![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
let_the_devil_in) wrote2014-03-01 09:50 pm
Yes, make a note of that, Cutler, for my memoirs and recollections.
A generic informational post for canon-blind folks who want to know more about O'Neil and his canon.
Contains spoilers for A Field in England. Feel free to just watch the trailer; it'll give you a decent idea.
Character Name: O'Neil
Canon: A Field in England, dir. Ben Wheatley, screenplay by Amy Jump
History:
We'll start with what we know of O'Neil's history from the film.
He is an Irishman. He is in his forties, possibly as old as fifty (his actor's age) (this puts the year of his birth in the first decade of the 1600s), but hale and healthy for his era. For some time he has been in the service of or studying under a gentleman of considerable learning in Norwich ("an eminent alchemist, physician and astrologer"; it's not impossible that the gentleman could have been Arthur Dee or Thomas Browne). (Dee is the more likely candidate, since he was 69 in 1648 and Whitehead talks of their master being "of advanced years" and in poor health.)
Six months ago in spring of 1648, he absconded with a number of papers (exactly what is unclear, but they appear to include spells, mystical references, and alchemical formulae) and a scrying mirror. At some point in his travels after stealing this material, he acquired a manservant/henchman of sorts, a Londoner named Cutler. His motivations in this theft appear to involve a great deal of debt incurred "to so many I lose track".
His travels took him to a field somewhere in Monmouthshire where hallucinogenic mushrooms grew in abundance, and where O'Neil's research and reading of auguries indicated some kind of treasure might be found. Here he set up camp, and performed some ritual that he believed would conjure Whitehead—another man in the alchemist's service, and one with some talent in divination and astrology. He then sent Cutler out to a battlefield to seek Whitehead, and Cutler succeeded, returning with not only Whitehead, but two deserting soldiers (Jacob and Friend) as well.
While Cutler was about his business, O'Neil continued his work, entering a fairy ring and keeping himself anchored to the world by means of a sturdy rope tied to a stake. Cutler, Whitehead, Friend, and Jacob pulled themselves into the field after him via the rope, after which he led them to his encampment in the field (which, judging from a number of wooden crosses stuck in the ground, appears to have been set up near a cemetery). Here he performed some unspeakable ritual on Whitehead, after which Whitehead, like some kind of scenthound, located the site where the treasure was concealed (conveniently, not far from O'Neil's original encampment).
O'Neil set the men to digging. Things fell apart quickly after a fight in which Friend was shot. Whitehead took the body away and fled, and decided that he'd just about had enough of O'Neil. He ate handfuls of the mushrooms and returned to the encampment, accompanied by a magic wind that was strong enough to blow away O'Neil's tent while leaving many of the contents untouched.
Meanwhile, Cutler found something in the "treasure" pit: nothing but old bones. When he decried O'Neil and Whitehead as frauds and charlatans, O'Neil shot him in the head.
And then Whitehead made his move. Jacob shot out O'Neil's knee, crippling him; then Friend, apparently resurrected, charged at him with a pike, distracting him and sacrificing his own life (again?) so that O'Neil would be helpless and out of bullets. As he lay in the field, Whitehead killed him with a shot to the head.
Outside of these events and the references to his past, the rest of O'Neil's history must be extrapolated. It's worth noting that the 1640s in Ireland were a period of the worst turmoil, rife with warfare and massacres (though at the time of A Field in England, Cromwell has not yet embarked on his conquest of Ireland).
Nevertheless, O'Neil has plenty of reasons to not want to be in his native country anymore and also to have a grudge against the English. It's worth noting that he explicitly identifies as Irish and refers to England as "your country".
So as to have something to hang off of, an early history is thus invented: O'Neil got some education as a boy in Ireland, though as his family was poor, he couldn't get much. He came to England with a brother as a young man, looking for work. He ended up in the household service of a gentleman alchemist and scholar, who noticed in him a keen mind and who promoted him out of the household staff into a role as an assistant. The gentleman did the same for another young man from Gloucester, called Whitehead. O'Neil and Whitehead never got along; O'Neil had the dominant personality and despised Whitehead for his weakness, and Whitehead was intimidated by and envious of the older man.
O'Neil grew restless and discontented as the years passed and was keen to advance himself, which wasn't easy for an Irishman in 17th century England. He had a habit of living beyond his means, which irritated his employer and drove him into debt. Finally, in a bad spot financially and frustrated with his master and his lack of mobility, O'Neil stole the papers and fled.
Personality:
"He's the king of cold-hearted bastards, I'll give him that. Could do with more like him in the ranks." —Jacob
If there was ever any tender feeling in O'Neil's heart, he murdered it long ago. He is ruthless, determined, avaricious, proud, and selfish. He seeks the treasure in the field purely for personal gain; he says he sees it in some part as recompense for "my countrymen's troubles", but this is only nominally a motive. He needs the money, being thoroughly in debt, and sees the pursuit of alchemy as a means to a more prosperous sort of end.
