Anima Rising

“How liberating it must be for you […] who need only find a husband and squirt out sons to assure the legacy of some other family to fulfill her destiny, while I, having received my estate, must make a Herculean effort to bring honor and acclaim to our family name.”

Walton’s patronizing letter to his sister illustrates his misogynistic attitude and fundamental misunderstanding of the difficulties of being a woman. Moore tinges Walton’s letter with satire, making him so deeply oblivious to feminist issues that it’s humorous.

“I helped her wash off the mud on her feet and legs with a flannel. Some gravel was stuck to her, but I didn’t see any cuts or bruises. She let me give her a sponge bath, like she trusted me.”

This passage exemplifies the implicit trust between Wally and Judith, with the act of bathing symbolizing vulnerability and care. Judith immediately trusts Wally as a fellow woman and because of Wally’s warm, accepting personality. Judith trusts Wally, which leads Wally to trust Judith in turn.

“I confess, the artistic soul is a mystery to me. My young associate is doing a study of hysteria among young women of the lower classes. Perhaps you could send your models around for an interview.”

Freud’s comment to Klimt demonstrates his classism and misogyny, two issues that bleed into his scientific research. Freud believes that all women, especially women with less socioeconomic privilege, are more likely to develop “hysteria,” an invented psychological phenomenon whose name derives from the Greek hystera, for uterus or womb, reflecting the ancient belief that mental illnesses in women were caused by displacement of the uterus.

“He wanted to grab a sketch pad from the other room and draw these two in the bath. Record the line the water made on the contours of their bodies where they emerged from the water.”

Klimt wants to draw Wally and Judith in the bath, and he immediately sexualizes them. Klimt wants to keep both women under his control, and his desire to draw them illustrates the symbolic connection between control and art. Wally and Judith’s bathing has previously been a symbol of mutual trust, and Klimt’s male gaze intrudes on and corrupts that trust

“You brought this evil into the world and you must remove it. Go now, before he is too far ahead of you.”

Waggis’s words of warning to Victor Frankenstein about Adam illustrate Waggis’s unwavering moral uprightness, which stands in contrast to Victor’s lack of morality. Waggis believes Victor has a moral obligation to stop Adam from harming others, while Victor only seeks to obtain vengeance for his murdered family members.

“I think he is in love with every girl he sees naked. Although some before he sees them naked, I think.”

Wally’s perceptive nature is essential to her role in the narrative. Wally frequently makes salient observations about the other characters in the novel, and her understanding of Klimt adds depth to both their characters; Wally becomes more understanding, while Klimt becomes more emotionally multifaceted in his attraction to women.

“The truth was, Klimt had never set foot in Schwestern Flöge, nor had Emilie set foot in Klimt’s studio. It was a strict, unspoken agreement between them, which was why Wally was escorting Judith in the first place.”

Klimt and Emilie’s agreement to keep their lives apart serves to keep a barrier present in their relationship. Klimt doesn’t witness Emilie as the successful business woman she is, while Emilie doesn’t witness Klimt as the predatory artist he is. This divide allows them to forge a relationship separate from the realities of their lives.

“Wally tried to sound bored with it all, as she thought that was how a sophisticated woman would react […] Emilie swallowed hard and tried to sound bored, the way she thought a street-smart girl would react.”

The socioeconomic barriers between Emilie and Wally keep a gap between them. Emilie has the freedom to choose how she lives her life, while Wally struggles to survive. Both try to achieve common ground by impersonating the class of the other, illustrating their desire to forge a genuine friendship.

“‘The man on top of you, what is his relation to you?’ ‘He is my brother, and my murderer.’ Eureka! Freud wrote in his notes.”

Freud hypnotizes Judith and asks her about Adam. Judith’s description of Adam is technically correct, as Victor Frankenstein brought them both to life, making them pseudo-siblings, and Adam murdered Judith in 1799. Instead of taking this information literally and trusting his patient, Freud projects his own beliefs about women and trauma onto Judith, adding texture to the theme of Objectification and Bodily Autonomy.

“Unfortunately, our strength came at a price. We were hungry all the time; somehow Frankenstein’s elixir had endowed us with preternatural strength and healing, but it demanded fuel in return.”

Judith describes the physical toll of being resurrected by Victor Frankenstein’s elixir. This makes sense of Judith’s literal hunger, as she’s constantly eating pastries and other food throughout the narrative, and her metaphorical hunger for connection and freedom.

“‘I didn’t say that. Just keep her safe. There is a quality about her—I don’t understand it. Perhaps after I paint her I will understand the fascination.’ ‘Or after you bed her,’ Schiele said, then immediately regretted it. ‘No. I think not.’ He wasn’t angry or offended, but simply announcing a decision he had made.”

Klimt and Egon discuss Judith, and even as Egon tries to sexualize Judith like the other models, Klimt resists, deciding firmly that Judith is different than the others. Klimt “creates” a version of Judith that he places on a pedestal, further illustrating the importance of the theme of objectification and bodily autonomy.

