Gwynplaine—Hardquanonne

Gwynplaine—Hardquanonne links the deliberate alteration of Gwynplaine’s face to the legal process that restores his birth identity. Hardquanonne’s role in that childhood crime returns years later as a matter of recognition: his identification helps establish that the mountebank known as Gwynplaine is Fermain Clancharlie, heir to a peerage and estates.

The Mark and Its Maker

Gwynplaine’s face is described as an artificial-looking construction rather than a natural deformity. Its fixed expression makes every feeling appear to be laughter, even when he suffers or grieves; the expression cannot be removed and has shaped his public life as a performer. Although his body is otherwise well made and agile, spectators laugh at first and then often recoil from him. The contrast between his outward appearance and inward feeling is central to the relationship with Hardquanonne: the face that draws a crowd’s laughter also preserves the consequence of a crime committed against him as a child.

The account presents the alteration as an operation that could have been performed only on a very young child, too young to retain a clear memory of it. It suggests that Gwynplaine was made to order, but his lack of recollection does not make the event less real. Later, speaking before the peers, Gwynplaine attributes the forced expression to a king and describes it as the mark of torture. His speech makes the harm more than an individual misfortune: he presents his face as an emblem of a people whose suffering is concealed beneath an appearance of festivity.

The Search and Confrontation

The recovery of Gwynplaine’s identity begins with evidence from a flask found at Calshor. The royal inquiry seeks supporting records in Switzerland, obtaining authenticated documents from Vevey and Lausanne concerning Lord Linnæus’s marriage in exile, the birth of his child, and the deaths of the child’s parents. The inquiry also finds that Hardquanonne is still alive and imprisoned at Chatham; he is transferred to London so that he can be confronted with Gwynplaine.

The Lord Chancellor’s recommendation makes the confrontation decisive. Gwynplaine is to be reinstated in his estates and dignities on the condition that Hardquanonne identify him. The meeting takes place, with Barkilphedro present, and the narrative confirms that it produces the necessary result. The account does not dwell on the exchange itself; its importance lies in the fact that the man connected to Gwynplaine’s childhood alteration can recognize him as the child whose identity has been concealed.

Recognition and Restoration

After the inquiry and confrontation, the sheriff formally declares Gwynplaine to be Fermain Clancharlie, Baron Clancharlie and Hunkerville, Marquis de Corleone in Sicily, and a peer of England. The declaration converts recognition into public and legal status. Hardquanonne’s identification is therefore not merely a personal reunion with the past: it supplies a crucial link in the proof that allows Gwynplaine’s hereditary identity and inheritance to be restored.

The relation ends in a sharp reversal of power. As a child, Gwynplaine was acted upon and left without knowledge of his own identity; as an adult, he stands before the authorities while the person associated with the crime is required to identify him. The state’s recognition repairs his title and status, but it does not undo the lasting effects of the altered face. The same mark that made him a public spectacle becomes part of the evidence through which his concealed history is recovered.