"Morpho Eugenia" in Angels and Insects (1992)
By A. S. Byatt
Darwin; Historical fiction; Short story
Debates about Darwin and religion animate this novella set in 1860 England.
In 1860, William Adamson returns from his explorations of the Amazon, where he has been cataloguing the social behaviors and appearances of previously-unknown species of insects. Lacking resources to embark on another expedition, William takes a position in his benefactor’s household organizing the miscellaneous discoveries that Harald Alabaster has collected. While there, he falls in love with Eugenia Alabaster, and although her elevated social position should preclude a marital union, William soon finds himself husband to Eugenia and father to five children who look strikingly like their mother. Because of their prolific propagation, William indefinitely delays his plans to return to the Amazon, instead focusing on unknown insect communities on the family’s estate. With the assistance of Eugenia’s cousin, Matty Crompton, he compiles data on several ant colonies for a naturalist book. As he grows closer to Matty, his relationship with Eugenia ruptures in a final, stunning revelation: Eugenia and her half-brother have been engaged in incestuous relations. Unable to stomach further relations with his wife, and unsure as to whether his children are even his own, William and Matty take the book royalties and fund a final expedition to the Amazon.
From the moment he steps into the Alabasters’ ballroom, fresh from his Amazonian expedition, William compares “savage” culture to the “civilization” of high society England. Religious ceremonies, colorful garments and complicated dances differ between cultures, but the central social presence of these elements indicate that there are instinctual organizing principles to human society. William must repeatedly remind himself that while human interactions might appear to mirror those that arrange insect colonies, such analogies allow for reductive standardizations between species. Insects provide rich material for speculation about inherited aptitudes (instinct) versus inherited knowledge (intelligence); are the complicated structures of hives a product of bee intelligence, or of organizing principles written into bees’ DNA? Nature becomes a parable for human interactions, with the latter distinguished only by the human use of reason to modify instinct-driven habits. Darwin’s theory of natural selection plays a central role in this novella set in the Victorian-era, largely in the debates between Harald and William over the verifiable presence of a universal Creator. Newly awakened to theories on species’ origins – and years before DNA is identified – Harald becomes obsessed with determining whether or not a Creator is evident in the overarching unknown that orders human societies, ant colonies and cellular functions. He sees the theory of natural selection as indicative of a fickle, sloppy Creator, one whose mistakes must be corrected by the individual organism even from the moment of conception. This apparent conflict between Creation and evolution springs from Harald’s attempts to meld Darwin’s newborn theories with culturally inherited social and religious institutions.
– Natalie Champ