School of Arts and Media -

This is a good essay, with a lot of work in it. It argues about the issues, and it uses material from outside the module. Why isn't it excellent, then, instead of just good? Basically because there's too much in it, and the writer hasn't organised all her material enough - as a result, the essay doesn't get full value from all the excellent work in it, and often it mentions ideas in passing, without taking the time to discuss them fully. This is a common weakness, especially in good students.

Discuss the 'Fallen Woman' as a Familiar Feature of Victorian Writing

'Discuss'. This is one of the most common instruction-words in essay titles.

The introduction is strongly stated. It is framed by two general statements, one at the beginning and one at the end. In between, there's a lot of reference to a famous Victorian text, Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies. Calling this 'Ruskin's lecture' is not wrong, but the writer should take the time to be specific - Ruskin gave a lot of lectures, not just this one.

Victorian social conventions placed the female inside the male domain, a domestically cultivated flower rather than a wild one, uncontrollable and free to roam. Woman was idealised: the angel in the house, the wife complementing her husband, the helpmate of man. Social conditions offered the Victorian woman little in occupation so her aim in life was to secure a husband, succumbing to the political propaganda. As Foster states:

Because so much importance was attached to the roles of wifehood and motherhood, marriage was deemed the apotheosis of womanly fulfilment, alternatives to which were regarded as pitiable or unnatural.( Foster 1985: 6)

In this role of wife, woman's great function is to praise her husband and, in return, she shall be praised for ruling inside the home where she can be 'incapable of error' (Ruskin 1865: 149) In Ruskin's lecture his view is that a husband is a chivalric knight guarding his wife from the 'peril and trial' he encounters. For the 'noble' woman, her true place is in the home, an 'incorruptibly good household nun', praised for choosing 'self-renunciation' over 'self-development'(D'Amico 1992: 69). This could also be viewed as oppression. Rather than the female 'complementing' the male, she is oppressed by him, and the praise offered by Ruskin could be viewed as a weapon, lulling the female into a false consciousness, trapping her inside the home. For the Victorian woman, serving man's desire appears more important to serving her own. In these social conventions an unmarried woman, virginal, innocent and ignorant of sexual matters, is defined as pure, well situated for marriage. The woman not wishing this 'glorified' role of wifehood, while still wishing to express her sexuality and satisfy her desires, however, is deemed to have 'fallen' and is equated with a prostitute, 'a horrible spectre'(Dijkstra 1986: 13)

So far, the writer has written forcefully about Victorian beliefs about marriage, without making the connection between those beliefs and 'fallen women' quite clear. If this paragraph began by making that connection, all would be well. But it doesn't, and as a result it's a bit jerky. The reference to Holman Hunt's painting 'The Awakening Conscience' is good (in that the writer is bringing in material from outside the module) but it would be better if she discussed the painting more, rather than just mentioning it in passing. She might also attach a photocopy of the painting. This would get more out of it than she actually does.

Tess, Hetty and Ruth are 'fallen women'. To ascertain how they are represented in Victorian literature I will question the authorial intention of their creators. At one end of the spectrum they appear to liberate female sexuality, providing a voice for the silent scream within. At the other end, however, the heroines perish under the pen of their creators so, it could be argued, they reinforce the patriarchal ideology of the day by preventing the women's attempts to completely break free from man's dominance. This 'penning in' is also suggested by Hunt's painting The Awakening Conscience.

The next paragraph, like the last, jumps abruptly from the one before it. And it introduces some more new ideas. There is the idea of fairy-tale; then there is the reference to free indirect discourse in Eliot's Adam Bede. These are very good ideas, and they show that the writer is full of intelligence, has worked hard, and is very enthusiastic about what she is writing. But there is a downside - the writer isn't developing any of the ideas. Instead, she jumps to the next one. Again, she's not getting full value for the work she has done.

For Hardy and Gaskell, their eponymous heroines are Wordsworthian daughters of nature: Tess a 'picturesque country girl' (Tess 11), Ruth a lover of nature, finding relief in the open air and pleasure in the rain (Ruth 58) Their childlike innocence invokes fairytale themes: Tess naively taking in the strawberry as Snow White biting into the poisoned apple; Ruth meeting her Prince Charming at a ball. Hetty desires social advancement, her sexual desire expressed through her vanity and narcissism as she relishes the idea of being observed by Luke, Mr Craig and Adam Bede, who 'not much given to run after the lasses, could be made to turn red or pale any day by a word or a look from her.'(Adam Bede 97) Eliot appears to scorn and mock Hetty, the coquettish puss tempting Arthur with her 'long dewy lashes' and her vanity must not be fed by having 'her little noddle filled with the notion that she's a great beauty. Hetty's portrayal places her in a materialistic position with a desire for finery and adornment, Arthur, not Adam the required supplier. The free indirect discourse draws the reader in to the scene and Hetty's thoughts, for she delights in Arthur's presents. For Eliot, then, Hetty is the sinner Eve, ready to tempt Arthur and cause his downfall. Rather than showing assertiveness Eliot presents a deluded child-woman as the role of a woman is to be guided by intellectual man. Arthur, rather than 'misguiding' Hetty, is drawn into Hetty's web by her alluring sexuality, which she uses as a pathway to social improvement.

