Emma Johnson-Rivard is a Masters student at Hamline University. She received her undergraduate degree in Film Studies at Smith College in Massachusetts and currently lives in Minnesota with her dogs and far too many books. Her work has appeared in Mistake House, the Olive Press, and the Santa Ana River Review.
The Painter Seeks A Muse And The Historian Lectures on Jack The Ripper
A short play
Two friends sit drinking coffee. The Historian carries a book bag. The PAINTER has a portfolio and is taking notes on a piece of paper.
PAINTER
Be as honest as you can.
HISTORIAN
I wasn’t aware people interviewed their muses.
PAINTER
I don’t have to take notes, if that makes it easier.
HISTORIAN
Studies show that handwritten notes improve memory retention and increased comprehension of abstract concepts.
PAINTER
So…
HISTORIAN
Go ahead.
PAINTER
Thank you. I just wanted to say, you don’t have to answer everything. I’d like you to be hones, but if there’s anywhere you don’t want me to go, just say so.
HISTORIAN
That’s very polite of you.
PAINTER
I don’t want to hurt anyone with my work unless I mean to.
HISTORIAN
Do you mean to hurt people?
PAINTER
Sometimes I mean to insult them or force you to see a painful truth. I mean “you” as the collective, not you personally, of course. I very rarely direct my work at specific, individual people, and only then to historical figures or politicians.
HISTORIAN
Because they expect it?
PAINTER
I suppose they do. But it’s more because they’ve shifted into the background of our collective unconsciousness. They mean something more than themselves. And sometimes they cause great harm or great innovation by being more than themselves.
HISTORIAN
So a painting of Copernicus is more important than a painting of a crowd?
PAINTER
I wouldn’t say it’s more important. Just different. And I’d probably work with Galileo, anyway.
HISTORIAN
You’re pretty good at this.
PAINTER
Thank you.
HISTORIAN
Do you write papers?
PAINTER
Sometimes. The collective you tends to think there’s this great divine between painters and historians, but we’re all academics, really. We take notes and draw conclusions.
HISTORIAN
And neither of us get rich.
The Painter laughs.
PAINTER
Nope! Though I’m supposed to be interviewing you.
HISTORIAN
My apologies. I got carried away.
PAINTER
That’s fine. Do you mind if I begin?
HISTORIAN
Not at all.
PAINTER
Excellent. As I said, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. But I’d like you to be as honest as you can.
HISTORIAN
I understand.
PAINTER
Then I’ll jump right in. Why do you study historical crime?
HISTORIAN
Why do I study it, or why should the collective you study it?
PAINTER
Both, please.
HISTORIAN
I research crimes concerning women; whether as perpetrators, bystanders, or victims. It became a fascination of mine in high school when I saw this movie about Jack the Ripper and I found myself wondering about the women. The ones who died, of course, but their families as well. Annie Chapman had three children. No one really talks about them.
PAINTER
She was the first victim?
HISTORIAN
Second. She was murdered on September 8th, 1880.
PAINTER
So you write about the Ripper.
HISTORIAN
No. I don’t care about the Ripper.
PAINTER
Just the women.
HISTORIAN
Looking at the crimes is a way of looking at multiple levels of society all at once. How these women died is extremely well documented. Working backwards, I try to get a picture of how they lived.
PAINTER
Like with the Ripper.
HISTORIAN
I don’t want to talk about him.
PAINTER
So why look at crimes at all? If you’re interested in the lives of Victorian women, I can think of other ways you could do it without encountering such gruesome history.
HISTORIAN
You’re not the first person to ask me that. With this kind of history, it’s easy to get drawn into the sensation of the narrative. Make a spectacle of the blood and guts. And I can’t speak to why other people are drawn to this particular field, but for me, there was a profound sense of injustice that women like Annie Chapman are remembered for what was probably the worst moment of their lives. The reason people know her name is because she was murdered and the collective we, as you said, has developed this whole subculture around the person who killed her. You can buy replicas of the knife. People dress up as Gentleman Jack for Halloween. And the general consensus is that Annie and the others put themselves into dangerous situations and got themselves killed. The dominant narrative in this case is about the grand mystery of revealing the killer. It’s treated as an intellectual puzzle and not a tragedy. The truth is, Annie Chapman and the other women died because a man who hated women decided to murder them because of it.
PAINTER
So you don’t have any theories about who the Ripper was?
HISTORIAN
Everyone has theories. I have my own, but there’s not enough evidence to prove them.
PAINTER
Does his identity matter at all?
HISTORIAN
I’m not saying we shouldn’t look or that there’s anything wrong with trying to figure it out. People have done very thoughtful, important work trying to close the case. It’s too late for the victims and their families, but the pursuit of justice isn’t something that should come with a time limit. But I also think that the whole conversation has shifted to putting this almost mythical killer on a pedestal. It’s become the legend of Jack the Ripper and his so called “perfect murders” rather than a historical evil we should be working to eradicate in the present. When we come to the point where you’ve got people idealizing this kind of violence against women, then you know we’ve got a problem.
