Author: AnniePaige

In both “La Belle Dame” by John Keats and “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, female leads take action to pursue and provide pleasure for themselves in the form of a male companion. This directly contrasts the passive role of middle class women during the Victorian era, where despite having opportunities to receive education and social skills, these were limited to whatever men found pleasing. In other words, women were expected to “doll themselves up” and then wait for a suitor to notice. Yet in the aforementioned poems, the Dame and the Lady decide to skip this middle step and pursue a man on their own. Both cases lead to devastation, yet in different ways.

The secondary narrator of “La Belle Dame” is a knight destroyed by the Dame. He was used by her for her enjoyment and now wanders the lake in a dazed lost state. It is made clear by the Knight’s dream of “…pale kings and princes too, pale warriors…” (lines 35-36) that he is not the only victim of the Dame. Clearly this is a woman well practiced in pursuing her interests, particularly those of sexual nature.

The tale of the Lady from mythical land of Shalott runs along a similar theme, but with a significantly different end. In the poem, the Lady consistently tends to her weaving; a notably common domestic trade during the era of Sir Arthur (when the poem takes place) and the Victorian Era (when the work was written). When the Lady sees handsome Sir Arthur in her mirror, she does not prune herself to try and lure him, but rather turns from the mirror and gazes upon him directly. If the mirror can be taken to provide for the “lens” of a father or older brother a Victorian woman would have to “look through” to really have better opportunities in life, then here we see the Lady turn a literal 180 degrees from this form of containment. Because normally a single woman would have only the opportunities given to her by her closest male relative, this scene demonstrates the Lady’s moment of retracting from the crutch of masculine dominance over a women’s freedoms in a relationship / marriage. Unfortunately, the tale ends with the Lady floating along a frozen river “till her blood was frozen slowly” (line 147) all alone, with not even family to see her off.

Both poems, notably written by men, seem to be cautionary tales about giving women too much freedom – at some point they may seize it for themselves and only devastation will occur. This is clearly no greater tragedy for the patriarchy of the Victorian Era.

There are numerous instances of sexuality portrayed in Christina Rossetti’s poems. This is particularly apparent in one of her longer works, The Goblin Market. This poem presents sisters Laura and Lizzie who have been warned to stay away from the Goblins who sell fruits. These goblins possess fruits of great temptation for Laura. Immediately we are presented odd tale, but how does it translate to more sexual connotations?

Firstly, it is worth mentioning that the Goblins are all men, and not outwardly appealing at that. “One had a cat’s face / One whisked a tail…” (p 3). Yet it seems as though all of the women in the poem lust after something that the Goblins possess. Laura falls prey to the tempting songs of the Goblins and seeks to buy their fruit. In this context I take fruit to be associated with copulation. The two main characters of the poem have been warned against perusing a forbidden act with these “men”, particularly because of their foreign descent. Despite this, the appeal of the forbidden draws Laura to literally give up a part of herself to receive the “sweet fruits” of the Goblins. In the case of the poem, it is the “…gold upon [Laura’s] head” (p 4), but interpretations might lead readers to understand it as Laura selling her purity to the Goblins; note the way we interpret colors can also be used to link the idea of gold to goodness and purity.

Meanwhile, Laura receives the fruit of the Goblins, and is completely entranced by it. “Sweeter than honey from the rock / Stronger than man-rejoicing wine / Clearer than water flowed that juice…” (p 4). Yet after Laura has her fill, the Goblins appear to her no more. She has lost her virginity in both a literal and figurative sense, and as she has had a taste of the forbidden fruit, she also is made more and more miserable without it. “Day after day, night after night / Laura kept watch in vain / In sullen silence of exceeding pain…” (p 8). Laura lives with the longing for the moments of bliss and pleasure she once had from engaging with the Goblins, but they are gone from her and she cannot live as she had before.

The poem brings into question the liberty of women, particularly sexual liberty. While Laura is told by everyone, her sister included, that she cannot seek out her own temptations, she does not honestly keep herself from her wants, and because of this nearly ends up miserable. The tale seems to be a cautionary one, not only about unwed sex, but about women not pursuing that which is socially beyond their reach.

