Advanced Higher Critical Essay

Task: Show how duality plays an important part in James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and
Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

"Duality, the state of having two parts or aspects, has an important role in James Hogg’s
masterpiece, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.’ Robert Wringham,
the novel’s dark anti-hero, is plagued by inner conflict throughout his life – which is
recorded in his “memoirs” – and by a fear that he has a “second self” over which he has
little or no control. This second self seems to represent Robert’s darkest desires and
appears to carry out evil deeds in his likeness, but Hogg’s inclusion of a double narrative,
that of the Editor, makes it impossible to determine if this is merely a figment of Robert’s
imagination, or the devil drawing out his dark desires in order to damn him to hell. The
duality between different characters, the duality of the narrative and the duality within
Robert’s own mind all allow for a full exploration of the dualities within society, religion
and the individual human heart in this clever, complex text.

The Editor’s narrative is used as a device by Hogg to provide a historical context to Robert’s
story, which is set some one hundred years before Hogg wrote it. Dual characters are used
to illustrate the schism in religious thought which caused rifts in society, and to draw
attention to the fanaticism and hypocrisy which Hogg believed was rife amongst the clergy.
These differences are highlighted first of all through the Editor’s description of the Laird of
Dalcastle, a ‘droll, careless chap’ who enjoys drinking, dancing and music: “He danced, - he
snapped his fingers to the music, - clapped his hands and shouted at the turn of the tune.”
By contrast, his new wife, we are told, “was the most severe and gloomy of all bigots to the
principles of the Reformation.” The Editor’s clear bias here towards the Laird and his way
of thinking is as effective as the contrast between these two characters in illustrating the
dual nature of Scottish society: just as Rabina, the Laird’s wife, is depicted as looking with
“pity and contempt” towards her husband because of his enjoyment of such “sinful”
activities as music and dancing, so too is the Editor, some hundred years later, still
displaying a clear bias against the “principles of the Reformation” that Rabina embodies.
The Editor is here thus made out to be as much of a bigot as the reformers that he criticises,
revealing that Hogg was just as sceptical of the superficial, hypocritical perspective of
“learned” intellectuals of his own day – characterised by the Editor – as the narrow, rigid
views held by puritan reformers a century earlier.

This dual nature of religion in Scotland is further made clear to us through the contrast in
the characters of Blanchard and the Reverend Wringham. The Reverend Wringham
symbolises a basic religious hypocrisy, a hypocrisy that Robert Burns also criticises in Holy
Willie’s Prayer. Wringham more than once tells Robert to “set his face” against wicked men
and welcomes him as one of the “just made perfect”, a society to which he claims to already
be part of. Yet this same man lives, unmarried, with Robert’s mother, and it appears likely
that he is indeed Robert’s real father – both “wicked” and “sinful” in the eyes of the church.
He also tells Robert that he “wrestled” with God for Robert’s salvation but at last
“he [Wringham] had prevailed”, which is surely blasphemy in itself. In contrast, however, it
is through the character of Blanchard that Hogg makes clear his own views on religion.
Blanchard is characterised as tolerant, moderate and wise: he gives Robert sound advice,
delivers popular sermons to his congregation and, Robert even admits, is “eloquent and
powerfully-minded”. He tells Robert that both he and Gil-Martin are “carrying these
[religious] points [about pre-destination] to dangerous extremity”, advice which seems to
epitomise Hogg’s point about religious fanaticism perfectly: it is Robert’s obsessive belief
in pre-destination that ironically leads to his ultimate destruction, both of body and soul.
Blanchard’s explanation to Robert - that such extreme views on pre-destination muddles
religion into “chaos”, so that human beings cannot determine what is good and what is evil
– allows Hogg to deliver his own warning on religious extremism, a message which he
solidifies through the events which unfold in Robert’s narrative. Therefore, the dual nature
of religion in Scotland is revealed: hypocritical extremists who do not practise what they
preach are placed side by side with the more moderate views of clergymen such as
Blanchard, who surely voices Hogg’s own view that true Christians should be humble,
reasonable and compassionate.

