Category: Spring 2015

Alice in Wonderland is a fanciful tale about a girl who dreams about falling down a rabbit hole into a magical realm of nonsense and curiosities (because to say wonder seems to nondescript). Once there, she encounters many situations in which standard phrases in which readers may think themselves familiar until they are re-imagined with different social interpretations or meanings. The constantly changing nature of social meaning through language instills in readers the opportunity, if not the obligation, to be more liberal in their interpretations and understandings of social situations and questions.

Language in Alice asks readers to become aware of their own social preconceptions through the use of seemingly familiar phrases and the presentation of opposing interpretations. Alice is told to “take some more tea,” during tea time with the March Hare, Mad Hatter, and the Doormouse, to which she replies that she’s had none yet, therefore, cannot take more. The Hatter refutes the point by stating, “You mean you can’t take less… it’s very easy to take more than nothing.” In this instance, we see Alice’s conception of more and less and the Hatter’s. Alice interprets “more” as adding to an already existing value (a previous cup of tea) while the Hatter presumes that zero is a reasonable value on which to start adding more tea. There is a social judgment placed on the interaction by both Alice and the Hatter yet the text does not seem to take sides in order to guide a reader towards the “correct” assumption. Rather, the text seems to ask the reader to consider their own understanding of the situation. Which interpretation is more familiar, which is more reasonable, or if both are reasonable, how does it change a reader’s concept of what is being asked of them? If the reader agrees more with the Hatter they may begin to question their sanity. If they agree with Alice perhaps they might question their adulthood. No matter which character they agree with the reader must reflect upon the effectiveness of the question itself.

The language in Alice in Wonderland plays with the variety of means a word or phrase can have, depending on the manner in which a person chooses to interpret it. Interpretation can stem from many sources such as learned social cues and a standardization of linguistic patterning. However, when the aforementioned expectations change or become ambiguous misunderstandings abound. This post will investigate briefly the effectiveness of Alice in Wonderland as a text that exposes readers’ social preconceptions and their ability or inability to adapt in an environment with different or changing expectations.

Texts written for children often have clearly defined morals that children are supposed to understand by the time the tale has concluded. However, these deceivingly clear-cut messages are often convoluted with more sinister warnings. In “Goblin Market,” Christina Rossetti ends her poem with a tidy saying about the value of sisters, diverting the attention from the dangerous, foreign men who prey on innocent young women. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland similarly describes the happiness of childhood at the conclusion, which moves the reader away from the anxiety of ignorance placing a child in danger. The simplified morals in these texts illustrate the complex desire of adults to simultaneously warn children of danger but prevent them from becoming too fearful of life.

The deeper meaning of “Goblin Market” is interwoven into the final stanza. The role of becoming a mother provides the women with a defined role, but it causes their hearts to be “beset with fears” and to reflect on “not-returning time” (488). The fear arises from their worry for their children and from the realization that they are growing old. Despite their romanticized perceptions of their “pleasant days” of childhood, the “haunted” and “wicked” events in the market-place are true and frightening (488). Lizzie stood in “deadly peril” to save Laura; there is nothing “pleasant” about that circumstance. Therefore, the clear moral denies children access to the more important messages about avoiding dangerous situations, especially those connected to sexual endeavors.

The final chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland also draws all of the disastrous elements of Alice’s adventure into a positive message about enjoying one’s dreams while one can still access her imagination. Alice believes that she had a “wonderful dream,” which is then replayed in a condensed form in her older sister’s daydream (102). After the sister’s rationalization about everything that occurred in the vision, her sister thinks about how Alice will “keep…the simple and loving heart and her childhood” through her adult years (104). Though this seems like a lovely attribute, Alice’s childhood mind is filled with ignorance, disrespect, and simplicity. These attributes prevent her from sympathizing with others and keep her extremely close-minded. Through the emphasis on the joys of childhood at the conclusion, the narrator forces children into believing Alice’s tale was wonderfully positive.

The narrators of “Goblin Market” and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland each conclude with the hope that these tales will be passed on from generation to generation. These texts create two binaries that cause tension in the texts based on this form of storytelling. The first is the natural occurrence of maturing into adulthood while still maintaining access to the memories of childhood. The second is the relationship between the stories parents tell their children and what these stories actually teach. These parental anxieties are one of the driving forces of “Goblin Market” and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Without the focus on a young audience, these texts could have very different, and less happy, endings.

In the Victorian Web’s article, “The Femme Fetale As Object” by Elizabeth Brown, she describes the portrayal of these Victorian women in artwork. In many paintings, women aren’t shown in their true form, but rather versions of themselves with altered proportions. For example, women would be shown with a more elongated spine or longer legs, so they were not always anatomically correct in their portraits. Through these alterations, these women were reduced to a version of themselves based mostly on “pleasing arrangements of shapes and light.” (Brown). The idea of a woman being dismembered in such a fashion reminded me of Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess.” The speaker in the poem doesn’t refer to the duchess as an entity, but rather reduces her to her features, and talks specifically about parts of her, but never describes the entire painting. Through the freedom of artists to alter their paintings to idealize proportions, the woman is not only anatomically incorrect, but her value and individuality are diminished.

The first line in “My Last Duchess” that struck me was when the speaker took note specifically of Fra Pandolf’s hands. By switching the subject of the sentence from the artist to his hands, it dehumanizes him and reduces his creativeness to the tools of his creation-his hands. This is consistent with his descriptions of the duchess, as he goes on to describe the way she blushes. He doesn’t say the word blush, however, which connotes charm and modesty. Instead, the word he uses to describe the flush in her cheeks is “spot.” A “spot of joy” was not a positive description to me as a reader. Instead, it made me think of a stain or something unwanted and undesirable. He does not describe the rest of her face or ever discuss the description of her image as a whole, but he does talk about her mouth and her “smiles” that she wears too often in his opinion. He expresses here his distaste in her flirtatious nature, and his jealousy and unpleasant demeanor become evident. The “femme fatale” is often defined as “a very attractive woman who causes trouble or unhappiness for the men who become involved with her,” which is consistent with the description of the duchess and the husband that survived her.

The imagery present in “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning is fragmented and oftentimes focuses only on specific snippets of images. I found the parallel of the style in which Victorian women were painted and the structure of this poem to be really interesting. The idea of using fragmented parts to create a more appealing whole is consistent in both mediums.

In “Goblin Market” by Christina Rosetti, there are several allusions to female sexuality, even though historically it is a tale about sisterly love. The numerous references to fruit and flowers, to me, served as a metaphor for sexuality and a loss of virginity. Specifically, in the passage where the maidens refer to Jeanie, whose demise serves as the cautionary tale steering the women away from the goblin merchants, I felt as though there were several blatant hints at sex or repeated sexual encounters. The women say, “Do you not remember Jeanie,/How she met them in the moonlight,/ Took their gifts both choice and many,/ Ate their fruits and wore their flowers/ Plucked from bowers/ Where summer ripens at all hours.” (147-152). The choice of words, and the structure of this passage is what made it stand out the most to me in its references to a potential sexual relationship with Jeanie and the goblin men.

The first word that stood out to me here was “moonlight.” I found it interesting that a young woman was going to a market that sells fruit in the nighttime, instead of during the day. The moon is also a repeating image in the poem, as it has several connections with danger and temptation. It is also interesting to note that after Laura eats the goblin fruit in the moonlight, she becomes in sync with the moon’s changing phases. She starts to “dwindle” when the moon changes out of its full phase. The moon and the nighttime are often associated with danger and the unknown, and, since Lizzie and Laura are Victorian women, they have been advised to stay out of anything that causes potential harm or could lead them to lost purity. The theme of purity and its importance was highlighted for me in the fourth and fifth lines of the passage I chose, where Jeanie “Ate their fruits and wore their flowers/ Plucked from bowers.” Here, the use of “fruit” and “flowers” together in a line suggested to me the image of the female reproductive system. A flower is delicate and pure, and the following line “plucked from bowers” suggests that the purity is no longer there and significant. Since a woman’s bowers are her private room or bedroom, I felt as though this line meant that her purity was plucked from her through sexual acts.

Even though the poem “Goblin Market” contains a powerful anecdote of sisterly love, I think through the excessive sexual imagery and the violence of the men towards Lizzie later in the poem, it suggests a darker theme. In the passage introducing Jeanie, I felt as though the words chosen were very deliberate, and allowed the reader to see the sexual undertones present.

   I have chosen to write about the musical version of The Woman in White by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel. Although I was unable to find the entire musical online, I was able to find bits and pieces, as well as read the summary, reception, and more. Putting aside the fact that the writers had to edit out many parts of the novel in order for the musical to be of acceptable length, I want to address what main parts they did leave out, as well as what the writers changed. First, the entire storyline regarding Pesca’s history with Walter, as well as his involvement with Fosco’s demise is completely omitted. More importantly, Fosco’s death does not even exist in the musical. This lessens Fosco’s involvement in his and Glyde’s manipulation of Laura and Marian, as well as his involvement in the entire storyline as a whole. Second, Glyde’s secret is completely altered. Instead of being a bastard child, it is revealed that he had raped Anne and then drowned the child that was created from the act. This creates Glyde to be more despicable than ever, because there is practically nothing more terrible than killing children in the eyes of the public. These two substantial changes portray Glyde as the true villain in this interpretation instead of Fosco.

   This causes a decreasing importance of Fosco’s character, as well as depicts him as less dishonorable than his character in the novel. Perhaps the sole purpose of these deletions and adjustments were simply to shorten the story, but most likely they were also to simplify it. It appears that having two antagonists, one obvious but the other more subtle, is too complicated for a modern audience. Back in the Victorian era, people were expected to know others’ names without asking, as well as memorize family trees and ties of those around them. These social expectations are no longer in place for our generation, but even so, what does that say about society today if we can’t even keep a storyline of a classic novel the same for our own convenience?

The portrayal of the nameless lady in Christina Rossetti’s poem In an Artist’s Studio evokes, in many ways, Laura’s representation in the Woman in White. These two female figures are, in fact, similarly objectified and described as the center of male desires and of their own projections.

Portrayed differently in each painting, as “a queen in opal or ruby dress”, “a nameless girl”, “a saint” or “an angel” (Rossetti 5,6,7), the woman of Rossetti’s poem has been completely deprived of her real identity in order to become a mere reflection of the painter’s desires. This description seems to match almost perfectly Laura’s in Collins’ novel. The last verse of the poem, in fact, could be easily referred to her character, since Walter shapes Laura in the same way the painter depicts his lady: “not as she is, but as she fills his dream” (Rossetti 14).

Walter’s objectification of Laura, although veiled, can be seen since the beginning of the novel, when on their first meeting he describes a water colour drawing he made of her instead of describing her directly. Walter therefore portrays Laura as he sees her and as he wants her to be, while the real Laura is silenced. A perfect example of how he makes Laura “even more hazy and less individualized” (Donaghy, 393) can be seen a few pages later when he says “think of her as you thought of the first woman who quickened the pulses within you that the rest of her sex had no art to stir…Take her as a visionary nursling of your own fancy; and she will grow upon you, all the more clearly, as the living woman who dwells in mine” (Collins, 52). Laura is here generalized and her emptiness of character is seen as necessary, since she functions as a center of projection of the other characters’ desires.

Therefore, the two figures of Laura and of the nameless woman in Rossetti’s poem, seem almost to overlap, as both their identities, although in different ways, have been completely annihilated by a male figure. In fact, both the painter, through his work, and Walter, through his actions and narration, objectify the two women whose role is merely reduced to “a blank to be filled by male desire” (Donaghy, 393).

