Wieland

“Some readers may think the conduct of the younger Wieland impossible. In support of its possibility the Writer must appeal to Physicians and to men conversant with the latent springs and occasional perversions of the human mind. It will not be objected that the instances of similar delusion are rare, because it is the business of moral painters to exhibit their subject in its most instructive and memorable forms. If history furnishes one parallel fact, it is a sufficient vindication of the Writer; but most readers will probably recollect an authentic case, remarkably similar to that of Wieland.”

The authors “Advertisement” raises the question of who he believes his audience is. To a modern audience, inundated with true crime and police dramas, the events of the story seem, if anything, commonplace. The author may have felt he needed to prove that such things could happen, lest the readers would be unable to suspend their disbelief long enough to read the book.

“My state is not destitute of tranquillity. The sentiment that dictates my feelings is not hope. Futurity has no power over my thoughts. To all that is to come I am perfectly indifferent. With regard to myself, I have nothing more to fear. Fate has done its worst. Henceforth, I am callous to misfortune.”

These are seven highly negative statements. As the negatives mount up, the reader senses a degree of melodrama and excess. At the time of this writing, Clara is still out of balance. She has yet to go through her final transformation by fire.

“A Bible was easily procured, and he ardently entered on the study of it… Every fact and sentiment in this book were viewed through a medium which the writings of the Camissard apostle had suggested. His constructions of the text were hasty, and formed on a narrow scale. Everything was viewed in a disconnected position. One action and one precept were not employed to illustrate and restrict the meaning of another. Hence arose a thousand scruples to which he had hitherto been a stranger. He was alternately agitated by fear and by ecstasy. He imagined himself beset by the snares of a spiritual foe, and that his security lay in ceaseless watchfulness and prayer.”

Wieland Sr.’s idiosyncratic religious philosophy is founded on the same kind of error that leads his children and their families to disaster. Like him, they lack an overarching principle to unify the observation of the senses. These principles include, “The simplest explanation that explains all the facts is probably the truth.” (Occam’s razor) and, “The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.” (Sherlock Holmes, “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire,” by Arthur Conan Doyle)

From the description of his early life, Wieland Sr. seems likely to have been experiencing the onset of bipolar disorder, beginning with general depression and moving into a hypomanic episode characterized by obsessiveness and anxiety.