PAINTER
What do you mean, idealizing the violence
HISTORIAN
The Ripper has become a sort of folk hero, in the collective consciousness. He’s called a criminal genius, his crimes are praised for how they were carried out. You can buy replicas of the knife we think he used, for God’s sake.
PAINTER
Is this something you find with a lot of the cases you study?
HISTORIAN
Occasionally, though never to this extreme as the Ripper case.
PAINTER
Why do you think that is?
HISTORIAN
Victorian crimes were reported to the public in a very specific way. Information was released episodically and it was purposefully sensationalized. Criminal cases and trials were followed closely by the public. Executions were treated like county fairs. People sold food, souvenirs; people made a day out of it. The Ripper case also touched on a lot of fears that people were grappling with at the time, but didn’t necessarily have an outlet to express. That time period in London saw extreme wealth disparities, and tensions between various ethnic and religious groups were quite high. People were afraid. A lot of prejudice came out of the proverbial woodwork because of it. And people in London, especially around the Whitechapel area, lived in very close proximity to each other, in horribly squalid conditions.
PAINTER
There wasn’t any way to escape.
HISTORIAN
Exactly. The Ripper case brought a lot of that tension to the surface and so there was a great deal of interest in the case. But I’d say even back then, the crimes started developing a mythology of their own. “Jack can’t be caught, he’s a monster, a criminal mastermind”, things like that. And of course he was never caught. The mystery appeals to people.
PAINTER
But there are a lot of unsolved crimes in the world.
HISTORIAN
Thousands. Part of the problem, at least from my perspective, is the facts of the case are consistently overshadowed by the legend. Jack the Ripper wasn’t a criminal mastermind who just vanished into the night; the police didn’t have access to what we would consider standard forensic tests, the victims were all vulnerable, and Whitechapel was a notoriously dark area. I mean that literally; there was a great deal of smog and the public street lamps of the time were quite weak. Furthermore, it wasn’t difficult to avoid the police. We know from other accounts that the Whitechapel police wore a specific type of boot, and these boots made a distinct sound on the cobblestone roads. So even before a criminal would see a policeman, they would hear him coming. Add that to the fact that the patrol routes were predictable, and even a moderately clever criminal could avoid detection at night.
PAINTER
So Jack wasn’t so special after all.
HISTORIAN
No. He was a criminal and he never saw justice for his crimes, but that was hardly unique for the time. People zero in on the legend rather than the facts of the case.
PAINTER
Given your feelings about the way the case is approached today, why research it at all?
HISTORIAN
I want to say because someone should do justice to the memory of the victims. And I do want that, I want these women to be seen as whole people instead of just props in the saga of Jack the Ripper, but I’m also very aware that I can’t speak for these women. I can only speak about them. There’s always a risk of turning them into props of my own; I’m not arrogant to think I’m above that.
PAINTER
That sounds difficult.
HISTORIAN
I believe we should be thoughtful about history, especially as it concerns violence against women. But just because something is difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
PAINTER
I agree. If we never tried to engage with the past, how would we ever learn from it?
HISTORIAN
Is this helping at all? I don’t know what painters look for.
PAINTER
You’re being very helpful. I appreciate how honest you’ve been with me.
HISTORIAN
All right.
PAINTER
You should dubious.
HISTORIAN
I guess I don’t see what you’re getting out of this.
PAINTER
Quite honestly, it’s part of my process. I don’t think many people like saying this, but the majority of artists are scavengers. We take pieces from the world around us and mash them together. I don’t want to paint just for myself, so I have to step outside my own wants and aesthetics, and think about what bothers other people. What haunts them, like the Ripper case haunts you.
HISTORIAN
I’m not a Ripperologist.
PAINTER
I know, but it’s something you feel deeply about. And to be entirely cavalier about it, that’s something I can use. That need to remember these women as they really were, when they’ve already been distorted into some strange myth. I don’t think I’ll sit down and paint Annie Chapman when we’re done. I’m not that literal. But I’ll be thinking about her as I work, about how deeply you feel for the truth of this case, and something will probably come of that.
HISTORIAN
I’m not sure I understand.
PAINTER
I know it’s strange.
HISTORIAN
This work is strange.
PAINTER
You’re quite right! But it is important, I think. Otherwise it might be lost.
HISTORIAN
I want someone to remember Annie Chapman as a person. Just one to remember her and not the Ripper.
The Painter smiles.
PAINTER
I promise at least one person will.
HISTORIAN
Thank you.
PAINTER
Shall we continue? There’s still so much I want to ask you.
HISTORIAN
Yes. That would be all right. There’s a lot to tell.
PAINTER
I’ll do my best.
HISTORIAN
I know. Will you show me, when it’s done?
PAINTER
The painting?
HISTORIAN
Yes.
PAINTER
Of course.
HISTORIAN
Then let’s begin.
Blackout.
