Author: flemingg

Archive Project: “Jenny” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

For my VQA project I looked at the lengthy, dramatic monologue Jenny authored by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I specifically looked at stanza’s 22-24 which can be found in my archive post linked: here. The narrator of the poem is a customer purchasing services from the prostitute, Jenny, in the poem. Throughout the poem the narrator romanticizes and sympathizes with the role of the prostitute. The poem touches on a myriad of subjects regarding Victorian prostitution including: it’s prominence, venereal diseases, and social ostracism.  Jenny was first published privately in 1870 in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Poems but it is said that this version is vastly different from the original draft Rossetti wrote in 1847, that was heavily revised in 1858 and 1869.

A close reading of the section I chose: Rossetti simply equates the images of books to brains throughout the poem and makes a scathing insinuation that individuals, especially proper Victorian women, her prescribe to the Victorian mode of thinking (to hush sexuality of women in particular) cannot appreciate Jenny’s decency as a human being. Jenny’s heart becomes “a rose shut in a book/In which pure women may not look” (120) that cannot be understood or related to if one accepts the Victorian mode of thinking that prostitutes are merely fallen women, dehumanizing them entirely. Rossetti also comments that due to this harsh conceptual mistreatment of prostitutes, fellow women will be unable to sympathize with her on the level of womanhood “Only that this can never be:-/Even so unto her sex is she” (121).

Shortly after, the narrator also queers the gender binary when it comes to the occupation of a prostitute. While he just critiques the inability of others to see Jenny’s good heart and nature, he dehumanizes her as a woman by saying that she is “A cipher of a man’s changeless sum/Of lust past, present, and to come,” (121). When the narrator looks at Jenny the “woman fades from view” (121). What is interesting about this is that she is then just seen as a spiral of men’s lust, is seen as an object, but in Victorian times that concept is not very different for chaste, proper women, who are still the objects of their husband’s and subject to men’s lust. In this way Jenny almost has MORE freedom than the average Victorian woman which is what perhaps makes her truly more dangerous in the eyes of Victorian society.

Lust is also depicted as a “toad within a stone” (121) where the narrator is commenting once again that although lust and it’s discourse may be entombed in the stone of Victorian society, it is well and alive whether people wish to believe it or not. This relates to the fact that toads entombed in stone have often been found alive even when the stone is broken open. The narrator states that this lust “shall not be driven out/Till that which shuts him round about/Break at the Master’s stroke” (123) and “the seed of Man vanish as dust:-” (123). Without the help of God or someone of higher power like government officials, the Victorian societal tomb over lust will not be broken. The narrator also claims the “seed” or sperm of Man would also need to be eradicated to eradicate lust. In this way the poem almost speaks up for Jenny in that the narrator recognizes that the world of lust is not her fault but the fault of her society and the failure of the government or other high offices to regulate it’s sexual promiscuity. Insinuating that the “seed of Man” must “vanish as dust” also brings in some interesting pondering of eugenics. It is ironic, because the narrator himself is caught up in lust but equally recognizes the danger and social stigma lust has caused Jenny and her kind and insinuates that lust is a negative thing in general.

As stated in my close-reading above: I believe this text is a crucial addition to the Victorian Queer Archive for the push-backs it provides on the Victorian mirage and focus on hetero-normative relationships. The most prominent one being that the poem revolves around a prostitute, which strays from the traditional heterosexual marriage plot and brings in themes of polyamory as well as unrequited love. This text is particularly potent in this regard in that the narrator provides sympathy for the occupation as prostitute and a fundamental understanding of Jenny as a human not merely an object. This text also deserves to be put in the VQA due to its queering of the gender binary in that Jenny is merely seen as a novel of men’s lust and does not appear as a woman at all. In brings into question if not ALL women of the Victorian era are not truly seen as women but as a product of men’s lust. The fact that the narrator recognizes that lust exists and is unlikely to go away due to Victorian society’s “skirting around” it also helps the text stray from hetero-normative in that it accepts that heterosexual marriage is not just a morally and socially pure union but is more than often fueled by lust and most importantly, betrayed by lust.

Works Cited:

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Poems. London, Privately Published, 1870. British Library, www.bl.uk/collection-items/jenny-by-d-g-rossetti. Accessed 20 Nov. 2016.

