Cambridge, Caryl Phillips PDF

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CAMBRIDGE Cambridge is the story of two people: Emily, the daughter of a slave owner, and Cambridge, one of her family's slaves. The story is narrated by both of these characters. Emily speaks through journal entries of her voyage from England to visit her father’s sugar plantation in the West Indies. She gives her impressions of the plantation and expresses her feelings about it and about the complex dynamics among the people that live there. Emily’s ocean voyage to the Americas is treacherous, and her maid dies during the voyage. However, despite the hardship, she travels as a paying passenger, and thus her voyage is sharply contrasted with the transatlantic voyages of Cambridge, in which he—traveling as a captured slave—endures unimaginable suffering. Emily’s view of events is altered by the fact that she has benefitted from her father’s slave owning, but she knows nothing of plantation life. When Emily arrives at the plantation, she finds that her father’s plantation manager has disappeared, and a man named Arnold Brown has taken over. Brown is a brutal slave owner, nevertheless, he manages to seduce Emily and impregnate her. Brown’s slave mistress, who is mentally unstable, is incensed over this, and Emily begins to fear for her life. Cambridge is this slave woman’s husband, and he is understandably distressed that Brown is using his wife and he can do nothing to stop the abuse. Cambridge also suspects that Brown murdered the former plantation manager. During the course of the story, Arnold is murdered, and Emily gives birth to a stillborn child. Cambridge is hanged for Arnold’s murder. It is on the eve of the hanging that Cambridge gives his account of the events that took place at the plantation, which contrasts with Emily’s account. Cambridge, the eponymous central character, is a slave, and through his narrative we experience the horrors of human bondage. Emily Cartwright is the daughter of a slave owner. We read in her diary of her impressions of plantation life at a time when slavery itself was a failing institution, dragging the fortunes of small planters down with it. Cambridge and Emily's experiences of slavery aren't equal, but they are related. They each come to the slave plantation out of a life of freedom —Cambridge because he is enslaved and Emily because she has been promised in marriage to a man she doesn't love. Slavery is symbolic as well as literal in this novel, because it makes possible the meeting place for the life paths of the two main characters. Each main character undergoes a tragic journey, literally and figuratively. Cambridge is made a chattel and is taken first to England and then to the West Indies. His life on the plantation is markedly worse than it was in England, and it's this deterioration which causes the unraveling of his luck after he meets Emily and becomes a part of her own tragic disintegration. She, from a relatively prosperous family, not unaware but shielded from the reality of her family's fortune, endures a horrific ocean voyage and the death of her friend. This is meant to recall the infamous Middle Passage of the slave ships and is intended to inspire sympathy for Emily in the reader and establish the basis of some empathy between Emily and the slaves she meets, including Cambridge. The multiplicity of identity is the most complicated theme in the book. Cambridge is given several names throughout his life but retains his basic dignity. Emily, with one name to her credit, struggles to maintain her sense of self when confronted with the stresses of the trip to the West Indies, the indignities of slave life she witnesses, and the duplicity of Arnold Brown, the wife-beating overseer

who becomes her lover. In a sense, Cambridge's successive identities clarify his character, while Emily's identity fragments further over time. Like most individuals, Cambridge and Emily are limited by their points of view. The reality that they perceive is not necessarily the reality that they would be best served by perceiving. It is by means of this dichotomy that they so persuasively inhabit their given realities. What is before their very eyes is so exigent and demanding that the possibility of evaluating it in the light of a more objective perspective is not available to them. Because of this, the foreignness of their presences in their respective worlds is rendered. The emphasis throughout is on the characters’ experience and on the degree of innocence that is necessary in order to undergo experience. The trust that Cambridge, in particular, places in the various Anglophone worlds to which he finds himself transported is especially ironic, since it receives endorsement and encouragement from the Christians he encounters. His acquisition of English is consistent with his identification with the Christian message, a message that enables him to accept his travail as the expression of a greater power. In learning to speak his masters’ language, he impresses his instructors and gains their favor and support, and he believes that, as a result, he is equipped to live in the world as they do. It is this belief that brings such tragedy to Cambridge, leading indirectly to the death by neglect of his English wife and child. It encourages him to return to Africa to set up a missionary school, a voyage that culminates in his second enslavement and his transportation to the West Indies. His continuing fidelity to his faith in the West Indies brings about the complicated situation involving Brown, with calamitous consequences for both men. In addition, the object of the language is expository rather than dramatic. One of the effects of such an approach is to detach events from the full weight of their consequences, so that both of the central characters may be seen attempting to justify their actions. Ultimately, both Cambridge and Emily are overwhelmed by the social institutions of their time. With their fate as a lens, Cambridge provides an acute insight into the eloquently powerless condition of characters in the grip of circumstance.  Caryl Phillips' 1992 historical fiction novel, Cambridge, tells the story of an ex-slave who is sold back into slavery and finds himself on an unnamed Caribbean Island. Emily and Cambridge are the main characters, insofar as their respective narratives compose the majority of the novel, delivered in the form of journals. CHARACTERS Emily is an upperclass young Puritan and daughter of a sugarcane plantation owner on the island to which she sails, and which occasions her keeping of a journal. Though the slave trade has ended, Emily's prejudices are evident through her narration; however, she is not an altogether vapid or simple character. She proves receptive to Cambridge, acknowledging both his strength and intelligence (calling him at one point "the impressive black Hercules”). Emily, though the comparatively privileged character, suffers the sexual abuse of Brown, who molests her. Emily also has the misfortune of delivering a still-born child.

Cambridge is a former slave, who was liberated and trained as a (particularly eloquent) preacher in England. Cambridge's narrative demonstrates his erudition, and makes his misfortune of being sold back into slavery especially ironic. Cambridge's birth name was Olumide, and he was subsequently renamed Thomas and David before receiving the name with which he would die: Cambridge. Other minor characters include the unsavory and brutish Arnold Brown, the overseer who seduces Emily. It is for Brown's murder that Cambridge is ultimately hanged. The household slave, Stella, is Emily's (however unlikely) chief friend and confidante during Emily's disorientating stay on the island where she, too, will die.

The prominence given to Emily Cartwright, whose story opens and closes the novel, should not draw attention away from the character for whom Cambridge is named. Cambridge earns his central status in the novel by virtue of having experienced what Emily can hardly conceive. His comparatively brief testimony, which is offered to readers after, and possibly as an antidote to, his trial for the murder of Brown, recounts in pitiable terms a saga of deprivation and manipulation that is more compelling for its cultural and psychological effects than for its physical details. Cambridge’s testament acts as a legend of the various effects that slavery has upon the spirit. It is these that the novel memorializes in its title. The crucial feature of Cambridge’s experience is that he is unable to consider himself a slave. Many of his experiences after his initial enslavement contribute to this inability. The story of his acculturation in England, and his complete identification with Christianity, the principal means of such an adaptation, may perhaps be considered a satire on the hypocrisy of articulating a doctrine of charity in an age when economic welfare depended on kidnapping and exploitation. On the other hand, the legitimacy of Cambridge’s voice in his own story depends on an appreciation of his desire for faith and for the ratification of identity that espousing the faith of his masters provided. The subsequent revelation of the vulnerability of rectitude, and of the frailty of an assumed identity, contributes significantly to the sealing of Cambridge’s fate. A comparable combination of vulnerability and properness undoes Emily Cartwright. Her inability to identify completely with either the world of the slaves or the world of their owners, and her inconsistent though quite understandable alienation from both, result in her eventually becoming merely an embodiment of her own powerlessness. The moral agnosticism of Emily’s detachment from the world around her is the counterpart of Cambridge’s immersion in that world. The weakness of her position appears very readily between the lines of her journal, so that when Brown’s exploitation of her sexuality takes place, it seems more a confirmation of her status than an offense against her person. Such a conclusion is suggested by the fact that Emily unthinkingly lends herself to Brown’s experience, just as she has lent herself to various other scenarios that others, all of them men, have proposed to her. Her visit to the West Indies was her father’s suggestion, and there are other indications of Emily’s vulnerability to the ways of patriarchy, even as her journal notes her awareness of those imposing and oppressive ways. The ease with which she seems to be led by the social and cultural norms gives rise to an uneasiness of equal and opposite force once the leading has taken place. The conflict arising from the irreconcilability between what Emily affirms and what

