Rule of Rose Mysteries

See this video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4zrmCdAycE

Please rate it.

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A blog-post relevant to this video is The Frightened Princess Mystery.

See also the related video, comments, and related links to blog-posts at My Video: Was Clara in Mr. Hoffman’s Bed in the “Mermaid Princess” Chapter of Rule of Rose?

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Stray Dog can be seen in the drawing of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook associated with the text:

Before long, she was old and decrepit.

See the time 9:28 in the YouTube video linked to here, Mermaid Princess video, to view that page of the storybook.

In terms of the surface level story of the storybook, the story of a mermaid princess, Stray Dog seems very out of place among the mermaids at the bottom of the sea. Why is he there?

The reasons that have been coming to my mind as possible answers relate more to the pattern of the inclusion of Stray Dog in the Rule of Rose storybooks in general—he can be found in most of them—than to any specific involvement in the story of Clara. So I think I’ll write up most of those ideas in a separate blog-post focusing on that pattern, as those ideas will relate to more than just this particular storybook.

On this specific page of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook, Stray Dog’s presence might serve to help us associate the underwater scene with the orphanage world, thereby encouraging us to identify the mermaids swimming in the background as the girls of the Rose Garden Orphanage.

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The “Mermaid Princess” storybook continues:

Before long, she was old and decrepit.

Why should the mermaid that symbolizes Clara be spoken of as ever getting old and decrepit? Clara was only 16 years of age during the time that Jennifer is remembering in the Rule of Rose game.

Jennifer says, during the “Once Upon A Time” chapter:

I wonder if I’ll be like Clara when I’m older… Will I enjoy those days?”

Does the above question from Jennifer imply that Clara did not enjoy those days? Clara does not ever seem to me to be happy or playful in any scene of the game that we see her in. Does “old and decrepit” perhaps refer to Clara having lost her youthful outlook on life?

Why would it have been the case for Clara, that she would have lost her youthful outlook on life? I think that this is likely to relate Clara’s description in the Rule of Rose game as “the frightened princess”. I have written of some of the reasons that I think she was described that way in my blog-post: The Frightened Princess Mystery.

If Mr. Hoffman had sexual relations with Clara, this in itself might affect Clara’s mentality in an extreme way. Even more so, if the hypothesis is true that Clara had become pregnant and then had an abortion.
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There is no witch in the “Mermaid Princess” storybook. But there is a witch playing an important role in “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale, which the “Mermaid Princess” storybook seems to echo. And there are also some puzzling references, in the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose, to the idea that Martha is a witch.

When Jennifer finds Martha’s hat in that chapter, we see the text:

The hat worn by Martha, who was accused of being a witch.

And later in the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose, when Jennifer finds a dirty rag, the voice of Martha (her invisible ghost?) says:

I was a mighty witch. Yet now, I am but a powerless wretch. Rubbish and dust.

It isn’t at all clear why Martha should be depicted as a witch in the Rule of Rose game. Could it be that we are meant to associate Martha, in some manner, with the witch of “The Little Mermaid” fairytale? And if so, what might that association be meant to tell us about what happened in the orphanage during Jennifer’s forgotten past?
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The first pages of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook to give us some text, rather than only pictures, read as follows:

A long, long time ago, the Mermaid Princess fell in love with a human prince. But for years, her love went unrequited.

The two accompanying drawings both show the Clara-mermaid alone, and a sailing ship on the facing page.

This echoes the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, “The Little Mermaid” (1836). In that story, the mermaid protagonist also falls in love with a prince that she sees on a sailing ship.

How does such a situation relate to Clara?
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The cover of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook shows a lone mermaid. Her hair is parted down the middle and resembles the style and length of Clara’s hair.

As Clara is the mermaid “boss” that must be battled in order to complete the “Mermaid Princess” chapter of Rule of Rose, the mermaid on the cover of this storybook can be confidently identified as a fantasy representation of Clara.

Turning the page of the storybook, we see another depiction of a lone mermaid. This mermaid has large black spots where the eyes and mouth would be expected to be seen.

Does this second mermaid drawing also represent Clara? I think so.

As we will see later in this storybook, this second drawing depicts what the mermaid princess looks like when she is dead, when the storybook says: “all alone even on the day of her death.”

With regard to the black spots where the eyes would be expected to be seen, in this second mermaid drawing, it is relevant to compare the depiction of Clara as the mermaid “boss” as having dark empty sockets instead of eyeballs. See this short youtube video: Clara’s eyes.

Should we take the death of Clara as the mermaid princess of the storybook as providing evidence that Clara died at the orphanage during Jennifer’s forgotten past?
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In the web-page entitled Diana & Actaeon from The Classics Pages, I found some parts of the mythology of Diana (aka Artemis) which seemed to have a resonance with the story of Rule of Rose. Perhaps it is just coincidence, but perhaps there was an influence on the author(s) of Rule of Rose?

