The Wonderfully Awful Miss Clack

"Once self-supported by conscience, once embarked on a career of manifest usefulness, the true Christian never yields. Neither public nor private influences produce the slightest effect on us, when we have once got our mission. Taxation may be the consequence of a mission; riots may be the consequence of a mission; wars may be the consequence of a mission: we go on with our work, irrespective of every human consideration which moves the world outside us. We are above reason; we are beyond ridicule; we see with nobody's eyes, we hear with nobody's ears, we feel with nobody's hearts, but our own. Glorious, glorious privilege! And how is it earned? Ah, my friends, you may spare yourselves the useless inquiry! We are the only people who can earn it--for we are the only people who are always right"   (Collins 227)

Miss Clack from The Moonstone has to be one of the most-hated characters in all of literature. Not only is she nosy and judgmental, Miss Clack is clearly sexually repressed. She feels it is her personal duty to "save" the souls of everyone in her family, and puts on quite a show for the reader in doing so. Wilkie Collins obviously has a reason for including such a character in his story, and I believe she serves a largely symbolic purpose. Miss Clack is a symbol for the type of religious people who are the furthest thing from the embodiment of Christ, and are the very kind of people who turn others away from religion.

This idea of the symbolic nature of Miss Clack developed for me all throughout her narrative, but specifically when she says the quote above. It baffles me that she could say such a thing and not hear all of the things wrong with what she is saying. For example, "We see with nobody's eyes, we hear with nobody's ears, we feel with nobody's hearts, but our own." This is an awful thing to say because Christians (and decent people in general) are supposed to be empathetic, charitable, and loving to all others, and think of themselves lastly. Seeing issues and ideas from another person's point of view and understanding their opinion (whether you agree with it or not) is one of the most important parts of human interaction, and she is completely closing her mind to that. Also horrible, she goes on to say that the only people who earn the "glorious privilege" are men and women exactly like her. They are the only ones who receive this because they are "the only people who are always right." Any decent human being can see the obvious problems with this kind of mindset.

The other interesting thing about Miss Clack is the sacrifices she is willing to make in order to "share the good news" with people. She states, "Taxation may be the consequence of a mission; riots may be the consequence of a mission; wars may be the consequence of a mission: we go on with our work." What she is saying is that violence and money are necessary evils of the Christian faith (even though Jesus preached against both). Miss Clack seems to have no regard for the Jesus of the New Testament, but chooses instead to focus on the fire and brimstone hell of the Old Testament. Jesus preached about compassion, love, empathy, and mercy; Miss Clack, on the other hand, presents a superior attitude to the "sinners" around her. Sure she says she's trying to save them, but Miss Clack is a terrible example of the Christian faith. It is no wonder that all of her family members avoid her.

Miss Clack is clearly one of those narrators that readers love to hate. She is absolutely horrible, but also provides a sort of comic relief. Her superior attitude to everyone around her is quite funny at times, and the way she "clacks" on and on about how pious she is makes the reader both hate and pity her. I don't believe that Collins had a personal vendetta against religion in general; however, I think it is quite clear that Miss Clack is a symbol of the worst qualities of "religious" people in general.