In the dark of the night...

As we journey through the novel and encounter the incidences when the characters hear the voice (or voices), the role of night time seems to always come into play. Wieland first heard the voice after a “storm had passed away, and a radiant moon-light succeeded” (34). This creates a dark setting for the encounter but I suppose the mentioned moon-light keeps the scene from being too dreary and suspicious at first. When Pleyel and Wieland went for a walk to discuss Wieland obtaining his land in Lusatia, they left some time during the evening and did not return until after “the clock struck twelve” (46). It was during this time the voice informed him of his lover’s death.  Clara hears the two voices plotting to murder her one night as she is up in her room, indulging herself in “gloomy thoughts” (63).  Once Clara wakes up from her dream, she is “surrounded by the deepest darkness” (72), as she had slept until night fall. When Pleyel heard a supposed conversation between Carwin and Clara, it was in the middle of the night.

 We can see that every single occurrence with the voice happens in the dark, during the night. I don’t think this is just a coincidence. I think the darkness gives the whole plot even more of a dreary, negative feeling. In class today, some mentioned that since the voice is cautionary, it could be harmless, and possibly even friendly. The voices were not cautionary when Clara heard them plotting to kill her. They ruined Clara’s relationship with Pleyel. Not every instance did they benefit the characters. I think the purpose of having every event occur at night is to give the voices a negative connotation and make the reader have even more of a suspicion of the voice’s intentions. I believe that the voices are not good and are not out to aid Clara or her family with anything. I can’t wait to finish the novel and see if the voices were for her destruction or aid.