Some excerpts:

Diana (aka Artemis) was… virgin goddess… protectress of girls evolving from virgin to mother – and killer of women in childbirth.

If Clara became pregnant by Hoffman, I wonder how Diana felt about it.

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At her temple at Brauron on the east coast of Attica (Vravrona) – and probably also at her sanctuary on the Acropolis in Athens – young pubescent girls from all over Attica took part in the strange ritual of “being a bear” – precise details are unclear, but there’s some evidence that they played at being men for part of the time

In Rule of Rose, we have, in respect to “Joshua”, both the idea of girl as “bear”, and the idea of girls playing at being male.

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I think that I have found some strong evidence against the theory that the forest scene at the end of the “Sir Peter” chapter of Rule of Rose might actually be the occasion of the hanging of Mr. Hoffman (see Part 1 of this series of blog-posts, and the comments there, for discussion of that theory). This evidence also argues against the “Mondays pea…etc.” chant being about Hoffman, Martha, or Clara.

At the end of that final scene, in the forest, of the “Sir Peter” chapter, Jennifer sticks a maggoty dead rat in Amanda’s face.

In Amanda’s diary, the following entry was made:

Sunday, June 1

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Those awful things got into my mouth!
She’ll be sorry the next chance I get.
But why me again?
What have I done?
(Working Class Luggage, “Rag Princess Sews”, Amanda’s Diary)

If the statement, “Those awful things got into my mouth!”, can be safely assumed to be a reference to the maggots getting into Amanda’s mouth when Jennifer thrust the maggoty dead rat into Amanda’s face, then we must date the forest scene to June 1, which is long before the time when Hoffman, Martha, and Clara disappeared (they were all present in the orphanage as late as November).

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The idea that Mr. Hoffman was murdered at the Orphanage might seem far-fetched to many readers, mainly because of the following entry in Mr. Hoffman’s diary (and Jennifer’s comment on it):

(Jennifer:) “…the last page is particularly interesting… It’s Mr. Hoffman’s last entry before he disappeared.”

11 November 1930

I’m leaving the orphanage.
Clara’s here to look after things, and the children are quickly growing up.
I’ve done right and fulfilled my duty.
…Bloody hell!
All the trouble started when that wretched child arrived…
I’ve done nothing to deserve this!”
(Headmaster’s Room, Hoffman’s diary, “Once Upon a Time”)

(Jennifer:) “…That’s the end of the diary. We never saw Mr. Hoffman again.”

Isn’t this proof that Mr. Hoffman left on his own? And doesn’t Jennifer even tell us in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter that Mr. Hoffman, Martha, and Clara “left”?

Actually Jennifer never tells us that they “left”, as is sometimes claimed. She only tells us, as above, that Mr. Hoffman “disappeared”, and Martha and Clara “soon followed”:

Headmaster’s Closet:

–At the shelf that has shoes:

(Jennifer:) “That day, Mr. Hoffman disappeared, like he was running away from something. He had tried too hard to be someone he wasn’t. The expectations were too much for him… and he wanted to escape those restrictions. However, children and adults live in the same world, and we must both play by society’s rules.”

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Entrance-way:

–At the portrait of Hoffman:

(Jennifer:) “One day, Mr. Hoffman suddenly disappeared. Clara and Miss Martha soon followed, leaving me and the other orphans alone.”

But doesn’t this still seem to indicate that Mr. Hoffman left on his own, rather than was murdered?

If this was all that we had to go by, I would be inclined to think so. But there are some intriguing other clues that relate to Mr. Hoffman’s “disappearance”.

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In the “Once Upon A Time” chapter of Rule of Rose, Jennifer tells us the following story at the blocked off toilet stall in the Men’s Lavatory:

Once, Susan started a rumor about voices coming from this room at night… It turned out it was only the door creaking in the wind, but one night, sounds came from the room even with the windows shut. Susan jumped out of her bed and screamed. It was really just a prank by Nicholas and Xavier. From then on, the room was believed to be haunted and was considered off limits.

One question that comes to my mind is one of translation. Does “room” refer to the entire lavatory (as would be expected of normal English usage) or does “room” refer to the blocked off toilet stall?

In either case, I wonder if we are missing something if we just assume that this little story of Jennifer’s only exists to give us an innocent “slice of life” from the orphanage.

Jennifer, herself, sees a ghost in the course of the game. She sees Martha’s ghost in Clara’s cabin. And Clara’s cabin is also the location where Jennifer sees Martha alive, but bound and bagged. I suggested previously that Martha died at the location in the orphanage represented as Clara’s cabin in the airship and that’s why Jennifer sees her ghost there. See The Mysteries of Clara’s Cabin (Part 2): Martha’s Death.

Could it be that the orphans are quick to think that the Men’s Lavatory is haunted because they think that Hoffman died (or something happened that led to his death) there?

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