The Use Of The Themes Of Innocence In Fingersmith By Sarah Waters - Assignment Example

THE USE OF THE THEMES OF INNOCENCE AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE NOVEL “FINGERSMITH” BY SARAH WATERS By Location Introduction The book “Fingersmith” by Sarah Waters is a novel about Sue Trinder, a girl who became an orphan at birth and grew up among thieves. The girl was brought up by Mrs. Sucksby in a rough but caring way. Sues fate, however, from the moment she was born was with another orphan that was growing up in a lonely mansion. The novel has received several acclamations as the most suspenseful work of Waters. It is full of twists and turns with a solid narrative structure and setting in Victorian England. The two heroines, Susan, and Maud, are to change their identities in a double-cross. The essay aims to explore the themes of innocence and knowledge as portrayed in the novel. Body Innocence Sue Trinder has grown up innocent and is trained to be a maid. She does not have a good appearance as she grew up humble thus her appearance gets decorated, and her manner corrected. Trinder has to recite and rehearse her duties as the maid to the mistress. However, Trinder has a portrayal of unrestraint, innocence and easiness because of her background of hustling to survive on Lant Street. She is in a maid’s outfit that clearly brings out her innocence. Trinder is, however, unable to hide from what she uses to at home, a place that stinks of beer and meat every day. She finds her new environment relaxing, and she does not understand that kind of lifestyle. There are many slips in Trinder’s performance as a maid, and they refer to nothing but her spontaneous body that is fond of London’s lower class atmosphere and style (Waters 2011). There is an assumption by Trinder’s mistress that she is innocent fundamentally from her maid outfit and how she is carrying herself out at the mansion. There is a conman by the name Gentleman that goes to Lant Street in search of Trinder. He convinces the young, innocent girl to become his accomplice in a scam that is to defraud a young heiress of her fortune. The plan is to dispose of the young heiress by committing her to a madhouse. Sue feels that it is a cruel trick to play on someone, particularly a young girl that is innocent and unsuspecting. She, however, agrees to play her role in defrauding Maud for a promised share of the heiress fortune (Kobayashi 2006). She does this as she believes her share will change her life and the life of her guardian Mrs. Sucksby. Trinder does not however know that Gentleman is also planning to defraud her if the plan succeeds. She is innocent and trusts the man too much ever to think of him defrauding her. There is also a plot in the mansion as Richard and Maud have a plan to trick Trinder. Trinder is caught up between two plots by different people. Richard sends Trinder to be the new maid of Maud, who have a striking resemblance to her. Due to the two young women’s resemblance, Richard and Maud are determined that they will trick Sue into helping them in their plans to win Mauds freedom and to win Richard half of Mauds heiress fortune. Maud in the scheme, pretends to be innocent and offers kindness to Sue, as well as pretends to have a love for Richard. However, in the process of all these plans, Maud innocently grows to fall in love with Sue in ways she did not anticipate. She also grows to fear Richard. Maud, however, has a desire for freedom that she needs to overcome the love for Sue and fear of Richard whose marriage has not had consummation. Gentleman and Sue together make a temporary home in a cottage, telling Maud they are waiting for an order regarding their affairs in London. The process gets Gentleman to make plans together with a reluctant Sue for Maud to go to an asylum for the insane. Maud’s health does not help the matter as she is wearing off from the shock of leaving Briar. Trinder is caught off guard as Gentleman sends doctors to apprehend her when they get to the asylum. Maud is innocent and doesn’t understand what is going on and Sue, who thought she was clever get conned by Gentleman. "That bitch knew everything. She had been in on it from the start" (Waters 2011 p. 173). These are words Sue’s words as she gets betrayed by Gentleman. Trinder sends Charles a letter saying how Maud deceived her. Sue is convinced that Maud is guilty and goes to confront her with rage. Mrs. Sucksby knows the truth, but decides not to do anything, instead tries to calm Sue. Maud is innocent of all these accusations. The scuffle that ensues leads to the death of a Gentleman and Mrs. Sucksby has to confess to the murder when the police get involved in the case. Mrs. Sucksby is sorry for deceiving the two girls, and she confesses to the killing of a Gentleman: "Lord knows, Im sorry for it now, but I done it. And these girls here are innocent girls and know nothing at all about it, and have harmed no-one" (Waters 2011 p. 416). There is another aspect of innocence as Sue tries to put on a dress for the first time, and it doesn’t fit her perfectly. Her body does not get used to the cut of the dress (Krugovoy 2002). Her innocence in the adoration of the dress shows as she gently touches its texture and design: “And it was excellent velvet. I stood, plucking at the fringes of the skirt” (Waters 2011 p. 108). The excitement makes Sue and her mistress Maud get busy dressing and undressing on the elegant clothes. Sue’s life in the mansion causes her body to assimilate naturally into a lady’s maid’s life (Spooner 2007). Trinder’s hands change from coarse to soft, her skin also turns from rough to delicate, and her dress code from plain to respectable. Sue’s performance as a mistress, without her knowledge, comes, in secret, to form the whole scheme of the trick (Waters 2011). Knowledge Sue Trinder, as well as Mrs. Sucksby and Gentleman, have the knowledge of everything that is going on in the