Throughout this semester, there
have been several prominent, overarching themes. Much of the semester has been
spent discussing why the authors have chosen to represent certain characters in
different ways. We have had many discussions on the importance of class,
gender, and economics, among other things. However, I think the most profound
discussions we have had, specifically in my own small group discussions, have
been about the role of the female in British literature. Over the course, we
have discussed different types of female characters. Our class has discussed females who lack any
sort of agency within their own situations, characters who are constantly at
the mercy of others, and we have also discussed female characters who
manipulate and change the situations around themselves.
Feminism as a topic has come up
several different times throughout the semester, most specifically in a
presentation by two of my classmates. I found this presentation to be
particularly interesting under the context of having taken a feminist rhetoric
course last semester. Many of the ideologies of the past seem ridiculous to us
as a 21st century audience. Because of this modern lens through
which we view these texts, we often overlook the small ways that the female
characters increase their own agency within the novels and poetry. While one
could argue that a strong female character automatically creates a feminist
perspective, I would argue that there is a stark difference between a feminist
character and a female character who has agency in her own decisions. The shift
within this feminist scale coincides with many of the feminist movements
through British history. Though we did
not read many works by female authors, I found it interesting that in the works
we did discuss; specifically Romance of
the Forest, “Goblin Market,” and “The Bloody Chamber;” the protagonists and
“heroes” of the works were female. Within the male-dominant, patriarchal
society, Radcliffe, Rossetti, and Carter all carry the portrait of a strong
female throughout the different centuries encompassed within British
Literature. However, when the strong female is created by a male author, such
as Keats, she is seen as a seductress who is hell-bent on the destruction of
men, such as the woman in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.”
Each portrayal is heavily
influenced by those cultural happenings outside of the world of literature. As
the feminist movements began to rise in both the United Kingdom and in the
United States during the nineteenth century, the literature from this time
period adopted a more liberal view of women as well. There is a distinct shift
in the way that the authors treat women during this time period. Earlier female
characters, such as those seen in Castle
of Otranto or even in Romance of the
Forest, fainted often and did not have control over their own
situations. However, as we move towards
the texts written within the 20th century, we see a distinct shift
in the way that the female is portrayed. The female protagonist slowly evolves
from one who relies on the male to a true feminist portrait. Characters like
Matilda or Isabella from Castle of
Otranto gain their agency from their submission to their roles within
society, however by the 20th century, the heroine within The Bloody Chamber refuses to submit to
a traditional societal role.
Within Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe, the female at first appears
to be at the mercy of those around her, yet by the end of the text it is clear
that everything is not as it appears on the surface. Radcliffe begins the novel
by following the perspective of LaMotte. When Adeline’s character is
introduced, she is literally thrown at the mercy of LaMotte. In what is
obviously a patriarchal society within Romance of the Forest, and within the
British Empire and a majority of the world a this point in time, the male is
superior to the female. Through this
masculine lens, Adeline is seen as weak and powerless to the situations
surrounding her. Following the code of chivalry, LaMotte immediately feels
compelled to rescue her. Later within the novel, the perspective shifts and the
novel follows Adeline more closely than any other character. The author is a
female herself, and this shift in perspective is especially important because
of this. When this shift occurs, it becomes obvious that Adeline is not a typical,
weak female character. Instead, she shows that she is strong by venturing
outside of the chamber when LaMotte hides; and, though she faints often,
eventually becomes a heroine of sorts. Scott R. Mackenzie writes, “The young
unmarried woman in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British fiction may be
the most overdetermined character in all of English literature. She is always
surrounded by a throng of themes, contests, anxieties, polemics, and
proprieties…” (681). However, at the end
of the novel, she still remains locked within her role in society. Despite
Adeline being a strong female, she is not a feminist character. Instead, she is
a female character with agency.
