The Power of The Watch that Ends the Night

The Power of The Watch that Ends the Night STEPHEN BONNYCASTLE The Watch that Ends the Night has had a notable success in Canada and abroad. There seems to be agreement that it is MacLennan's best novel, and a fairly general consensus that it is one of the most important novels in the body of Canadian literature. Many critics have written about it, either in short reviews published soon after the novel appeared in 1959, or in longer articles which have often formed parts of books on MacLennan. The topics most often discussed are the nature and credibility of the three major characters, and the quality of the ending, which is reflective and didactic. What has not been explained satisfactorily is the enormous power which this novel has had for many readers. Many people have an affection and a reverence for The Watch that Ends the Night which gives it, for them at least, a unique status in Canadian literature . After referring to some of the existing literature on the novel, I would like to suggest why this is so. Among professional readers - critics and professors - the novel has fared much worse. There are interesting reasons for this, as well. Jerome Martell, orphan, soldier, doctor, socialist, refugee from Auschwitz, and finally spiritual healer, has attracted a variety of comment .I Almost everyone finds his escape down the river in the wilds of New Brunswick a wonderful , compelling piece of writing; but several commentators do not find him a satisfactory character. F.W. Watt says that Martell's saintliness turns to smugness at the end of the novel, and Robert Cockburn says that he becomes a "soulful superman ," and that it is impossible to believe in him. Many people have remarked on the resemblance between Martell's life and that of Norman Bethune. Keiichi Hirano, a Japanese critic, is morally outraged that MacLennan should have started with a fascinating and admirable prototype, and water76 ed him down into a conventional hero of sentimental romance. He maintains that having Martell return to Canada as a religious visionary (rather than stay in China as a committed communist ) is a cheap way of making him an easily assimilable hero, who will not shock or disappoint narrow-minded Canadian readers. There is no hard evidence that MacLennan used Bethune as the basis for Martell, but the argument is interesting nevertheless. If Martell is a vulgar cliche, then the novel is seriously flawed. Catherine, the wife of Martell and then of George Stewart, has received bad press on the whole.2 Watt says that she is complacent, rather than strong and mature; Cockburn says that she is merely a torchbearer for Stewart's philosophy, and that she never comes alive as a character in her own right. Robertson Davies reports that she seems to him a "spiritual vampire, living on the vital force of others,'' although he acknowledges that she may seem a legitimate heroine to some readers. George Stewart, the narrator of the book, arouses the most interesting variety of opinions.3 Cockburn says that it is impossible to identify with Stewart, and so the novel loses a great deal of interest. Woodcock maintains that although Stewart is the most authentic of the three main characters, he is not entirely convincing, because he embodies a lot of material taken from MacLennan 's own life. Watt says that Stewart is mawkish and genteel, and Warren Tallman says that he is boring and garrulous, and implies that he is an utter failure as a character. Robertson Davies, however, likes Stewart, and feels that he has intelligence, insight, worth, and strength, even though he appears weak. Since the conclusion of The Watch that Ends the Night consists largely of Stewart's reflections on, and responses to, the forces of life and death around him, critics who dislike the character find the ending intolerable.4 Tallman says that Stewart is remarkable for "handing out crashing complacencies on almost every imaginable major consideration in life," and Lucas, Woodcock, and Buitenhuis agree that the ending is too like a sermon to be acceptable in a novel. Cockhurn says that Catherine's illness inspires Revue d'etudes canadiennes Vol. 14, No...