The Divine Mandate of Colonialism: Orientalism in Wilkie Collins’s 'The Black Robe'

Abstract

In postcolonial studies, the missionary is inevitably associated with colonialism. This is explained by the fact that the missionaries’ main task was to spread Christianity by preaching the “blessings of civilisation” and implementing “the white man's burden”. This study adopts Edward W. Said's Orientalist discourse to critique the construct of the representation of indigenous peoples in Wilkie Collins's (1824-1889) The Black Robe (1881). Said's ideas are particularly instrumental in critically analysing the Western (mis)representation of Native Americans as savages who need to be civilised. The Black Robe is a partly epistolary novel revolving around a series of unfortunate events by Lewis Romayne, whose remorse for the accidental murder of a young man haunts him for the rest of his life. This research reveals inconsistencies regarding the author's religious views in the novel. It is argued that while Collins's anti-Catholic sarcasm aims to expose the corruption of religious orders, this attitude does not apply to colonial discourse. Rather, Catholicism is purposefully used as a divisive imperialist tool in the novel, and therefore the missionaries serve as colonial agents who “bless” discriminatory acts of British imperial policy, hence the image of the black robe that represents the colonial legacy consolidating the influence of British imperial power through religion. In The Black Robe, indigenous peoples are described as “bloodthirsty savages” and it is believed that their souls can be saved under the influence of Christianity. This enforcement also represents colonial hegemony, through which American Indians are subjected to social and cultural assimilation. The ideology of white racial supremacy manifests itself in the justification of the colonial missions, which claim that they have legitimate and religious rights over the land and culture of the natives.