51 pages • 1 hour read
Kerri ManiscalcoStalking Jack the Ripper
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: The Jack the Ripper Murders
Jack the Ripper was a serial killer who was active in London in 1888. Although numerous arrests were made in response to the killings, the true identity of the murderer—who preyed on vulnerable women in London’s East End—was never discovered. Eleven murders were committed in the East End during this period. Although none of these can be categorically tied to a single individual, five murders—known as the “canonical five”—are widely believed to be the work of Jack the Ripper, who was also known as The Apron and The Whitechapel Murderer.
Maniscalco has created a fictionalized version of these historical events, and she attributes the murders to her fictional character Nathaniel Wadsworth. Despite this fictional addition, Maniscalco has adhered to many historical facts of the case, including the identities of some of the women who were suspected victims of the ripper: Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, Emma Elizabeth Smith, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.
Jack the Ripper tended to cut the throats of his victims and then mutilate their abdomens, genitals, and sometimes their faces. In some cases, organs were removed and placed around the room at the crime scene; Eddowes’s uterus and left kidney were removed as was Kelly’s heart, and Chapman’s uterus was taken from the scene of the crime. This has led some to postulate that Jack the Ripper was a doctor, or at least that he had an interest in science (“The Enduring Mystery of Jack the Ripper.” Metropolitan Police, 2010).
Historical Context: Grave-Robbing and Murders for Science
During the 19th century, doctors and scientists in Britain struggled to acquire enough corpses to conduct their research and use in education. Surgery was becoming a more common practice, but progress in this field was slowed by a shortage of cadavers; dissecting cadavers was vital for surgeons and students seeking to form a more detailed understanding of human anatomy. Illegal disinterment of bodies became an increasing problem; doctors and researchers began working with grave robbers, as the only bodies which surgeons could legally access for dissections in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were the bodies of executed murderers.
As a result, there were numerous cases of murders being committed in order to produce corpses for anatomy schools; the murderers sought the compensation they would receive for providing bodies. Burke and Hare committed 16 such murders in Edinburgh in 1828. The London Burkers, as they were called, copied Burke and Hare’s model in London in 1831 (“Body Snatchers.” The National Archives).
To regulate the trade of corpses, the Anatomy Act was introduced in 1832; this allowed surgeons and researchers to legally access donated bodies. Bodies could be donated by the next of kin of corpses; in return, the anatomy school would pay for the burial. Unclaimed corpses from prisons, hospitals, and workhouses could also be used by anatomy schools (Goodman, Neville M. “Supply of Bodies for Dissection.” National Library of Medicine).
Although Stalking Jack the Ripper is set in 1888, Maniscalco embellishes her story with grave-robbing details and the suspected motive of murder for organs, trends that occurred more commonly before 1832.
Genre Context: Gothic Literature & Whodunnits
Maniscalco draws on canonical Gothic Victorian literature, and the tropes these works have popularized, to conjure imagery of misty graveyards, supernatural seances, brutal murders, and grotesque scientific experiments. Furthermore, she cues readers who recognize her intertextual references to expect certain plot points and character arcs.
The title of Chapter 11, “Something Wicked,” refers to William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth: “by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes (4.1.45). Although it was written before the inception of the literary genre, this play contains many tropes that became common in Gothic literature: Macbeth is led astray by three witches, he commits a series of increasingly brutal murders, and the play takes place on the misty moors of Scotland. Psychological distress in the protagonist is also a feature of Gothic literature; Macbeth becomes paranoid and depressed and dies at the conclusion of the play. Using these tropes, Maniscalco cues readers who are familiar with Macbeth to expect deception, murder, sinister communications with the worlds of ghosts and spirits, and a murderer who slips further into erratic behavior.
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, a classic of Gothic literature, is referenced in Chapter 28; Maniscalco’s character Nathaniel is inspired by this storyline of a tortured scientist who creates a Gothic monster. Nathaniel falls into the same trap as the scientist featured in Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein creates a creature without any consideration of the moral and ethical repercussions of doing so; Nathaniel, too, commits horrific acts in undertaking his project. Maniscalco borrows from the world of Frankenstein in her conception of a horrifying, patchwork corpse that Nathaniel tries to bring to life, as well as alludes to the crossing of ethical boundaries in the name of scientific development.
Maniscalco also includes an intertextual reference that alludes to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, which cemented many tropes of Gothic murder mysteries in the popular imagination. The title of Chapter 7, “A Study in Secrets,” references Conan Doyle’s famous story “A Study in Scarlet.” Furthermore, in this reference, Maniscalco intentionally draws parallels between Thomas and Audrey, and the famed Sherlock and Dr. Watson.
