Edgar Huntly: Or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker

Hands develop the theme of authorship throughout the novel. Edgar wants to “ascertain the hand who killed” (33) Waldegrave, while Clithero’s “hands” are “imbrued in [Wiatte’s] precious blood” (94) in a moment reminiscent of Lady Macbeth’s blood-spotted hands. The work of hands is creative as well as destructive—Clithero creates a puzzle box with “the workmanship of his own hands” (119) and Edgar handcrafts a cabinet with a secret drawer that “no hands but” (134) his could open.

Another creative act that hands engage in is handwriting; for instance, when Clithero is exchanging letters with Mrs. Lorimer, Clarice would sometimes add a “few complementary lines under her own hand” (67). In the late 1700s and early 1800s, a person could be identified by their handwriting. However, letters sometimes fall into the wrong hands, such as when Edgar’s letter to Sarsefield falls into the “hands” (260) of Euphemia Lorimer and causes her to have a miscarriage.

As an epistolary novel, the letters that make up the narrative mention correspondence between characters and include letters as objects and symbols. The absence of letters between characters signal a loss of communication and potentially a loss of love.