I.   Overview
 After “thrice” escaping death at sea, Thomas Wingfield washes ashore in Mexico only to be captured by the natives
he encounters.  There he witnesses the ritual sacrifice of other captives while avoiding his own death at the stone of
sacrifice.  The natives send Thomas to Montezuma, who remains eager to view a Teule, or Spaniard.  En route,
Thomas befriends Montezuma’s nephew Guatemoc and discovers a culture and landscape of vast wonder.  Upon
meeting Montezuma and his daughter, Otomie, Thomas is declared a “god” but, unbeknownst to him, this annual
ritual culminates in the sacrifice of the individual and Thomas struggles with his “divine” identity.  Through the strange
death and even stranger arising of Papantzin, Montezuma’s sister, Thomas advises the Aztec king on the
approaching Spanish but to no avail.  Further alienating himself, Thomas then refuses to profess his love to Otomie.

II.  Analysis: The Exotic
 Permeating much of the narrative, the theme of the exotic in Montezuma’s Daughter serves to provide authenticity
to a story which predates H. Rider Haggard by nearly three centuries.  As an Elizabethan perspective of the west
Thomas Wingfield’s narrative exudes elements of wonder and the fantastic.  Haggard expertly captures this sense of
awe through vivid descriptions of both characters and creatures; he also brings to life the region and religion
encountered by Wingfield.  The “sorry plight” (103) following his landing results from the countless insects that are
wholly unfamiliar to Thomas.  His endless pain turns to amazement at the absolute uniqueness of the locale itself.
The “great trees” and “gorgeous flowers” prompt Thomas to wonder at “this strange new scene” (104) which he
later observes “can boast three separate climates within its borders” (119).  Witnessing the religion of the natives at
work Wingfield stands in terror and disgust at the sacrifices and the brutality of “the human devil” (108), the head
priest.  This religion, like the natives, reflects the extremes of an exotic land full of beauty and horror which compels
Thomas to reform his opinion of the region from the relatively innocuous “strange” to the ominous classification of “a
land of devils” (109).

 Perhaps the most vibrant example of the theme of the exotic in the novel comes through the characters which
Thomas meets.  Guatemoc, whose “aspect breathed majesty and command,” stands lavishly adorned in “a mantle
made of the most gorgeous feathers” and extensive gold accessories (112).  Thomas describes Montezuma in less
fantastic terms but holds the Aztec king in even greater esteem (122).  Otomie, Montezuma’s daughter, exhibits a
union of masculine and feminine qualities resulting in an “eastern richness. . .that touched both the imagination and the
senses” (126).  This connection to the “east,” which for an English audience represents the exotic, solidifies
Otomie’s character, and the culture as a whole, as both wondrous and fantastic.  Her character, like the very
landscape, blends a harsh “barbarism” (126) with a rich beauty.

III. Questions
1.  Do the exotic elements of the narrative lend credibility to Wingfield’s story?  To Haggard’s fiction?
2.  Does Thomas suggest any parallels between of the extremes of Mexico and Europe?