she experiences is what makes her vulnerable and, at the end of the novel, leaves her a victim, her life as a potential moral agent terminated as conclusively as Cambridge’s. Stella’s fidelity to Emily, the expression of which effectively means that the slave is nothing in herself and only of value by virtue of the services she performs for her mistress, is one version of the institution’s success. On the other hand, Brown’s ability as an overseer, his rigid sense of system, and his faceless and enigmatic malevolence, which emerge as tantamount to complete amorality, are an equally consummate expression of the institution’s effects. In order to live up to the institution’s demands, Brown has no alternative but to deny Cambridge his sense of his own identity. Similarly, Stella clearly has no alternative but to give continually of herself. These two characters define the moral territory to which Emily and Cambridge are confined. Characters Discussed

Emily Cartwright Emily Cartwright, the thirty-year-old narrator. Sent to a West Indian plantation for three months before her marriage to Thomas Lockwood, Emily struggles with her feelings of superiority and the abusive treatment of the slaves. Not interested in the attentions of Mr. McDonald or Mr. Rogers, Emily surrenders to Arnold Brown, who she originally thinks is disgusting. Extending her trip three additional months to gather material for a lecture and tour in England, Emily discovers the truth about Mr. Wilson. Emily’s happiness is destroyed when Cambridge kills Mr. Brown. Her virtue lost, she delivers a stillborn child in the presence of Stella and Mr. McDonald.

Arnold Brown Arnold Brown, a ruddy-complexioned man in his thirties and the abusive overseer/manager of the Cartwright plantation. Brown takes over the Cartwright plantation by overthrowing Mr. Wilson. Carrying a personal vendetta, Brown rapes Christiania and later beats Cambridge in front of Emily. After adjusting his appearance, Brown attracts Emily, and they become intimate during a picnic at Hawthorn Cottage. Cambridge hopes to come to a nonviolent agreement with Brown, but during the confrontation, Brown is killed. Cambridge Cambridge, a large, gray-haired black man, called Olumide in his home country; Emily refers to him as Hercules. Betrayed by his fellow Guineamen and forced onto a slave ship when he is fifteen years old, Olumide sails to London to his new master’s Pall Mall home. On the trip to England, Olumide meets John Williams, who teaches Olumide English and names him Thomas. He is send to Miss Spencer of Blackheath for a Christian education. Once Tom completes his education, Miss Spencer names him David Henderson. After falling in love with Anna, a white Englishwoman, David marries. David and his wife tour England as missionaries. During a difficult labor, Anna and her baby die. David returns to Miss Spencer’s home and discovers that he has inherited four hundred guineas. Deciding to continue his ministry, David sails to Africa, but his money is stolen, and the ship’s captain enslaves him. At the Cartwright plantation, David is named Cambridge. He courts and

marries the magical Christiania. After an overseer coup, Cambridge declines the title of head driver. Frequently abused, Cambridge prays for a solution on Christmas Day. He confronts Brown and asks to be treated with some decency. After Brown strikes Cambridge, the two men struggle, and Cambridge kills Brown. Cambridge is hanged.

Mr. McDonald Mr. McDonald, a lawyer and physician, an intelligent, humane Scotsman. Infatuated with Emily, Mr. McDonald cares for her during several illnesses and desires to be her suitor. After discovering that Emily steps out with Mr. Brown, McDonald asks if he may escort her around town. Emily rejects him, but he continues to care for her whenever she needs him. Without making judgmental comments, Mr. McDonald delivers Emily’s child.

Mr. Wilson Mr. Wilson, who was hired to run the Cartwright plantation but is accused of stealing and banished at gunpoint to another island. Overthrown by Mr. Brown, who believes in cruel oppression, Mr. Wilson leaves the plantation until Emily Cartwright visits. Mr. Wilson returns to Baytown hoping to correct his situation. When Emily says that he has been charged with theft, Mr. Wilson laughs and witnesses that he has never stolen so much as a fruit from a bush. His only crime is caring for the welfare of the slaves.

