Is Damnation a "Paradise," After All? - Ghost of Paradise Literary Analysis

SPOILER WARNING, as I find it rather difficult to perform a literary analysis while attempting to remain spoiler free.

To celebrate the release of the official translation, I have decided to write a review on one of my most favorite BL short stories of all time. When the official translation for Ghost of Paradise had released, I thought that it wouldn't hurt if I were to read it again. Even before I reread it, I recalled just how intricate and haunting the storytelling was and how uncanny the characters were. After rereading it, I can now confidently say that Ghost of Paradise was all that I remembered it being and more. It's a story that touches on guilt, feigning ignorance, and a horrid, ethically wrong desire masked behind "paradise."

First, let's address the elephant in the room: What exactly is "Paradise?"

I believe that "paradise" is a metaphor for sin. In the case of the Jerome family, their sin is (very obviously) incest, so therefore, their "paradise" would be incest. Every time that Theo's father hosts the "Night in Paradise," he is really indulging in his deranged (later turned incestual) fantasies.

Next, analyzing the Jerome brothers(?)

Theodore and Cedric are literal opposites in everything they are. Physically, their physical features are strikingly different and contrast nicely. Their physical appearances also help define them as characters.

Much like how Theo looks, (dark, lifeless eyes, exhausted-looking), he is a man drowning in terrifying, unforgettable past memories. He feels the guilt of being his father's accomplice during paradise, and he lets that guilt and regret eat him whole, even as he runs away. You cannot settle your guilt if you run from it. To forget that anything ever happened in this way is not healthy. Cedric is the literal opposite. Unlike Theo, he is able to accept "paradise," but morphs it into his own preferences. Since he doesn't let the sin of "paradise" eat away at him, he still maintains a pure, innocent appearance. He acts as if nothing happened, not because he's running away from it like Theo, but because he is continuing on with the sin—he embraces the sin of "paradise," and he felt this sin the moment the two of them met.

Though the story doesn't really confirm whether or not Theo and Cedric really ARE or are NOT half brothers, I don't think it really matters in the long run. Incest isn't always about the biological aspect, it's about the mental aspect, too. Even if they really didn't share any blood, the fact that Theo thinks of Cedric as his brother would still make their twisted relationship "incestual" (at least to Theo). I don't believe that Cedric, for a second of his life, thought of Theo as his brother. The moment they met, he fell in love with him, and not in the way of how a brother would love a brother. On the other hand, Theo most certainly did see Cedric as his brother, hence why he called their relationship the "sin of paradise" and compared Cedric to his father.

What role does Theo's mother play in this story?

Theo's mother is the ghost of "paradise." She is also his voice of reason, as well as a manifestation of the traumas he has faced in his past. At first, he was very much like his mother. His mother, unable to handle the guilt of knowing about "paradise," killed herself so she could finally be "freed" of knowing this sin. Theo escaped from his home to be "freed" as well, an action similar—though not as drastic—as what his mother had done. However, I believe that Theo was going to attempt to commit suicide like his mother. The letter he writes to an unknown "Gabriel" is likely his suicide note. Since there are a lot of biblical undertones in the story, "Gabriel" could actually be referring to the angel of heaven here.

Her ghost told him to run from home, and so he did, but once his past returned to him, he started seeing her ghost again; a reminder that he cannot run from "paradise" any longer. At the very end of the story, when Theo succumbed to the sin of "paradise," his mother embraced him, and told him that "paradise" is true freedom. I believe this scene shows that Theo no longer has a sense of reason. He has become like his brother(?), and by proxy, like his father, for embracing and coming to terms with "paradise." But he is hearing his mother's ghost say these words to him as a way to justify his sudden change in thinking.

Is eternal damnation a true "paradise"?

Absolutely not! But heaven and hell feel very similar. Theo believed he would go to hell for living with the guilt of knowing about his father's "Nights of Paradise," abandoning his innocent brother(?) to bear the weight and the guilt instead of him, and therefore, it shows that he still had some kind of morals and ethics when it came to murder and incest. Yet despite it all, he felt euphoric when murder and incest were approached from a different angle: murder referring to his father's death, and incest when engaging with Cedric. Theo is damned to hell, but he calls it "paradise," because to him, the two feel very similar.

Sins can be deceiving. To know which is which is up to you to interpret, and sometimes you are wrong. Ghost of Paradise is a wonderfully written, hauntingly beautiful story that depicts how hell can easily be masked behind heaven, and how accepting the sin of "paradise" can bring not just you, but those around you into ruin.

My final rating for Ghost of Paradise is a 9/10.

Thank you for reading my review! Zenny out! ლ(´ڡ`ლ)