52 pages • 1-hour read
The Jackal's Mistress
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, illness, death, and racism.
Civilian Resilience Under Military Authority
Libby’s household demonstrates a quiet but strong resistance under the pressures of local military forces. That authority, ironically, is most clearly evident in the Confederate officers who impact their lives, instead of the enemy Union forces. Libby, Sally and Joseph, and Jubilee all demonstrate resilience in the face of this military authority. Through their interactions with Lieutenant Morgan in particular, the novel illustrates its message of the importance of steadfast resilience as the key to resistance.
Through Libby’s interactions with Lieutenant Morgan, the novel highlights both her quiet resistance and its effect on her foe. Morgan broadcasts his authority when he first arrives at Libby’s mill. Scouting the location in preparation for supposed upcoming skirmishes, Morgan initially appears polite, claiming his grandfather, Leveritt Covington, has great respect for Libby’s husband, Peter. A soldier with Morgan, however, questions Libby’s capabilities in working the mill: “Little thing like you?” (13). Morgan himself tells Libby that Joseph is needed for the army. Libby politely pushes back, explaining there will be no flour available for their quartermaster if they take away her only help. She also lets him know indirectly that his military authority is not worth much to her by calling him “Mr. Morgan.” Morgan stews over this and threatens to return “when [they] need something” (15), but he leaves without Joseph. This scene shows the effectiveness of Libby’s resilience while also setting the stage for future conflict between the two.
Taking her aunt’s example, Jubilee also faces Morgan down, obstructing his search with lies and obfuscation. Morgan returns after growing suspicious that a rumored Union captain may be near. On his next visit to Libby’s farm, looking for Weybridge, Morgan encounters Jubilee. He is no match for her lies or her ebullient spirit. Jubilee not only insists that she would personally take care of any “bluebellies” in the area herself, but she also scoffs at Morgan’s notion that anyone would harbor a Union captain. Rebuffed by her energy and tone, Morgan departs empty-handed, Jubilee’s teasing defusing the confrontation once again.
Morgan is defeated in his next search of Libby’s farm by Sally and Joseph. They calmly dismiss the idea of a Union captain and pretend to acquiesce to Morgan’s demands. In the meantime, Sally cleverly hides Weybridge’s clothes and bandages. Later, when Morgan brings armed rangers to help him conduct a surprise raid, Joseph and Sally again demonstrate resolve and cleverness; Sally keeps Jubilee safe, shoots a ranger, fires shots to throw Morgan off, then ultimately kills Morgan. Joseph kills the last ranger. After Sally tragically dies in this battle, Libby, Joseph, and Jubilee show their restored resilience by choosing to leave the property as refugees and refusing to watch it burn at the hands of Confederate cavalrymen. Though all the characters at the farm are tested by Morgan at one time or another, their continued refusal to break under his pressure and their strength in eventually choosing to leave their home highlight how their resilience has both kept them safe and ultimately made them victorious over their antagonist.
Moral Decisions Amid Societal Collapse
Throughout The Jackal’s Mistress, the characters suggest, in words and actions, that over the course of the war, the honor associated with the early days of action between North and South has been lost. As the culture of a polite society disintegrates, many figures in the novel are compelled to act out of desperation, leading to hard moral choices. Libby’s and Weybridge’s separate actions exemplify the struggle of making moral decisions and maintaining one’s morality amid societal collapse. The novel juxtaposes them against the immoral actions on both sides of the conflict to highlight their continued morality even under pressure.
