The Devil in the White City and Dark Souls

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Isaac Calcagne Mr. Butler English 12 Hons: Humanities 19 December, 2017 The Devil and his Dark Soul Many works of art all share a collective ideal and their portrayals of this ideal elicits a more profound perspective from the audience. A highly popular theme among books, movies, shows, has the coexistence of good versus evil. Erik Larson’s 2003 novel ​The Devil in the White City ​and Hidetaka Miyazaki’s ​action role-playing game​ ​Dark Souls ​accentrate the internal struggle between light and dark. Erik Larson’s ​The Devil in the White City ​epitomizes the ideal of light versus dark through the ambitions of the main protagonists and the facade of Chicago that is“white city.” Hidetaka Miyazaki’s ​Dark Souls ​directly creates a battle of the forces of light and dark. This battle is elaborated on through the motives and life of Lord Gwyn and the facade within the city of Anor Londo.

The conflicts of good vs. evil portrayed as light and dark is heavily demonstrated in ​The Devil in the White City ​and ​Dark Souls​. Both stories contain cities associated with light;however, they truly hold facades to their true nature. The facades created in ​The Devil in the White City and ​Dark Souls ​are made to hide the terrible truths behind each city. The world’s fair and the creation of the “white city” hides the crime and trash filled city that truly is Chicago. The great sun that looms over Anor Londo is just an illusion casted by a spell to shroud the treacherous turmoil and darkness that the city lies in. In ​The Devil in the White City ​Chicago is described as a “rapidly achieving recognition as an industrial and mercantile dynamo”, however “its leading

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men felt keenly the slander from New York that their city had few cultural assets” (Larson 29).

The white city is Chicago’s saving grace to compete with its rival cities. Chicago may be industrially advanced; however, they needed cultural diversity. The world's fair and the creation of the white city was the perfect opportunity for redemption. To revive Chicago's status, Burnham and his architects “had conjured a dream city whose grandeur and beauty exceeded anything each singly could have imagined” (Larson 5). Burnham successfully creates the white city and it is described with beauty anything imaginable. He essentially has successfully created an illusion over the black city of Chicago to have it appear as the great white city.

As a parallel to the white city of Chicago, in ​Dark Souls ​the city of Anor Londo is presented in bright shining light. When an individual enters the city, they are greeted “Welcome to the lost city of Anor Londo...If you are the chosen one, a revelation shall visit thee” (Dark Souls 2011). Upon entering the city, one is greeted and told that the city is “lost” and that a revelation could possibly be shown. The initial description “lost” already refers that the city is in anguish, yet its appearance is glowing as if it was thriving. The revelation is referring to the truth that the great sun over the city is merely a facade hiding the darkness and despair. This truth is shrouded by a spell that keeps the illusion of sunlight over the city. When the spell is eventually broken, the caster Gwyndolin claims “Thy transgression shall not go unpunished. Thou shalt perish in the twilight of Anor Londo” (Dark Souls 2011). When the illusion is broken and the facade is finally lifted, Gwyndolin refers to it as a transgression and claims that the chosen one will perish in the twilight. Gwyndolin essentially held the facade of the city through a spell to preserve its grand image and stature. The reference of “twilight” refers to the physically setting of the sun taken place and that the violence that lies within the darkness will finally be unearthed.

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The creation of light within both stories allows the dark to be identified, creating a duality among the two. The duality provides that without the dark there is no light, and without the light there is no dark. In such a duality, when one dominates for a length of time, the other must have its rule as well. In ​The Devil in the White City ​the white city has its time to shine, but its fame cannot last forever and thus it eventually crumbles down. Gwyn’s age of fire in ​Dark Souls cannot be prolonged forever, so in an attempt to keep his power, he ends up sacrificing himself.

In ​The Devil in the White City ​Burnham and the architects couldn’t “bear the idea of the White City lying empty and desolate”, so they decided it was “better to have it vanish suddenly, in a blaze of glory, than fall into gradual disrepair and dilapidation” (Larson 322). The beauty that was the white city could not last forever and so it was it cast down in a blaze in order to preserve it as a great memory rather than a rotting legend. The white city could not escape its inevitable end given it wasn’t the true nature of the city, but rather a facade to entertain tourists and give Chicago an almighty reputation.

Initially in ​Dark Souls ​the world exists in a state of stillness, but “then there was fire and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark...Thus began the ​Age of Fire​. But soon the flames will fade and only ​Dark​ will remain” (Dark Souls 2011).

With the creation of fire came the duality of life and opposing forces. Thus the creation of fire created a multi-perspective lens on the world and opposing sides were taken creating the battle of light vs. dark. The core truth that remained was that no matter how much power a side had, it would inevitably fall and the other force would equally prosper in time. In ​Dark Souls ​a man named Lord Gwyn rules over the mainland known as Lordran. When the darkness began to gain power and take over all he held close to him, "Lord Gwyn trembled at the Dark. Clinging to his

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Age of Fire, and in dire fear of humans, And the Dark Lord who would one day be born amongst them, Lord Gwyn resisted the course of nature” and decided to “[sacrifice] himself to link the Fire…[he desired to] prevent the birth of the Dark Lord.” (Dark Souls 2011). Lord Gwyn being the savior of the human race and ruler during the age of fire held the highest power among all the people. His power was held by the light and flame that kept the dark from consuming his kingdom; however, by the nature of the duality his kingdom eventually began to fall. Since he understood that the duality remained, he knew that one as powerful as himself would be born of the dark, and so in an attempt to prolong the flame and prevent that birth he sacrificed himself.

Burnham’s desire to revive Chicago and Gwyn’s attempt to preserve the flame both exemplify the impact and importance of the duality of life. The light has its time of reign in Burnham’s white city and in Gwyn’s kingdom of Lordran and city of Anor Londo; however, the inevitable nature of equivalence among the forces brought an end to the great white city and Gwyn’s kingdom. The facades of the great cities lasts for a time, but in the end the true nature of Chicago and the strength of the dark overcome the fading white city and bright sun. The duality nature of light and dark coexisting is shown through the lifespan of the white city and Gwyn’s kingdom.

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Works Cited Larson, Erik. ​The Devil in the White City. ​2003, New York. pgs (5, 29, 322) Miyazaki, Hidetaka. ​Dark Souls. ​2011, Japan. FromSoftware, Bandai Namco Entertainment.