ABSTRACT
This chapter considers an important element of Marie Hay’s The Evil Vineyard that C. G. Jung and Barbara Hannah overlook: the novel’s frequent allusions to other works. Mary Latimer is a young woman who yearns for intellectual stimulation, and she marries Latimer partly because he courts her with a gift of good books. These volumes and other literary references are central to an understanding of Mary’s psychological journey. That is, there is a hypertextual relationship between her experiences and the content of the allusions that permeate the novel. Like links on a Web site, the numerous literary references provide not only support for an archetypal reading but also a variety of implications, including ideals that should be striven for, ironic undercutting when those ideals are not met, warnings about unrealistic expectations and dangerous paths, parallels to the plot, and support for a metaphysical reading. Thus, the allusions provide a built-in commentary, and the references’ overall shift from prose to poetry and song qualifies Hannah’s claim that Mary will be unhappy in her relationship with her late husband’s cousin, Maurice Drummond.