Things are Getting Hairy in “Goblin Market”

In this post I would like to address the vivid descriptions and usages of hair in Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti. I contend that hair is used in this piece as a symbol of sexual consent and female sexuality, and that Laura’s giving away of her hair is reinforcing gender norms and a form of self-subordination. I would also like to discuss the sexualization of blonde women in particular, not only as a Victorian trend, but in general.

The obsession with hair in the Victorian era is not only evident in Dante Rosetti’s many paintings that we viewed in class, but can also be found in the abundance of hair jewelry (mostly mourning jewelry) Victorians were so fond of. Laura and Lizzie in the poem are described as being blonde “Golden head by golden head” (6). In order to purchase the goblins’ fruits (aka to partake in their sexual orgy essentially) she had to ” “Buy from us with a golden curl” ” (4). Elisabeth Gitter points out in her book The Power of Women’s Hair in the Victorian Imagination that in primitive societies giving up a lock of one’s hair or shaving it was a customary practice brides were forced to undertake, linking this practice inherently with sex or virginity loss (Gitter 938). By giving the goblins her hair to purchase their fruit or partake in the sexual deviancy, she is tricked into giving away her sexual purity as well as simply subordinating herself to the male goblins by giving her intrinsic treasure or currency that is her rare, beautiful hair. This physical selling of the self to men of a different race or breed also reinforces Victorian gender roles not only of men as predators/ “more dominant” but also of women being easily tricked into giving into sexual desires (even to men of a lower class or minority race) which can have major consequences on their class status or reputation, or in Laura’s case, her health (possibly a moral suggestion that being this easily persuaded, giving up oneself in the premarital circumstance may lead to venereal disease).

It is also important to note that in the Victorian era it was typical for women to have long flowing hair as it was a symbol of youth, fertility, and beauty. Women’s hair was usually only cut in times when the woman was ill or committed to a mental asylum or prison. While this was done for ‘cleanliness’ cutting a woman’s hair was also the quickest way to take away a woman’s confidence, making her docile and compliant to the prison or asylum’s discipline. In this way Laura was docile and compliant to the goblins, unable to let them go even after they left her presence, she was constantly thirsting for their fruits and under their persuasion.

I find it additionally interesting that both women are blonde. The fiery red or blonde hair is a common trope throughout Victorian literature. Gitter also cites Medusa, Philomena, and Saint Agnes as literary figures that have been depicted with golden hair, in their cases the unique hair acts as a “prosthetic tongue” to their inner persona, displaying how unique, rare, and valuable they are as women not only in physical beauty but in their intrinsic worth (Gitter 939). I found this reading interesting and important when speaking about Laura in that “Her hair grew thin and grey” (8) after she had given herself up to the goblins. This suggests that by giving consent to the taking of her sexual purity by relinquishing her hair she has lost not only her physical appeal but even her intrinsic worth in that her beautiful hair can no longer speak to the good of her character’s well-being. In this way the text suggests that by giving up your virginity either/and before marriage or to a lower class/minority race, a woman is not only physically devaluing herself but giving up her moral/spiritual worth as a person.

Blonde bombshells still thrive past the Victorian era as well which is certainly an area for further research and how blonde-ness seems to tie in with overt sexuality over time (for example, sex symbols like Marilyn Monroe) and how many women seek to be blonde in order to channel this because “blondes have more fun”. (Just an interesting side note I have no direct thoughts nor more words to get into this, but it could be suggesting that both Laura and Lizzie were already either overtly sexual women or that they were simply extremely attractive in a sexually pleasing way)

Curtain to Control Women

“It is a joy to be hidden but disaster not to be found.” -D.W. Winnicott

This disaster of not being found, because she is dead, is the fate the Duke of Ferrara left to his last Duchess- a tale documented and dramatized by Robert Browning in My Last Duchess. In this post I aim to discuss and analyze the fact that the Duke of Ferrara keeps the portrait of his last Duchess behind a curtain, “The curtain I have drawn for you” (Browning 10).

It is ascertained that the Duke has the Duchess killed because she had a heart “too soon made glad, Too easily impressed” (Browning 22-23) and was too flirtatious with other men which showed disregard for the Duke’s “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” (Browning 33).  It can be assumed that he contributed to her death in the lines: “I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive” (Browning 45-47).