For the modern reader this is indicative of authors conforming to male conventions, Eliot 'excusing' Arthur for his unethical behaviour, adhering to the double standard morality. If women are placed in the 'correct' environment, the home for Ruskin, they can be protected and remain pure. Tess and Ruth are forced outside the home environment, the former by the death of a horse, the latter by Mrs Mason, so are vulnerable and unprotected from male pollutants.

The next paragraph is very energetic: it introduces some challenging critical ideas, and also brings in things as different as Freud and a technical linguistic point, a 'meronym'. This shows some very good work, but again, these different ideas are jumbled up too closely together. This essay is like a Catherine Wheel - it's throwing off sparks in all directions. This makes it interesting to read, but the writer isn't giving herself enough space to develop ideas rather than just mentioning them in passing.

Hardy shows an erotic fascination with Tess; she is his creation, her sexuality defined by him. Gilbert and Gubar argue that the male author in 'fathering' his text uses his pen as a metaphorical penis (Gilbert & Gubar 1979: 3) the connotations of pen also suggesting an imprisoning of Tess in the text. Unlike Eliot, Hardy does not allow Tess's thoughts to roam; she and her feelings are viewed in the eyes of others. Hardy's language suggests he desires Tess as much as the male protagonists. His representation of Tess is doubly voyeuristic as the reader is invited to watch Angel gazing at her, Hardy's use of meronyms placing Tess in both a passionate and a passive role: 'he saw the red interior of her mouth ... she had stretched one arm so high ... he could see its satin delicacy ... her eyelids hung heavy over their pupils' (Tess 148). Meronyms are also used in Chapter 14 where Hardy portrays a cinematic view of Tess, arguably for the male audience, Tess the object of sexual desire. From 'this morning the eye returns...' Hardy seems to build up tension, subjecting Tess to a 'controlling and curious gaze', Freud naming this action scopophilia (Mulvey 1998: 557). Hardy could be viewed as promoting the interests of men, exploiting Tess for 'homosocial desire'(Sedgwick 1998), collectively dominating her. Even though Tess never courts attention she 'seduces' it; her name is the climactic event: 'It is Tess Durbeyfield'. This domination is supported by Alec's treatment of her. The reader is led to believe that Tess is a victim but is also shown her passion so is aware of female sexuality.

Ruth is by far the most innocent with no mother to guide her and neglected by Mason. If Tess is to be credited with knowledge of sexual matters, Ruth is not. Her attraction to Bellingham is an unconscious one; she watches him dancing with interest but she has no idea of the association of the camellia received from him. She believes its beauty causes her to tend it carefully not the fact that Bellingham has given it to her. She is given alluring qualities as she winds in and out between luxuriant, overgrown shrubs, 'careless of watching eyes' but her innocence is never far away as she is 'unconscious of their existence'. Ruth is a naive heroine who does not recognise her own sexual desire, an orphan who equates with Wordsworth's Lucy, a feeling, loving heroine, knowing she is pretty only because people have told her so. She has a natural impulse to taste the glory of the outside world, having been an inmate at Mason's establishment for five months. Bellingham, struck by Ruth's innocence, wishes to 'tame' her in the way he 'tamed the timid fawns in his mother's park'(Ruth 31). Ruth possesses no knowledge of sexual matters and Tess, rather than being conscious of sex, shares this ignorance: 'How could I be expected to know ... there was danger in menfolk? Why didn't you warn me? (Tess 72). For the Victorians, sexual desire was a dangerous symptom of original sin and girls were protected from it by 'a conspiracy of silence' (Stoneman 1987: 103), all three female characters victims of absent or negligent maternal figures and ignorant of their own sexual nature, their sexuality repressed by society's laws.

Another sudden jump to the next paragraph, and Tilt and Acton are brought in without any explanation of who they were or why they are relevant.. The material in the paragraph is actually very relevant indeed, and at first the writer ties it tightly to the text. Then the connection loosens - there should be more reminders of the Tilt-Acton debate later in this long section. Consistently, this writer is bringing in material from other modules, and from her own research. This is very admirable. Unfortunately, she is also dealing with the new material in a rushed way.

