Jack the Ripper
A Cultural Phenomenon
Subject: MA
Thesis
Table of Contents: Page 3: Introduction
Page 8: Chapter I: Jack the Ripper, Victorians, and the Graphic Novel A: The Final Solution. Page 12.
B: From Hell. Page 13.
C: From Hell: Background, composition and story. Page 19. Page 22: Chapter II: Poverty
A: Poverty expressed visually. Page 28. B: Language of Poverty. Page 30. Page 39: Chapter III: The Occult
Page 47: Chapter IV: Politics Page 60: Conclusion
Introduction
This brings us to Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's From Hell. A graphic novel first delivered as a series starting in 1989, finished in 1992, and collected in completeness in 1999, the subject matter of From Hell focuses on the conspiracy theory set forth by Knight. Yet when reading the 499-page novel, Moore's excellent research becomes all the more obvious, as we see, in image and text, a depiction of late Victorian England which is as powerful a message as the main dramatic and
storyline content. Involving almost every element of British society in the late 19th century from queen
Victoria's court to the most impoverished conditions in London's slum quarters, both works expose themes of the Victorian era that are often well known but rarely discussed due to, among other reasons, their horrid implications for the historical nationalism of the British Empire.
This thesis will analyze the Victorian era from a cultural perspective. From Hell will be the main medium of this thesis, with Final Solution serving as the stepping stone for an analysis of the Victorian era, but also of the graphic novel and its expressive idiosyncrasies. Moore and Campbell have gone beyond Knight, reflecting not only on the Sickert account of events but also drawing in many aspects of society in the Victorian era. With all its details and definite non-fiction elements as evinced by the almost scientifically argumentative and elaborate appendix, From Hell becomes more than a graphic novel; it is a research project of cultural history as well. Together, the media involved and a rumination on the era's context will shed a hopefully original light on the peculiarities of the Victorian era and its liminal power.
The Victorian era is a time that exists in a continuum between modernity and progress on the one hand and history and conservatism on the other. It is generally accepted that the Victorian era is compatible with the period of the Queen's reign, which lasted to January the 22nd in 1901 and started on
refer to it as 'era' and not as 'age' in most cases as both words are similar but 'era' refers to the reign of the Queen, and I see it as a form of a badge of honor. In a society defined by its sovereign, both conservative and progressive forces with an effect on society were not ethically definable in black and white terms. For example, progress could mean an entire village's people going bankrupt because their work was brought to a factory in a big city, but also an advancement towards systems of universal suffrage. Conservatism could stand for strong feelings of nationalism and pride of British
accomplishments, or be equally applied to the far-reaching oppression of women in the Victorian era that is well-documented and much reviled. In essence the Victorian era is a liminal age, existing on the brink of bursting into modernity, yet relentlessly clinging to the past. 1
Liminality is one of the core concept of the thesis, both in the historical sense as in the literal sense as employed by the graphic novel. Liminality, derived from the Latin word Limen(a threshold), means a state of being where the actor is neither here nor there; it exists in a state of transition. 2
Originally conceptualized in the field of anthropology, the word referred to (religious) rituals, where the participant has enacted the requirements of the ritual but has not yet completed the process. Over the years, the concept of liminality was broadened to encompass not only rituals, but also to define periods in time. Since the concept of liminality has both a spatial as well as a temporal aspect, applying the idea to a graphic novel feels appropriate. Methodologically, what is important for this thesis is the translation of contextual themes from a non-fiction 'novel' to a graphic novel. Analysis of this process will focus our metaphorical looking glass by going beyond the murders and looking at the almost all-encompassing liminality of the Victorian Era. The thematic underpinnings of the Victorian era are what weaves both works together, because they expose both cultural context as well as intellectual
1 “Late Victorians” Norton Anthology of English Literature, eighth edition, volume 2. Ed. By Greenblatt, Stephen and
others. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. page 1635.
history. Yet not only these factual points matter. From Hell is also a story, fiction, but one so influenced by the era it takes as its setting that the background and context of the situation become something else entirely; it almost becomes a project of cultural history, realized as a graphic novel.
From Hell is a massive work, spanning fourteen chapters and 499 pages. Every page is arranged in a nine-panel framework, with exceptions here and there where a page contains three or even one image. The chapters are arranged with pauses in the action. These pauses are accomplished by
including a page in front of every chapter which contains a snippet of fitting background from various disciplines in art. This varies from quotes of classic poets like Vitruvius, to paintings by Blake, to portraits of the people important in the chapter. Every first page of a chapter is accompanied by the chapter title in the first panel, which is always black with contrasting white letters. From Hell thus has a clear structure, and despite the periodic nature of the work, this structure allows the reader to
experience the entirety of the work as a whole. An example is provided below, which also conveys the sense of menace that accompanies the grisly murders.
Chapter I: Jack the Ripper, Victorians, and the Graphic Novel
Every nation has its heroes. People raised to pedestals of fame because of their inspiring deeds. Jack the Ripper, as an English national 'treasure' of sorts, is one of these people on a pedestal, but for entirely different reasons. It feels like common sense that an infamous serial killer should not be a national symbol. Oddly enough, Jack the Ripper seems to be an incarnation of Englishness, if only because of the moniker 'Jack'. London knows its fair share of 'Jacks' with fanciful names:
The penny-bloods had for years been chronicling the exploits of Gallant Jack, Left-handed Jack, Roving Jack the Pirate Hunter, Jolly Jack Tar, Arab Jack the London Boy, Blind Jack of Knaresborough, Gentleman Jack, Jack Harkaway, Jack the Giant Killer, Jack Spry, Jack's the Lad, Jack at Eton, Moonlight Jack King of the Road, Sixteen-String Jack the Hero
Highwayman, Spring-heeled Jack the Terror of London, Three-fingered Jack the Terror of the Antilles, Thrice-Hung Jack, Jack O'Lantern, Jack O'the Cudgel, Jack O'Legs, Jack and Joe the troublesome twins, Slipper Jack, Jack Rann, Jack Junk, Crusoe Jack and, most famous of them all, Jack Sheppard.3
This may not seem serious, yet this nomenclature adds to understanding about the character. Jack the Ripper is not a person, as a definitive answer to the case of the so-called 'East End Killings' in 1889 has not been found yet. Jack the Ripper is, and especially over a hundred years after said killings, a cultural phenomenon. Countless writers have tangled with 'Ripperology' over the years, and have created quite
3 Ho, Elizabeth. Postimperial Landscapes "Psychogeography" and Englishness in Alan Moore's graphic novel
a few books dealing with investigations into the matter. However, such theories add to the idea of Jack the Ripper as a cultural phenomenon, by stressing time and again the Victorian character of the situation surrounding the murders. Taking place in the East End of London, the killings were targeted at poor women in one of the most dilapidated districts of the city. More specifically in the Whitechapel neighbourhood of the East End. On political level, this drew attention to the living conditions in the British Empire, especially as Whitechapel is a slum area geographically right next to the Empire's financial heart, the London City. Great Britain, from the time of its inception, has always had a4 democratic institution in the form of Parliament. However, said parliament was only pseudo-democratic, in the sense that voting rights were severely restricted to already privileged social classes. In addition, Victorian Great Britain was a rather class-conscious society, were division of socio-economic status was still largely determined by a person's birth rather than his merit. 5
As the Ripper story acquired international fame , emerging socialist and republican political6
forces used the story to draw attention to the squalor in the heart of the Empire. From a historical viewpoint, the focus of the British Empire shifted to external matters again in the wake of the world wars, but that did not affect the resurgence of the Jack the Ripper phenomenon later in the 20 thcentury.
