Lady Chatterley's Lover
The greatness of Lady Chatterley's Lover lies in a paradox: it is simultaneously progressive and reactionary, modern and Victorian. It looks backwards towards a Victorian stylistic formality, and it seems to anticipate the social morality of the late 20th century in its frank engagement with explicit subject matter and profanity. One might say of the novel that it is formally and thematically conservative, but methodologically radical.
The easiest of these assertions to prove is that Lady Chatterley's Lover is "formally conservative." By this I mean that there are few evident differences between the form of Lady Chatterley's Lover and the form of the high-Victorian novels written fifty years earlier: in terms of structure; in terms of narrative voice; in terms of diction, with the exception of a very few "profane" words. It is important to remember that Lady Chatterley's Lover was written towards the end of the 1920s, a decade which had seen extensive literary experimentation. The 1920s opened with the publishing of the formally radical novel Ulysses, which set the stage for important technical innovations in literary art: it made extensive use of the stream-of-consciousness form; it condensed all of its action into a single 24-hour span; it employed any number of voices and narrative perspectives. Lady Chatterley's Lover acts in many ways as if the 1920s, and indeed the entire modernist literary movement, had never happened. The structure of the novel is conventional, tracing a small group of characters over an extended period of time in a single place. The rather preachy narrator usually speaks with the familiar third-person omniscience of the Victorian novel. And the characters tend towards flatness, towards representing a type, rather than speaking in their own voices and developing real three-dimensional personalities.
But surely, if Lady Chatterley's Lover is "formally conservative," it can hardly be called "thematically conservative"! After all, this is a novel that raised censorious hackles across the English-speaking world. It is a novel that liberally employs profanity, that more-or-less graphically--graphically, that is, for the 1920s: it is important not to evaluate the novel by the standards of profanity and graphic sexuality that have become prevalent at the turn of the 21st century--describes sex and orgasm, and whose central message is the idea that sexual freedom and sensuality are far more important, more authentic and meaningful, than the intellectual life. So what can I mean by calling Lady Chatterley's Lover, a famously controversial novel, "thematically conservative"?
In her article “‘But is it any good?’: Evaluating Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Fiction,” Susan Harris provides methods and criteria for examining Women’s Fiction in what she calls “process analysis” (45). To apply Harris’ guidelines to Catherine Maria Sedgwick’s A New England Tale, I must first “acknowledge the ideological basis of [my] endeavor” (45) as a feminist/equalitist critique of the text. Furthermore, I identify the three-fold approach that Harris describes as historical, in distinguishing early nineteenth-century from mid- to late-century attitudes, rhetorical, in labeling Sedgwick’s communication to readers didactic, and ideological, by understanding my objections stem from twenty-first-century attitudes. Harris also explains, “If we look at them as both reactive and creative…we can understand [texts’] aesthetic, moral, and political values” (45); I consider A New England Tale to have a sentimental aesthetic, a Christian morality, and a support of female subordination.
In the 18th century, reading novels served as a pass time and a diversion from household chores for the women. Though formal female education is not developed, the female characters are seen having a keen interest in books, something that was earlier frowned upon for the sentimental content of books might be destructive to societal values. At the time, books were meant to teach and reflect upon the socially acceptable ideas of romance, courtship, and marriage. We find Miss Wharton asking for books to read from her friend Mrs. Lucy Sumner, “Send me some new books; not such, however, as will require much attention. Let them be plays or novels, or anything else that will amuse and extort a smile.” (Foster, 192) Mrs. Sumner sends her novels which she considers “chaste and of a lighter reading” (Foster, 196). We can thus construe that books and novels in The Coquette though meant for reading pleasure, also play form part of the female
The sensational novel is usually a tale of our own times. Proximity is indeed one great element of sensation. A tale which aims to electrify the nerves of the reader is never thoroughly effective unless the scene be laid out in our own days and among the people we are in the habit of meeting. In keeping with mid-Victorian themes, Lady Audley’s Secret is closely connected to the street literature and newspaper accounts of real crimes. The crimes in Braddon’s novel are concealed and secret. Like the crimes committed by respected doctors and trusted ladies, the crimes in Lady Audley’s Secret shock because of their unexpectedness. Crime in the melodrama of the fifties and sixties is chilling, because of the implication that dishonesty and violence surround innocent people. A veneer of virtue coats ambitious conniving at respectability. Lady Audley’s Secret concludes with a triumph of good over evil, but at the same time suggests unsettlingly that this victory occurs so satisfyingly only in melodramas (Kalikoff, 9...
... a piece of literature written in the romanticism age than the neo-classicism age. The books are very different from each other, and both use their respective literary definitions to show the reader the relevance to the time frame in which it was written. All in all, both of the conclusions were appropriate and expected, each finding an answer to the long struggle with their problems. Romanticism literature offers more to the reader: more detail, more emotion, and a more clear, concise dilemma that could relate to readers more than neo-classicism.
Wolfson, Susan and Peter Manning (eds.). The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. Volume 2A. New York: Longman, 1999.
