Category: 360: Victorian Sexualities

(Image courtesy of the archives of Dickinson College’s Trout Gallery)

The etching “Looking into the future” features a young woman on a balcony looking longingly up into the sky. Wearing a long white dress, she exemplifies the ideal Victorian woman–the “Angel in the House,” as Furneaux says in her article. As we’ve previously discussed, the white dress implies the woman’s purity and innocence. However, the dress darkens as it gets further and further into the room, possibly suggesting that the woman has had a bleak past and is only just coming out of the darkness. In the poem “My Last Duchess,” the portrait of the late duchess is hidden behind a curtain, a tradition that is often seen in the Victorian Era. Although the drapes depicted in the etching surround a window instead of a portrait (which doesn’t directly imply that they’re a symbol for mourning), they still add to the gloomy atmosphere of the room and adding to the implication that the woman’s past lurks behind her. However, the drapes are tied back, which could suggest that the woman has successfully moved on from her past and is not letting it get in the way of her future. Furthermore,the beautiful and decorative column next to the woman seems to stand almost entirely in the light, so maybe it could be interpreted as a pillar of life that represents strength and stability.

I do not believe that there are any passages to directly support this (?), but I see Laura Fairlie when I look at the woman in this etching. Although Laura’s life isn’t entirely applicable to this etching, the dark and gloomy past behind the woman might be Laura’s marriage to Sir Percival, her time spent in the mental asylum, and the time she spent hiding with Walter and Marian. Like I mentioned in my previous post, Laura seems to be happier than ever when she and Walter are married, so perhaps her marriage is her first step out into the light. Laura may or may not be the “Angel in the House” depending on your view of her, and given her past you might not see her as pure and innocent. However, I personally do see Laura Fairlie (or Hartright) in this “light.”

The print called “Feeding the Motherless” from the Illman Brothers is striking because I think it directly relates to ideas about social responsibility that were strong throughout the Victorian Era and The Woman in White. The woman in this image is feeding baby birds, which are a completely helpless and frail entity. These are characteristics often applied to women in the Victorian Era, and the chicks physically resemble the image of women at this time. Both the woman and the birds are the same shade of white, indicating that they are related in some way. There is limited shading, but the artist has designed the image so that is seems as though light is emanating from the woman in the photo, while the darkness surrounds her. That light quality represents the supposed purity and moral superiority of noble women. These visual aspects of the print lead me to connect the baby birds to abandoned women and poor women, who cannot survive on their own. This relates directly to The Woman in White and its assortment of helpless females that must be helped to survive, even at the most basic level.

One such woman is Anne Catherick, who is “helped” first by Lady Glyde, who sees her as motherless and in need of moral and intellectual education. Glyde cleans her, dresses her all in white, and is attracted to her in large part because of her helplessness and inability to be like Laura herself. In a way, Anne promises to be an ongoing project that can never function independently, just as a bird trained to expect food from a human will never learn to hunt on its own. The fact that an upper class woman is feeding the birds as a leisure activity reveals an interesting aspect of Glyde’s care for Anne, as she sees it as something that fills her time and gives her satisfaction. She tells her husband the result of Anne’s consultation with the doctor, writing, “he says her careful bringing-up at school is a matter of great importance just now, because her unusual slowness in acquiring ideas implies an unusual tenacity in keeping them,” which is very revealing because it shows that the doctor essentially wants someone to control the ideas entering Anne’s mind (Collins 60). Lady Glyde proceeds to educate Anne, dressing her all in delicate lace frocks and beginning to instill ideas about traditional femininity in her mind. Like the abandoned birds, Lady Glyde feeds Anne things that are not natural for her, leaving her without the ability to live on her own. In this way, the doctor’s prophecy comes true when her mind becomes warped and cannot function properly.

Laura exemplifies the way that hand feeding a helpless woman through adulthood leaves her similarly without the ability to be independent. She is raised being fed ideas, and so when she is faced with opportunities to decide her own fate, she cannot act on her own behalf. She has been trained to serve men and to remain pure and honest, and so even though she does not love Percival, she cannot exit her engagement for fear of defying all that she believes a woman should be. She expects to be delivered the correct answer, much like a domesticated bird waits to be fed in the nest. Even though she ends up in a stable situation, her welfare has been the activity filling Walter and Marion’s lives, and will presumably continue that way. These two delicate birds in the novel end up unable to survive on their own, dependent on patrons to care for them.

 

Image: http://collections.troutgallery.org/Obj18174?sid=59379&x=611464

This image from the Trout Gallery called “Feeding the Motherless”, appears simple at first. At a glance, it looks plainly as if a well put-together woman is feeding motherless birds with the tip of a feather in a dark walled-room that also contains a table. Simple enough, right?

