III Third level of meaning

When we have a closer look at Owen’s artistic endeavour and the structure of the plot, we will realize that it has a lot in common not only with recurring themes in world literature and mythology in general, but even more with occult, hermetic, esoteric traditions in Western culture in particular. The plot appears to represent the effort of the artist to transcend material limitations, to reach enlightenment, to acquire the power of the transcendental. This process often takes the form of a search, a quest or a process of creation: looking for the most precious thing on earth (The Holy Grail, the Philosopher’s Stone, Aqua Vitae, the Golden Flower, etc.), or trying to produce gold, the most precious material. This process of creation usually involves three stages, just like the quest of Owen to reach the union of matter and spirit: he also goes through three stages, restarting the process of producing the golden butterfly two times. In this respect, this artistic creation is very similar to the tradition of alchemy in Western esotericism, in which the alchemist strives to produce gold. This reading will also provide an answer to the seemingly puzzling ending of the plot. We see that Owen’s work unfolds on two levels: he is working on the mechanical, golden butterfly on the surface, but in the deep structure of the plot in the meantime he is continuously working on something else. When the butterfly is destroyed in the end, this will have no effect on him, because it turns out that the mechanism was only an outward symbol of what he has already achieved inside his soul during the process:

“And as for Owen Warland, he looked placidly at what seemed the ruin of his life’s labor, and which was yet no ruin. He had caught a far other butterfly than this. When the artist rose high enough to achieve the beautiful, the symbol by which he made it perceptible to mortal senses became of little value in his eyes while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of the reality.”

The mechanical golden butterfly is only needed as a symbol which will show to the mortal human beings that the artist is ready, completed his journey, and has achieved the inner, spiritual perfection. This is again very similar to the aspiration of the artist in the alchemical tradition: when gold is finally produced by the alchemist, he will be no longer interested in it, because the availability of the gold merely signifies that the much more important thing, the real goal of the process, the inner spiritual perfection has been achieved.

A word of caution: of course, we are not claiming in this interpretation that Owen is an alchemist, Danforth is Hephaestus, Hovenden is Satan and the live butterfly is Hermes. We are using these analogies and parallels to understand the imagery, the connotative levels of meaning and the philosophy of the narrative in a broader context and to come up with a coherent explanation for the events and themes in the plot. Several other readings might just as well be possible, but for want of space and time we cannot pursue this interpretation any further here.