Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Christopher wrote: "Darcy wrote: "Chris, what a great experience! I hope the house had a widow's walk ;)

Scott, I've been thinking about your question all day. This would be my list of topics that either a.) were lar..."

In Middlemarch, George Eliot has some of her characters go through divorce. And there is Rosamond's miscarriage when she rode the horse and she was not supposed to. Though I am curious if the publisher ever told her to tone down certain parts of the book, so then we have the present version.

As in many of things 'Victorian', its seems there is 'taboo' areas but then it doesn't really seem to stop completely those who want to touch on those areas. Maybe it is merely that in Victorian times there is a struggle against those subjects but the struggle never really over rides people's curiosity and willingness to read on the subjects.

Christopher wrote: "Darcy wrote: "Chris, I don't think you and I actually disagree too much on this. I was talking more about Wharton's thematic concerns rather than her prose style. Certainly Wharton wrote a wide-ran..."

Chris, was the conference a part of a group you are involved with or something you had just found out about? I like those types of things. I am curious to find something around where I am, not sure if I will be able to though. Though on a different subject, my Dad just joined a group that meets to discuss and visit areas of historic significance in southern California. I think its local or something.

[warning--spoiler alert: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, No Name, The Woman in White, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]

Hmm, well, I'm not trying to say that these topics weren't ever mentioned at all; they were. But I would say two things about them: 1.) these issues are not generally discussed as systemic, structural problems in Victorian society (in the same way that Dickens discusses, for example, the prison system) and 2.) when they do occur, they are almost always projected onto a lower class--that is, they rarely occur to middle-class, upper middle, or wealthy characters/protagonists. Tess is actually a really good example of this. The book was published very late (1891), but even then initial reviews of it were fairly mixed, especially of the rape scene. I think Hardy envisioned it as a rape and I read it as a rape, but many Victorians did not. Margaret Oliphant, for example, refers to it as Tess' "early stain," and another reviewer claimed Hardy waved Tess' sexuality in the reader's face too persistently. Most damning, Alec is repeatedly referred to as Tess' "seducer," rather than her rapist (such as the reviewer who claims "Tess yields a second time to the importunities of her first and now doubly repulsive seducer" [my italics:]). Hardy may have written a rape scene (although this has been debated since the book first emerged), but by and large the rape was either a.) glossed over entirely or b.) treated as though Tess were complicit in her own downfall, rather than a victim. For me, then, the issue of rape being taboo comes not necessarily from an author's unwillingness to write about it, as much as the public's unwillingness to acknowledge it once it appears. This is doubly so in Tess because this is a scene of rape in which a wealthy young man violates a milkmaid. This is not a scene in which a wealthy young man rapes a wealthy or middle-class young lady. The issue of young men being unable to abide by a stated code of ethics, then, gets pushed onto their behavior towards the lower classes, not their behavior towards women of their own class. And that's largely because for Victorians, a woman couldn't be raped by her husband. The problem of Tess' purity, for many reviewers and within the novel itself, is not Tess' pre-marital sex (or even her pregnancy), but the fact that she marries up socially and doesn't tell her new husband about her sexual history. Sadly, it was this element, and not the rape scene, that scandalized Victorian readers.

As for addiction or abuse--well, I think that even Collins (who was fairly radical about these sorts of things, even openly maintaining for years two households) has difficulty in writing a novel in which addiction or abuse become the sustained critique of a plot involving middle-class characters. Yes, Magdalen begins as a wealthy heiress and is clearly upper-class. But the time during which she becomes addicted to laudanum is the exact period in which she slips into classlessness, both because of her profession as an actress and because of her status as legally possessing no name. In fact, I'd argue that Collins got away with discussing such things as addiction or abuse (of the type that occurs in, say, The Woman in White) precisely because his stories were so sensationalized that they were difficult to read as realistic critiques of middle-class Victorians. And besides which, even the abuse Laura suffers in White becomes not a criticism of her attitudes towards her role as a wife, but of a legal system that doesn't grant her individual status under the law. The same traits that make her a good wife to Sir Percival, after all, are the same traits Walter likes so much. Collins isn't criticizing domestic abuse, in short, as a systemic problem related to gender inequality, so much as an isolated problem pertaining largely to an illegitimate villain who can't control himself properly. Domestic abuse, then, is a failure of the individual (and can be corrected by other individuals), not a failure of the domestic system.

This post is already way too long, so I'll just add two things. I completely agree with you about Anne Bronte--one of the reasons I think Tenant is such an interesting novel is that it does provide a sustained critique of how alcoholism was destructive and perpetuated among middle-class families and communities. But that kind of tackling of an uncomfortable topic is pretty uncommon. And I'd love to know how Tenant was received in the press.

The last thing I'll say is that I agree with you about war being largely absent, but I'd actually take it off the list entirely. Not because of Tennyson so much, although I think that's a great poem about the tragedies of war, but simply because it wasn't really taboo. The absence of war narratives strikes me as being due simply to the absence of British wars, not because Victorians didn't want to talk about it.

One last thing--I thought of another thing to add to the list, Scott: toilets ;)

Darcy wrote: "[warning--spoiler alert: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, No Name, The Woman in White, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]

Hmm, well, I'm not trying to say that these topics weren't ever mentioned at all; they..."

Darcy, fabulous job you've done here; and I completely agree with all of your points! [See, once again, we really are saying the same thing1 ;-):] I want you to know that I very much appreciate all of the research, and the thought and care you put into this response; it was an absolute delight to read. We truly are kindred spirits on this stuff! Have a wonderful long weekend, and I'll see you here and about on GR! Cheers! Chris

Scott wrote: "Christopher wrote: "Darcy wrote: "Chris, I don't think you and I actually disagree too much on this. I was talking more about Wharton's thematic concerns rather than her prose style. Certainly Whar..."

Scott, the conference I attend is through the Edith Wharton Society. Usually, they meet every two years; but typically get together at MLA or ALA conferences on the out years. It is way cool, and I love attending. More later. Cheers! Chris

[See, once again, we really are saying the same thing1 ;-):]

lol--yeah. Most of our "disagreements" I think are mostly due to the nature of short posts, which aren't quite expansive enough to get at some of these larger concepts. Ah well . . . who wants to read essays in forums, right? ;)

Scott and Chris, you both might already know about Dickens Universe, but if not I highly recommend it. It's a week long stay at UC Santa Cruz. The conference is fairly unique because the primary goal is to bring together academics and non-academics who are interested in Dickens. Each year a different Dickens novel is chosen, various scholars give lectures each day, people hold a number of events (including group seminars and Victorian dancing/tea parties), and everyone basically lives Dickens for a week. It's about as nerdy and fun as Dickens gets. You can find out , in case it sounds at all interesting.

Have a great weekend!