However, a closer reading would prove that this etching is filled with Victorian connotations, ideals and limitations. Primarily, one must address the woman’s attire. She is wearing a white dress displaying her purity and innocence, a characteristic of women in this period that our class can seemingly never escape. Her hair is pinned back with lovely white flowers and she is wearing limited make up. Right from the beginning one can assume that she is of a higher class based on her outfit. She need not go into other methods of making money (prostitution), and can instead spend her time looking around for motherless bird’s nests. The white flowers in her hair also suggest that although she is chaste and pure, she’s most likely blooming and ready to be married off.

Now, one must address this feeding action that is taking place. There are two seemingly competing ideas about what could be going on here. My initial reaction, was, hey this looks a lot Marian, and also she’s taking care of some smaller frailer creature resembling Laura. The woman appears to be very intent on the birds showing this sort of stark determination. Many other women in the other etching we saw in class display women looking off into the distance forlornly, or moaning for their lover. Rarely we see a woman physically doing something in an etching, in contrast to her normal role as the object itself. However, this image could also read the opposite. In the reading we read for class this Wednesday, the British Library discusses women’s role in the domestic sphere. The site says, “Not only was it their job to counterbalance the moral taint of the public sphere in which their husbands laboured all day, they were also preparing the next generation to carry on this way of life,” (British Library). In essence it was the woman’s role to nurture youth, and have them grow up in the ways in which society was governed. Thus this woman feeds these baby birds, and nurtures them showing her ability to thus assume this motherly role to a real human child. Her hair is blooming like her body, and she’s ready to get prego. The dark background of the photo adds to this well by promoting this woman as the object of motherhood. There’s no distractions, just this pure and fertile woman.

So this leaves me with questions. What does this say about Marian now? Although she acts through determination and vigor, can she still not escape these stereotypical gender roles? She in essence becomes the mother of Laura, and even plays a similar role to Laura’s newborn son, so does she achieve the same status of man? We had such high hopes for Marian, but it seems that the cards lie where they are. This image of this woman suggests, “Women were assumed to desire marriage because it allowed them to become mothers rather than to pursue sexual or emotional satisfaction,” (British Library). This woman depicting a motherly vibe, is more likely a more chaste way of telling the general public that she’s ready to nuptially open her legs.

Adolphe Lalauze’s painting the “Beguiling of Merlin” depicts a woman named Nimue reading from a book of spells and seducing Merlin.[1]  This image is highly reminsicent of the poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad” because they both feature a male figure being bewitched by a beautiful, mysterious woman. In both case, the woman in question—a femme fatale—seems supernatural in nature (in the Keats poem, she may be a faery or a changeling and in the Lalauze painting she reads spells that send Merlin into a trance.[2]

The Victorian web describes the femme fatale as a mixture of “sensual, erotic but invulnerable” traits, making her alluring, dangerous, but also demure enough to avoid suspicion.[3] In the Keats poem, for example, the woman in the meads cries during their lovemaking, implying that she pretends to be an virgin (the visions the knight experiences of other duped men implies she has seduced many men before him, thus negating her virginity).[4]  In the painting, Nimue exposes her neck, a disarming move that demonstrates her vulnerability.  However, it also indicates her erotic power over the man she seduces. The neck is an erogenous zone, therefor the sexual overtones of this action should not be underestimated.

Furthermore, parity between the poem and painting can be seen in the shared setting. In both instances, the femme fatale has bewitched a man in the heather. The beautiful, flowering setting of the meads and later the grot obscures the darker undertones of the femme fatale narrative. The combination of lovely scenery and innocence of the lady allow her to seduce the man and entrap him forever.

“I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.”[5]

Even when the man may suspect something is amiss–as evidenced when he notices her alarmingly “wild eyes”–he still proceeds with sleeping with her.[6] The wild eyes allude to her true nature, a nature that is steeped in folklore and magic.  Indeed, perhaps this is what makes her so attractive in the first place.   Once again, the idea of a dangerous woman is tied directly to both the natural and the supernatural world. In this case, perhaps the knight overlooked her wild eyes due to other, less obviously dangerous, aspects of her character. Her long hair, her light footfalls, and her beauty make her irresistible. Nimue of the painting has likewise lulled Merlin into a state of bliss, to the point where he is no longer standing and instead is lounging among the flowers in the bushes.[7] The lazy angle placement of his arm and hand also indicate that he is in a trance and he seems unable to take his eyes off of Nimue. Interestingly, in the Arthurian legend, Nimue learns the bewitching spells from Merlin.  By using both her beauty and her erotic magnetism, the femme fatale is able to use the man for her own gain.

[1] “The Beguiling of Merlin” ‘The Beguiling of Merlin’, Edward Burne-Jones. Lady Lever Art Gallery.

[2] “The Beguiling of Merlin”

[3] Lee, Elizabeth. “The Femme Fatale as Object.” The Victorian Web. Brown University, 1997.

[4] Keats, John. La Belle Dame Sans Merci. 1819.