In 1973, the BBC decided that they would devote resources to a new investigation into Jack the Ripper. The television network commissioned several journalists to work on this investigation, including Stephen Knight. The early 1970's were, in the sense of journalism, characterized by the advent of the so-called 'New Journalism', which was a style of journalism that resulted in investigative books, written
4
https://maps.google.nl/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=whitechapel+gallery&fb=1&gl=nl&hq=whitechapel&cid=14182328945629 04015&ei=xP2qUr3aOqGe0QWDzIG4CQ&ved=0CKMBEPwS
5 Palmer Page 578
6 Davenport-Hines, Richard. “Jack the Ripper”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University
in a style that approached fiction. Popularized in the United States by people like Truman Capote, New Journalism was not a 'style' in the sense of a distinct art style bound by certain tropes or techniques, but rather a new approach to investigative journalism. Knight's research was presented in his book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. Knight's theory is based on a series of conversations he had with Joseph Sickert, son of Victorian painter and royal court confidante Walter Sickert. Sickert Junior spins a tale that is at first incoherent, but with Knight's further probing and the aid of multiple high-ranked yet anonymous people from organisations such as Scotland Yard and the English Chapter of Freemasons, a conclusive conspiracy theory emerges. In essence, The Final Solution offers the idea that in order to protect the interests of the crown, the British Prime Minister at the time, Lord Salisbury, had the authorities under his command deliberately cover up the actions of Sir William Withey Gull, the Queen's Royal Physician in Extraordinaire. The conspiracy theory develops by adding the idea that Victoria herself ordered Dr. Gull to kill the five women because they were attempting to blackmail the crown for the paltry sum of 10 pounds. The blackmail, however, is rather important; the women said they were aware of the bastard child prince Albert Victor, Victoria's grandson, had sired with a friend of theirs, sweetshop employee Annie Elizabeth Crook. Further details will emerge later in the course of this investigation.
novel From Hell. Moore takes the subject matter, and adds a pastiche of Victorian themes, characters, and occurrences. Even though Moore expands on Final Solution, the main storyline is still Sickert's account of events. Where Final Solution is a non-fiction book written in a fictional style, From Hell is fictional. With a birds´ eye perspective, the reader of From Hell sees the story unfold from the principal characters' viewpoints and is treated to a complete experience of the elaborate conspiracy theory.
It is not so surprising that for the privileged classes the Victorian era was an age of decadence, giving prevalence to secret societies and fraternities such as the Freemasons with activities that went beyond being easily dismissed as mere cults. Freemasonry cannot be proven to be involved with the many things attributed to it, but that it was, and is, a useful locus of conspiracy is without doubt. Knight and Moore use the Freemasons as an actor that have a firm hand in the events of Sickert's story, and they are in effect the primary antagonist of the story. Add interest in paranormal 'research' and occultism to masonic conspiracy theories and the world of the Victorians is filled with a pang of mystery that adds to the sense of distance between ages. It cannot be said that things did not change considerably during the timeframe of the Victorian era, but when change occurred it did so rather slowly and with painful fits like the infamous Bloody Sunday . 7
One such atrocity was not committed by the state or a secret society, but by Jack the Ripper in the East End of London. Nearing the end of Victoria's reign, the savage mutilations of 'unfortunates' brought the squalid existence of many Britons to the foreground of international media, and created a true looking glass on the problems of the age. The books written about the Ripper, except for the purely fictional ones which undoubtedly exist, have to take the social and political issues of the Victorian era
7 There are two 'Bloody Sunday' incidents in British history. Here I refer to the incident with the socialist movement in
into consideration. Ripperologists spent decades rifling through the files and newspaper clippings of 1888 and 1889, constructing the cultural, social, and political issues of the time to support their theories about the Ripper. From Hell deals with most of the subthemes involved with misogyny and other Victorian 'values'. Final Solution provides some essential background, and Moore adds his own research and historical fancy to the mix. Together they weave a pattern that permeates the story, adding reasons and a motive to Dr. Gull's killing spree. As such, Victorian values as expressed in From Hell are essential for our analysis.
The Final Solution
Before we can tackle the graphic novel, we need to begin with the medium of Knight's Final Solution. As this book is the starting point of the story that led to the creation of From Hell, and we are looking at how Victorian themes translate from one work to the next, knowledge about the inception of Final Solution is essential background. Knight wrote Final Solution in 1976, a time characterized by rebellion against conservative elements in Western Society and the advent of mass media like television. There were certain to be many more reasons, but suffice it to say the 1970's were an excellent climate to work on forms of documentation that were not conservative in any sense. New Journalism, as it became to be known, was more of an innovation in style than a revolution in Journalism per se. There are distinctions to the term; some define New Journalism as
'underground-counter culture, spawned from the rebellion against institutions seen as corrupt and hypocrite' . Others do attempt to define New Journalism as an emerging 'style' with specific points. 8
James E. Murphy, in his article The New Journalism: A Critical Perspective sees the innovation in
journalism with a three-pronged view. According to Murphy, New Journalism is “an artistic, creative, literary reporting form with three basic traits: dramatic literary techniques; intensive reporting; and reporting of generally acknowledged subjectivity” Knights' 9 Final Solution conforms to Murphy's
definition quite easily. Knight acknowledges that his information is subjective, as it primarily emerges from Sickert's story as recorded by the author. The rest of the book continues with a multitude of chapters, III to XVI, in which every detail of Sickert's story is dissected in a very intensive fashion, with newspaper clippings, police statements, and historical background thrown in. Finally, the book is written in a way that allows it to be read as 'infotainment'. A sense of suspense is maintained by Knight's priorities in arranging the subject matter, peeling off layer after layer of the mystery he summarized at the start. There are a few flaws though, most notably Knight's conclusions at the end of every chapter. Whilst certainly interesting and plausible, Knight's 'resounding, uncompromising evidence' is often mere conjecture. Final Solution is not factual or well-supported; it merely spins an effective yarn that is certainly probable in the light of other conspiracy publications about the subject. One thing can be said in its defense though: Final Solution has a wealth of sources and background ruminations that will be quite helpful in a thematic analysis.
