Not What It Seems
Metaphor, when combined with irony, can be a terrifically effective tool for revealing character. The following quote from the narrator when removed from context sounds pretty deep and profound. When placed in context, however; it reads differently: the context here is being forced to back down from facing off against a better shot.
"It is a dim, inclement land, God knows: and the spirit of darkness and distraction is there."
“charnel of festering vices and crimes”
The novel is perceived as a sort of Biblical allegory and so there are more than a few references to scripture and Biblical events. For instance, the events of the poisonous cloud giving the book its title is referenced with allusion to Bible stories which focused on “only the best sorts of people.” But for every that requires the heroism of those people can be found
“putrid wretches—covetous, false, murderous, mean, selfish, debased, hideous, diseased, making the earth a very charnel of festering vices and crimes.”
Reverend MacKay...MacIntosh?
This is a story about an expedition to the North Pole and the consequences resulting from the various ill-fated decisions to become a passenger aboard the ship on that expedition. The narrator begins with the admission that his memory has become weak. He can’t seem to remember whether a minister was named MacKay or MacIntosh. (It was MacKay. Probably.) The minister and the narrator’s state of looms large here because prior to the launch of the ship, MacKay—or was it MacIntosh—was engaging large masses of people with his dire prophecies warning of disaster should the trip to the North Pole be successful. According to the narrator’s memories of more lucid times, this minister:
“seemed like a man delirious with inspiration.”
The 89th Parallel: Hell
Crossing over the 89th parallel line of latitude takes human beings officially in the Arctic world generally deemed unfit for long-term human survival. At least for fictional purposes. Here, in a purple cloud of imagery, is the narrator’s description of how crossing over this metaphorical (and imaginary) line affects humanity:
“It is a cursed region—beyond doubt cursed—not meant to be penetrated by man: and rapid and awful was the degeneration of our souls. As for me, never could I have conceived that savagery so heinous could brood in a human bosom as now I felt it brood in mine. If men could enter into a country specially set apart for the habitation of devils, and there become possessed of evil, as we were so would they be.”
The Aftermath of the Cloud
Safely protected from the effects of the purple cloud inside the ship at the North Pole, the narrator can only come to realize what took place during his absence from the apocalypse by reading the accounts of others. As the effects of the cloud grow more apocalyptic, the descriptions become more immersed in Biblical-style metaphor and imagery, such as this excerpt from a newspaper, The Kent Express:
“Hell seems to have acquired this entire planet, sending forth Horror, like a rabid wolf, and Despair, like a disastrous sky, to devour and confound her.”