“‘Losing small battles doesn’t matter if you win the war,’ croaked Raven. ‘This is not a small battle,’ I said. ‘It’s be eaten by a bear or fall to my death from a cliff.’ ‘You died before, returned stronger,’ said Sedna. ‘Return to us. Akhlut misses you.’”

Raven and Sedna offer Judith comfort during her attempts to escape Adam. Sedna’s insistence that Akhlut, or Geoff’s god form, misses Judith demonstrates the closeness of her bonds in the Underworld, further cementing it as a safe space for Judith to retreat during her trauma.

“As you know, I am skeptical to the point of disgust at occult or religious nonsense as it relates to the personality, other than acting as symbols for various aspects of the psyche, but these two figures, and perhaps even the patchwork monster man and the magical Swiss doctor, seem to fit hand in glove with your theory of the collective unconscious and the archetypical aspects of consciousness.”

Freud writes a letter to Jung, requesting that Jung consult on Judith’s case. Freud doesn’t believe that Judith is telling the truth, but her story doesn’t fit within his narrative of trauma suppression. Freud and Jung’s relationship collapses over their disagreement about Judith, and this letter foreshadows Freud’s disgust with Jung’s turn toward belief in the occult.

“They have to learn. Art will prepare them for the horror that is being human.”

Egon defends his decision to show the erotic drawings to the children in Krumau. He believes that being human is a repulsive ordeal, and his artistic credo revolves around exposing the baser elements of human nature. Egon’s view of sexuality as abject or repugnant contrasts with Klimt’s romanticizing gaze.

“Symbols to somehow throw a haze over the fact that he was simply a working-class fellow who liked drawing, painting, spending time with, and bedding pretty women. Was Judith a living symbol? A symbol of his weakness, perhaps?”

Klimt is a Symbolist painter who considers what the symbols of his art mean in the context of his life. Klimt’s self-awareness is on full display, as he considers his past and how he hides his desires behind his artistic practice.

“She is a sensuous flesh dreadnought and I have perished on the bow of her bosom.”

Oskar Kokoschka describes Alma Mahler to Emilie while begging for her measurements to craft a sex doll. Oskar compares Alma to a battleship, objectifying her in an unflattering comparison that relates their romantic relationship to the violence of war.

“These men, these artists, who try to define us by where they want to stick their dick. I’ll not have it. As if we have no will of our own. Fucking Nietzsche, for men he postulates the Übermensch, above all rules and morals, but for women, he says we exist only for the child, and to men we represent only danger and play.”

Emilie’s expletive-laden rant against Nietzsche’s sexist philosophies illustrates both her staunchly feminist stance and her distaste for the intellectual men who fail to make room for women in their intellectual explorations. Emilie pushes back against Nietzsche’s beliefs, as she doesn’t orient her life around children or men.

“You get to choose. At your age, the only path I could find to live an elevated life, a life of greatness, was marriage, and I chose Mahler. Now I will choose again.”

Alma Mahler gives Wally and Judith advice about their paths in life. Alma attached herself to a man for success, and her words serve as a warning to Wally and Judith about the pitfalls of using marriage as an avenue to greatness, as Mahler’s accomplishments don’t truly belong to Alma.

“Because Adam murdered me so Frankenstein could raise me from the dead to be his sex slave, the way men do with women. Adam and Frankenstein were just more direct. I had no worth to them except as a sex puppet.”

Judith reiterates her bodily commodification to Jung while arguing that what happened to her is merely a “more direct” version of what all men to do to women. Men turn all women into “sex puppets,” objectifying them as Klimt and Egon do with their models.

“Some of the men came with spears but did not attack. I stood there at the edge of the camp, feeling like I had the day I jumped into the crevasse. I cried. I screamed. I dared them to kill me. All the time Sedna was in my ear, telling me to kill them all.”

Judith feels betrayal after Tonraq casts her out and the village doesn’t defend her. Sedna, who typically serves as a maternal goddess, encourages Judith to exact her revenge, illustrating the complexity of Sedna’s role in the Underworld. She feeds the People, but she also demands her sacrifices.

“’I am Waggis […] I’ve known you forever. I have always loved you…’ She didn’t know what to say. He had lived a very long life thinking about her, searching for her, and she had only remembered him as a shadow figure in a dream.”

Waggis returns to the narrative to save Judith from Walton’s kidnapping attempt. Waggis searches for Judith for a century, as he felt close to Judith while he took care of her on Victor Frankenstein’s behalf. Judith barely remembers Waggis, but Judith’s open nature makes her open to a friendship with Waggis, a fellow immortal.

“Is this why black wings kept appearing on the painting? I never finished it, you know. I would paint them out and the next day they would be there again.”

Klimt tells Judith about the portrait after he finds her in the Underworld and sees her wings. The supernatural link between Judith and Klimt remains, as even as she exits his life, he keeps a connection to Judith.

“No erotic work of art is filth, if it is artistically significant. It is only turned into filth through the beholder if he is filthy.”

Moore quotes Egon’s historical defense letter in his trial in Krumau in the afterword further complicates Egon’s artistic credo. Egon believes that humans turn art into “filth” because of their own perceptions of sex and the taboo.