From Hell, a graphic novel
What is a graphic novel? Before we can understand and define the graphic novel, the genre's
predecessor, the comic book, needs to be addressed. In his book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott Mccloud makes an attempt to define the genre. The book itself is written in the art form it defines, creating an in-genre perspective on the subject matter. Before going into depth about the
9 Murphy, James E. “The New Journalism: A Critical Perspective”. In Westley, Bruce H. Journalism Monographs(The
requirements and methods involved with the creation of comics, Mccloud presents the following definition:
“... Comics are: Juxtaposed Pictorial and other images in Deliberate Sequence.” 10
Mccloud asserts that one could see film and television similarly, as a filmreel is, in essence, an
incredibly fast sequence of an enormous amount of pictures that follow each other. The difference lies in the occupation of space. Where a film or television series is projected on exactly the same surface, the screen, each frame of comics must occupy a different space. An essential difference, as time does 11
for film what space does for comics. This has a significant effect on the experience of the subject, as not only the time required to experience a comic fully is by definition longer than that of a film, the space a comic occupies is, when flattened, far larger than that of a film. But the true benefit of sequential art based on space, is the liminal power that is contained in the gaps between panels. That liminal space is filtered out by the human eye automatically in the case of film, yet allows for endless personal investment in the case of a comic. Mccloud uses a murder scene with two panels as an example. In the first panel, we see an angry man wielding an axe shouting towards a second, scared man the words “now you die”. In the second panel, we see a cityscape with a scream in a text balloon at the top. It is never specified that the scared man is the one that utters the scream. It is, of course, heavily implied, but the point here is that between those two panels, the scared man could have died a
10
Mccloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Tundra Publishing, 1993. Page 9.
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thousand times, or not, or some other person screams in the second panel. The point is that the mind automatically 'fills in the blanks', which is the singular province of the comic as an art form. As such, there is an additional element to the experience of the reader. This liminality that exists between the panels of a graphic novels is of interest to the analysis of the medium, because it allows for imagination in a way that neither of the medium's components can achieve on their own. According to Mccloud, there are several indices of the relation between word and Image in a graphic novel, varying from mostly image-based to mostly language-based. Most of From Hell is interdependent, in the sense that the two aspects complement each other. There are however instances in the novel where there is no language, yet Campbell's drawing still communicates with clarity and quality.
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A good example of Campbell's use of the contrast between black and white is in the depiction of threatening situations. Often, this involves dr. Gull, as he is the main antagonist. Except for the character's final moments, he is generally dressed in a black coat with top hat. This increases the gravity of his appearance, and always focuses the composition of the panel on Gull. In the following image we see how the blackness of Gull dominates the scene. He appears to flow into the composition from the bottom left corner, drawing the eye away from the words in the panel and towards the black lake that is Gull's presence.
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Another example shows the threatening power of the black-clad characters. Here we see a couple of freemasons, who are identifable by the ring with their symbol worn by the freemason on the left. They are intimidating Theodore Dycke-Acland, Gull's son in law. Again, we see the blackness emerging from the edge of the panel, but in this case the composition is focused on Acland. He is surrounded and cannot seem to escape his predicament, an experience accomplished by the look on Acland's face, but primarily through the effect of being 'sandwiched' between two threatening villains. As an extra detail, the freemason on the left can be clearly identified as such because of his visible symbolic ring.
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Campbell makes good use of gap liminality and black and white contrast, but also has the ability to communicate a great deal of meaning without needing the assistance of language. An example of the expressive quality in Campbell's work can be found in the final scene about Montague Druitt, the unfortunate scapegoat that conspiracy theorists have speculated about in several books. Although the death of Druitt has little impact on our thematic and historical analysis, the following panels evoke exactly the kind of liminality and power of visual expression that From Hell provides. On the panel below we see the drowning of Druitt, as his life fade away when he sinks. Cricket was about the only thing Druitt could derive excitement from in life, and that experience is added to his death scene. This creates a contrast between life and death, as Druitt walks away from the cricket field when his life fades. In the seventh panel, we see the remnants of a sunken bedframe, along with the image of Druitt 'lying down'. This gives an idea of rest, but the situation of the bed on the bottom of the Thames makes it feel rotten and final, two metaphors closely associated with death. All these details contained in just nine panels convey a sense of melancholy, mourning and loss. That these emotions are achieved
C: From Hell: Background, Composition and Story
A way of utilizing the hybrid qualities of the graphic novel lies in the application of a storyline that transcends restrictions of its medium. Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell is a nexus of Victorian themes, which allows both aspects of the graphic novel to manifest widely different
incarnations of said themes without getting in the way of each other. From the way Campbell draws his panels, to the characters' dialogue, the entire novel breathes the foggy, grimy and chokingly oppressive atmosphere of the time. Moore based the narrative of From Hell on the conspiracy theory set forth by Stephen Knight, and added his own hypotheses and speculations to the mix. There are several
point-of-view characters that can be identified in From Hell: Inspector Abberline, Dr. William Withey Gull, Coachman John Nettley, Psychic Detective Robert Lees, Walter Sickert and of course the ladies of the evening who fell victim to the Ripper´s attentions. These prominent characters are based on real persons with as much accuracy as possible. In an enormous exposé occupying the last 30 pages of From Hell, Moore elaborates on the choices he made for his storyboard. Moore personally researched not only the Sickert story, he attempted to go beyond Final Solution as well. Moore found the books and articles beyond the 80´s to be uninteresting in the sense that they were either just as speculative as Final Solution or incredibly sensationalist . However, he did find a few alterations to the Sickert story, 15
mostly involving an allusion to the infamous Aleister Crowly and his cultic religion. Unfortunately, 16
the 'Crowley connection' turns out to be a rather elaborate hoax. Still, Crowley makes a small cameo appearance in From Hell as a young boy, but like other cameo characters such as the world famous ´Elephant Man´, Moore includes him only as a temporal reference. The relevance of such cameo
15 From Hell Appendix I
16 Aleister Crowley was an occultist, soothsayer, 'magician' and medium. His invented religion, known as Thelema ,
characters is beyond me, except that they do seem to suggest a sense of real-world weirdness and mystery that has not survived to the modern age. In any case, the presence of these cameo characters suggests an elaborate research plan. Moore and Campbell even go so far as to provide an extra strip in a second appendix in which they explain how they started work on From Hell, including their rendition of Stephen Knight´s success. Everybody in From Hell talks or monologues from their own perspective, whether they are hallucinating or not. Sometimes, characters speak quite a bit in a single panel. One of the most verbose scenes is the entirety of Chapter IV. Dr. Gull elaborates extensively about his ideas of the psychogeography of London towards his dull-witted coachman Nettley. Words and image are executed with good effect there, as we both see the elaborate monologue as well as depictions of the characters´ locations that are at once described in background qualities by Moore´s Gull, and shown in the panels of Campbell's London. Often, Moore and Campbell manage to create this quality, whether it is because of cockney accents in grimy pubs, or grand Masonic visions in the open country. From Hell has it all, and there is in fact so much to discuss and see in the graphic novel that restrictions on content will have to be set in place. In either case, From Hell is a masterpiece of juxtaposed sequential art, both because of the elaborately researched themes as well as the depiction of those themes in word and image.