He does not share the devout Christianity of Whitehead and their master, and doesn't care much for the master's "pious regimen", which doubtless involves relatively abstemious living. O'Neil didn't get himself in debt wearing sackcloth and eating bread and water. He wears fine linen, good velvet, sound leather boots, and a lavish cloak. He's a bit vain and he clearly has a taste for the better things in life, which has caused conflicts between himself and his master, and between himself and Whitehead. However, he seems to have ingratiated himself enough to be trusted with access to the master's papers and books, enabling him to steal them later.
In an era where life was cheap, O'Neil holds it no more dear than anyone else. He's not particularly concerned when Cutler kills Friend, except insofar as it slows down the digging for the treasure, and when Cutler says that there is no treasure and that O'Neil is a charlatan, O'Neil kills him without a bit of remorse or hesitation. O'Neil himself seems to be slightly deranged by this latter point, his mental state heightened by his battle of wills with Whitehead, and possibly by whatever experiences he had in the fairy ring before Cutler returned—his first action on being dragged free and seeing Cutler is to start beating the hell out of his man.
He is a very intelligent man, perceptive and very learned by the standards of the era. He seems to feel that he has gotten everything of value that he can from his master and is now determined to finally strike out on his own. He has a sharp, cutting wit and is inclined to sarcasm. ("Then maybe you should keep your mouth shut unless something else should rush in while you're not paying attention, because you are apparently nothing more than an envelope.") He also seems to have caught some of the revolutionary spirit of the era, despite serving a Royalist master, and he sees the current unrest as an opportunity for self-advancement and gain where none had been before: "The world is turned upside-down, Whitehead, and so is its pockets." And later: "This country is at the edge of something, Whitehead! Sever your conscience from your art and you will profit!"
He is a man of his time insofar as his beliefs in magic and the supernatural go. He believes in Whitehead's powers of divination, and depending on how you interpret the events of the film, perhaps he does wield not-inconsiderable power of his own. This power might come from dosing people with hallucinogenic mushrooms and calling it magic … or it might be real. Certainly there's something uncanny at work, like the stones with mysterious symbols that Whitehead vomits up. Though it's equally possible that while O'Neil was doing whatever he was doing to Whitehead in the tent involved force-feeding him the stones.
About the tent scene: we don't know what happens inside the tent. All we know is that it makes Whitehead scream like a wounded animal for a seeming eternity and when he comes out, he has a demented grin on his face and seems to be in a trance that lasts until he locates the digging-spot for the treasure. Some viewers seem to think that O'Neil is raping Whitehead, and that's not impossible. And there's also occasionally an undertone of homoeroticism in O'Neil's interactions with Whitehead (at one point, while talking menacingly to Whitehead, he reaches out and tenderly touches his cheek), to say nothing of the symbolism involved in O'Neil sticking the barrel of his gun in Cutler's mouth to kill him. That being said, if there's any sexuality in O'Neil at all, it's all tied up with power/domination and mysticism and ritual acts, and not a bit of it with actual pleasure.
He's also the kind of jackass who despises those weaker than himself—he hates Whitehead for his obsequiousness and cowardice, and only seems to gain any respect for him when Whitehead finally gets some steel in his spine:
"Whitehead! Whitehead! You shall have as many books or lace bobbins as you like! Show yourself, Whitehead, you fucking coward! You cannot escape the field, Whitehead!"
"Then I shall become it! I shall consume all the ill fortune which you are set to unleash! I shall chew up all the selfish scheming and ill intentions that men like you force upon men like me and bury it in the stomach of this place!"
"We are brothers now! Open up, you stubborn bastard. Two halves of the same man! This country is at the edge of something, Whitehead!"
The "two halves" line is pretty interesting. He seems to have recognised some reversal of himself in Whitehead; himself forceful, self-determined, his own man, and Whitehead self-abasing, weak-willed, most comfortable when he has a master to answer to. In the end, Whitehead finds his courage and, it's suggested, becomes something not unlike O'Neil himself.
Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:
For most intents and purposes, we may say that O'Neil thinks his magic works, and that he has been supported in this thinking by all the whackadoo compounds and chemicals and toxins that alchemists in the seventeenth century were dicking around with. And he may genuinely have some kind of "psychic" talent. But most of the magic is in his head, and in the heads of those susceptible to his way of thinking.
And as far as that goes, O'Neil is very charismatic and probably has genuine real-world abilities in what we'd call mesmerism or hypnotism. Nothing magic about that, again—just innate skill on his part and vulnerability on the other person's. He's good at reading people and manipulating them, and this probably comes across as mind-control, when we'd recognize it today as psychology.