Random Passage

This Newfoundland saga details the origins of Cape Random, a fictional outport settled in the 1820s by a hardy group of misanthropes, dreamers, and early feminists. Lacking enough provisions for winter, a family of British settlers arrives in the tiny settlement, which consists of one store, one family, and one bachelor. The survival of these isolated settlers, hiding in one of the harshest environments on the east coast, comprises the plot of this historical novel.

Like many early settlers in North America, the Andrews family arrives in Newfoundland because of misfortune back in the old country. These characters, like others in the novel, do not immigrate to the colony because of noble reasons—rather, society thrusts them away from their homes. Dreamer Ned Andrews faces criminal charges after he sells fish belonging to his boss, the biggest crime being his challenge to the upper-class monopoly of the fish trade. Ned packs up his family, including sister Lavinia, brother Ben, mother Jennie, wife Hazel and their children. Hazel gives birth to a stillborn child on the voyage and some form of puerperal fever or other post-partum illness threatens to kill her. Thus, in ragtag condition, they arrive at Cape Random to allow Hazel to convalesce. At the small settlement, they are met by misanthropic shopkeeper Thomas Hutchings, the religious Vincent family, and a winter of starvation. When the first spring ship comes to relieve their hunger, misfit Mary Bundle disembarks with her illegitimate baby, to the dismay of the settlers who view her as a brash, outspoken woman.

The narrative centres around a journal written in an old record book, recorded by Lavinia for the first two-thirds of the novel, and by Thomas in the last third. The journal plays a pivotal role for diffident Lavinia because she records her innermost desires instead of articulating her physical yearning for Thomas. Before he leaves the settlement, she passes the journal to him. The journal becomes a form of communication between the two, who barely converse in person, a contrast to the illiterate Mary Bundle who speaks her mind. Furthermore, the journal reflects a key pitfall of historical sources: one source of the past can be fraught with biases and perspectives. Thomas records his own version of events on Cape Random, which differs from Lavinia’s descriptions. Most importantly, he communicates his own motivations for coming to Cape Random and allows himself to explain his enigmatic behaviour, which is as reserved as Lavinia’s. The idea of several versions of history is strengthened in the sequel Waiting for Time (1994), in which Mary gives a third and very different impression of the settlement and her behaviour.

For the most part, women in the novel are strong figures who ask questions later feminists will posit about waged labour. Mary longs to save her wages to ensure her own financial power; she even asks Lavinia to teach her arithmetic so she can be sure the men are not cheating her. Lavinia criticizes the decisions Ned makes as head of the household, decisions that are often not well conceived, highlighting the shortcomings of a patriarchal system which obliges women to obey men’s decisions. Morgan has argued that Mary is more of a prototype feminist than Lavinia because Lavinia spends an inordinate amount of time mooning over Thomas. However, Lavinia emerges as a woman longing to find her own way in a man’s world, and though she takes on the pink-collar profession of teaching the children, she does become somewhat indepedent, though she never becomes as candid as Mary. The settlers, for their part, dislike Mary even though she is competent, blunt and sexual; Lavinia is not criticized in the same manner, and she generally exhibits the later Victorian ideals of submission, modesty, and reserved speech.

Equality becomes an important theme in this novel, as seen in the education and economic system of Cape Random. Boys and girls learn side-by-side, establishing equality between the sexes through Shakespeare; even blind Patience is assured of an education. While there is tension between formal education and practical skills such as fish-gutting, skills espoused by Mary, the children of the mostly illiterate Cape Random settlers learn to read and write. Class equality is also an important concept in the settlement because of the collective cooperation necessary to surviving in the isolated area. The women share a community garden, and when Mary attempts to grow her own potatoes in a better plot, she is criticized for greed. Though the Norris family builds a house that elevates them above the rest of the settlers, they eventually fall on hard times and descend to the level of the rest of the community. This ostensible equality among the settlers is a contrast to the class system which they escaped in England and St. John’s.

While the tone of this novel is somewhat romantic—especially as the love affair between Thomas and Lavinia comprises a bulk of the plot—it is not a rosy picture of pioneer life, pastoral and innocent. Harsh realities like childbirth gone awry, as well as the ever-present fear of starvation and drowning, keep the novel from becoming an idyllic romance. While melodramatic moments occur at appropriate moments in the narrative, it generally treats pioneer life with a verisimilitude that does not shy away from sexuality and childbirth.

This novel is half of a longer work—Morgan originally intended for Random Passage and Waiting for Time to be one tome. The unfinished ending to this novel reflects the fact that there is a sequel; without the sequel, many things are left at loose ends. Whether the two would have worked better as one novel remains to be seen, but the end of Random Passage feels more like a cliffhanger than a denouement.

Random Passage, also known by its newer title Cape Random in the United States, was made into a mini-series in 2002, which retained the title of the original Breakwater Books edition. The script combined the first novel and the sequel’s treatment of Mary Bundle, and transformed Mary into an Irish woman with red hair, attributable to the casting of Irish actor Aoife McMahon. Though Cape Random is fictional, the film set in New Bonaventure has become a tourist attraction, simulating Cape Random history. This is similar to the creation of “history” in Prince Edward Island, as the real community of Cavendish poses as Lucy Maud Montgomery’s fictional town of Avonlea for the purposes of displaying a real or imagined past. Because of the scarcity of written records from settlers often lacking literacy skills, Cape Random is an interpretation of a relatively undocumented past.p>