{"id":1792,"date":"2021-11-01T20:07:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T20:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=1792"},"modified":"2021-11-01T20:07:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T20:07:53","slug":"a-man-who-thinks-he-knows-everything-havent-heard-that-one-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2021\/11\/01\/a-man-who-thinks-he-knows-everything-havent-heard-that-one-before\/","title":{"rendered":"A Man Who Thinks He Knows Everything?\u2014Haven’t Heard That One Before"},"content":{"rendered":"

In George Eliot\u2019s The Lifted Veil<\/em>, Latimer\u2019s obsession with knowledge seems to transcend the apparent moral of the story into a broader conversation about the role of women in Victorian society.<\/p>\n

Supposedly, this story (at least, according to Latimer) has a definitive lesson. He laments how, \u201c[he] thirsted for the unknown: the thirst is gone. O God, let [him] stay with the known, and be weary of it: [He is] content\u201d (Eliot 1). At first glance, this comment seems to preach against curiosity, but the novel takes this idea even further. In fact, Latimer\u2019s specific reference to \u201cthe unknown\u201d alludes to two situations. First, the comment harkens to the scientific (and pseudo-scientific) leaps of the Victorian era. This depiction of knowledge also appears later in the text, when Latimer notes how he \u201chad no desire to be this improved man,\u201d who \u201cknew the reason why water ran down-hill\u201d (Eliot 7). The very use of the word \u201cimproved\u201d in this context appears sarcastic, as if to make fun of both scientific curiosity and the people who pursue such knowledge. At a time period when society seemed hellbent on unveiling truth, the repeated attention to knowledge and specific types of knowing comes off as suspicious.<\/p>\n

It therefore comes as a great irony when Latimer later becomes engrossed in curiosity himself. For, besides alluding to Victorian science, his comment about the \u201cunknown\u201d literally refers to Bertha. She<\/em>, an English, Victorian, woman becomes the unknown. Latimer explains how (in oh, what loving terms) \u201c[s]he was my [his] oasis of mystery in the deary desert of knowledge\u201d (Eliot 18). Simply because he cannot know her like others, he becomes deeply entrenched trying to learn more and more about her. Latimer describes her as a \u201cmystery,\u201d because Bertha is, for him, something to solve. In this sense, Latimer does not fall in love with a person, but the idea of demystifying the woman of his fantasies. Yet as his use of the possessive \u201cmy\u201d indicate that he views Bertha as something to own. Only she can defy his insight, and because of this, he desperately craves to subdue her.<\/p>\n

Knowledge, and specifically un-knowledge becomes intertwined with the idea of Victorian women. At this point, it is worth reinforcing Latimer\u2019s role as an unreliable narrator. All his whining and sensitivity both become apart of and cloud the narrative. I mention this to highlight that Bertha, and by extension the Victorian woman, is only unknowable to Latimer. At the risk of removing some of the story\u2019s horror, this reading shows one way in which Eliot subverts Victorian patriarchy through writing. For, The Lifted Veil<\/em>, may be read as a desperate attempt from a Victorian man, who thinks he knows everything, to understand his wife (and failing miserably).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In George Eliot\u2019s The Lifted Veil, Latimer\u2019s obsession with knowledge seems to transcend the apparent moral of the story into a broader conversation about the role of women in Victorian society. Supposedly, this story (at least, according to Latimer) has a definitive lesson. He laments how, \u201c[he] thirsted for the unknown: the thirst is gone. … Continue reading A Man Who Thinks He Knows Everything?\u2014Haven’t Heard That One Before<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135983],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}