In class we discussed that it was usually nudes that were hidden behind curtains but as far as we are aware, the Duchess is fully clothed in her portrait. I assert that the Duke places her behind a curtain so that in her death he can hold control over whom she glances at and who admires “the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat” (Browning 18-19) in a way that he felt helplessly unable to do while she was alive. I believe the Duke does this due to an inferiority complex evidenced in the extreme pride he holds in his old name and the rare, expensive pieces of art he feels the need to collect “thought a rarity, Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!” (Browning 55-56). He evidently feels the need to be narcissistic in order to prove to others that he is the absolute best and when someone does not think so or bow to his will (the last Duchess) he feels so inferior and lacking in true self-confidence that he needs to eliminate such persons. Due to this lack of self-confidence he treats his women as beautiful objects whom he controls in order to bring himself up and it is evidenced he will do the same with his next young bride-to-be that is waiting downstairs, “Though his fair daughter’s self…is my object” (Browning 52-53). In My Last Duchess he does her the ultimate insult by hanging her on his wall as an object he could control, a painting, since he couldn’t control her enough while she was living.

I find the whole concept of curtaining art to be particularly thought provoking. Curtains simultaneously conceal and reveal and viewers of art as well as readers of My Last Duchess have a special privilege of seeing both sides of the curtain. Curtains are commonly used in theater to heighten anticipation. Likewise they can be used to reveal a secret hidden beneath them. This heightening of anticipation factor shows that the Duke is almost taking pride of what he has done as well as how beautiful his ex-wife was and reveling in the fact that the viewers of her will not know the dark secret. We as readers however, are able to suss out the repeal of the curtain as being insight into the deeper secret that he has killed her. I find the curtain to also symbolize deception- not only the deception of the Duke but the deception of paintings in general in that not only do we solely get the Duke’s perspective and opinion on the actions or “misdeeds” of the Duchess but we also solely get Fra Pandolf’s depiction of her, which could also be flawed or incomplete as Christina Rosetti comments on painting models that are painted “Not as she is, but as she fills his dream” (Rosetti 14) in In an Artist’s Studio. The fact that we cannot even ascertain the true feelings, actions, and even appearance/demeanor of the Duchess gives us as readers a flawed sense of who she was as a person which leads to a broader critique of women in Victorian art in that they were merely objectified, controlled in depiction, and stripped of their power. In the case of My Last Duchess she has not only been stripped of her life but first (and perhaps most importantly in the Duke’s mind) stripped of her power to ever again annoy the Duke or contribute to his rampant insecurities.

 

Count Fosco the Psychopath

While the term psychopath was not used to describe the charismatic, non-empathetic monsters we know today (ie- Bundy, Manson) at the time Woman in White was written, when reading the character of Count Fosco from the present, there is no doubt he meets several if not most characteristics of how one would define a psychopath today. The OED describes a psychopath as “a mentally ill person who is highly irresponsible and antisocial and also violent or aggressive”. This more modern meaning of the word was first used in 1885. Using the revised Hare Psychopathy Checklist, I will now provide traits of a psychopath backed by textual evidence to show how Fosco meets a myriad of them.

  1. Glib and superficial charm- This trait can also be described as charisma. Marian admits “I am almost afraid to confess it, even to these secret pages. The man has interested me, has attracted me, has forced me to like him…and how he has worked the miracle, is more than I can tell” (217).  Marian realizes something is off about him but cannot help her attraction to him.
  2. Criminal Versatility- This includes taking great pride in getting away with crimes. This is evident when the Count and Glyde are discussing wise and foolish criminals. “There are foolish criminals who are discovered, and wise criminals who escape…A trial of skill between the police on one side, and the individual on the other…But I don’t see why Count Fosco should celebrate the victory of the criminal over society with so much exultation” (233).
  3. Promiscuous Sexual Behavior- I see Fosco as being very much like Christian Grey in his mannerisms of control. He is described as resembling “Henry the Eighth himself” (218) which hints that he is marred by infidelity. Fosco is also said to control the Countess with “rod of iron with which he rules her never appears in company- it is a private rod, and is always kept up-stairs” (222) which seems indicative of bondage and/or sexual abuse. He is also known to have a taste for sweets “‘A taste for sweets’ he said in his softest tones…’is the innocent taste of women and children. I love to share it with them'” (289). This description seems to hold undertones of cannibalism as well as pedophilia.
  4. Cunning and Manipulativeness- Fosco even describes himself in this way “I, Fosco, cunning as the devil himself, as you have told me a hundred times” (324). This trait also ties in with the trait of parasitic lifestyle in terms of financial exploitation. Glyde realizes this in Fosco when he states “Some of the money I want has been borrow for you. And if you come to gain, my wife’s death would be ten thousand pounds in your wife’s pocket” (327).  Fosco also uses his wife to carry out his cunning acts, like when the Countess reports that Laura called Fosco a spy, and the Countess drugged Fanny and replaced the letters Marian had written.

