I am altogether incapable of even hinting to you the nauseous nature of that woman’s kisses. They filled me with an indescribable repulsion. I look back at them with a feeling of physical, mental, and moral horror, across an interval of twenty years. The most dreadful part of it was that I was wholly incapable of offering even the faintest resistance to her caresses. I lay there like a log. She did with me what she would, and in dumb agony I endured.”
Marsh, pp. 91
Comments:
We get to learn more about how the magic of this world works here; it seems to be somewhat feminine and/or sexual in nature. Both people we have seen using the mesmerism powers as children of Isis are women, although the one going after Paul Lessingham is less noticeably so. It takes a while for the characters to figure out her sex, and that sort of adds to the confusing nature of the mystery in this story. This relationship between women and the beetle is due to their connection to Isis, I believe. In real life history, Isis was a goddess of Ancient Egypt’s religion. Mentions of her and depictions of her likeness date back to 2350 BCE, and what she represented is vague. She was the wife of Osiris, (who was first the king of Egypt, then the king of the dead) and the mother of Horus, who took the throne as king after his father. She serves a role in the mythos as a matronly figure; a mother, wife, widow, and healer. She became very popular in later dynasties and had dedicated temples, as well as described cults outside of Egypt. This, I believe, is what The Beetle draws its inspiration from. The people in the cult are women, and value femininity; they are alluring and mesmerizing, subjugating the men they come into contact with. Given the political and cultural conflict/colonization at this time, it wouldn’t surprise me that Marsh conflates many facets of Egyptian culture with one another, and that is why beetles, creatures that are native to Egypt and often depicted in that land, with worship of Isis, and worship of Isis with Middle East and Arab people as a whole.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Isis-Egyptian-goddess
Questions:
Will some kind of healing come into play, as Isis was a healing goddess?
Could it be that Marjorie will be safe/alive by the end of this because Isis followers value women? Maybe she could be indoctrinated into the cult?
