Memory Suitcase

The suitcases (supposed to be three, the finishing of the cases is different, Dickens’ is the most worn one because it has been passed down form generations to generations.) are containers for the journeys of each character (Three writers: Pope, Hawthorne and Dickens).

The idea of having parts of the ornaments or objects in each place that the character has “been” to, and put them in a suitcase divided into 9, is to form a journey image/memory theater of the characters, a way for them to tell the space of the manor house in their perceptions.

This idea comes from Frances A. Yates’ book The Art of Memory. he discusses how people use “places” for memory to embed in:

In order to form a series of places in memory, he says, a building is to be remembered, as spacious and varied a one as possible, the forecourt, the living room, bedrooms, and parlours, not omitting statues and other ornaments with which the rooms are decorated.

The suitcase is a method to deal with the architectural space in literature and memory. It works like a recorder to form the space out of text, to remind the writer of his experience of the past, and to illustrate that experience to the reader, an image source for the reader to create his imaginary experience of the space.