Year of Wonders Essay

In the novel, Year of Wonders written by Geraldine Brooks, she explores how such horrible tragedies can bring out the worst in human nature. The plague was a major disaster that can affect many people in different ways. Brooks expresses these misfortunes through certain characters such as Aphra Bont as she was a selfish, uncaring character who manipulated the people of Eyam, Colonel Bradford as he was a heartless coward who only thought of himself and Josiah because of his poor decision making and attitude that was presented in the text. However, the calamity of the Plague did not always bring out the inferior in all the characters. Elinor Mompellion had a good outcome with it as even though death was surrounding her, she still went out into the village and helped and cared for many people as best as could. Overall these characters were affected by the tragedy of the plague that resulted in many characters unravelling to becoming spiteful and silicule.
Aphra Bont was an atrocious and self – centered character who would influence the villagers to listen to her about methods and antidotes that would supposedly cure the sick of the Plague. The Plague is what made Aphra become who she was; a superstitious, crazy, different believer witch. She preyed on their suffering and used the townspeople of Eyam to believe in her just so she could steal their own valuables. She did this by acting as the Ghost of Anys. At Josiah’s funeral, Brooks illustrates a clue of Aphra’s superstitiousness when Anna witnesses her stepmother making a “figure that looked like a manikin”. Anna also notices at the funeral that Aphra speaks in a “low, deep-throated murmur” and at the end of the ceremony, “the sign she made at the end of it did not resemble the sign of the cross”[208]. This proves that not only the tragedy effected her but also the fact that the death of her husband turned her to have a weird and unusual nature. As time went by, Aphra kept on appearing as the Ghost of Anys in many