The Magus and History

Throughout "The Magus" the past plays of utmost importance. Not only in the way that Conchis and Julie used stories of "their past" to sway Nicholas' opinion, but it plays into who each character is, it is a fundamental piece in their identity. As Conchis so well put it, "All that is past posseses our present" (pg 311). It's like Nicholas's relationship with Alison. He had left her behind physically when he went to teach in Greece, but the relationship never really left him. Conchis used Nick's past with Alison to manipulate him for his psychological study. It also made Nicholas really think about Alison, what she meant to him, and how his past behaviour influenced her suicide. Because he fell in love with another woman and told her that he was leaving her despite everything she killed herself. Nick narrated when he learned of her death, "It was as if at this moment, when I most wanted to be clean, I had fallen into the deepest filth; most free for the future yet most chained to the past" (pg 399). The past will always be there to haunt people and remind them of everything they had gone through, the good, the bad, and especially the ugly. However, the history of a person also shapes the reality of your relationship with them, of how you see them. As Nicholas got to know "Lily" more (a helper in Conchis' "project") the more he saw Conchis as a wicked person, as the antagonist who needed to be shot down. Nicholas thought with overconfidence, "He might carry on with some comedy of intense disapproval, but he would be there; and his other puppet would also be there to help me finally call his bluff" (pg 384). More or less what "The Magus" states about history is that it is the genetic make-up of reality, of people, and of the relationships between people.