False Mirror Opposites

Beyond the wonderfully done humor in Heidi Schreck’s Creature is a fascinating story of a delusional woman who neglects everything in her life in a foolish attempt to become a saint. Wanting nothing more than to give her confession Margery gets a vision of Jesus Christ himself in purple robes. From there a story unfolds of a woman suffering of visions of a demon haunting her looking for the best way into sainthood.

The most interesting dynamic in the play is how similar and dissimilar the wants of Father Thomas and the Nurse Eliza. The Father at first glance is a pretty simple character who simply wants to help the poor and be closest to god in the most direct way possible. The nurse on the other hand is on the other side of the spectrum with a very selfish desire of Margery’s husband, John. She’s willing to do absolutely anything for him even dabble in witchcraft which in the fourteen hundreds was about as serious as one could get.

Looking further on in this Father Thomas is technically a heretic with his very against the rules beliefs with the english bible and the various odd things he would tell Margery. He’s even aware that what he’s doing isn’t allowed and that people are starting to talk about it when John confronts Father Thomas late at night for his relationship with his wife with “I can say that to you right? There are rumours you’re a bit of a free thinker.” (49)

While the Nurse’s love for John may be scandalous it’s not at all nefarious with her showing instant regret as soon as she believes that possible witchcraft could be the reason Margery is acting so peculiar she goes to Father Thomas and asks if there is anything she can do “Father is there such a thing as witchcraft?” (61)

Continuing this she asks if him more questions saying that it is her sister that has done the possible witchcraft and she wants to help her. Obviously it’s truly about her and Eliza is just trying to save her reputation. This does show that she truly does not want to hurt Margery but was so swept away in her pursuit for John’s love that she tried to do anything she could.

Is going for love a bad thing? Whether it be with a mortal man or the almighty God himself it will probably always be a selfish thing. You could say Eliza or Father Thomas are both selfish for what they did to get what they wanted or you could argue that they did the right thing to get what they wanted. That’s the quandary with giving your all for love, it’s a fickle thing and if you go too far you might have lost everything and not have even gotten close to what you wanted.  “What is sweetest in love is her tempestuousness, to die of hunger for her is to feed and taste; Her despair is assurance; Her sorest wounding is all curing to waste away for her sake is to be in repose; Her tender care enlarges our wounds Her table is Hunger.” (23)

Works Cited

Schreck, Heidi. Creature. Samuel French, 2011.