Finally, the themes we can distill from the troubles of the Victorian era are based off of the enormous inequality that resulted from rapid industrialization combined with conservative values. Poverty, class distinctions, misogyny, 'jingoism' , and Christian religious principals resulted in scandal 17
upon scandal and the associated socialist and liberal political agitation. The Reform act of 1832 dissolved the problems with the Rotten Burroughs, but only in theory, as the masses of working-class people were still barely represented. Slowly but surely during the Era, suffrage rights were expanded,
and at least political inequality began to decline slowly. Many of the themes exposed by Jack the Ripper as a cultural phenomenon are intertwined, but for the sake of scope and clarity we will focus on three. One, the murders in context; poverty and squalor in the London East End. Second, Victorian conspiracy; Freemasons and the occult in England. Third, politics; laws and their enforcement,
Chapter II: Poverty
Verelendung. A German word, coined by the famous, and to some infamous, Karl Marx. It is quite hard to translate into English, as it can only be described as a process. The process, in this case, of the continuous deterioration of the proletariat classes, who depend on the capitalist bourgeoisie for their income and upkeep. The word was rather apt, as Marx' observations and theory seemed to be coming true in Victorian Britain. As we have explored in the background, the Victorian era was filled with glaring inequality. Extreme poverty was everywhere, whilst unimaginable wealth loomed but a few kilometers away. Naturally, most of the industrial problems suffered in the period were not
concentrated in London, but hordes of dirt poor people called the city home nonetheless.
The East end is no walk in the park. It is a man-made cesspool of human offal, surrounded by a convocation of bricks and corridors. In From Hell, our attention is drawn not to filth per se, but to socio-economic distinction. In fact, most of the street women we encounter during the plot talk coarsely and generally misbehave, but they seem relatively well-dressed. Appearances are not
everything however, as it is soon revealed where the problem lies. Despite their dress, the women are homeless, except for Marie Kelly, yet she has rent problems. Scenes abound in which one of the women enters a 'doss-house' and is brusquely turned away by the proprietor because she is one penny short for paying for a lice-ridden bed. The page above reveals the 'doss-house' situation, where we see a few women sleeping on a bench with a rope to keep them in place. The only charity they can count on is from their own 'kind' as it were; all instances where one of the women is helped with a small
donation or loan comes from another 'unfortunate' with one notable exception. Inspector Abberline attempts to be kind to Marie Kelly before she dies. It is never quite explained why, but it seems to me that Abberline wants to soothe his aching conscience. Still, it is class-conscious pity; Abberline only cares about Kelly, as a representative of the entire class of 'working girls'.
In books about the Victorian era, one often reads of charity funds and groups, but in Moore and Campbell's London, no such charity exists. The only time a public institution is shown is the
Marylebone workhouse, where Alice Crook, the bastard child that started the conspiracy lies with her mother. It is a very bleak, empty place, devoid of anything except beds and the words 'God is good, God is Holy, God is Just' attached to the ceiling. There are also many little panels that further 18
illustrate the abject poverty of the city. For example, when Walter Sickert comes to visit Annie and Alice Crook in the workhouse, the clerk asks him if he is the father. Here, word and image work
perfectly together to create the background for a significant scene. The clerk asks Sickert rhetorically if he knows what the least ticked boxes are on a birth certificate. Sickert does not, but we see the
certificate, and the two empty boxes are 'father's name' and 'father's occupation'.
Another example appears in chapter eight, where we see a group of young boys attempting to catch a dove with a box-and-string contraption. Just before that, we see Kate Eddowes, the woman murdered by mistake, at work in the hops-fields outside London. There, Kate and some other workers discuss what little they could do with the meager earnings from hop-picking. Kate remembers an offer from Sickert about providing information concerning Marie Kelly. Kate wants to return to London, to see 'What Fortune has to offer her'. The next panel takes up the room of three panels, and shows the dove-catching. Here, the liminality of the graphic novel allows us to conclude that fortune has very little in store for Kate but the opportunity to fend for herself. Word and Image work together to create an effect that neither of them individually could have accomplished. If it had been only words, the meta-conclusion of Kate's fortune could only have been reached much later, when it becomes clear what happens to Kate. Similarly, if Images had been the only communicator, the link between the previous panels and the dove-catching panel would have been quite arbitrary. These examples show the interaction of Word and Image that Moore and Campbell have achieved to create the effect of
unfortunate gloom that pervades the entirety of From Hell.
A: Poverty Expressed Visually
However, there are instances where there is no text at all, which are master strokes of liminality in images. The example that illustrates that idea best is found in chapter V, which takes the time to illustrate the morning rituals of both the privileged class and the poor Whitechapel unfortunates. We see the morning in contrast from A to Z; starting with awakening. Sir Gull awakes in a king-size bed, and seems quite happy. Kate, Liz, and Polly awake together in a filthy bed, and seem emotionless. Sir Gull takes the time for a bath, aided by his wife. The unfortunates wander to a public cattle-through, and splash some water on their faces. Sir Gull eats a varied breakfast, provided by his domestic servant. We see Polly sitting on a porch, eating from a white blotch. We only see that she is taking something to her mouth; what it is should probably not be pondered.
The start of Chapter V concludes with a few pages devoted to a 'day in the life' of both
characters. Sir Gull goes to the museum of Natural History, visits the 'Elephant Man' in hospital, and 19
seems to have an intellectually fulfilling day. We see Polly at her 'work', where she stands pressed against a wall, her skirt raised up, and a tear runs over her cheek. We can fill in the blanks of what happens here, especially when a few panels later, money literally changes hands. Later, we see how Polly spends her money; it changes hands again, but this time in the opposite direction; from Polly's hand to the bartender's hand. This entire scene is enhanced by the techniques applied. First, the
arrangement of the panels is adapted. Normally, From Hell uses a nine panel per page structure. In this chapter, the contrast in morning ritual is applied at first by using three panels per page, differing per panel which of the two examples is portrayed. Then, the contrast picks up pace; Gull's sequence takes up two thirds of the panels of the page, whilst Polly's silent suffering is reduced to the remaining space. This effect alone adds to the idea of profound difference between the two characters and their lives.
