“For example, he is immensely fat. Before this time I have always especially disliked corpulent humanity. I have always maintained that the popular notion of connecting excessive grossness of size and excessive good-humour as inseparable allies was equivalent to declaring, either that no people but amiable people ever get fat, or that the accidental addition of so many pounds of flesh has a directly favourable influence over the disposition of the person on whose body they accumulate. I have invariably combated both these absurd assertions by quoting examples of fat people who were as mean, vicious, and cruel as the leanest and the worst of their neighbours. I have asked whether Henry the Eighth was an amiable character? Whether Pope Alexander the Sixth was a good man? Whether Mr. Murderer and Mrs. Murderess Manning were not both unusually stout people? Whether hired nurses, proverbially as cruel a set of women as are to be found in all England, were not, for the most part, also as fat a set of women as are to be found in all England?—and so on, through dozens of other examples, modern and ancient, native and foreign, high and low. Holding these strong opinions on the subject with might and main as I do at this moment, here, nevertheless, is Count Fosco, as fat as Henry the Eighth himself, established in my favour, at one day’s notice, without let or hindrance from his own odious corpulence. Marvellous indeed!” (Collins PG)
The question of fatness as it relates to consumption is one that we see as the women in the story with bigger frames are framed as having bigger appetites. The framing of fatness as a moral failing is something that has persisted for only heaven knows how long and yet here we see another stereotype of fat people, that they are good-natured. Here we see Marian offer what seems to be a diatribe against the very idea of stereotypes in saying that they’re simply inane, “either that no people but amiable people ever get fat, or that the accidental addition of so many pounds of flesh has a directly favourable influence over the disposition of the person on whose body they accumulate. I have invariably combated both these absurd assertions by quoting examples of fat people who were as mean, vicious, and cruel as the leanest and the worst of their neighbours.” (Collins PG) This condemnation of bigotry, or at the very least the enumeration of the flaws of stereotyping is symbolic of the trope many Victorian novels have. They make a good point but they miss it entirely. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is another such novel that seems to miss its own point. It shows a young woman getting groomed, it is written almost as a horror novel, and then she ends the novel marrying her groomer and it’s framed as a good thing. Victorian novels love to play at being subversive but at the end of the day they are invested in the creation and the upkeep of British “normalcy”. At the end of this novel our main character is raising white British children.
Writing from the side of the sea,
Red.
Another aspect of this passage that I would love to hear your opinion on is its narrator. If I am not mistaken, this particular section is orated by Frederick Fairlie, a character whose disability is a crucial facet of his identity. Fairlie, for his own physical deviations from the normative body, has much to say about Count Fosco. In what ways do these two marginalized identities interact with one another? What drives Fairlie to speak in such a manner about another unconventional body?
I think that your analysis of how fatness is portrayed in the Woman in White is very interesting, and I like that you provided examples of other Victorian novels that also fail to subvert harmful ideas and stereotypes. As I haven’t read much Victorian literature before this class, I would be interested to learn about other portrayals of fatness from the Victorian era as well as how these narratives have changed or stayed the same over time.
This recognition of the role fatness plays in the novel is worth noting. I particularly enjoy your close reading of Marian’s position on stereotypes as cruel constructions of Victorian culture. Based on these observations, what are you thoughts on the inclusion of fat stereotypes as deconstructive to the future generations? You mention briefly the idea that “raising white British children” are described at the end of the novel. How would these fat stereotypes be taught and passed down to these children? It would be interesting to question if there are any examples of other British children questioning or absorbing these stereotypes that maintain the power of the monarchy in the novel.