Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Empire Draws Back: The Remediation for Self-deception in Dangerous Freedom
Ching-chih Wang
ABSTRACT:
This paper aims to present a countervailing exploration of a historical figure Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mulatto who first appeared on the “Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and Lady Elizabeth Murray” painted by David Martin in 1779, and later represented by the prize-winning Caribbean novelist Lawrence Scott in his Dangerous Freedom in 2020. To shed light on the intricate relationships between Dido, her cousin Elizabeth Murray, and her legal guardian William Murray, the Earl of Mansfield, I apply theories of self-deception to argue that both colonizers and the colonized are practitioners of self-deception in a world where the invisible is always the most visible spheres of deception. Lawrence Scott intervenes in David Martin’s creation of the painting to disclose a sham while putting at large the pitfalls of self-deception. An artist possessing his poetic license, David Martin in Scott’s novel finds Dido such an “unconventional” figure that he must use some devices to solidify his authority. The mulatto girl on his canvas therefore becomes a “turbaned, bejeweled, bare-chested, dusky, tawny woman being ushered forward by Lady Elizabeth Murray’s gentle coaxing hand.” After secretly looking at the painting, Dido cannot but wonder if she is subtly ridiculed. This charade aptly manifests the self-deception implied not only in Lawrence Stern’s novel but also in the grand narrative of the British Empire. For Dido, the remediation for self-deception lies in her awareness that nobody should be given liberty. If the portrayal of the empire is subtly ridiculed, it displays nothing but the dangerous freedom the authorial power embodies.
keywords: self-deception, dangerous freedom, remediation, empire, Lawrence Scott