It is the backdrop of the duality within society which allows for a full exploration of the
duality in Robert’s nature and provides some explanation as to the inner conflict that
torments him. Robert is torn throughout his memoirs between an attraction to sin and a
terror that because he cannot stop sinning and cannot repent all of his sins he will be
damned to hell because he is not one of the elect. He is clearly drawn to sin but is held back
by his fear of retribution and his knowledge that sinning is wrong. He admits he is
“particularly prone to lying” but has not broken more than four of the Ten
Commandments. In fact, his preoccupation with sin and repentance often, at the start,
reveals more of a desire not to sin than to commit evil deeds: “There were many of the
most deadly sins into which I never fell, for I dreaded those mentioned in the Revelations
as excluding sins, so that I guarded against them continually.” And yet, it does become clear
that Robert struggles inwardly against the side of himself which is drawn so much to sin,
and the side of him which knows that sin is wrong because it goes against God: “I went on
sinning every hour, and all the while most strenuously warring against sin.” It is made
apparent, therefore, that the issue of duality is explored most fully through Robert
Wringham’s character, which seems to embody and magnify the conflict that exists in the
human ability to desire to be both one thing and something completely different at the
same time; namely, to wish to do wrong and yet to wish to be good. Hogg also seems to
suggest here that it is a healthy fear of divine justice which keeps this duality within human
beings in check. As humans we are all subject to sinful thoughts and desires, but a sense of
morality derived from religion holds us back from acting upon the worst of those desires,
just like Robert who initially holds back from committing any “excluding sins” for fear of
God’s wrath.

However, it is after his “reverend” father’s declaration that he has been admitted into the
“just made perfect” that Robert loses most of his fear regarding hell and indulges more in
the darker side of his nature. Gil-Martin, Robert’s mysterious friend, draws out his deepest,
darkest desires but Hogg makes it impossible to tell whether Gil-Martin is a psychological
projection of Robert’s own sub-conscious desires or an evil supernatural being there to
persuade him to give in to temptation. Either way, it is Gil-Martin who “frees” Robert from
the restrictions placed on him about sinning, and does so through his constant persuasion
that Robert need not now fear retribution for his sins, essentially suppressing the more
moralistic side of Robert’s nature. And yet, Robert is never quite able to completely
suppress these fears. He tells us that “my heart at times shrunk from the shedding of life-
blood” but nonetheless after killing Blanchard that he “felt considerable zeal in our great
work”. This same inner conflict can be seen in Robert’s “secret longing” to kill George, his
brother, and his very genuine apprehension of doing just that when he thinks of “the awful
thing of plunging a fellow creature from the top of a cliff into the dark and misty void
below.” Robert’s word choice of “awful” and “fellow creature” suggest a real understanding
of the enormity of murder, which appears to be removed from his personal terror of
retribution for such acts, and indicates a sincere conflict in his soul, further emphasised by
his own admission that he “had not the heart” to do it. The inner turmoil between his
desire to kill and please Gil-Martin and his apprehension about the act of murdering his
brother causes him to lie on his face and weep. Thus, Hogg suggests that a belief of
exemption from divine justice fans the conflict between such inner desires and is therefore
damaging to the body and soul: Robert finds himself increasingly unable to cope with the
conflict between within himself.

It is this inability to cope with the duality of his own nature that brings about the “second
self” that Robert refers to many times in the novel. It is unclear whether this second self is
a case of split personality disorder, perhaps to allow Robert to free himself of his
conscience and commit his most evil acts without risking mental breakdown, or if this
“second self” is Robert’s own body when it has been possessed by Gil-Martin, the devil.
What is clear is that Robert’s “second self” indulges in the most heinous of crimes whilst the
other self has no memory of doing them:

Either I had a second self, who transacted business in my likeness, or else my body
was at times possessed by a spirit over which it had no control, and of whose actions
my own soul was wholly unconscious.

