“Trilby” by George du Maurier: Svengali hypnotizes tone-deaf Trilby into being singing superstar, but tone deafness, neurological, can’t be cured by hypnosis

Why did George du Maurier introduce his protagonist, Trilby (1), as a young woman who had blatant tone deafness, which is a defect of the brain whose neurological name is congenital amusia (2)? If Trilby had actually been tone deaf, neither Svengali nor any other hypnotist could have cured her of it, because you can’t cure a neurological condition with hypnosis.

Perhaps the author was lazy, and did not inquire whether tone deafness was neurological, since all he wanted to do was make Trilby as poor a singer as possible, so that her transformation into a singing superstar by Svengali would seem all the more remarkable. But I don’t think the author was lazy. I think he had an ulterior motive: to present Trilby as already having had multiple personality.

From what I’ve read about this novel, Trilby eventually does become a recognizable split personality: one personality who is tone deaf, the other personality a superstar singer, with the two personalities having mutual amnesia. Thus, many people would see this as a novel about the artificial creation of multiple personality through the use of hypnosis. And that would have been what it was about if the author had not made Trilby tone deaf before she met Svengali.

But since you can’t cure true tone deafness with hypnosis, Trilby’s initial tone deafness must not have been neurological, but that of a tone deaf alternate personality who was out and in control at the very beginning of the novel. Thus, what Svengali accomplished with hypnosis was to bring out a previously existing personality who was not tone deaf, and give that preexisting personality an intense course of singing lessons.

1. Wikipedia. “Trilby (novel).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilby_(novel)

2. Wikipedia. “Amusia.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusia