“The Lord G-d called out to man and said to him, ‘where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid (Genesis 3:10).” A common interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve, is that their story is the beginning of man’s self-centered nature and hence the inner dwellings of the subconscious. In The Lifted Veil, Eliot explores how a knowingness of someone else’s inner thoughts brings about fear. Every person has thoughts that they want no one to see. When one senses that someone else has recognized the true thoughts of the subconscious, the natural reaction since the time of Adam is to “hide” because now they feel completely vulnerable. The implications of the very title of The Lifted Veil, is associated with disclosure and secrecy. When this concealment of the soul and subconscious is lifted than secrecy and guilt set in. The significance of the title of this story is symbolic of the hidden meanings in this book; moreover, the hidden meaning of our minds and the spirit world.

Latimer, with his power of insight knows more than anybody does the danger in revealing too much about one's self. He me

energumen, whom every one, Bertha above all, would shudder at and

“the words had no sooner escaped my lips than I felt a shock of alarm lest

poisoned the passion it could not destroy” (Eliot 21).

Latimer’s preoccupation with Bertha is filled with a desirous passion. Latimer’s mental capacities aside, people are sometimes fall in love with someone else who does not love them back, and so have an obsession to get this person to love them. Soon though, one begins to fall for the idea of this person, as opposed to the actual person himself or herself. Even Latimer with his unique insight cannot escape this feeling. For when Latimer gains some insight into her thoughts he still cannot quite yet escape his longing for her. When he finally can see into her thoughts than the sense of mystery becomes veiled and Latimer begins to lose his passion and obsession towards Bertha, and knowingness becomes contempt.

Latimer’s largest sense of guilt in the novel comes from his own discoveries of the human soul, and in particular his own. When Latimer has the premonition of his brother’s death he still cannot escape the dark feelings of his own soul, he laments:

ntions in his “last hours,” how he has “never fully unbosomed myself to any human being” (Eliot 4). Latimer is all too aware of the dangers of someone peering in upon your most secretive thoughts. Latimer becomes obsessed with secrecy of his own “veil’ being lifted. He is well aware that when he can read anothers thoughts than they are completely vulnerable to him. This is also the reason why Latimer is so mesmerized by Bertha before he can finally read into her thoughts.

Some topics in this essay:
Bertha Latimer, Lifted Veil, Archer Latimer, Veil Eliot, Lord G-d, Adam Latimer, Adam Eve, latimer describes, Hence Latimer’s, Lifted Veil”, sense guilt, Symbolism Eliot’s, lifted veil, latimer feels, secrecy guilt, archer latimer, completely vulnerable, human nature, veil secrecy, human soul,