19 Joseph Merrick, a man with a unique condition known as 'Proteus Syndrome'. He was quite the curiosity at the time, and
B: Language of Poverty
The manner in which the characters speak is modeled after a certain amount of historical accuracy, especially focused on the lower class characters. Victorian English was, linguistically, the same as modern day English, with an exception of course for modern technical jargon that is the result of the electronic revolution. This creates little difficulty in portraying the upper class characters, but the slang of the period is something else entirely. With help from other authors however, including the writer Neil Gaiman who according to Moore is fluent in the bad language of seven centuries, such slang is20 represented as accurately as possible.
Language, beyond its function for communication, is also a sign of education and thus socio-economic status. Beyond the obvious distinction in wealth between classes in class-conscious Britain, speaking a 'posh' version of English was restricted to the upper class, as only they had access to the level of education required for a 'proper' pronunciation. Moore catches this distinction, not only through accurate portrayal of language, but also through the amount characters speak. Since From Hell is technically about murderous villainy, Dr. Gull has the most lines, and his lines are definitely the most verbose. Of course, Gull's increasing insanity makes him more elaborate on the topics that his occult quest generates, and that aspect will be explored in further chapters. When we consider language as involved with the theme of poverty, then, there are two aspects that merit discussion. First, a more precise analysis of the language distinction is necessary. Second, there are only two characters who are affected by the distinction in language use throughout the entirety of From Hell,and we can glean good examples from their utterances.Dr. Gull has his elaborate theories in which an opinion about poverty is not excluded, and inspector Abberline appears to conform to such stereotypes as well, though he does not believe in them as passionately.
English is not a language that makes a formal distinction of socio-economic status between its speakers. It is a vernacular language, unlike for example Latin, the knowledge of which in the 19 th
century at least implies that the speaker has had a university level education. This does not mean that a distinction cannot be made within English; on the contrary. As mentioned, education matters, but environment as well. From Hell, with its setting in one of the most slummy locations in London, illustrates the existence of this distinction in socio-economic status. For example, in the first pages of the first chapter, Walter Sickert directs coachman John Netley to a gentleman's club on the other side of the city. Netley is the first uneducated character to speak, and it becomes clear where the distinction lies. He responds to a quip about insobriety as follows: “I once got a cousin 'o mine in FEARFUL trouble an she were as tiddly as I were.” Sickert's response to this bawdy comment is a simple “ha ha, carry on Netley!”. Obviously, Netley's command of grammar is as fearful as the trouble he refers to. Sickert's response in this case is just as iconic, 'carry on' being a rather posh expression.
should have during the course of the narrative, they only meet at the point that Gull gets caught, through no action of Abberline at all but by the visions of a psychic investigator. This distance allows both characters, despite their narrative antagonism, to shed individual lights on the theme of poverty. We will find however, that their position is incredibly similar with one notable exception: their attitude towards women. Both characters feel that higher socio-economic status also implies a certain respectability. Dr. Gull makes remarks about how he feels about socio-economic distinction starting from his very first appearance in chapter two. The introduction of the character will be discussed further in the chapter on the occult, but here we can already see Gull's intellectually condescending nature. In fact, Gull sums up the Victorian attitude with a single remark. When conversing with his friend Dr. Hinton in Guys' asylum for women, the subject of 'unfortunate women' is brought up. Hinton asks rhetorically if their poor status will ever be alleviated. Gull responds thus:
Assuredly, but some wretches have downward momentum in their lives almost impossible to reverse. Consider it: water will of necessity flow downhill, thwarting all our best efforts that it should do otherwise. In order that water might rise despite itself it must first be transmuted into steam. It must first be touched by the purifying spirit of fire. 21
This quote indicates that Gull feels himself to be superior to the people he treats, but especially women, as he directly refers to women when he talks about the purifying spirit of fire. This particular quote is also filled with imagery of alchemy that seems to fit his occult masonic theory of 'applied misogyny'. The idea of poverty as a result of some innate wretchedness is shared by Inspector Abberline, but he does not share Gull's attitude towards women. The inspector has worked in Whitechapel before, and
knows the situation from firsthand experience. In contrast, Abberline remarks several times that he feels that the area of London where they are headed on the way to Gull's residence when traveling with psychic investigator Robert Lees is “Bit Posh for a killer, surely?”. Next, when the pair comes closer, Abberline says: “... are you CERTAIN it is up this way? I mean, that's Claridge's over there!”. And finally: “But.. I mean.. the class of people that live here..”. Clearly, Abberline is convinced that an upper class member of society cannot be a depraved killer. However, when he visits Whitechapel on official business, he often takes the time to converse with Marie Kelly, and he tries to alleviate her suffering by buying her drinks, and even lending her the sum of four pounds. He does not seem to be 22 affected by the era's misogyny, and feels that the victims of the Ripper are human instead of 'poor unfortunates' who can expect life to treat them badly just because they are unfortunate. In essence, both point of view characters are a product of their time, but in the younger Abberline we can see the liminality of the age once more. Abberline is on the threshold of modern thought, yet has been a Victorian for too long to abandon his conservative attitude and become, for instance a socialist. Dr. Gull is, in the line of the theme of poverty not liminal at all; he is unabashedly Victorian in his attitude towards poverty and women.
Chapter IV: The Occult
The Victorian era was characterized by many things, like industry, technological progress, imperialism and so forth. Yet due to its liminal position in history, sitting on the precipice to modernity, ideas from previous eras are still of import. Art revisited mythology, most prevalent in the pre-Raphaelite
movement. This movement of painters sought to capture ancient myths on canvas, producing many different works. In literature, the Gothic genre was still going strong, although the Victorian era is better known for its more realistic literature as the preceding Romantic period was no longer in vogue. Magic and the occult had become a source of entertainment, with popular works like Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Befitting the Victorian era, all these books have an occult theme, but also liminal characters. Most of such occult ideas were not even on the level of superstition anymore. Few people actually still believed in magic, although perhaps an exception can be made for Aleister Crowley and his Thelemite movement. An occult fraternity that was still a
the place, English masons needed a form of organization that could span more than one urban location. Establishing chapters across England, the Freemasons eventually evolved into a secretive brotherhood that had little to do with construction. Employing a system of handshakes, ritual initiation, and religious mysteries, Freemasonry became a semi-secret society in which wealthy men could socialize in a
situation akin to modern student fraternities. In contrast with such fraternities however, Freemasonry had an extensive hierarchy, with over 30 degrees of advancement. The interesting part of Freemasonry became known to an initiate only after having advanced to the status of 'Master Mason'. Up to that rank, Freemasonry appeared to have a Christian character, with loyalty to God as a primary tenet. Beyond the third rank, the Masonic organization acquired a blasphemous characteristic. Even though the advanced ranks of Freemasonry are still shrouded in mystery, several attempts at infiltration yielded information that the Masons had developed a religious system of their own, incorporating the names of Jahweh, the Egyptian Osiris and the Canaanite Ba'al into a tripartite entity known as Jah-Bul-On. The exact characteristics of this deity remain largely unknown, but suffice it to say Freemasonry believed in something that was radically different from Christianity. The nature of Freemasonry is that of an occult brotherhood, which lead to conspiracy theories which attributed many occurrences in politics and civil society to Masonic interference. In From Hell, such a masonic conspiracy is at the center of the Jack the Ripper murders. We see Dr. Gull going through the extent of Masonic ranks, helping him achieve greater social status in a short time. Several other characters are involved with the conspiracy, although there are considerable differences in the treatment of the subject matter between Final Solution and From Hell.
