Memory and Ghosts

In her examination of memory, Mantel suggests that there's nothing so clear as a line between the past and the present; through memory, all times interpenetrate. Memories are as real as the narrative present to Cromwell. Over the course of the novel, he flashes back to his past more and more often, and his vivid reminiscences sometimes seem to carry him right out of his present moment. There's a paradox here: Cromwell's present is the reader's past, and the reader's immersion in Cromwell's experience mean that even as they read hour-by-hour descriptions of Cromwell's day, they are also, in a sense, vividly flashing back. On the page, memory and immediate experience aren't distinguishable.

Memory, in The Mirror and the Light, is thus a huge part of character. Cromwell reads his "present" experiences through the stained glass of memory, and what he can see is...