Edinburgh

At the beginning of the course we were introduced to the Scottish depictions of Edinburgh and its inhabitants through the novel ‘Confessions of a Justified Sinner’ by James Hogg. In the novel we find a main character that is deeply unstable and unable to lead a normal life due to his inner struggle. In this first book we could already see one of the main topics that would be present in almostall the following books, the duality in the Scottish society and how it affected public and private life, also referred to as Caledonian Antisyzygy. It is in this notion of the existence of a dual persona that we can identify the principal issues regarding freedom and authority. The mentioned concepts are link together in a two-sided role but one that does not identify them as complete opposites butregards authority as a regulator of freedom. The later is subject to the will of those in an authority position. One could say that freedom does not exist without authority or even go to the completely opposite direction and state that because of authority one is never utterly free. In this essay we will try to determine the relation between authority and freedom and how, combined with theduality of the Scottish society, affects the depiction of Edinburgh and its people.
Before analyzing the effect of duality in the concepts of freedom and authority we must first identify what types of authority and figures in possession of it the books we have read have depicted. There are mostly three different types of assertion of authority represented. The first one is the figure of a leader thathas the authority within a group and it is clearly the regulator of the amount of freedom the other members of the group retain. The clearer example would be the one found in ‘the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’. The next one is the absence of authority and how it turns the characters that it affects into automatons, with no purpose in life, lost in a sea of needs that are not vital needs. Life hasturn into a commodity, as has everything else that embodies life. The inexistence of a future or of a past, the constant and inevitable present that force the characters to think only about today and the needs of now. And it is those needs that require fulfillment that push the characters into senseless situations and the unavoidable loss of self in a commodity centered society where the authorityis inexistent and the freedom is restricted by the urge to meet those daily needs. This purposeless society is portrayed in Irvine Welsh ‘ Trainspotting’. Finally we find a character that represents the authority. He is the embodiment of the law and the one in charge of restricting and setting the boundaries of where does one person’s freedom start and where does the freedom of the next one begin.In this role we find detective inspector Rebus. In ‘Set in Darkness’ as well as in ‘the Falls’ we find a Rebus that is tired and unmotivated, he is always in conflict with himself and how his position as an authority figure he has responsibilities to fulfill and ultimately he fails, at some point, to represent the valid figure to be in charge of the freedom of others.
Another important factor totake into consideration regarding the topic of the essay when analyzing any Scottish fiction is the duality that appears in their texts. The duality between what is good for oneself and what it is expected from them, the struggle to break from Predestination. Predestination is found in Calvinism and consists of the impossibility of humanity to please God. Only a few chosen ones will be saved andglorified, a few that God has chosen himself in his almighty powerful figure, there for no matter what humans do, how many good of bad deeds they fulfill, only a pre-chosen ones will be saved. In ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ there is a clear example of predetermination, the only difference is that the figure that chooses the destiny of the girls is Miss Brodie and not God. One of the most...