{"id":37,"date":"2025-02-06T05:50:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T05:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/?p=37"},"modified":"2025-02-06T05:53:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T05:53:52","slug":"the-indignant-interrogator-in-the-woman-in-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/2025\/02\/06\/the-indignant-interrogator-in-the-woman-in-white\/","title":{"rendered":"The Indignant Interrogator in The Woman in White"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essential to upholding gender roles during the Victorian era included the emphasis on domesticity for women (Christ 2006, 992). Though, too, the concept of \u201cNew Womanhood\u201d brought alternative responses to the rigid gender norms. Resorted to the kitchen and to the private sphere of the home, women\u2019s responsibilities were to construct the home itself and the people within it. Being a child\u2019s primary caretaker, it seemed women and children were one and one. Though, in The Woman in White<\/em>, the mother-child relationship is revealed differently. With this particular scene, Marian, lacking children of her own, interacts with a schoolboy or rather interrogates him. \u00a0Caught in the midst of her response to the boy, \u201cher face crimsoned with indignation\u2014she turned upon little Jacob with an angry suddenness which terrified him into a fresh burst of tears\u2014opened her lips to speak to him\u2014then controlled herself\u2014and addressed the master instead of the boy\u201d (Collins 2011, 88). \u00a0Marian\u2019s clear \u201cangry suddenness\u201d and \u201cindignation\u201d in response to the previous line of questioning towards the boy reveals her emotional state around a child. She, in one sense, understands the power imbalance of an adult speaking down to a child as the boy is \u201cterrified\u201d of her to the point of a physical emotional response of breaking into \u201ctears.\u201d Yet, in another sense, Marian treats the schoolboy as her equal, interrogating him like an adult and feeling as though she can speak with such \u201cindignation\u201d and \u201csuddenness.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is as if up to this point in conversation Marian has not recognized how \u201cterrified\u201d the boy is because she is blind to the power imbalance a parent and child might endure. She ignores the differences in gender and age dynamics or perhaps she does the exact opposite\u2014using her position as a masculine coded woman to pry information out of someone younger than her. She understands how power operates and her glimpse into possessing that power is squashed by her self-control. The literary dashes are telling of Marian\u2019s mental operations\u2014her mind simultaneously pausing to rethink just as the text implores the reader to do the same. Just as she opens \u201cher lips\u201d to voice her power over the boy, she stops herself.<\/p>\n

That preemptive control preventing her from continuing her line of aggressive questioning that women do not typically make reveals an ingrained behavior to check herself. Societal demand of women always being controlled caught up to her in this moment. Her emotional \u201csuddenness\u201d also becomes a \u201csuddenness\u201d to remember her obligations as a woman\u2014to respond to the male master and remind herself of the normative gender and age power hierarchies defining societies of the time. Instead of caring for a child, she interrogates one and in doing so Collins suggests that her understanding of power hierarchies between children-adult and between male-female and her breaking of it is constantly met with her own society fueled initiatives to prevent such forward thinking.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Christ, C. T., & Robson, C. (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age<\/em> (8th\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ed., Vol. E). W.W. Norton.<\/p>\n

Collins, W. (2011). Woman in White<\/em>. Penguin Classics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essential to upholding gender roles during the Victorian era included the emphasis on domesticity for women (Christ 2006, 992). Though, too, the concept of \u201cNew Womanhood\u201d brought alternative responses to the rigid gender norms. Resorted to the kitchen and to the private sphere of the home, women\u2019s responsibilities were to construct the home itself and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/neemesl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}