Jane Austen completes her story with a “Cinderella ending” of Catherine and Henry marrying. However, her novel is more than a fairytale ending. Although often wrong and misguided in their judgments, she shows the supremacy of males that permeated throughout her society. Jane Austen takes us from a portrayal of men as rude, self-centered, and opinionate to uncaring, demanding, and lying to downright ruthless, hurtful, and evil. John Thorpe’s and General Tilney’s total disregard for others feelings and their villainous ways prove Austen’s point. Whether reading Northanger Abbey for the happy ending or the moral lesson, this novel has much to offer.
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
...Piercy badgers the reader with Comstock's view of women (mostly in the descriptions of his dutiful wife and obedient daughter) to illustrate his sexism, however, the belabored point begins to fall flat and instead leaves the character feeling one-dimensional. Likewise, even men initially introduced to the reader as pro-feminist, like Theodore Tilton, meet with a predictable sexist ending. These men were no doubt chosen to embody the patriarchal society of then and today, but the unyielding portrayal began to feel overwhelmingly oppressive (perhaps her intent) and a novel so based in realism, on that point, began to feel contrived, therefore unrealistic. Nevertheless, Piercy compares and contrasts the experiences of the characters', offering them up to the reader, perhaps in hope that similarities can be identified and a feminist dialogue can be started or continued.
At the start of the novel, Eliza Haywood places her protagonist in a very interesting, unique position, with regards to society of the time. The nameless main character is first illustrated in a playhouse, observing the interactions of the strangers around her. She notices a prostitute, surrounded by a swarm of men. “She could not help testifying her contempt of men who...threw away their time in such a manner, to some Ladies...the greater was her wonder, that men, some of whom she knew were accounted to have wit, should have tastes for very depraved” (257-258.) “Fantomina”, as she later comes to be called, oversees all of this. Haywood seems to put her above this crowd of men and prostitutes, while she observes and makes judgments on the nature of their behaviors. She expresses that she is disgusted by the mindlessness of the men in this situation. One might argue that this depicts a reversal of gender roles. Typically, men would look at women in this way, and the male character wo...
I shall endeavour to explore and analyse how women are presented in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and Duffy’s “Human Interest”.
In literature, both new and old, one of the most popular themes is love. Many novels, poems, and short stories explore this theme in every imaginable way. Henry James’s Washington Square and Steve Martin’s Shopgirl are worthy additions to this timeless tradition. The twist for these two novels is that both heroine’s, Catherine in Washington Square and Mirabelle in Shopgirl, fall for men that do not love them in return. At least the ladies’ love is not returned in the manner they expect. The novels were written more than a century apart. Thus the dialogue, settings, and characters are different, but the central theme of unrequited love is present in both novels.
In my personal reference, Romanticism is a kind of literature from the eighteenth century that put its focus on nature and imaginative ideals. The Romantic Movement was a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. This movement consisted of many changes in society during the eighteenth century and it went against the ideals of urban environments that were popping up all around during this time by focussing on nature. The Romantic features that are seen in the book The Scarlet Letter are the ideals of individualism and truth, and not falling into society’s ways and judgements. This book was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the year 1850. This book was about Hester Prynne, a woman living in Boston, who commits a sin in her Puritan community. Hester is an adulterer, who sleeps with the town’s Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester admits to this adultery and has her child Pearl, but Dimmesdale hides in the shadows to live a life full of guilt and suffering. Little does he know, this suffering will be made worse and worse by Roger Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, who befriends him. Out of all of the characters in this book, Hester Prynne reflects the ideals of Romanticism the best.
Jane Austen is known for the use of free indirect discourse in her works. She uses this, along with vivid language to critique the social values of society during the feminist movement. One of her most famous works in which she uses both free indirect discourse and vivid language is Pride and Prejudice. Within Pride and Prejudice, Austen uses many different scenes to portray her thoughts on the social values of her era, but some of them do not contribute to the work as a whole. The social values of men, women, and the reasons for marriage are revealed in Pride and Prejudice in the scene of the Meryton ball and provide a direct connection to the theme of the hazards of first impressions.
As previously stated, Austen was a keen observer of the society she lived in, this fact is prominent in everything she writes, she once said in a letter to her niece, “Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony” (Letters). This topic is addressed in Pride and Prejudice with the marriage between Charlotte and Mr. Collins. Mr. Collins was not by any standards a good man, “...conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man” (Austen 122). But, as it happened Charlotte had to marry him because of societal standards, she could not refuse because her family was not very wealthy and she was leaving the age of high marriage potential, this was Charlotte’s only option. Austen called attention to this because it was a common thing at the time, women forced into unhappy marriages because of societal pressures (Rothman). Further, Austen employed a high class voice in this piece especially. Austen demonstrated many events in her novels that surround what the female gentry can relate, she also wrote in a way that the gentry class spoke. This voice is very important to Austen when it comes to her audience receiving the underlying message of feminism because the more the gentry women can relate to the piece, the more likely they are into the underlying feminism (Tucker 515). Finally, Austen’s
It is the aim of this piece to consider how two elements are developed in the opening chapters of three classic novels written by 19th century English women: Emma, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre, respectively. The elements to be considered are a) character; and b) character relationships. Consideration will be given to see how each opening chapter develops these two aspects, and the various approaches will be compared and contrasted as well.