Edward Tilt sympathised with woman's conflict between passion and duty, viewing female desire as 'analogous to male' (Matus 1995: 44), stating music and mental inactivity pampered those desires. William Acton, however, insisted on a difference between male and female desire. In Functions and Disorders he compares female sexuality to the animal world, citing the wincing pain of a female cat to suggest 'female distaste throughout nature for the sexual act' (Matus 1995: 45). If Acton's view is followed Tess is violated only if she displays no sexual desire; she can remain a pure woman, faithfully presented. Alternatively, if Tilt's view is followed, Hardy liberates female sexuality, showing Tess as a willing participant in her first sexual encounter. To the Victorian mind, a virtuous woman might submit reluctantly to her husband's sexual advances, only the 'fallen' woman finding actual pleasure in sex. Tess is deposited in an ambiguous position by Hardy's language. Like Hetty, she could be a willing participant, wearing a thin muslin dress on a chilly night, her falling into reverie on a pile of leaves a precursor to her 'fall' with Alec. Lying on her back in sylvan surroundings she could be waiting for sexual fulfilment as suggested by Arthur Hacker's wood nymphs in his painting Leaf Drift. Tess, as a person, is invisible, so the sexual act itself is ambiguous, Hardy unsure how to label Tess. As Laura Claridge states:

It is as if the possibility that Tess is raped protects her from the position of having engaged in 'liberated' sex, as if the idea of free choice might sully her important purity (Claridge 1993)

The reader is aware, albeit implicitly, of Tess' 'fall', but for Hetty and Ruth, their conceptions appear to be 'immaculate'; Ruth's child Leonard described as 'a mysterious holy child'. As they 'fall' unknowingly the female authors appear to evade the problem of female desire, Gaskell instead focusing on placing Ruth in a situation of respectability. Eliot's treatment of Hetty after the 'act', however, seems to deny her that attribute. Hetty is a social outcast, alienated, frantically trying to locate Arthur in the false hope that she can secure marriage, wandering in despair, contemplating suicide, her life 'as full of dread as death'. The authorial tone of the narrator is quite emphatic: Hetty is to be blamed for her foolish sin and the reader is to be encouraged not to emulate her. Hardy seems to offer Tess the highest degree of female sexuality, allowing her to take control of her emotions but, although she forgives Angel his indiscretion he cannot forgive her in return, Hardy highlighting the double standard of Victorian morality. Earlier in the plot Tess, the sexual predator, creeps towards Angel 'stealthily as a cat ... cracking snails'. Returning to Tilt's view the music of Angel's harp could be seen to excite her desires. She closes in on Angel but ensures her presence is hidden from him, the 'gaze' now subverted. Alternatively Hardy could be erotically gratifying his male reader, the 'juicy grass' sending up 'mists of pollen at a touch', while the transitivity keeps Tess in a subordinate role. She is languid, part of a heady summer evening; her eyes had been dazed by Alec, now her ears are dazed by the harmony and the atmosphere. Yet Hardy seems unable to allow Tess to survive; along with Eliot and Gaskell he ends his creation's life.

The next paragraph is strongly stated, and brings the argument towards its end very well. There's a slight indication that the writer is a bit nervous about the power of her own argument - 'It could be argued..' rather weakens what she says.

Ruth's innocence and Tess' ambiguity free them from 'cheapening paradise', but Hetty has 'made a brute' of Arthur, and this representation of femininity conforms to the conventions of the day, Eliot satisfying the reading public and the ideological stance. The female protagonists symbolise victimisation by male exploitation, their authors highlighting the injustice of double standard morality. If authors have authority over their work one could expect them to write freely about controversial subjects. Eliot, using a male pseudonym and Gaskell refusing to have her novel in her house, suggest their authority was limited. It would seem likely that Eliot, due to her unorthodox liaison with Lewes, would exhibit unconventionality, but Hetty is placed in the conventional role of 'fallen' woman. It could be argued that Tess' Ruth's and Hetty's desires are repressed, the authors sacrificing the inner feelings of woman to satisfy an ideological moral law. Female passion has been revealed but then concealed by the evasion of the actual sexual act and the consequent deaths of the heroines, suggesting Hardy, Gaskell and Eliot are denying female sexuality. Historically, Ruth inspired Josephine Butler to campaign against the Contagious Diseases Act, in an attempt to protect the female body (Barreca 1990) and socially Hardy, Eliot and Gaskell have highlighted the need for change. Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, its beauty for all to see, Tess, Ruth and Hetty are allowed to 'free' their sexuality, but they are only allotted the three days' existence of the butterfly. It could be argued, under the metaphorical penis of patriarchy, the authors have silenced Woman, have left her screaming within.