She cried, “Laura,” up the garden,

“Did you miss me?

Come and kiss me.

Never mind my bruises,

Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices

Squeez’d from goblin fruits for you,

Goblin pulp and goblin dew.

Eat me, drink me, love me;

Laura, make much of me;

For your sake I have braved the glen

And had to do with goblin merchant men.”

“Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti, lines 468-474

    In Christina Rossetti’s poem, “Goblin Market,” she interprets sisterly love. On the surface, the poem tells the story of Lizzie and Laura’s strong bond of sisterhood and how it conquers anything. However, just below lies the sexual language shared between the two characters. After getting covered in fruit juice, Lizzie runs home and begs her sister to drink it off of her body so that she may hopefully be satisfied. “Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices / eat me, drink me, love me” (Rossetti 468, 71). Here, Lizzie lists all the different ways Lizzie could attain the fruit juice from off of her body. These action verbs are very demanding, giving off a sense of desperation. Lizzie, desperate to save her sister’s well-being, demands that Laura drink. This idea that Lizzie would do anything for her sister is what children are supposed to learn from this poem. However, the language Rossetti uses is overtly sexual. Because of this sexual language, readers get the idea that perhaps Lizzie and Laura cross the line between sisters and lovers. Due to earlier language—as well as the subject matter of the poem in general—about forbidden fruit, a famous tale from the Bible comes to mind. These Biblical themes include sin, and, if lovers, Lizzie and Laura would be breaking multiple rules. Incest, pre-marital sex, as well as sex with the same gender are all considered sins. This theme of blurring the line between sisters and lovers is common among Victorian literature. Perhaps this says something about this particular time period’s desires, repressed so much by popular culture that they think about taking them out on other close members of their lives.

“If there ever comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.” Matthew Arnold

The image displayed above is a snapshot of a larger painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti that illustrates a bride and her four bridesmaids.  The painting is probably most famous for its exoticism, but for the purpose of this post I will be focusing on the two women above.

Throughout many of our texts, sisterly bonds prove to be very powerful and withstanding of all outside pressures and evils.  Our first duo, Laura and Marian, are so intimate that Carolyn Dever writes, “the union of Laura and Marian is […] a union based on emotional depth, mutual trust, and the presumption of permanence” (114).  In spite of Sir Percival’s plot to embezzle their family fortune and install Laura into an asylum in lieu of her phenotypical twin, the sisterly bond between these two half sisters maintains its resilience throughout the Woman in White.

More recently in the course we’ve been introduced to a new couple of sisters, Laura and Lizzie.  In her poem “Goblin Market,” Christina G. Rossetti describes the two, “like two pigeons in one nest” and “two blossoms on one stem” (478, 6, 2-5).  And in the face of “the haunted glen,/The wicked, quaint fruit merchant men” the women survive a near death.  And in its sum, the last few lines of the poem praise the strength of sisterly bonds: “‘For there is no friend like a sister/In calm or stormy weather;/To cheer one on the tedious way,/ to fetch one if one goes astray,/To lift one if one totters down,/To strengthen whilst one stands’ (488, 26, 21-26).

If we return to the painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the bride and her closest bridesmaid, most likely her sister, seem like a particularly potent pair.  There is a clear sexual tension present and both the women make bold eye contact with the gaze of their audience, suggesting their fearlessness.  But if you examine the two women separately:

their individual expressions maintain the innocence and purity of the ideal Victorian woman seen in many of the paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite artists.

And so it appears that the company of another woman or a group of women is what gives them their power.  This is something that Matthew Arnold clearly understood and I think it is also an underlying fear, perhaps, of other Victorian authors and painters.  For both pairs, Laura and Marian and Laura and Lizzie, possess a virtue, competence, and strength that suggests “a force such as the world has never known.”

