What May Be Perceived
No human has ever experienced reality.
Everything we see is filtered and created by our minds, weaving in our ideas and filling in the gaps; everything we hear is affected by our level of hearing and how much attention we pay. Every experience is decided by our opinions, our feelings, and our beliefs. Ten people could go through the exact same thing at the same time and still end up with entirely different takeaways. We can never truly know what is real.
Anyway, we were talking about the twins in the book series The Mysterious Benedict Society. Ledroptha Curtain is the villain of the series, and Nicholas Benedict is the hero. They are identical in every way, and they are similar in far too many. As I mentioned in my last post, the only way one character could tell the two apart was by a lack of skill on Nicholas’s part. This leaves us with a question; what truly makes them different?
The character’s perceptions of the twins would tell you that they are wildly different; however, I would argue that this is solely a matter of differing perspectives. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.
Nicholas Benedict is described as having a contagious, dolphin-like laugh. The first time we read about his laugh, it is described like this: “Mr. Benedict burst into laughter- a squeaky, rapid, stuttering expulsion that sounded rather like a dolphin.” Throughout the series, the characters associate very positive things with his laugh, and they often join in the laughter themselves. Now look at how Ledroptha Curtain’s first laugh is described. “Mr. Curtain burst out with a squeaky laugh that made Reynie jump.” This is very similar to Benedict’s laugh, but Curtain’s is usually described as screechy. Any observant reader has by now picked up on the fact that it isn’t Curtain or Bendict’s laughs that differ, but the nature and perception of those laughs.
This is the clearest example of differing feelings toward something so similar on the surface, but looking through this lens, we can see everything in a new light. Curtain and Benedict both have an attachment to a character in the story that is almost parental. In Benedict’s case, he takes in and eventually adopts a toddler named Constance Contraire. Curtain’s relationship with S.Q. Pedalion is more ambiguous in nature, but it is confirmed that he loves him. The relationship very much feels like that between a father and son, albeit not a very healthy one. Benedict and Curtain are actually both using these characters for their own purposes, and Benedict is certainly kinder while Constance is more aware of the situation. Still, it is eerily similar if one looks too closely.
The better the spyglass you use, the closer the brothers look. One has to wonder if there is any real difference at all.