Later in the semester, we discussed
a Keats poem called “La Belle Dame san Merci.” This poem was written twice,
with very slight, yet important details altered. Within the first draft of the
poem, the female character is given more agency than within the second draft. There
is an obvious shift within the ninth stanza of each version. Within the first
version, it states, “And there she lulled me asleep / And there I dream’d…”
(33-34). However in the second,
published version the line reads, “And ther we sluber’d on the moss / And there
I dream’d…” (33-34). Within the first version, it seems that her power over him
is more pertinent. When this is altered and the characters slumber together,
she loses the power over him. However, throughout the poem, it is evident that
this knight-at-arms/wretched wight is enchanted by this woman. During our
discussion in class, we looked at two contrasting paintings based on this
poem. The painting by Sir Frank Dicksee
featured light colors and bright imagery, this painting highlighted the open
landscape behind the couple. The other,
by John William Waterhouse, was darker and enclosed the couple in the wooded
scenery around them.
http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/view.cfm?recordid=20
However, one element common within
the two paintings was the lack of agency of the male. In both paintings, the
knight’s arms are floating at his sides, as though being carried forward
without restraint. However, this does not mean that this poem is feminist.
Instead, the woman carries her agency through her ability to enchant the
knight. She becomes a seductress rather than a feminist role, and she gains her
agency through her sexuality.
Waterhouse did several other
paintings featuring women as well. Each painting seems to focus on the female
as a seductress or in waiting. There is an aura of boredom, yet there is
something mystical about every woman featured in a Waterhouse painting.
Almost forty years after Keats’s
“La Belle Dame sans Merci,” Christina Rossetti wrote “Goblin Market.” Through
this poem, we see our first example of a true, strong female heroine.
Throughout the poem, Lizzie remains an example of the strong female. She first
overcomes temptation while her sister falls victim to the calls of the goblin
men. When Laura is overcome with grief at the loss of her own self, Lizzie then
ventures into the goblin market herself. However, even when surrounded by
temptation and beaten by the men, she remains strong and true to her purpose.
She enters the goblin market to find a cure for Laura, and does not stray from
that motive even when bruised and battered. She faces public shame and
humiliation, and sacrifices her own integrity in order to save her sister.
Lizzie becomes a Christ-like figure and the first true example of a feminist
character within our class. This poem was written in 1862, when the Women’s
Suffrage Movement within the United Kingdom first began to emerge through
campaigns by Josephine Butler.
On our last day of class, we
discussed Angela Carter’s The Bloody
Chamber. This literary work seems to encompass many of the elements of the
Gothic novel, yet drastically modifies the female’s role within this genre. By choosing
this style of literature and altering a significant element, Carter creates a
new type of novel. She updates the genre
to fit a new time period. The Bloody
Chamber is the first piece of literature that we discussed that had not only a
female protagonist, but a feminine, first-person narrator. Throughout the
novel, readers are in-tuned with the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the
heroine alone. However, I’m not sure that the narrator is truly the “heroine”
of the story. It is true that she is obviously unhappy about marriage from the
beginning of the novel. In becoming a wife, she loses a portion of herself by
leaving her mother. However, I believe that the true HEROINE of the story is
the mother. Afterall, just as the heroine is about to die, the mother kills the
heroine’s husband. As an outspoken twentieth century feminist, Carter’s writing
reflects her own feminism. In the Feminist Review, Merja Makinen remarks that
Carter’s writing “focus[es] on mocking and exploding the constrictive cultural
stereotypes and in celebrating the sheer ability of the female protagonists to
survive, unscathed by the sexist ideologies,” (3). Carter’s Bloody Chamber is a
deconstruction of the fairy tale of Bluebeard, and the heroine “wins” in the
end, with some help from her mother.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/
Bibliography:
Makinen, Merja. "Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber And
The Decolonization Of Feminine Sexuality." Feminist Review 42 (1992): 2.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 May 2013.
MacKenzie, Scott R. "An Englishwoman's Workhouse Is Her
Castle: Poor Management And Gothic Fiction In The 1790S." Elh 74.3 (2007):
681-705. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 May 2013
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