The Importance Of Sexuality In 'Miss Milner'

Amy Garnai finds Miss Milner “as the embodiment of an exuberant, libertarian impulse towards female freedom and independence”. It is this exuberance that signifies a vital sexuality that constantly bewilders and intrigues Dorriforth. For example, on the second day of her acquaintance with him, she tells him frankly, “‘I expected to find you an elderly man, and a plain man.’ This was spoken in an artless manner, but in a tone which obviously declared she thought her guardian young and handsome.” Miss Milner’s active sexual desire has a physicality to it that is always expressed in bodily reactions such as her blushes, trembling and smiles when she sees Dorriforth. This is quite progressive because according to Vivien Jones, “The concern of

Her active sexuality is threatening to him and his inability to control her stems from not being able to completely understand her. Miss Milner uses her sexuality to gain power but at the same times wishes for Dorriforth to discard his ideals of femininity such as Miss Fenton and to accept her with all her flaws. She is aware that bending Dorriforth to will is an act of swaying the balance of power in her favour. This is particularly important to her in the moment where she is his fiancée because she realizes it is the only time where she can have the freedom she so desperately requires before she once again becomes subsumed in the submission position of a wife (earlier as a ward she was also required to acknowledge his authority). As she tells Miss Woodley, "As my guardian, I certainly did obey him; and I could obey him as a husband; but as a lover, I will not." Her rebellion against dominant authority springs from a belief in her own right to freedom. This thus is the driving motive behind all her rebellion and thus any curtailment for her is repulsive because she realizes it emphasizes her powerless