Blog #8 Quarter 2

I read the next few chapters of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and there has finally been some sort of plot developed! In the chapters I read in the last few days, strange things start to occur. The servants of Lady Pole and Sir Walter Pole start seeing a forest outside the mansion when there isn't a forest for 4 miles. They also start hearing the sad music and seeing a man with lots of white hair and a green velvet coat. Then the head servant of the household, Stephan Black, meets with the man that all the servants seem to be seeing and the man invites Stephan to his ball that the Lady Pole will also be attending. Then the Lady Pole and Stephan Black become more depressed and cold like they are living in a fog and they continuously have dreams of the man and his palace. Well none of this really made sense when I read it and was actually quite creepy, but most of it is explained in later chapters. We learn that the man is actually the fairy that Mr. Norrell called to to help him resurrect the Lady Pole and when he said he was going to take half of the Lady's life he really meant that he would let her stay in the human world and then at night he would pull her into the fairy world, but she became dull, distant, and cold in the human world because to her the human world was so very boring compared to the fairy one. The fairy also pulled Stephan Black along for the ride because he was so impressed with him and the fairy now plans to make Stephan a king in the fairy world. It's sort of confusing to understand, but I like it because the fairy is the closest person I have seen to an antagonist in this story so far. Meanwhile Mr. Norrell is attempting to rid England of all street magicians whom he considers rubbish.

One thing that I found amusing in the book is how Mr. Norrell is so boring to everyone and he even knows it so he keeps Mr. Drawlight and Mr. Lascelles with him at all times and they make small talk with all his visitors, boast about Mr. Norrell's achievements, relay Mr. Norrell's opinions on magic, and they also keep his guests entertained. It's like these two are Mr. Norrell's very own publicity agents!

Not only is Mr. Norrell very boring, but he is also very selfish. He claims to want to bring back magic to England and yet it is mentioned a few times how he doesn't want other magicians in England. So how exactly can he claim to want to restore magic to England? And are all his followers that blinded by his power that they don't see his selfishness and how he doesn't REALLY want to bring magic back to England? It's like they want to support him just because of his power and fame, not his ideas or morals and even though his supporters try their hardest to stand by and follow his supposed "want to bring magic back to England" he doesn't even stand by this idea. It's quite confusing and I don't really think that Mr. Norrell can really be the protagonist of this novel anymore because he seems to have more characteristics of an antagonist. So I think that Mr. Norrell either has to change drastically or another hero must have to appear somewhere in the novel.