Although Libby lives in the South and is the wife of a Confederate soldier, she sees the loss of morality and honor from the very beginning of the novel. When she visits Covington early in the narrative, he discusses the “depredations” of the Union: “The war has changed: it’s not like it was in 1862. No corncrib or smokehouse is safe. No field will not be burned. […] The Yanks have become a nasty bunch” (39). However, Libby sees that same lack of morality everywhere, and she recognizes that the Confederacy has adopted low standards as well. This understanding foreshadows her own drastic moral choices; she saves Weybridge because leaving him to die is wrong, and she wants to rise above the lack of honor she sees daily, though the act endangers her household. In another moral choice, Libby commits murder on the road to Harper’s Ferry to save herself and Joseph. After the loss of Sally and her home, she reflects on saving Weybridge when the Union guard asks who is in the coffin: “Someone…decent. Someone…kind. Someone…I kept alive at a price I could not afford (281). Her tone reflects that she recognizes Weybridge’s morality and her obligation to save him, but the words show that she realizes the weight of her choice.
Weybridge also sees a lack of morality around him, and he tries to counteract it with his soldiers and in his own life. Though Weybridge is courageous and kind, he feels a heavy responsibility for the men under his command. He also questions man’s aptitude for violence in war, and how humans become capable of atrocity, thinking, “[o]r maybe it was just the fact that man was a monster. […] We hunted and killed with greater ferocity and precision than any other animal in Vermont or Virginia. And it seemed, no classroom or book could bleed that from a person” (255). To Weybridge, a professor and young father, the collapse of a rules-based society in these latter days of war particularly assails his refined and civilized learnedness. This understanding, and the lack of morality he bears witness to, fuel his guilt over the potential danger his presence means for Libby and the others, as he debates whether his survival is worth their lives. Through both Libby and Weybridge’s perspectives, the novel illustrates the struggle to maintain one’s sense of morality when subsumed in an immoral culture of war.
Humanizing the Enemy Through Shared Vulnerability
During wartime, every individual is vulnerable, susceptible to both the dangers and violence of battle and the struggles of life during conflict. Weybridge barely survives the skirmish at Opequan but loses his leg, while Libby’s stresses, her physical work, and confrontational interactions with the Confederate soldiers leave her fighting daily for strength and motivation. Their separate trials contribute to the way they treat and see each other, not as enemies in a time of war, but as humans facing significant dangers and obstacles in a shared conflict. As they observe and share in each other’s weaknesses, their regard for each other as allies instead of enemies grows. With their story, the novel draws attention to the individuals on both sides of the conflict, emphasizing their humanity and questioning the fundamental notion of the “enemy.”
From the moment Weybridge enters Libby’s life, their vulnerabilities are clear to each other, and they see each other immediately as individuals, rather than part of a larger ideology. In the early days of Weybridge’s stay at Libby’s, he is vulnerable physically and emotionally. His missing leg and fingers are relentless reminders of his mortality and vulnerability. His pride, stamina, and spirit are left raw and wounded, too; he is humbled not only by the level of care the others offer—from Joseph’s shave and bath to Sally’s remedies to Jubilee’s emptying his latrine bucket—but by their willingness to sacrifice their safety and security. Although Libby’s health is intact and she is in her home, she is equally vulnerable: The farm and mill are under constant threat of burning by the Union, and Confederate Lieutenant Morgan presents a constant threat with his ability to take anything he wants, under the auspices of the army’s needs. The two characters are mutually vulnerable, and their developing understanding of that aids in their deeper connection.
This sense of vulnerability deepens when Libby situates Weybridge in her bedroom, among her most personal things, illustrating her willingness to see him as an injured human, rather than a Union soldier. Committed to keeping the man alive, she continues to show her goodwill by risking a trip to Harper’s Ferry, where she meets not only two men who threaten her and Joseph but also, later, the Union officers at the garrison. By the time Libby returns with supplies, she and Weybridge approach each other from similar positions of vulnerability, and their willingness to do so allows them to transcend the two sides of the war. As the two share late-night conversations over whiskey and on the porch, any pretenses of enmity fall away, and Libby shows her most vulnerable moment when the thought of Weybridge’s departure upsets her usual stoicism. Having grown to see one another as individuals, they remain loyal to each other in the fight against Morgan. By humanizing the enemy through their shared vulnerability, Libby and Weybridge develop goodwill and trust that bond them in the face of outside violence, dismantling the notion of the enemy through a recognition of shared humanity.
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