Essay Assignment

“Looking for Petronilla”

 Examine Alice’s motivation in returning to Kilkenny

Alice is back in Kilkenny, a city she once lived almost seven centuries
ago. Here she had several husbands who died all at her hands. She is, in
fact, a witch and has been accused of killing her husbands through
witchcraft. However, she managed to save herself and the charges fell
on Petronilla, her loyal bondswoman, in place of her mistress. Alice
never forgot about Petronilla and her loyalty, so she comes back to
Kilkenny for some reminiscence of her. Petronilla is for Alice the symbol
of human mortality, which she now desires. One of the reasons why she
returns to the city is because she cannot understand the human essence
of Petronilla, shown in her absolute loyalty, and her desire of a satisfying
life.

Alice at the beginning does not tell that she is Petronilla’s mistress, she
explains how devoted and loyal this young maid was, and that she used
to do everything she was told to do without asking any questions. She
also wonders why she can not find any sign of her anywhere in the city:
“why is it that almost nobody knows Petronilla’s name, when she was so
much more remarkable than her mistress ?”.

Her absence in Kilkenny’s history is inexplicable for her. This because

the love and loyalty Petronilla has shown has profoundly left its mark on
Alice. This mark on Alice made her wonder about her maid for centuries
and still she has not found an answer to her faithfulness. Since Alice is a
witch and killed several people, all she has known in her life is
malignancy and selfishness, furthermore she is destined for eternal life,
a life she is exhausted to live, so tired that she envies Petronilla’s death.
Since she is not exactly human, she struggles to understand Petronilla’s
behaviour, her humanity and her feelings. A life that is worth living is the
one full of this positive feeling instead of an eternal damned life like
Alice’s even though it is a small mortal existence, and when Petronilla is
about to die she shows again her devotion as “she embraces her death
as a final order” Alice starts to understand this concept. This is the
reason she envies her death, but at the same time she regrets letting her
die at her place, because she is the only one that had ever loved her so
deeply.

The sense of humanity Alice is looking for in Kilkenny she cannot find it
anywhere, Petronilla’s traces are vanished in the city, however the
fulfilled but short life she is chasing she will be chasing until she too
becomes mortal, until she will become entirely human.

(442 words)