There are three elements in the literary world that always appear to be constant throughout stories: skeletons, rain, and magic.\u00a0 G.K. Chesterton explores these elements within the pages of his essays: “A Defence of Skeletons,” “<\/em>The Romantic in the Rain,” <\/em>and “Magic and Fantasy in Fiction.”<\/p>\n In “A Defence of Skeletons,” Chesterton opens the essay by comparing the bare, leafless trees of winter to the naked human skeleton.\u00a0 He explains that some individuals frown upon the state in which barren trees appear, lifeless and dark.\u00a0 As humans, we become unnerved at the thought of a cold, wooden structure standing out in the open for all to see.\u00a0 We prefer a brighter atmosphere with warmth and blossoms, something lovely to cover the ugly.\u00a0 Why it is it that we often cringe at the sight of such a natural thing?\u00a0 Chesterton explains one insightful theory: \u201ca strange idea has infected humanity that the skeleton is typical of death\u201d (Chesterton 6).<\/p>\n Throughout literature, the skeleton indeed has been used a symbol of death and it is not too difficult to comprehend why.\u00a0 When someone\u2019s life comes to an end, they are buried and overtime the flesh and organs decay away, leaving behind a pile of bones.\u00a0 However, Chesterton claims otherwise, he calls the skeleton \u201cthe essential symbol of life\u201d (Chesterton 7).\u00a0 The skeleton is an important and very much necessary tool of the body.\u00a0 Without a skeleton every animal and human would be practically formless and weak.<\/p>\n Chesterton dives deeper into humanity\u2019s fear of the skeleton, by taking the nature of pride into consideration.\u00a0 It is in our worldly nature to possess an amount of pride in the skin that covers our skeletal frames.\u00a0 For if we were to strip away our sacred exterior, we would discover we have a \u201cserious objection to being undignified\u201d (Chesterton 7).\u00a0 When stripped of dignity, we become vulnerable creatures, constantly worried others may get a proper glance of our skeleton and foundation.\u00a0 Pride clouds the eyes of insight with rose tinted vanity and devalues the beautiful purpose of skeletons.<\/p>\n Much like humanity\u2019s distaste towards skeletons, Chesterton believes the public\u2019s dread of rain is equally confounding.\u00a0 His essay “The Romantic in the Rain,” focuses on the positive qualities of rain rather than the ever pessimistic claims uttered by bitter individuals.\u00a0 Chesterton describes rain as an \u201cinspiring and delightful thing\u201d (Chesterton 57).\u00a0 This description proves to be fairly accurate when one considers how often rain is present in literature.\u00a0 It is a force that saturates the pages of British literature, from Shakespeare\u2019s King Lear <\/em>to Hardy\u2019s Far from the Madding Crowd<\/em>.<\/p>\n Rain is also a method of cleansing: \u201cits giant brooms and mops seem to reach the starry rafters and starless corners of the cosmos\u201d (Chesterton 57).\u00a0 Not only does it cleanse the sky, it washes over the various surfaces of earth as well as its inhabitants. Yet, more often than not, people insist on scurrying for shelter at the first signs of a downpour.\u00a0 Could it be that we are so proud that we willingly refuse to stand under the purification of precipitation?\u00a0 Chesterton expresses that some individuals feel \u201cundignified\u201d when stalking the streets, drenched from an unwanted \u201cpublic shower.\u201d<\/p>\n What does dignity matter once one marvels over the beauty rain provides?\u00a0 The fragrance of trees and flowers heightens, the very atmosphere appears to become thicker and fuller.\u00a0 Furthermore, every object rain touches is polished into a gleaming piece of creation; \u201cit is like moving in a world of mirrors\u201d (Chesterton 59).\u00a0 There is purity, beauty, and poetry in the idea of throwing dignity to the wind and simply basking in the rain.<\/p>\n For the daring souls who are brave enough to appreciate skeletons and rain for their worth, it should be quite painless to admit an interest in magic.\u00a0 Chesterton examines the elements of the unreal in “Magic and Fantasy in Fiction.”\u00a0 While most tend to focus primarily on the dark and malevolent side of magic, Chesterton draws attention to both black and white magic.\u00a0 He claims \u201cthere is no reason within reason, why literature should not describe the demonic as well as the divine aspect of mystery or myth\u201d (Chesterton 227).\u00a0 It is imperative to paint a clear picture of good and evil in literature, they both exist within reality and fiction.\u00a0 In every fairytale one is sure to find a brave hero and a wicked villain battling against each other to the end.\u00a0 The same can be said for everyday conflicts in the real world.<\/p>\n Just as heroes and villains exist within the pages of a book and the earth we walk, light and darkness occupy them as well.\u00a0 Chesterton focuses on the various sorts of light and darkness found in fantasy.\u00a0 In literature, two natures of magic are most frequently mentioned: white magic and black magic.\u00a0 The color white symbolizes purity, while black is commonly tied to death and immorality.\u00a0 Black magic is used with harmful intentions and white magic is said to conquer the opposing force.\u00a0 \u201cMagic for magic\u2019s sake, like art for art\u2019s sake, is found in fact to be too shallow, and to be unable to live without drawing upon things deeper than itself\u201d (Chesterton 230).\u00a0 There are profound lessons to be learned from stories of good versus evil, it is the magic that opens our minds to these entities.<\/p>\n It seems nearly impossible to imagine a world deprived of skeletons, rain, and magic.\u00a0 For what would we be with only our organs and flesh?\u00a0 How would we survive on a land lacking water?\u00a0 Would we continue to wake from our slumber with hopes of defeating dark forces?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Miranda Alexander There are three elements in the literary world that always appear to be constant throughout stories: skeletons, rain, and magic.\u00a0 G.K. Chesterton explores these elements within the pages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-studies","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2005,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions\/2005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}