Hell, and show that Moore and Campbell elaborated on Knight's hypotheses and in some cases even corrected and expanded on them. First, we will analyze the Masonic presence in From Hell, and second we will explore Dr. Gull's character in more detail, as a large part of his motivation for the murders stems forth from his Masonic occultism which he combines with a form of historic misogyny that Gull uses to legitimize his killing spree.
In Final Solution, Stephen Knight devotes an entire chapter to his suspicions about the
involvement of Freemasonry with the Jack the Ripper murders. Opening with an exposé on the nature of Freemasonry which is summarized in the introduction of this chapter, Knight quickly delves into the specifics that support his theory. Knight attributes the Masonic conspiracy to the oaths sworn and traditions followed by the Masons who have advanced beyond the first three degrees. This high level of advancement is known as the 'Royal Arch', and contains the true advancement in the secret society. As of this level, the position of the Mason in society changes. Knight quotes several ex-masons on the subject, but for the subject of conspiracy the following is quite revealing.
William Morgan, an American Mason who wrote a book called Freemasonry Exposed, published in 1826, declared: “The oath taken by Royal Arch Masons does not except murder and treason; therefore, under it, all crimes can be perpetrated.” The full truth is more disturbing than this, for in the same oath the Royal Arch Mason swears: “that I will aid and assist a companion Royal Arch Mason when engaged in any difficulty, and espouse his cause, so far as to extricate him from the same, if in my power, whether he be right or wrong.” Thus, when a Freemason passes the Royal Arch he is not only prohibited on pain of death from exposing a fellow Mason involved in treason or murder, he is also compelled to assist him in covering up his crimes. 23
The veracity of such activities seems doubtful, but if true, they certainly explain the mystery that surround Freemasonry up to this day. Of course, such a tight-knit brotherhood who allegedly are not only allowed but supposed to flaunt the laws of society becomes an easy target for conspiracy theories. However, Knight goes further and ties the Masonic influence to several men, who also appear in a similar vein in From Hell. The most important of these people turned characters is Sir Charles Warren, appointed chief of the London Metropolitan police in 1886. A former military man and archaeologist, Warren ran his police force like a military hierarchy. His focus on uniformed police work cost some efficiency for detective work, but historically, Warren seemed to have been of average capabilities. Sir Charles was also an enthusiastic Freemason, founding a special lodge with eight others that would research Masonic history in an evidence-based way instead of the mythological speculation that had been its hallmark across the centuries. Knight does not seem to agree with the idea of Warren's competence, and accords him the doubtful status of the 'worst police commissioner in the history of Scotland yard!' . According to Knight, there are four more examples that should expose Warren as an 24
agent of Masonic conspiracy. First, Warren seems to have made some interesting personnel choices in the days before the first murder. Warren allegedly forced James Monro, head of the C.I.D. , and, 25
specifically not a Freemason, to retire just before the murders started. Second, his replacement, Sir Robert Anderson, a high-ranking Mason, was appointed on the eve of Mary Ann Nichols' murder. Mary Ann was the first victim, and Anderson decided to start with his new position by taking a month off to go searching for edelweiss in Switzerland. So far the suggestions are strangely plausible but entirely coincidental. They appear in From Hell, but as minor scenes. What does seem interesting and
24 Final Solution pg. 155
what appears in both books is Warren's resignation, which happened just hours before the last murder. He never informed anyone of his staff about this resignation, and in fact the police waited for three hours at the site of the murder for Warren to arrive. After resigning, apparently Warren fully devoted his time to his Masonic activities. Knight feels that Warren has had quick rise in status, and that must have been associated with his membership as a Freemason, but this claim is never substantiated with any evidence. Still, the suggestion is compelling, and luckily Moore acknowledges the fictitious character of his portrayal of Warren in From Hell. Knight spends another ten pages in speculation about Warren an the nature of Freemasonry, but Moore has only taken the above examples and combined them with his interpretation of Dr. Gull. Knight's theories are once again presented with a semblance of factuality, but are never substantiated. However, in the Victorian mystery context, Knight's speculations are a useful dramatic tool, and it is the twist Moore and Campbell give to those speculations that make the theme of the occult such an integral part of the From Hell experience.
With the specifics of the alleged Masonic conspiracy exposed, we can now look into the prime mover of said conspiracy: Dr. William Whithey Gull. Most information Moore had on Gull comes from the biography written by his son-in-law, Theodore Dycke Ackland. William was born to James Gull in Thorpe-le-Soken, a small village on the promontory to London. James was a barge owner, a respectable but not too lucrative business. Later in his life, at age 22, a friend of his mother's, who was by then a widow, got Gull into Guy's hospital in London as a medical student. Setting an example of utmost diligence, Gull was awarded every possible prize for medical students and became one of England's most promising young doctors. He was accepted as a Freemason, and through those
he had saved the Prince of Wales from tuberculosis. In 26 Final Solution, Stephen Knight suggests that
Gull was granted this position because of his connections in Freemasonry rather than by merit, but that suggestion feels rather tentative in the light of the evidence about Gull's diligence and sheer skill. What can be established from this is that William Gull was a skilled and well trained physician who enjoyed a high station in society at the time of the murders. For Moore, that is enough to make a depiction of the man in his daily life, as discussed in the previous chapter. But the mind of a murderer is something else than the face of a murderer, and that is the line where the character becomes interesting. Moore takes from Final Solution the notion that the Jack the Ripper murders were Masonic in nature, and also adapts Knight's allegations that Gull suffered from a from of schizophrenia in the sense that he could be a warm and kind man at one moment and shift into a cold, clinical and calculating doctor the next. His condition, if it existed at all, was never quite so extreme, but it does seem to have been accelerated by a minor stroke he suffered in 1887. That something is off about Dr. Gull is certain, and his madness increases in intensity through the story. What Moore adds specifically however, is an extra layer of supernatural activity. From the introduction of the character that is an almost cinematic,
chronologically disturbed, and prophetic experience to his very end, Dr. Gull is the most enigmatic character in the entire graphic novel.
