“The Miser’s Children”
Psychologically, Abram Skinner is Sheppard Lee’s idyllic Looking- glass Self: “Yes, reader, I was now Abram Skinner in all respects, and I loved his children, as he had done before me. In entering his body, I became, as I have mentioned repeatedly before, the subject of every peculiarity of being that marked the original possessor: without which, indeed, the great experiment my destiny permitted me to make of the comparative good and evil of different spheres of existence, must have been made in vain. What my prototype hated I was enforced to hate; what he loved I found myself compelled in like manner to love.” The allegorical prototype conjectures that Sheppard Lee uses Abram Skinner as a model for his personality. Lee hankers to fit into Skinner’s personality in all aspects which results in him forsaking his original persona. Moreover, he models his emotions based on Abram Skinner’s which transforms him into a replica of Skinner.
Sheppard Lee’s confirms that he is a classic miser: “But all was in vain; the married Alicia was at last of age, and all I could do was to fling the matter into the lawyers' hands, so as to keep the money, the dear money, in my own as long as possible.” Sheppard Lee is not keen to settle Alicia’s legacy because it would be tantamount to losing the control of a portion of money. As a result of his reluctance to settle the legacy, his relationship with Alicia disintegrates. Accordingly, money ruins the chances of a gratifying relationship between Alicia and Sheppard Lee.
“The Catastrophe Of A Tragedy Often Performed On The Great Stage Of Life.”
Sheppard Lee explicates the repercussions of the horror of passing on: “I was roused by feeling a hand pressing upon my bosom; and, starting up, I saw, for there was a taper burning on a table hard by, a man standing over me, holding a pillow in his hand, which, the moment I caught sight of him, he thrust into my face, and there endeavoured to hold it, as if to suffocate me. The horror of death endowed me with a strength not my own, and the ruffian held the pillow with a feeble and trembling arm. I dashed it aside, leaped up in the bed, and beheld in the countenance of the murderer the features of the long missing and abandoned son, Abbot Skinner.” Sheppard Lee’s fright galvanizes his flight response which is intended to safeguard his life. The idea of dead which comes when he least expects shocks him greatly. Abbot Skinner’s trembling indicates that he is not confident with committing murder. If Abbot were coldblooded, he would have suffocated Sheppard Lee straightforwardly without any quivering.
Disproportionate alcoholism contributes to Abbot’s psychosis: “He lay, at times, the picture of terror, gazing upon the walls, along which, in his imagination, crept myriads of loathsome reptiles, with now some frightful monster, and now a fire-lipped demon, stealing out of the shadows and preparing to dart upon him as their prey. Now he would whine and weep, as if asking forgiveness for some act of wrong done to the being man is most constant to wrong—the loving, the feeble, the confiding; and anon, seized by a tempest of passion, the cause of which could only be imagined, he would start up, fight, foam at the mouth, and fall back in convulsions.” The hallucinations which dominate Abbot’s imaginations indicate that he has misplaced his sanity. Manifestly, all the days that he had vanished he had engaged in excessive drinking which impaired his mental solidity. Had his addiction been mitigated promptly the madness would have been forestalled. Abbot’s insanity triggers destructive thoughts such as the idea of murdering Sheppard Lee.
