March 5, 2011: George MacDonald And The Unveiling Of Character

In The Landlady's Master, George MacDonald writes,

[W]hat we call degeneracy is often the unveiling of what was there all the time, and the evil we become, we are. If I have in me the tyrant or the miser, there he is, and such am I - as surely as if the tyrant or the miser were even now visible to the wondering dislike of my neighbors.

Something I have noticed again and again in MacDonald's novels is the way in which the deep character flaws of his villains are gradually revealed through the circumstances that come upon them. Their depravity does not always rest visibly on the surface. MacDonald is right: what appears to be a man's "fall" into corruption is often simply the manifestation of wickedness that was already there, fully formed, waiting for the right events to expose it to light. Goodness is equally latent. Circumstances do not create character so much as they reveal it.

You can think of it this way. Imagine two men who both wake up in the morning, have coffee and breakfast, shower and brush their teeth, go to work, come home, eat, run errands, go to bed. Which man is evil and which one is good? Which one - in biblical terms - is a fruitful stalk of wheat, and which one is a tare fit for burning? On a given day you may not see much to distinguish them. That is because no testing circumstances have pried open their souls to let you see what's inside.

But now start throwing circumstances at them. Give both men a bitchy wife, for example. One man suffers quietly, endures, remains faithful, tries what he can to inspire his wife to goodness, and encourages other men who are similarly burdened. The other man starts drinking, grows bitter, cheats on her, and deliberately provokes her to more outrageous behavior so that the marriage will dissolve.

Or give both men lots of money. One man lives modestly, gives generously, creates job opportunities for others, blesses his neighbor. The other buys a luxury car and a mansion and gets plastic surgery and dumps his aging wife for a trophy.

Or make them sick. Many a man's pleasant disposition depends crucially on nature's gift of energy and strength. Assault the source of his pride with debilitation so that now, in his own eyes, he amounts to little more than the object of charitable goodwill - and what becomes of his cheerful good grace?

Goodness and evil are both found deep in the heart. I do not believe in sudden falls from grace so much as I do in sudden unveilings. Nor do I believe that great acts of courage or discipline or charity can spring spontaneously from unprepared souls. As Jesus said in Luke 6:45: "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."