With Masons and Gull defined, we can ask the question as to how the occult is depicted. It can be summarized as such: with subtlety and reverence to literature. There are scenes of grand occult relevance, but these scenes exist only in Gull's mind. We should distinguish between two shades of depiction then: the 'mundane' occurrences and the 'grand' occurrences. The word 'mundane' here refers to mysterious scenes that have little to do with overt supernatural entities or visions, whilst 'grand' does
26 Willam Whithey Gull: A biographical sketch. The book itself still exists, but has obviously gone out of print and is
include such devices. In the mundane category, we find the mortal part of Masonic ritual, but also a misogynistic theory explained by Gull to coachman Netley. This theory is the subject of an entire chapter, so its significance is undeniable. We see Gull going past a multitude of architectural monuments in London, but they all have significance beyond their aesthetics.
(pagan) times, for example Billingswell, once known as Belenos´ Well. Passing by several other 27
locations, such as Blake´s grave and other obelisks, such as the one on Trafalgar square, Netley 28
remarks that both the churches with their pillars and tall, pointed towers, and the obelisks are quite phallic in nature. Gull remarks that is exactly the point, as these symbolize both man´s virility as his desire to reach for knowledge. Gull draws up a map, forcing Netley to connect the dots of the locations they have visited in sequence. A skewed pentagram emerges on the map, and after further elaboration, Netley cannot contain his apprehension, and throws up his lunch at the docks. Although Netley himself believes that was a result of food poisoning, Gull disagrees. He believes that Netley is upset because of the consequences of this story, namely that Gull will have to sacrifice five women to finish reinforcing those phallic symbols as a new era is on the horizon. By enacting his sacrifice near or on the points of the pentagram, he hopes to achieve another century of male dominance. Gull's plan sounds quite insane, but it is accurate in the sense of the hypocrisy that reigned in the Victorian era. Moore projects the misogyny of the era through Gull's megalomaniac vision, where Gull sees women as problematic as a gender, but also specifically the five individual women he is going to murder.
From a dramatic perspective, this exit of the main antagonist of the story is fascinating. It paints Gull as a vulnerable man, but not a weak man. A man that is on the fringe of apotheosis, a feat he achieves when he is busy mutilating his last victim, Mary Kelly. We see Gull raging at the emptiness of the 20th century, as his delusions allow him a strangely accurate vision of the future.
29
Gull is angry with his vision, as he finds these 'modern' people are squandering the gifts they have. A commentary on modern life from a historical perspective, the significance of this scene is hard to determine until the pieces of the puzzle come together. It is an ending scene, and of great importance to the narrative that runs through From Hell. Whilst experiencing the cubicle room, Gull is still busy mutilating Mary Kelly, and the culmination of this chapter shows us why Gull considers that important. As he had exposed in his 'psychogeopgraphy' monologue, the women must be sacrificed in order to maintain the status quo of patriarchal domination. I get the impression that this sacrificial motive is only really applied to Mary Kelly. In the following panels we see Gull throwing ashes in the air. In the previous scene the doctor had boiled Kelly's heart, and put it in a cloth. He then crushes the heart, and the scene below emerges. In another of Campbell's scenes with a quality of fading, Gull's work is complete. Despite all his rituals, theories, and applied psychogeography, Gull is not meant to
experience the new age. Instead, he is meant to usher it in, whether his motivations for said ushering are correct or not. Gull is the pivot point of the liminal Victorian era, at least in Moore's eyes. Kelly's
ashes seem like the final act in Gull's prophecy. After this, he loses all remaining vestiges of sanity, his occult quest completed with this final act of savagery.
30
Finally, Gull's death takes up a paragraph, in which he is disembodied, flying back and forth through time past important events but also completely unrelated issues. Here, Gull is truly established as a monster, as his spectral appearance scares quite a few different people. The most memorable bit of Gull's astral travel however, occurs in the panels below. Moore states in his appendix that the
characters in these panels have not appeared before in the graphic novel and are to him, the most evocative scene in the entire novel. I agree with him, as this represents a victory for women and
important to the narrative or the message of the graphic novel. The Grand occurences are important however, and they again show the liminality of the Victorian era. Gull is both focus and locus of the liminality in the case of the occult. The 'good doctor' is elaborate, insane, and of course a horrible murderer, but in light of the troubles of the time, Jack the Ripper did open many eyes to the plight of the destitute in England. Even though the occult influences cannot be proven to have really happened, Knight attributes many things to the Freemasons. Moore and Campbell enlarge that notion, but also use occultism as a vehicle to ruminate on the essence of Victorian themes.
ever more arduous as the rural economy became less labor intensive through technological innovation. This chapter will summarize the political situation that existed at the time of Jack the Ripper in order to further identify the murders as a cultural phenomenon.
To say society in England was hierarchical is an understatement. England, like all European countries, had a feudal system for centuries. Unlike other European countries, England had a parliament that had co-existed with the feudal monarchy since 1215. One would think that a 31
parliament would have made society more egalitarian, but in reality that meant very little for the common man. In fact, despite parliament, society in England was class based, with the aristocracy holding most high-ranked positions in government and the military. Still, with the inclusion of some form of middle-class representation in parliament through the House of Commons, established in 1341, more people than in any other country save perhaps the Netherlands had any kind of say in state affairs than anywhere else in Europe.
The peculiar thing however is the interdependency of the monarchy and the representatives in parliament. In order to be sanctioned as speaking for the state, Members of Parliament (MP) were beholden to the crown. In essence, their power derived from the Monarchy still, a state of affairs well represented by for example the dissolution of parliament when the reigning monarch passes away, as evinced by the situation surrounding the Great Reform Act of 1832. The Parliament is arranged in a 32
bicameral system. Two 'houses' discuss policy as set forth by the crown or of their own suggestion. The Lower house, or House of Commons, consisted of the British upper middle class and lesser nobility. The Upper house, or House of Lords, consisted of hereditary nobility, known as the peerage, with hereditary seats. So, even with a modest state of representation, the upper middle-class consisting of for
example lawyers and doctors had to contend with both the power of the nobility and the crown, diminishing their influence considerably. The peculiarity is then that this arrangement of parliament creates a majority conservative mindset, as the MP's rights and duties were so dependent on the
maintenance of the status quo. However, the late 1800's saw the rise of socialism and the advancement of liberalism, which combined with a relatively free press created a forum for public debate.
