{"id":2098,"date":"2025-02-20T23:33:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T23:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=2098"},"modified":"2025-02-21T00:16:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T00:16:57","slug":"baronet-baronight-portraying-poverty-in-the-woman-in-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2025\/02\/20\/baronet-baronight-portraying-poverty-in-the-woman-in-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Baronet, Baronight: Portraying Poverty in “The Woman in White”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0When Walter Hartright visits Old Welmingham, he meets the impoverished settlers still inhabiting the ruinous village. The town is littered with the bones of \u201cempty houses;\u201d some are \u201cdismantled,\u201d while others are \u201cleft to decay with time\u201d (495). In a few dilapidated cottages, some inhabitants, \u201cevidently of the poorest class,\u201d struggle to survive on the most meager supplies (495). As a man of good heart, Walter pities such a \u201cdreary scene\u201d (495).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0After a fire breaks out \u201cin the vestry of Old Welmingham church,\u201d Walter is forced to turn to the destitute villagers for aid (495). At first glance, Collins characterizes these \u201chaggard men and terrified women\u201d in a harsh manner (517). For instance, none of the villagers seem willing to help Walter rescue Sir Percival until he offers them \u201c[f]ive shillings apiece\u201d (517). Their desperate \u201chunger for money\u201d is the only thing that can rouse \u201cthem into tumult and activity\u201d (517). This paints them as greedy and selfish. Moreover, they show little regard for Sir Percival\u2019s life as they cheer with \u201cshrill starveling voices\u201d (518). Poverty has altered the villagers on a fundamental level; even their voices show signs of their indigence. Their morals have been similarly corrupted. They rejoice at another man\u2019s imminent death if it means they get a few measly coins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Still, Collins cannot help but extol the virtues of a simple life. Walter acknowledges that the villagers\u2019 \u201chunger for money\u201d is only the \u201csecond hunger of poverty\u201d (517). First and foremost, the villagers are desperate for food. Their inappropriate behavior, then, can be explained away by their starvation. The shocking appearance of the village is also reframed in a positive light. Though the village presents \u201ca dreary scene,\u201d Old Welmingham is \u201cnot so dreary as the modern town\u201d of New Welmingham, repellingly overcrowded (495). In Walter\u2019s estimation, even \u201cthe ruins of Palestine\u201d cannot rival the \u201cmodern gloom\u201d of an English suburb (483). The villagers, then, embody a nostalgic return to a simpler, more pastoral way of life in England. Most importantly, the villagers\u2014prelapsarian in their ignorance\u2014have not been corrupted by a lust for status. In the hubbub of village gossip, the villagers speculate on Sir Percival\u2019s rank. \u201cSir means Knight,\u201d one resident remarks (520). \u201cAnd Baronight, too,\u201d another replies uncertainly (520). By using the term \u201cBaronight,\u201d Collins emphasizes his sharp critique of the gentry\u2019s laughable vanity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The use of the nonce word \u201cbaronight\u201d appears in other great classics of English literature, from Frances Burney\u2019s <\/span>Camilla <\/span><\/i>(1796)<\/span> to Mary Elizabeth Braddon\u2019s <\/span>Fenton\u2019s Quest <\/span><\/i>(1871)<\/span>. <\/span><\/i>Most famously, a servant in Jane Austen\u2019s <\/span>Persuasion <\/span><\/i>(1817) mistakenly refers to William Elliot as a prospective \u201cbaronight\u201d (154). This, of course, is a great insult to the vain members of the Elliot family. How dare the working class not respect their superiors? As editor Robert Morrison points out, the servant\u2019s \u201cmalapropic combination of \u2018baronet\u2019 and \u2018knight\u2019…indicate[s] his indifference to the gradations of rank\u201d (154). Critic Juliet McMaster argues that the term \u201cbaronight\u201d suggests that \u201cbeing a baronet can be a somewhat benighted condition\u201d (116). In other words, the lower classes of England do not understand or care to understand what a baronet is or does. Is power still considered power if those underneath you are unaware of it or fail to respect it?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0This same question can apply to <\/span>The Woman in White. <\/span><\/i>Sir Percival Glyde spends his entire life protecting his title as a baronet. He commits a capital crime to maintain his rank, and he dies trying to cover his tracks. In Austen, such an obsession with the Baronetage \u201cis made not only comic but contemptible\u201d (McMaster 116). The same can be said of Collins\u2019s characterization of Sir Percival. When none of the villagers remember Sir Percival for being a baronet, the reader cannot help but scorn, pity, and laugh at the dead nobleman simultaneously. By trivializing Sir Percival\u2019s title, Collins implicitly suggests that rank is superfluous. It is better to be poor and honest than a lying man of status and wealth. While on earth, Collins argues, we must lead lives worthy of salvation, whether we are rich or poor. If we fall into the fires of hell, we all become \u201cdust and ashes\u201d just the same (517).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Austen, Jane. <\/span>Persuasion<\/span><\/i>, edited by Robert Morrison, Harvard University Press, <\/span>2011.<\/span><\/p>\n

Collins, Wilkie. <\/span>The Woman in White. <\/span><\/i>Penguin Classics, 2003.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McMaster, Juliet. \u201cClass.\u201d <\/span>The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen<\/span><\/i>, edited by <\/span>Edward <\/span>Copeland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 115-130.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0When Walter Hartright visits Old Welmingham, he meets the impoverished settlers still inhabiting the ruinous village. The town is littered with the bones of \u201cempty houses;\u201d some are \u201cdismantled,\u201d while others are \u201cleft to decay with time\u201d (495). In a few dilapidated cottages, some inhabitants, \u201cevidently of the poorest class,\u201d struggle to survive … Continue reading Baronet, Baronight: Portraying Poverty in “The Woman in White”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135984],"tags":[136000,136002,135998,135997,135996,135999,136001,111386,111388,111393],"class_list":["post-2098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-posts","tag-baronet","tag-jane-austen","tag-nostalgia","tag-pastoralism","tag-poverty","tag-rank","tag-sir-percival-glyde","tag-the-woman-in-white","tag-walter-hartright","tag-wilkie-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098","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\/5596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}