The flying Dutchman’s mimetic desire. Crossing geographical and moral frontiers in Frederick Marryat’s the phantom ship

Abstract

The chapter investigates the figure of Captain William Vanderdecken, one of the protagonists of Frederick Marryat’s sea novel entitled The Phantom Ship, who is not only an incarnation of the Flying Dutchman but may also be regarded as a Faustian character. In his enormous pride and overwhelmed by discovery passion, William Vanderdecken wants to usurp the Absolute’s demiurgic power and regards discovering lands, crossing frontiers, both geographical and moral, and staking out new territories as an imitation of God’s creative acts. The Captain’s refusal to accept his limitations and powerlessness, as well as his diabolic determination to go round the Cape of Good Hope at all costs and to master the sea may symbolize his craving for the participation in God’s omnipotence. Blinded by the desire to be God’s equal, the Captain does not hesitate to give his soul to devil and to commit blasphemy against God. Therefore, it is also the author’s intention to interpret the legend of the Flying Dutchman as a modern version of the biblical archetype of the fall of man as a result of succumbing to Satan’s temptation. As the Faustian archetype, the Adamic myth and the legend of the Flying Dutchman are all marked by the presence of Satan, who is the source of negative inspiration, the paper will also explore the relation between Captain William Vanderdecken, Satan and God applying René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire presented in Deceit, Desire and the Novel (1965).