elixirs, therefore, maintains a highly sophisticated narrative position, which plays subtle games with the reader’s expectations and reactions. This requires a close and continual engagement with the text to unravel the various threads which are being wound together. A novel related in the first person nearly always encourages sympathy for and understanding of the central character but it is perhaps one part of the seductive and human nature of this book that despite perceiving Medardus to be such an evidently flawed and imperfect individual, this ultimately makes his plight more credible and endearing. Medardus’s superior at the monastery is all too aware of the cracks in the monk’s psychological make up, but this does not mean that he shuns him from the order. Rather, to recognise these imperfections and subsequently to achieve control over them is a fundamental part of man’s struggle with evil in the fallen world.
The Devil's Elixirs - A Classic Gothic Tale By ETA Hoffmann
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