Hilary Mantel is a contemporary British novelist who has written a number of short stories, memoirs, and historical novels. Her Thomas Cromwell trilogy includes Wolf Hall (2009), Bring up the Bodies (2012), and The Mirror and the Light (2017). Both the first and the second novels have got the Man Booker prize award. Hilary Mantel was the first woman writer to receive the Man Booker prize twice.
In Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies Mantel calls for a new perspective as she believes “[t]o try to engage with the present without engaging with the past is to live like a dog or cat rather than a human being.” Mantel also seizes the opportunity of choosing a historical events, especially of the early Tudor age, which were responsible for the Reformation in England, thereby politically and psychologically critiquing it.
This research paper tends to focus on analyzing Henry VIII’s personality and also the personalities of main characters in his court through both the novels Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring up the Bodies (2012) which are set around 1500 to 1535 narrating a sympathetic fictional biography of a powerful minister Thomas Cromwell and his rise and fall in King Henry VIII’s court.
Psycho-History and Personality Psychology
This research paper seeks to psychologically analyze the personalities of main characters in Henry’s court who are found mentioned in both the novels. Introducing a psycho-historical approach to the text helps in studying the psychological motivations behind the historical events. Psycho-history basically attempts to combine the insights of psychoanalysis with social studies in order to understand the social and political behavior of a groups or behavior of a nations past.
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology which studies individual’s variant personalities and focuses on many areas which include: investigation of human nature and finding psychological similarities between individual personalities, construction of a coherent picture of individual’s psychological process, investigation of individual psychological differences.
Henry VIII’s Psychopathic Personality
Hilary Mantel expresses Henry VIII’s mental dilemma in the phrase “‘Am I not a man like other men? Am I not? Am I not?’” (WH 442). Mantel’s text provides information about Henry VIII and his personality through other characters’ voices as well as his own reactions to several situations. It further proves that Henry VIII is a paraphilically disordered personality.
Thomas Cromwell and Cardinal Wolsey
In both the novels, Thomas Cromwell is portrayed as a faithful servant to Cardinal Wolsey who functions the Kings annulment from his first queen Katherine of Aragon. Wolsey discusses with Cromwell about Henry’s desire to divorce his wife as she failed to produce a male heir to his throne during the eighteen years of their married life.
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
Henry’s desire to have Anne Boleyn in his bed landed him in new troubles. Anne resisted him as she did not want to be a mistress like her sister Mary, which further made Henry mad to do anything for her sake and to get his passion satisfied. It is also important to study Anne Boleyn’s character as she too plays an important role in Henry’s personal life as well as in the Reformation of England.
The Reformation of England
Henry’s role in the Reformation of England is made clear through other characters that portray him. Reformation in England is not just a religious Movement but a major historical Movement in English history. Psycho-historians suggest that any form of violation in the past, which includes crimes, war and religious paranoia’s, may be a self-destructive re-enactment of earlier abuse.
Henry declared himself as the head of the new church and helped his followers, especially those who were holding positions in court, to break the papal rule and establish their own rule.
Cromwell’s Character
Cromwell’s character is also important to be psychologically analyzed. At first he supports the annulment out of fear of losing the favour, but soon after he establishes his cunningness. When Henry wanted to marry Anne, he played the chief role in settling the matters of Anne’s several other affairs. When years later Henry wanted to annul his marriage again, he was responsible for his cunning plan of charging Anne with adultery with five persons including her brother George Rochford and finally executing her.
Conclusion
The history which failed to portray the truth projected a ‘truth’ framed by the people holding power and productivity. The truth that Henry VIII was a sexually deviated psychopath, his wife Anne Boleyn an adulterer, and his councilor Thomas Cromwell an evil murderer is not revealed to a full extend in histories. The contribution of these Characters to the Reformation Movement makes us doubt the portrayed history and helps us bringing a new dimensional outlook in ensuring that the birth of Reformation is from sin.
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