{"id":2305,"date":"2025-04-06T18:42:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T18:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2025-04-06T18:42:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T18:42:36","slug":"when-perfection-still-isnt-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2025\/04\/06\/when-perfection-still-isnt-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"When Perfection Still Isn’t Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Illman brothers distributed many images of ideal femininity to the reading public, such as \u201cHealth and Beauty.\u201d A glowing, conventionalized woman pauses as she descends a veranda staircase. She is surrounded by classicized architectural elements like the doric column and classical male busts receding into trees and a da\"\"<\/a>rk skyline. Nonetheless, both she and her dress reflect light, if not seem to be the source of light (there seems to be some suggestion of an antithetical back lighting as well). Her dress style is closer to an earlier Regency fashion, indicating idealization of past femininity. Though she is supposed to be moving, the only movement in this engraving is the suggested wind moving her ribbons \u2013 her dress folds are perfectly arranged behind her, and she is balanced on her left toe with a perpetually bent knee. The image gives the illusion of her choice to leave the structure, but she does not seem compelled to continue walking \u2013 trancelike, she remains safe in the illuminated territory. She is a time-transcendent stand in for the title\u2019s allegory – contained, suspended and submissive. She communicates that there is only one way to embody such desirable traits: a surrender of identity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though she is the paragon of classicized femininity, there is also the joint suggestion there is also a temptation to keep looking when women exercise individuality. In Mona Caird\u2019s \u201cThe Yellow Drawing Room\u201d the unnamed narrator toggles between viewing Clara and Vanora:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy ideal woman would consider it almost indelicate to play with words in this fantastic fashion. I glanced at my grey-blue goddess. How comfortably certain one felt with <\/span>her<\/span><\/i> of enjoying conversational repose! Dear Clara! With what admirable good taste she carried out one\u2019s cherished ideas: she fitted them like a glove. I completely, ardently approved of Clara. To her I rather ostentatiously devoted myself for the rest of the afternoon, but I was furtively watching her sister\u201d (Caird 105).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The narrator condemns Vanora\u2019s linguistic \u201cplay\u201d by using the word as a diminutive, then claps back with the precise alliterative phrase \u201cfantastic fashion\u201d to show his outward disdain for the action. But it is also important to note that he calls it, \u201c<\/span>almost<\/span><\/i> indelicate\u201d – there is a certain amount of personality that is negotiable here. <\/span>\u201cMy<\/span><\/i> ideal woman\u201d is also \u201c<\/span>my<\/span><\/i> blue-grey goddess,\u201d a possessive phrase which allows him to express \u201cone\u2019s\u201d (his) \u201ccherished ideas.\u201d But then, in the next sentence, the narrator uses\u00a0an Austenian anticlimax to describe his feelings toward this ideal woman: \u201cI completely, ardently <\/span>approved<\/span><\/i> of Clara.\u201d She is the textbook woman, she makes one \u201ccomfortably certain\u201d (in which we can see man and wife in the dual consonant but different \u201cc\u201d sounds), she fits the model perfectly \u201clike a glove.\u201d And yet, she is only worthy of a \u201cglance,\u201d and a patronizing, \u201cDear Clara!\u201d – his \u201cblue-grey goddess,\u201d like the color, <\/span>bores<\/span><\/i> him. Even when \u201cdevoted\u201d to her, the narrator can gather all this information in that same \u201cglance,\u201d while he is\u00a0\u201cfurtively watching\u201d the more interesting subject: Vanora. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In both the print and story, there is a dissonance between performed and fugitive identity: the external identity is policed, accepted and honored, and there is no attempt to understand the personality behind the performance, and when a genuine personality is presented, it is shown\u00a0back into the idealized box. Like the Illman Brother\u2019s woman\u2019s ribbons, a woman is supposed to be moved, not move for herself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Caird, Mona. \u201cThe Yellow Drawing Room.\u201d <\/span>Dreams, Visions and Realities: An Anthology of <\/span><\/i> Short Stories by Turn-of-the-Century Women Writers<\/span><\/i>, London, International Publishing, <\/span> 2003, pp. 104-110.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Illman Brothers. \u201cHealth and Beauty.\u201d <\/span>The Trout Gallery Archives<\/span><\/i>, https:\/\/collections.t<\/span>routgallery.org\/objects-1\/infoquery=mfs%20all%20%22illman%22&sort=0&page=13. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Illman brothers distributed many images of ideal femininity to the reading public, such as \u201cHealth and Beauty.\u201d A glowing, conventionalized woman pauses as she descends a veranda staircase. She is surrounded by classicized architectural elements like the doric column and classical male busts receding into trees and a dark skyline. Nonetheless, both she and … Continue reading When Perfection Still Isn’t Enough<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4758,"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-2305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305","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\/4758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}