The conclusion is strongly argued. The reference to Munch's The Scream works quite well, though it's another new idea. There's another new idea too, in the suggestion that every 'fallen' woman has to have an 'angel' counterpart. This is a powerful and interesting idea. Nothing wrong with new ideas, but the conclusion is not the place to bring them up for the first time. 'Conscious' is a slip for 'consciousness'.

To conclude, the Victorian woman can no longer be framed; the boundaries have been blurred. The 'pure' woman has deviated from the conventional norm; she can no longer be defined. It could be believed, however, the inner conscious of Woman has been revealed, rather like Munch's The Scream which displays, unmistakably, male figures in the background and a depersonalised, sexless, tormented figure in the foreground. This figure, I suggest, is both Woman and the authors, afraid of the power of female sexuality. This could suggest why each 'fallen' woman has to leave an 'angel' behind, in the forms of Jemima, Dinah and Liza-Lu. On a positive point, the authors have planted the seed for Women's Rights Movements, such as the Suffragettes, to follow, and, for the Victorian female reader, the encouragement to fight for liberation and an end to male dominated society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Acton, W Functions and Disorders in Matus, J. Unstable Bodies, Manchester UP Manchester 1995

Barreca, R (ed) Sex and Death in Victorian Literature Macmillan, London 1990

Claridge, L 'A Less Than Pure Woman Ambivalently Presented' in Widdowson, P. (ed) Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Contemporary Critical Essays Macmillan, London 1993

D'Amico, D 'Equal Before God' in Harrison A & Taylor B. Gender and Discourse Illinois UP, Chicago 1992

Dijkstra, B. The Idols of Perversity Oxford UP, Oxford 1986

Eliot, G. Adam Bede, Penguin, London 1985

Foster, S. Victorian Woman's Fiction Croom Helm, London 1985 Gaskell, E. Ruth Penguin, London 1997

Genesis 2:20 Gilbert, S. & Gubar, S. The Madwoman in the Attic Yale UP 1979

Hardy, T. Tess of the d'Urbervilles Wordsworth Ed, Herts 1993

Matus, J. Unstable Bodies Manchester UP, Manchester 1995

Mulvey, L. 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' in Rivkin, J. & Ryan, M. Literary Theory Blackwell, Oxford 1998

Reed, J. Victorian Conventions Ohio UP 1975

Ruskin, J. 'Of Queens' Gardens' in Sesame and Lilies London 1865

Schor, H. 'Ruth' in Bareca op.cit.

Sedgwick, E. 'Between Men' in Rivkin & Ryan op.cit.

Stoneman, P. Elizabeth Gaskell Harvester, London 1987

Wardlaw, R in Matus op.cit.

What makes this essay so good (but not excellent)?

This has all the potential for a really outstanding essay - let's run through the good points: there's a lot of work in it, and the writer shows that she knows the material which is on the module very well, and that she can find and use material of her own too. It's very strongly argued - the writer always has something to say. The writer deals with the topic in a properly broad way - she deals with three novels, one of which isn't on the module. It's full of ideas; there's a lot of good, perceptive discussion of the novels; it's quite well written, though a lot of the sentences are too long; it has a substantial, and up-to-date, Bibliography

And the 'But'...

There's really only one mistake, but it's a serious and persistent one. As I've said in the comments during the essay, the writer jumps from one idea to another much too quickly. Ideas are briefly mentioned and then dropped in favour of the next one. This isn't quite the writer putting down all she knows about the topic, but it's not so far off either. As a result, the essay doesn't seem to have a clear structure. It's possible to say that the 'angel' idea at the end connects with the discussion of orthodox Victorian ideas about 'pure' women at the beginning, but the readers have to make that connection for themselves - the writer doesn't make it clear. It's important, especially in a long essay like this one, to 'signpost' the argument - to keep telling the reader where we are in the argument and how the different parts of the essay connect with each other. This writer doesn't do this.

I would guess that the essay was written in rather a hurry, and as a result it is too close to the early 'brainstorming' stage. When you start to prepare an essay, writing down everything you can think of, and collecting as much material as you can, is the right thing to do. This is called 'brainstorming'. When you've done this, then is the time to start planning in a more selective way. You choose what to leave out, and what to keep in and develop. When you develop an idea in some detail, you make it more convincing, and you get full value from it in marks. You'll find more on brainstorming, signposting, and other elements of planning an essay, in the site.

The essay was used by kind permission of its author


	Essay with Problems