The enormous media attention Jack the Ripper generated also created a powerful platform for socialists and liberals to clamor for reform; to escape the boundaries of conservatism and
class-conscious society. In Final Solution, this political agitation is described as one of the prime reasons for the organisation of the conspiracy to avoid embarrassment to the crown. Karl Marx lived in London until his death in 1883, and had the headquarters for his Communist League in the city. This created great room for socialism in England, especially when doctors, artists and highborn ladies doing charity work were confronted with the true horrors of industrial society. London was primarily a capital city and harbour town, and had little industry compared with the new centers of production in
Lancashire in the northwest of England. Squalor, however, was not an exception in London, as well as a problem that seems very modern: Immigration. Especially the East End of London, with its harbour districts, dockyards, and vast warehouses, was attracting many minorities from all over the globe. The British Empire had opened up migration streams from areas under its jurisdiction, and the cosmopolitan reputation of London, as the era's global financial center, was an extra pull-factor. Of course, the 33
presence of foreigners on an unprecedented scale creates friction, as evinced by modern issues in almost every western country. From Hell deals with most of these themes during the unfolding of the story, and as such politics are an important area to investigate.
We have already exposed the British Parliamentary bicameral system, with exception of the effects of a succession of Reform Bills that changed the political landscape considerably by granting voting rights to, eventually in the voting rights of about three-fourths of the male population . Out of 34
the ideological struggles precipitated by the advent of Liberalism two parties had emerged in
Parliament around 1832: the Liberal party under William Gladstone and the Conservative party under various leaders with Benjamin Disraeli as the most memorable. Both parties had to deal with the emerging 'working-class' vote to retain their seats, which changed the very nature of the job. As we have noted, the power of Parliament derived from the crown, and its members were paid no salary so had to have some form of private income. As such, member of Parliament had to come from the same affluent background, whether aristocratic or not, and through that felt akin to each other. Now with the addition of a working-class vote, issues that affected the new electorate became all the more pressing, as said issues could now influence the greater political landscape. These issues were primarily Irish home rule and unemployment. Though an extensive problem that caused many a riot, the home rule issue is part of a larger category of issues that stems from class conflict. Since Marx and Engels had drawn attention to the problem of the unequal division of capital, class-consciousness began to change. Gladstone, the liberal Prime Minister, said in 1892 that the Liberals had:
...come generally...to the conclusion that there is something painful in the condition of the rural labourer in this great respect, that it is hard even for the industrious and sober man, under ordinary conditions, to secure a provision for his own old age. Very large propositions, involving, some of them, very novel and very wide principles, have been submitted to the public, for the
purpose of securing such a provision by means independent of the labourer himself. Sir, I am not
going to criticise these proposals, and I am only referring to them as signs that there is much to be done—that their condition is far from satisfactory; and it is eminently, as I think, our duty to develop in the first instance, every means that we may possibly devise whereby, if possible, the labourer may be able to make this provision for himself, or to approximate towards making such provision far more efficaciously and much more closely than he can now do. 35
Of course, 1892 is a few years after the Ripper murders, but the change in Liberal ideology that can be derived from the above statement is profound. Earlier in time, the Liberal position had been quite different. Lord Kilbracken, one of Gladstone's secretaries, had the following to say about the Liberal position on socialism:
It will be borne in mind that the Liberal doctrines of that time, with their violent anti-socialist spirit and their strong insistence on the gospel of thrift, self-help, settlement of wages by the higgling of the market, and non-interference by the State.... I think that Mr. Gladstone was the strongest anti-socialist that I have ever known among persons who gave any serious thought to social and political questions. It is quite true, as has been often said, that “we are all socialists up to a certain point”; but Mr. Gladstone fixed that point lower, and was more vehement against those who went above it, than any other politician or official of my acquaintance. I remember his speaking indignantly to me of the budget of 1874 as “That socialistic budget of
Northcote's,” merely because of the special relief which it gave to the poorer class of income-tax payers. His strong belief in Free Trade was only one of the results of his deep-rooted conviction that the Government's interference with the free action of the individual, whether by taxation or
otherwise, should be kept at an irreducible minimum. It is, indeed, not too much to say that his conception of Liberalism was the negation of Socialism. 36
What we can derive from these two quotes is that the opinion of socialist ideas had not changed per se between 1876 and 1892. Yet a general idea that socio-economic division because of class was no longer feasible in a modern society had indeed emerged. The period of British history that includes Jack the Ripper, then, is liminal once more, and this time on the political level. The media attention the murders garnered, on top of the already roiling unrest that plagued the country because of the Irish question and general unemployment caused British society to turn inwards for the first time in
centuries. Where the first part of the Victorian era was decidedly imperialistic in nature, the latter part became an emerging Post-Imperial landscape, where age-old values were called into question by the new electorate. Not willing to yield ground to socialism, the conservative and liberal ideologies had to adapt to changing times, and it was events like Jack the Ripper's killing spree that drew attention towards the problem by providing a clear example of what was wrong with society. A famous cartoon, the Nemesis of Neglect, captures the situation with verve, a fact which Moore recognized as he added it as the introductory panel to chapter V of From Hell. Chapter V deals with poverty and has been
examined already, but the picture of Nemesis of Neglect and its subscript are provided here. The point of Jack the Ripper's crimes acting as a locus for reform is expressed with clarity by this image. Moore's inclusion of this cartoon and the accompanying articles signifies the importance of political context for the murders as a cultural phenomenon, as it is an example of how the actual Victorians' perception of events was given form.
37
With background established, we can move on to the interpretation of events by Knight. As is often the case with Final Solution, the evidence on which Knight bases his statements is tentative at best. Knight's reasoning, strangely enough, seems to be that the Jack the Ripper murders were covered up by the government because they were covered up. First, Knight goes out of his way to declare why the cases of other 'suspects' would brook no cover up, as their apprehension would have been beneficial to the state. But still, there are four points that strongly suggest there having been a cover-up, so the reasoning seems to be that there must have been one. Knight's four points are: (1) Vital evidence was suppressed at the Ripper inquests. (2) Prince Eddy had returned to the Cleveland Street Brothel in 1889, and another 'elaborate' cover-up was staged to clear the Prince's image not of his bisexuality, but of being associated with Cleveland Street. (3) A plausible scapegoat was set up in case it became necessary to announce the Ripper had been caught, and to satisfy anyone who would investigate the case in later years. (4) Documents that contained the truth about the Ripper were destroyed. He 38
provides these points without sources, and does not elaborate on them in any structural manner. Knight devotes most of the pages on the cover-up to the coroners and their jurisdiction, but he never touches on anything particularly solid. If it was the truth we were after, Final Solution would disappoint, but we are looking for the translation of Victorian themes from medium to medium after all. In that sense, Knight has a point: conspiracies and cover-ups were certainly prevalent, if only because the status quo was still based on the peculiar system of reciprocity between the crown and Parliament. The Cleveland street scandal, to which Knight refers in his fourth point, is indeed exemplary of this particular form of government cover-up. For this situation, there apparently were documents providing evidence that were released to the public in 1975. Whether or not this cover-up was intended to clear Prince Eddy's name is hard to verify, but there is at least an instance of perjury by a lawyer who was stripped of his
