Photographing Fairies Essay, Research Paper

Photographing Fairies is one man s search for what is real in a world that has horribly disappointed him. After losing his wife the day after their wedding, the main character, Castle, losing all hope and all lust for life. During World War I, he is indifferent to imminent danger and seems to have to compunction about losing his life to a German bullet. After the war, he carries on his daily routines without a smile or real purpose. He goes through the routines of manufacturing photographs of the families of dead soldiers as if the soldiers were still alive by having stand-ins and pasting over the faces with old photographs of the lost loved ones. They did try to capture the personality of the dead with physical mannerisms. While the poses were being manufactured, Castle had a rather pragmatic and yet negative perspective that he shared with one of the families. This view carried over until he went to a showing of photographs of the mysterious and unexplained. Much to the chagrin of the presenter, Castle takes apart the entire illusion of fairies in a particular photograph claiming that there is an explanation for everything. When asked about his own personal situation, Castle shuts down completely and refuses to say anything of his emotional state. He seems to have no personal feelings, appears cold and unfeeling.

After leaving, Castle is approached by a rather intelligent woman, Beatrice who swears that she has proof of the existence of fairies with a photograph of one of her daughters. At first, Castle lends no credence to this idea. Upon further examination of the photograph, Castle sees that there is indeed a being, and becomes passionate about figuring out what it really is. He is filled with a burning need to come to a rational solution to this puzzle. He cannot merely accept the existence of fairies without going to the place where photograph was taken, Beatrice s home. The home is located in a small village far from the bustling noise of London, where Castle hails from. Castle is used to all that is rational and quite unprepared for what he is greeted with. Everyone seems to merely accept which they cannot explain. He meets Beatrice s husband, who is local minister. He is a rational man, but quite in denial. When Beatrice dies falling from the fairy tree after trying to reach these magical beings, the minister simply accepts this as God s will and life will go on for the rest of the mere beings of the earth. Castle instead is searching for the how and why Beatrice would do this. He experiences everything that Beatrice did and embraces the unexplainable. As a result, the minister is accidentally killed and Castle assumes responsibility and is sentenced to death. There is a difference in Castle whereas before he did not care about his life because he felt that he had nothing to live for as everything he loved had been torn away from him. Now he was almost eager to explore his afterlife within the promise of reuniting with his dead bride. He has transcended from purely rational thought to emotional rational thought.