Dracula is a text that presents several definitions for what it means to be insane. We find traces of unsettling behaviors from the Count himself and early character Jon Harker. What seems to be a case unique to the novel is how in order to be exposed to insanity, it is impossible to use our primary sense of eyesight.

Early in the novel, Jonathan Harker experiences many strange phenomena that lead him to eventually be admitted to the hospital in Budapest. After arriving at the foreboding Transylvanian castle, Harker notices that the Count has no reflection in a mirror. “It amazed me that I had not seen him, since the glass covered the whole room behind me” (p32). Immediately an association of the unnatural and the senses is created, and Jonathan, to reader’s chagrin, continues to play the fool under his eyesight for quite some time. “At first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some weird effect of shadow” (p 41). Though at this point in the novel we are not certain of the cause of Harker’s madness, it is safe to assume his visual experiences at the Count’s manor play a large role, particularly the “dream”.

“I thought at the time I must be dreaming when I saw them, for, though the moonlight was behind them, they had no shadow on the floor” (p 44). This dream presents a time in which Harker is disconnected from his conscious, and therefore his eyesight holds much more reliability than it does when he is fully aware of himself, or how we would typically define “sane”. However, Jonathan remains adamant that he is losing his mind, or asleep, because how could his eyesight, a sense that has never given him cause to feel he cannot rely on it, be mistaken?

Because of how brief yet descriptive Jonathan Harker’s time in the Counts castle is, it is both difficult and simple to unpack how his senses affect his perception of the truth in the novel. However, it is safe to say that in order to be in touch with the insane or unnatural, Jonathan has to step away from what he understands consciousness or sanity to be.

 

“It’s no wonder my uncle felt as if trouble were coming on him in such a place as this… It’s enough to scare any man. I’ll have a row of electric lamps up here inside of six months, and you won’t know it again with a thousand-candle-power Swan and Edison right here in front of the hall door.” (Hound of the Baskervilles, p 58)

These lines, spoken By Henry Baskerville, are the man’s immediate reaction to the near-desolate Baskerville manor. The mention of installing lamps, no matter how brief, presents a reference of setting and time for the novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. This novel is the third of the crime novels written by Arthur Conan Doyle, Originally serialized in a magazine from August 1901 to April 1902. This puts the novel firmly post development of the lightbulb, arguably one of the most influential technological breakthroughs of its time. Despite this, the lightbulb, or in-house electricity was not cheap enough to be widely available across the classes until the 1910s – after the novel takes place. This means that Sir Henry had considerable privilege. Associating lack of electrical lighting, or general technological advances, with a depressing or bleak lifestyle describes Sir Henry’s view of wealth, in my opinion. Those who have money are more fulfilled than those who do not. The comment also brings in the Victorian trope of the archaic; references to a time when the advantages of the “present” were not available. Sir Henry seems to be a man firmly planted in his time period, who evaluates wealth and technology as necessary stones to lead a life worth living.

“I cannot tell how long he sat blankly staring at one paragraph amongst the list of deaths, before his dazed brain tool in its full meaning…”

 

The quote above can be found in chapter 4 of Lady Audley’s Secret. The more “obvious” reading of the paragraph puts readers in the perspective of George, who has returned from his three year voyage to find out from a paper of his wife’s (Helen) death. What may catch the eye of careful readers is the repetition of terminology for length or time, and also how, when describing widower George’s state, he seems almost dead himself. Upon examining the former point; notice the wording in the line. Terms contrast to pursue significance, such as in the direct “long”-ness of the list of deaths, and George’s focus on only “one”. The contrast of these terms helps to paint the scene for readers, almost as if we are also checking the list with this character. Regarding the latter point, Lady Audley’s Secret is not the first book to demonstrate romantic connections and the feeling of being “unable to go on”, nor will it be the last. What was unique to this paragraph was that George seems to resemble a walking corpse in his shock and disbelief. Take the lines, “…he sat blankly…” and “…his dazed brain…” for example. These are traits we often associate with the deceased, or at least medically deceased. The chapter seems to place George in a state of supreme focus (during the quest to find his wife’s name – or rather to not find it) and then throw him into a numb state of semi-consciousness, where, perhaps as a method for grief, George can only seem to react to the events around him as if his senses were blocked by invisible barriers.