Revisiting Witches: Reading Aleph

O Mary Conceived Without Sin, Pray for those who Turn to You. Amen. “Here we are in the twenty first century, and yet the descendents of the real criminals, those who killed the innocent victims, still they have the right to grant pardons. Do you know what I mean, Haron?” Coelho, The Witch of the Portobello(page 2). The character sketch of Athena in the novel “The Witch of the Portobello” clearly recalls the witch hunt of Early Modern Period. Yet, the novel, some say, has nothing to do with the witch hunt in the those period. However, if someone raises a question, what is there in the mind of Coelho while writing this novel, or the recent one, “Aleph,” it is a complicated one. When I ask this question, my objective is not to conduct an investigation of the real motives of the author, something the New Critics termed as “Intentional Phallacy.” The books of Coelho has been viewed from different angles by different critics. Mostly, the novels have been termed as an encouraging, inspirational stories which talk about the individual powers and the success of human beings. However, when the characters like “Athena”, or “Hilal”, mention something about mystical experience and the past experience of prosecution in the Court of Inquisition, it is quite normal to have some doubts about the “intention of the author.” “Aleph” is an autobiographical story of Coelho, where he starts a journey back to his kingdom. He talks about the previous life in which he helped the Inquisition. His teacher/mender in the Tradition(which is quite ambiguous term for me) advised him to visit the past life through meditation. So, Coelho conducted a journey through the Russian provinces where he met the woman from his past life. In a moment of “Aleph”, he could understand that he was one of the reason for her cruel death in the past life, so he decided to request forgiveness to the woman. The rest of the story is clear, he asks forgiveness and she accepted it, so he went back to his native country and lived happily ever after. Here, whether the hero achieved mental peace after the experience completely is not that much clear. It is because in the beginning of the work, the author says that he started doubting the relevance of his own beliefs and started doubting whether the Tradition can answer his problems. Then, he hope that through the journey he had undertaken, he could overcome his problems and get back the peace of mind, or even salvation(what he wanted to achieve, his real quest is unclear for me, truly speaking). The thing is that happiness or peace of mind cannot be achieved permanently for anyone, except saints(?). If one achieves complete satisfaction in his life, achieves everything, the life ends there. The happiness achieved by Coelho cannot be permanent in my opinion, after a time, he may again start questioning the beliefs, and may again start a journey. So, whether he achieved anything by this journey is a question.

Another issue related to the work is the question of forgiveness and the way he approaches it. Even though he used many praises the ancient traditions which is mainly matriarchal, the idea of forgiveness itself is patriarchal. It is the nature of men to engage in sinful acts towards women; then they will ask forgiveness, and it is always the duty of the women to grant it. When Coelho got his kingdom back, it is not clear about the female character. Even though it mentions that she finds absolute solace in the presence of Coelho, she did not continue her career as a violinist. Coelho advices her to use it as a tool for forgetting everything, she give up the career. In the last part, the author says that he don't know why she decided like that, after all she has every right to do or choose her career. It is her kingdom, others can't enter into it. In other words, it is the novel about Coelho, and “his” journey back to his kingdom; whatever happens to the rest of the world or the female part is not his concern. The more serious issue of forgiveness is that, Coleho's journey is not complete. In the novel itself, he mentioned that he id responsible for the bad life of eight woman, Hilal is the fifth one. Even if he asks forgiveness to the eight women, he can't get what he wanted to get. It is because when he says he is responsible for the death of the girl in the previous life, he indirectly responsible for the misfortunes of her family as well. He did not ask forgiveness to the father of the girl, from whom he received many favors. After all, as mentioned earlier, asking forgiveness should be “a man to a woman”, not to the rest of the family. When the girl died by burning in the fire, the family died by burning in the society. If this way is correct, he is not only responsible for the woman and her family, but to the society which is forced to believe this idea of burning the witches. And what about his fellow culprits?