If Robert is indeed possessed by the devil then it is not entirely true that his “own soul was
wholly unconscious”. Whilst Robert may have no memory of the actual deeds committed,
he certainly has knowledge of the thoughts he has previously had with regards to such
sinful acts, when he described himself as a “champion” of the Lord, who would purge the
world of sinners. Therefore, if Robert is possessed by Gil-Martin, it is clear to the reader
that it is because of his own sinful thoughts and previous acts of murder that he has
allowed the devil to gain access to his soul. The duality of his nature is represented by the
fact that he still maintains a more innocent side who at least has doubts and who cannot
understand how the church is in any way “better or purer” after the murder of his brother.
Nevertheless, Robert claims that to “shake [Gil-Martin] off was impossible” and says more
than once that they are incorporated together in a way that means he cannot separate
himself from Gil-Martin, suggesting that his two natures are not two separates, but one
whole, entwined in a way that cannot be undone. This idea seems to be reinforced by
Robert’s absolute terror of Gil-Martin at the end of his narrative when he sees the future as
a “darksome waste” full of “terrific shapes” from which he cannot escape. It is a petrifying,
shadowy place and the reader cannot but think that it is not through choice that Robert
remains there. However, one of Robert’s final conversations with Gil-Martin is
illuminating, in which he asks Gil-Martin if it is true that he has two souls, which take
possession of his body by turn. Gil-Martin responds: “We are all subjected to two distinct
natures in the same person” but goes on to describe how his spirit changed and so did his
whole nature, suggesting therefore that only one nature may take precedence in the end.
For Robert, despite his ability to weep over regrets about “what [he] might have been and
what [he] really had become”, it is the darker side of his nature which eventually dominates
him because, Hogg suggests, his rigid belief in pre-destination renders him unable or
unwilling to repent: “my fate is inevitable.” Antinomianism allows the darker side of his
nature to take hold and leads him to believe that repentance is useless or impossible.

Finally, the double narrative further confuses matters because it throws up dual
interpretations of the text. The Editor presents Robert as a “monster” with no redeeming
qualities whatsoever and in language heavily loaded with negative connotations, such as
when he describes him as a “dogged animal” who “so well deserved” the punishments that
he is given. Yet, Robert’s own narrative suggests otherwise. In the end, whilst the readers
recognise the odious crimes committed by Robert, we cannot help but remember his
description of a boy who was “born an outcast in this world”, whose heart “quaked with
terror” at the thought of being rejected by God, and of the absolute assurance given to him
by his “reverend” father that “all the powers of darkness shall never be able to pluck
[Robert] again out of [his] Redeemer’s hand.” Contrary to the Editor’s narrative, Robert’s
narrative thus makes it very obvious that he is not purely evil and makes the duality within
his nature, and thus the natures of all human beings, very clear: he has in all probability
committed very evil acts, but he is nevertheless not the “monster” that the Editor says he
is.

Thus, duality in this text assumes an important function: it allows for an exploration of the
divisions within Scottish society and religion and makes a deeper exploration of the impact
of some of these discords within the mind of one individual character. Hogg also
successfully explores the threat associated with religious fanaticism, the hypocrisy of such
religious fanatics, and how pre-destination can be a dangerous concept to some because it
removes fear of divine justice and encourages those souls who believe they are pre-
destined for heaven to think they are elevated above others in society. On a more
psychological level, Hogg explores with precision and insight, in this wonderfully intelligent
novel, how the duality of one’s nature can lead to an inner conflict that becomes all-
consuming and eventually ultimately self-destructive."

Other possible things that could be discussed:

 Duality of characters – editor and Robert; Robert and George; Bell Calvert and
Arabella Logan; M’Gill and Gil-Martin; Drummond; Gil-Martin and George
 Dual interpretation – psychological/supernatural
 Duality of language – Gil-Martin (i.e. “it is my bible”)
 Duality of Gil-Martin and his likenesses (takes on the forms of those he speaks to)
 Double narrative (i.e. the tennis matches/George’s murder etc.) and the dual
interpretation of events