[5] Keats, John.

[6] Keats, John.

[7] Burne-Jones, Edward. The Beguiling of Merlin. 1872-7. Oil on canvas. Trout Gallery, Carlisle PA.

 

http://collections.troutgallery.org/Obj18182?sid=59379&x=612537

The image that I chose is entitled the Fair Dreamer.  The main subject of the image is a beautiful (fair) woman who appears to be asleep or is waking up as she is sprawled against the trunk of a willow tree.  The setting is on the banks of a lake.  There is also a parasol in one corner of the image and a rowboat in the other.  What intrigues me the most about this image is the posture of the woman.  She is stretching but in a way that looks exposing or inviting.  Her arms are stretched above her with one lying across her forehead, her legs aren’t crossed, and her eyes are closed, possibly hinting that the body language of the woman could be interpreted as one of relaxation, fragility, or sexual desire.  Her parasol, a tool that is used to shade/protect one’s self, also appears to have been tossed aside, which can imply that she is willingly giving off a sign of acceptance.

All of this reminded me of the readings that we covered in class that were about the female as a sexualized object.  Elizabeth Lee’s article on the Victorian Web, the Femme Fatale as Object, discusses the fascination with the female body that many male artists of the Victorian Era felt.  According to Jan Marsh, the femme fatale, a seductive and dangerous woman, became idealized to the point where they were “rendered decorative, depersonalized; they [became] passive figures rather than characters in a story or drama… women [were] reduced to an aesthetic arrangement of sexual parts, for male fantasies” (Lee 1).  In short, male artists feared the “sexual destructiveness” of the femme fatale and thus began to view their female human models as perfect, sexually attractive objects with a lack of a real identity.

I think that Elizabeth Lee’s article can be connected to the Fair Dreamer because the women of this image is similar to a female model that a male artist from the Victorian Era would desire.  As mentioned before, the body language of the woman is one of passiveness and sexuality.  Though she is fully clothed, she is still beautiful with an inviting posture and a tranquil/gentle expression on her face.  She is also asleep in nature, which further romanticizes the image and shows that she can be an example of a “femme fatale, whose dangerous sexual powers artists felt the need to reign in somehow to make her more palatable to Victorian audiences” (Lee 1).  By making her asleep, the artist has successfully quelled her “threatening” side.

In the image called Fannie’s Pets there is a fair young woman, dressed in white (of course!) surrounded by animals of the forest. These animals are charged with symbolism in the painting which contribute to the overall message or themes being portrayed to the audience, who at the time was Victorian society. Rabbits symbolize fertility and procreation, doves represent purity and religion (most likely Christianity or Catholicism), chickens are symbolic of fertility and motherhood, and the rest of the animals seem to also have to do with sexual desire and reproduction, especially the Peacock. And with all these animals that are vulnerable and easily preyed upon (including this new Woman in White), there is a man lurking in the forest, acting as predator to the woman who would be his sexual prey. The forest itself is symbolic of a dark, creepy, mysterious space where evil and predators lurk. The man is crouched in a dark, shady corner watching amazed as he sees this woman, ultimately a Snow White figure who seems to be luring him in with her purity and youthful fertility to bear more lurking sons in the future.

Here, the image signifies that on the surface, this woman looks like the ideal Victorian “Angel in the House” as Kathryn Hughes’ article Gender Roles in the Nineteenth Century puts it. However, the symbolism of the animals around her show her in a different light, as a sexual creature who has her own desires and sexual identity even though she is yet another Woman in White to add to our ever-growing collection and is ultimately the same as Laura Fairlie or the woman in the painting Health and Beauty, or insert-other-woman-in-white. This connects to Christina Rosetti’s poem in which she says these women being painted are “The same one meaning, neither more or less” and ultimately stripped of their individual identities because their purpose is to serve as sustenance and carnal pleasure for men. There is an under-layer of fetishizing the body of women as part of sexual fantasy such as Walter Hartright’s portrait of Laura that he keeps with him all the time or the imagery from Rosetti’s poem of a man who “feeds upon her face by day and night” as she is a feast for his eyes. In Fannie’s Pets, this woman serves as a feast for her predator’s eyes and most likely mouth as well.

Appearance also plays a major role in how women were perceived. In Judith Flander’s article Prostitution, “women who dressed or behaved in ways men considered inappropriate were deemed to be whores.” So, if their skirts were held up “just a little higher” than respectable women, they would be considered “streetwalkers” or prostitutes which is such an arbitrary and vague ( and all around ridiculously wrong) way of labeling women. Tying it back to Fannie and her pets, she is attracting a suitor because she is not defying the male patriarchal standards of what a woman should be (which is chaste, a virgin, and smart but not smarter than a man) at least with her physical appearance. She is dressed modestly and fully covered and dressed in the fairest of whites to represent her youth, fertility, and virginity.