{"id":2104,"date":"2025-02-21T00:11:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T00:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2025-02-21T00:11:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T00:11:24","slug":"mrs-catherick-as-a-religious-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2025\/02\/21\/mrs-catherick-as-a-religious-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Mrs. Catherick as a “Religious” Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Hartwright first enters Mrs. Catherick\u2019s house, he describes that \u201cOn the largest table, in the middle of the room, stood a smart Bible, placed exactly in the center\u201d (484). This large size of this bible and its placement in the center of the room on a special table implies that it has intentionally been set up in order to be as noticeable as possible. Further, Mrs. Catherick brings up this bible when she feels Hartwright has insulted her reputation, saying \u201cIs your mother alive? Has she got a better Bible on her table than I have got on mine?\u201d (488). By emphasizing her bible in this context, Mrs. Catherick uses her supposed faith as a way of defending her reputation. She specifically depicts herself as being more religious than other women by comparing herself to Hartwright\u2019s mother. Through her claim that she is a more religious woman because of the quality and size of her bible, Collins implies that a person is often judged more on the showiness and appearance of their religious beliefs rather than their actual faith and morals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, Mrs. Catherick actually strays from most Christian ideals. She is incredibly selfish and cares little for other people other than herself, hardly even showing any care for her daughter\u2019s death (she just puts on black mittens– a performative action). Her taking Anne away from Mrs. Clements even demonstrates a more active type of wickedness (her sole motivation being a whim of jealousy). Her desire for Sir Percival\u2019s gifts indicate that she is very greedy and materially motivated. She is depicted to be very sensual, both in appearance and in her actions (her affair). Her betrayal of her marriage (not just to any man, but to a clergyman) emphasizes her betrayal of the church and its teachings. Interestingly, Hartwright also describes Mrs. Catherick\u2019s hatred with serpent-like language (\u201cserpent-hatred,\u201d \u201clurking reptile\u201d), evoking images of the original biblical, sinful woman, Eve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through Mrs. Catherick\u2019s immorality (but presentation as a religious woman), Collins suggests that religion is often used performatively to enhance one\u2019s reputation, and can be treated as just another societally constructed way to judge people (especially women).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Hartwright first enters Mrs. Catherick\u2019s house, he describes that \u201cOn the largest table, in the middle of the room, stood a smart Bible, placed exactly in the center\u201d (484). This large size of this bible and its placement in the center of the room on a special table implies that it has intentionally been … Continue reading Mrs. Catherick as a “Religious” Woman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5595,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135984],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","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\/5595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}