Reading Fosco as a psychopath from the modern definition is enlightening in understanding the text as a whole because we can recognize this period as being one rich in the study of psychological disorders, their definitions, and treatments. It is evident that people exhibiting modernly defined psychopathic traits did exist although the term for them had not been coined. The earliest definition of psychopath comes from 1864, 4 years after WIW is published. This definition is probably even more interesting when studying WIW because up until 1885, psychopath was actually used to describe “a doctor or other practitioner specializing in the treatment (or claiming to treat) disorders of the mind”. In this way Fosco meets the definition of a psychopath on a dual level as Mr. Dawson claims Fosco is a “Quack…dying to try his quack remedies” (364-365) when Marian is in poor health. Fosco claims to be a man with medical talent and the image of him at Blackwater with Marian, Laura, and his wife, takes on the dynamic of Fosco as the psychopath or asylum leader, with the women as his patients forced to conform to his will. The Countess provides proof of his “success” at healing feminine mental malady, as the once self-proclaimed feminist is now his loyal servant. In his role as psychopath-doctor he still maintains a trait of psychopath-modern: endless obsession with control- as if the women were his pure, white mice.

 

Laura’s Connection to Freud and Child Imagery

In this post I would like to address the child imagery used to depict Laura within pages 126-195 of Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White. The Freudian concepts of repetition and repression discussed in class are evident features of Laura’s child imagery, which I will come to elaborate on. I pose that this child imagery, when analyzed with a Freudian lens, serves not only to display Laura’s repression of her feelings for Walter, but also creates a stronger connection and physical appearance mirroring Anne Catherick (as child imagery was abundant in her character description in the graveyard seen earlier in the novel).

Mr. Gilmore first brings up one of Laura’s repetitive habits she has had since childhood. When he approaches her regarding the question of whether or not she will marry he observes “Her fingers had a restless habit, which I remembered in her as a child, of always playing with the first thing that came to hand, whenever anyone was talking to her” (141-2). Marian recognizes the fiddling of the fingers again when conversing about her decision to marry Percival Glyde: “twining and twisting my hair with that childish restlessness in her fingers” (164). That night Marian notices the expression of another habit Laura has exhibited since childhood when Mr. Hartright’s drawing book was “half hidden under her pillow, just in the place where she used to hide her favourite toys when she was a child” (165). In Sigmund Freud’s Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through he states as a psychoanalyst that “repitition is a transference of the forgotten past…remembering at once gives way to acting out…brings out an armoury of the past the weapons with which he defends himself against the progress of the treatment” (Freud 151). Freud essentially states that repressed emotions and thoughts can transfer themselves into repetitive physical actions, for example, Laura using her fingers to play with objects or hiding prized items under her pillow at night.

Recognizing the suggestive, Freudian evidence of her repetitive behaviors, I contend that Laura’s fiddling with objects is an exhibition of her repressed affection for Walter (potentially her desire to ‘play with him’) and her internal wishes to not marry Mr. Glyde, as well as simply the repressed wish that the current conversation would halt. Hiding Hartright’s drawing book under her pillow exhibits her repressed desire to hold on to him, her repressed fear of losing him or that someone will steal him (Glyde, Catherick, or other), and potentially her repressed desire to sleep with him, although due to her chastity and duty to her engagement, she cannot.

Child imagery in regards to Laura continues on 185 when Marian proclaims “poor child- for a child still she is still in many things”. I aim to compare this with child imagery pressed onto Anne on page 94 “harmless, poor soul, as a little child”. Anne’s continued ‘orphan role’ image and obsession with Mrs. Fairlie as a mother figure also play into her child imagery “nobody is like Mrs. Fairlie!” (100). These similarities in child depiction strengthen the assumption throughout the novel that they are physically similar. Extrapolating from this, this imagery also attests to both characters’ innocence and purity in that they “are only children” whether in mental capacity, looks, or social understanding. Percival Glyde’s age of 45 years also gives him a further pedophile-esque quality. It provides suggestions that he is out to control these women as they are merely harmless, supple children. It implies he is or has taken advantage of them- for their bodies, their purity of mind and heart, and in Miss Fairlie’s case, her money (witnessed by Gilmore 151).