Christiania Christiania, the village obeah and Cambridge’s wife. After being mistreated by her first husband, whom she is forced to marry at the age of ten, and after being raped by Mr. Brown, Christiania rejects Christianity and returns to her magical powers. When Emily corrects her for sitting at the table, Christiania casts spells outside Emily’s window. Afraid of her powers, the slaves, Brown, and Emily make no effort to retrieve Christiania when she escapes. Mr. Rogers Mr. Rogers, a slight, unhealthy, and prejudiced Anglican minister. Mr. Rogers visits Emily with Mr. McDonald. After overeating and indulging in too much drink, Mr. Rogers falls asleep on the veranda. Embarrassed, Mr. Rogers makes Mr. McDonald apologize. Feuding for Emily’s favors, Mr. McDonald warns Emily that Mr. Rogers has dishonorable affections for her; however, Emily astutely concludes that Mr. Rogers has never had designs of any kind on a woman. Isabella

Isabella, Emily’s faithful servant and constant companion for twenty years. Traveling with Emily to Baytown, Isabella becomes ill soon after the voyage begins. Tormented by the fever, Isabella dies and is buried at sea near the Azores.

Stella Stella, a slave who cares for Emily at the Baytown plantation. Although not as civilized as Isabella, Stella dedicates herself to Emily’s care. Analysis Cambridge is a novel by Oxford University alumnus and Caribbean native, Caryl Phillips. Philips wrote Cambridge as a piece of historical fiction in the guise of nonfiction (comprising journal entries from Emily—a young, wealthy Englishwoman—and a slave narrative of the title character, Cambridge). This juxtaposition is deliberately meant to highlight the differing world views. Furthermore, the story takes place on an unnamed Caribbean Island (unnamed island to make clear that the events that happened in the story could have happened in other Caribbean Island during this period of colonialism). For both Emily and Cambridge, characters of quite diverse circumstances, this island is strange and unknown, making terra incognita a strong element of the story's unfolding. The novel also explores complex issues of identity and anonymity. Cambridge's name hearkens to the esteemed educational institution of England, but is in fact a name given to the slave who had been deprived of his birth name, Olumide. Emily herself, despite being upperclass and white, does not reveal her name until the close of the first chapter. The hypocrisy of religion is another strong element in this novel. Cambridge was first sent to England, then liberated, then sent back to Africa and re-enslaved, despite having converted to Christianity and having been trained as a preacher in England. Furthermore, Cambridge's child is denied a Christian burial, as he has not been baptized. Lastly, the novel uses juxtaposition and point of view to suggest the subjectivity of events of human history. Many observations and themes witnessed by Cambridge and Emily are the same (especially concerning the characterization of Mr. Brown, the overseer). The reader is encouraged not to rely exclusively on one point of view, making Cambridge's death by hanging all the more tragic and unconscionable, and more broadly, inviting readers to reconsider the implications of this subjectivity within the larger discipline of history. Emily is the narrator. She is thirty years of age and is sent to a West Indian plantation during the three months before she marries Thomas Lockwood. For Emily, it is the entrance into a "dark, tropical unknown." During these three months on the plantation, Emily struggles with many things. Most significantly, she is quite upset at the rough treatment of the slaves on the plantation. Both Rogers and McDonald try, in vain, to get Emily's attention.

It is only Brown who Emily thinks is of interest. (This is quite ironic because Emily originally reacts to the character out of disgust due to his rape of Christiana and his beating of Cambridge.) Eventually, Emily is convinced that Brown has changed his ways and he’s able to seduce her.

Emily witnesses many beatings and even Brown's overthrow of Wilson on the plantation. Emily ends up staying for many more months because she wants to learn more and more. Her plans are to give lectures in England on a tour dealing with this subject and she needs more material. In the meantime, Emily finds out the truth about Mr. Wilson. The fallout is that Cambridge kills Brown, the one character who Emily is interested in. Emily subsequently has her baby, but the baby dies at birth. Both McDonald and Stella are there to witness this. It is obvious to the reader, then, that Emily's innocence causes her to be overwhelmed by the social institutions present in her country and society at the time How would you say the characters of Emily and Christiania are more alike than they are different in Cambridge? You could make a case that Emily and Christiania, although vastly different women (from different parts of society), are taken advantage of, are smart, and are struggling with the superiority of the culture. Their struggle is simply manifested in different ways...