Clara's statement is a testament to the human inability to grasp the elusive "other" that exists in our world. I believe when Clara says that "[i]deas exist in our minds that can be accounted for by no established laws" (69) she is picking at the reality we all know deep down inside ourselves, even if we choose to ignore it-that there is something supernatural about our existence, even in our day to day lives, and this supernatural essence of every human being certainly cannot be explained through logic. We can see this clearly in the strange supernatural encounters that Clara and her companions have throughout the book, such as Wieland and Pleyel hearing a voice in the temple that eerily resembled Catharine's (36), or Clara's father and his …show more content…
However, I believe that Clara's statement relates to not only the obviously supernatural, but also to the subtly supernatural events that are even harder to explain, such as falling in love. For example, Clara states to us fairly plainly that she is quite in love with her good friend Pleyel, even though she also holds a mysterious fascination with their new friend Carwin. In fact, upon first recounting her meeting with him, Clara exclaims that the mere thought of him brings about a "flood of passion that would render [her] precipitate or powerless" (41). Also, at the mere mention of Carwin's name she must "stifle the agonies" that it awakens (41). This passion that the mere thought of Carwin seems to ignite within Clara is never mentioned with as much description or intensity when she discusses her feelings for Pleyel. Clara's explanation of her feelings for these two men present to the reader something that is incongruous with what we know logically to be "love", and in doing so I believe we have another instance of an encounter with the