{"id":314,"date":"2015-02-20T13:23:01","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T13:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=314"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:51:38","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:51:38","slug":"the-redundant-woman-the-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/02\/20\/the-redundant-woman-the-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Redundant Woman: The Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that we have reached the end of The Woman in White<\/em>, I see Walter and Laura\u2019s relationship in a completely different light.\u00a0 At one point I found his sentimental asides about Laura to be tender and affectionate.\u00a0 But upon taking another look, they seem more cringe-worthy than anything.\u00a0 This passage in particular is a perfect example:<\/p>\n

\u201cThink 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\u2026Take 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\u201d (52).<\/em><\/p>\n

Laura Fairlie has been generalized.\u00a0 Walter has molded her into this blank relatable figure in which everyone can use to reflect their own experiences.\u00a0 As we have discussed as a class, Laura Fairlie, for her entire existence in novel, serves as an empty vessel in which characters see their own desires.\u00a0 Walter does not change this.\u00a0 In fact, he perpetuates it. She serves as a gateway to wealth and property for Sir Percival.\u00a0 And for Walter she is no different.\u00a0 The artist sees Laura as a blank canvas to paint and color however he pleases.<\/p>\n

At one point, Walter describes \u201cthe water-colour drawing [he] made of Laura Fairlie\u201d decorating his desk (51).\u00a0 He describes her as a \u201clight, youthful figure\u201d whose \u201chair is so faint and a pale a brown\u2014not flaxen, and yet almost as light; not golden, and yet almost as glossy\u2014that is nearly melts here and there, into the shadow of the hat\u201d (51).\u00a0 The Laura that is being described to us isn\u2019t Laura the person, but rather the Laura that Walter sees her as and wants her to be\u2014Laura the decoration.\u00a0 She is light, and faint.\u00a0 Like her hair color, she is there but not quite.\u00a0 She is even being described from a painting\u2014Walter\u2019s painting.\u00a0 She is not real.<\/p>\n

This excerpt is clearly written from after the events of the novel have occurred at an \u201cafter period\u201d when Laura and Walter are married and living at Limmeridge, so why describe a painting of Laura when he could have looked at her actual person?\u00a0 Because to Walter, she exists as an embodiment of the perfect wife\u2014he doesn\u2019t want<\/em> to see her as a real person. Walter explicitly states in the main passage above that Laura \u201cdwells\u201d in his \u201cfancy\u201d (52).\u00a0 The person he wants her to be exists in his imagination only.\u00a0 The real Laura is repressed.<\/p>\n

William Rathbone Greg argued adamantly for the marriage of all women.\u00a0 His problem was with the \u201credundant woman\u201d\u2014the unmarried woman who could do what she wanted.\u00a0 The redundant woman could earn money, forgo the \u201cnatural duties\u201d of womanhood, and speak her mind.\u00a0 Marriage was the solution.\u00a0 Marriage tethered women to men, eradicated them of their own identity, and turned them into a reproductive machines.\u00a0 Laura is Greg\u2019s ideal married woman.\u00a0 She has effectively been silenced and repressed by her marriage\u2014reduced to a watercolor painting adorning her husband\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that we have reached the end of The Woman in White, I see Walter and Laura\u2019s relationship in a completely different light.\u00a0 At one point I found his sentimental asides about Laura to be tender and affectionate.\u00a0 But upon taking another look, they seem more cringe-worthy than anything.\u00a0 This passage in particular is a … Continue reading The Redundant Woman: The Solution<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,108029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-spring-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","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\/2619"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}