 

 

The femme fatale is beautiful and powerful—and constantly oppressed. She is viewed as dangerous and because of this is tamed in a variety of ways. As Laura Mulvey argues in her article “The Femme Fatale as an Object”, one of the many ways in which the femme fatale is weakened is through representation in art. She explains that the painted woman has been reduced to “a type of formula of rotund pieces of flesh, hair and facial features. They weren’t portraying individual women, but an idealized composite of recognizable parts”(citation). This argument comes to life in a handful of Victorian works, a good example being Manet’s famous “Olympia”.

This piece is one of many works of art that depict the woman as an object to gaze at and admire. Like Mulvey argues, she is not an individual but an idealized woman. Her tiny feet, daintily covered genital area, stylized breasts, and outward gaze are all details that turn our subject into an object of male pleasure as opposed to a powerful sexual figure. Although the powerful sexual woman in art is elusive, she does in fact exist. Moreau’s “The Apparition” is a perfect example of the unrestrained femme fatale.

Unlike the vulnerable naked figure in the previous piece (and so many others), this woman is not vulnerable in the slightest. She is both naked and powerful—using her own sexuality to her advantage. This piece tells the story of Salome (the woman) who danced so beautifully and sensuously she was granted anything she desired, which happened to be the head of John the Baptist. Salome is sensuous, powerful, and quite obviously dangerous. She is the femme fatale unchecked.

Salome is the free femme fatale for two main reasons. First of all, she stands out. The entire painting focuses on her and her victim. In artworks that repress the femme fatale, the woman is objectified and stripped of her own identity. Salome’s possession of her own name is the possession of her own identity. She is not another woman to look at and gaze upon but a woman to revere. But you couldn’t gaze into her eyes even if you desired to. The objectified femme fatale cannot consent to give her gaze to others for it is always on display at the leisure of the man. But Salome is turned away, almost as if she is dismissing those trying to gaze upon her.

Salome is the reason why the femme fatale is oppressed, restricted and objectified. She wields the unchecked sexual power than men are so afraid of…and maybe this fear is for good reason. Who knows whose head she’ll want next.

In his essay Why Are Women Redundant? William Rathbone Gregg discusses what he saw as a great problem facing the Victorian age: Single women.  Single, working women were not fulfilling their womanly duties, (to be married to men and care for the home and children) and instead were wasting their lives working and remaining unmarried.

“There are hundreds of thousands of women…who, in place of completing, sweetening, and embellishing the existence of others, are compelled to lead an independent and incomplete existence of their own….In great cities, thousands, again, are toiling in the ill-paid métier of sempstresses and needlewomen, wasting life and soul, gathering the scantiest subsistence, and surrounded by the most overpowering and insidious temptations” (Gregg, 158).

This particular quote from Gregg’s article brought to mind the poem The Lady of Shalott by Lord Alfred Tennyson, specifically the first stanza of the second section of the poem.

In the first stanza we are told that, “No time hath she to sport and play:/ A charmed web she weaves alway.” (II. 37-38). Here we are introduced to the Lady of Shalott in a similar manner to how Gregg describes the single women; She is alone (single) and spends her days working with no time to  do anything else for her own enjoyment and with little in return. Similar to these single, working women, the Lady of Shalott is also surrounded by temptation. “A curse is on her, if she stay/ Her weaving, either night or day,/ To look down to Camelot” (II. 39-41). I believe that this line takes what Gregg is saying a step further, and that while the temptations are present, it is indulging in them that would lead to a single woman’s end, (and similarly the Lady of Shalott). Additionally, because later in the poem the Lady of Shalott does give into temptation, single women cannot be trusted to have the strength of will to stay away from such dangerous temptations.

What I interpreted the repercussions to be for giving into these temptations is that the woman becomes unmarriable, and just like the Lady of Shalott they are doomed to die alone as a single woman. In a way, this poem can be viewed as a warning to single women, that they must marry to avoid this terrible fate the Lady of Shalott was left to.