An Unkindness of Ghosts

Theo is a member of the highest-ranking family on Matilda, the nephew of the Lieutenant. He is recognized throughout the ship as an expert doctor, as much for his great talent at medicine as for his high-ranking status. Behind this status is a secret, however; he has markers that could identify him as a member of Matilda’s underclass. His gender presentation—he wears earrings and shaves his face—does not conform to the normative standards of the upper deck ruling class, and while he passes as white, his mother was a black woman. When the members of Matilda’s elite ruling class seek to remind Theo of his place, they remind him of this fact. 

He has great privilege, but his relationship to himself and others is fraught. In private, he self-flagellates, whipping himself as he says his prayers. In public, his friendship and mentorship of Aster are a visible mark against his prestige. Worse, he recognizes that this friendship puts Aster in danger, as well. Thus, he fluctuates between generosity and withholding.

Giselle grew up with Aster and, like many members of Matilda’s lower decks, suffers the psychological effects of past incidents of trauma. The few who do not suffer as deeply must still pass between complex formal social states, being at once polite and self-derogating to the guards and overseers who hold their life and labor hostage, yet ruthless and self-serving when it come to their own survival. Solomon indicates the extent of the trauma experienced on the lower decks, indicating that Aster, too, deals with its psychological effects: “Aster’s mind wasn’t as cursed by voices and visions as Giselle’s, but she knew madness well. Nightmares that plagued whether asleep or awake” (63). 

It is ironic, then, that Giselle is marked as mentally dissociative for not being able to pass as easily between these contradictory and complex roles. When she is raped, she claims, “I liked what they done to me” (174), though it’s plain that her psychic scars are deepened by the violation. When she seeks to destroy herself through burning down all of Aster’s notes and research, her ability to see how doing so would hurt Aster is compromised by the way in which her trauma is mingled with her feelings for her adopted sister. Pain and love come in a pair for Giselle.

Melusine raises the orphaned Aster and Giselle as if they were sisters. She also raises the sons and daughters of the elite—Theo among them— as a nanny. Just as in the Antebellum South, family relationships are rigid and patriarchal for the upper classes; the upper classes, in turn, systematically impose disruption against close family relationships for the lower classes, who are separated based on labor suitability. Melusine represents an improvised matriarchal order to family life in the lower decks. She coordinates help for those who need it, leveraging her familiar relationship to the well-resourced Theo.