mansion. Gentleman knows perfectly well that Maud is innocent in trying to put Sue into an asylum but takes it as a joke. He does not see the rage in Sue as she storms to go confront Maud for her actions. Trinder, unaware of Mrs. Sucksby knowledge, tells her everything about the plot. Mrs. Sucksby pretends not to know anything, and despite Mrs. Sucksbys continuous attempts to calm her, Sue swears she will kill Maud for what she has done to her. Sue is intelligent as she manages to escape from the asylum that Gentleman placed her in so as to get all the fortune (Boehm 2011). A gentleman arrives in the room, and though he is initially shocked at Sues ingenious escape, begins to tell Sue while laughing how Mrs. Sucksby played her for a fool. Maud sees the rage in Sue and physically tries to stop him because she knows the truth would devastate Sue. Everyone in the room has the knowledge concerning the plot and all the deception except for Sue Trinder. She feels sorry that she is the only one who does not the truth about the whole ordeal. We see Maud act in an intelligent way as she tries to stop Gentleman from telling the truth in a hurtful way (Waters 2011). The actions also state how Maud loves Sue in a much deeper way as she does not want to see her feelings get hurt. The whole scenario, unfortunately, ends with the death of Gentleman. Sue Trinder is a girl that comes from the Borough, a place where nobody had lessons on how to behave or learn anything about life. The neighborhood was rough, and there was no school. Sue ended up being exactly like a girl from the Borough (Seajay 2006). Her speech and values are as bad as those of the people that were part of her growing up. She, however, knows a thing or two about love and care as Mrs. Sucksby protected her from being part of the ‘prig and treated her with unusual kindness. Mrs. Sucksby, however, has knowledge of her daughter Maud and does all these for selfish reasons. Her reason was so that Sue can be taken to the madhouse and to release her biological daughter Maud. The knowledge of the news shocks sue beyond measure as she cannot believe Mrs. Sucksby was part of her betrayal (Seajay 2006). There is knowledge almost at the end of the novel that all the fortune after all was for Sue and not for Maud, who has been enjoying the privileges. The knowledge of her fortune luckily does not change Sue as a person. She does not become elite and feeling a sense of entitlement on learning that her real name is Susan Lilly. She remains a poor girl who grew up among thieves, but sheltered by Mrs. Sucksby in many ways, more than Maud. She has privileges as she is more used to kindness and less used to pain, and she is a loyal person no matter her upbringing. The disruptive force of experience, in “Fingersmith”, is not nature, but more experience (Seajay 2006). It is also not family relationships between the characters, but the sexual attraction between the characters that begins to break the patterns and the plot imposed upon Sue and Maud. Sue and Maud both catch themselves in schemes from villains whose interest is to take the fortune from either of the two (Langland 2005). The girls do not have any knowledge of the above and are ignorant of the enticers real motives. Neither Sue nor Maud is innocent literally, but both are innocent of the schemes that surround them. They get manipulation from Gentleman according to plan, but the plan does not include their feelings for each other. The two are, in the feminist sense, objects who through the desire they have for each other, transform themselves into subjects. The love between the two closes any gap and thus disrupts all the schemes the villains in the book were planning. There is an unnatural romance between Sue and Maud that becomes the most natural relationship in the book (Palmer 2009). There is spontaneous love between the two women who had no idea that two women can get attracted to one another. It is a first for both of them as Maud was initially in a marriage. The discovery of their romance is the best thing that could happen for the two as they did not know romantic happiness until they found each other (Langland 2005). They, however, have to learn to trust each other after the ordeals they encounter. Mrs. Sucksby ends up hanged for killing Gentleman, who, despite popular belief, was not ashamed of gentleman. Richard Rivers is a drapers son as we get to know at the end of the novel. The draper’s name is Frederick Bunt, who has several ideas above his station. Maud after a while disappears as she does not want anything to do with Briar anymore. She says goodbye to her love interest Sue at the trial of Mrs. Sucksby. Sue gets the knowledge of her true identity after a while when she reads it in the drapes of Mrs. Sucksby after she dies from her crimes. There is a lot of knowledge about Sue’s fortune at the end that she had no idea had existence (Palmer 2009). She reacts in shock to the knowledge of her wealth and sets out to discover the truth. Conclusion The novel has many lessons regarding innocence and knowledge. It shows how two people can fall in love in the middle of confusion and evil plans. Sue is the actual victim in the whole story as she takes part in a scheme she does approve and ends up being conned when she trusts people. References Boehm, K 2011, Historiography and the Material Imagination in the Novels of Sarah Waters, Studies in the Novel, 43(2), pp. 237-257. Kobayashi, A 2006, British Servants: A Collection of Early Guides and Companions, Vol. 5, Eureka Press, Osaka. Krugovoy, AS 2002, Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Langland, E 2005, Nobody’s Angels: Middle-Class Women and Domestic Ideology in Victorian Culture, Cornell University Press, Ithaca. Palmer, B 2009, Are the Victorians Still with Us? Victorian Sensation Fiction and Its Legacies in the Twenty-First Century, Victorian Studies, 52(1), pp. 86-94. Seajay, C 2006, Sarah Waters: Interviewed by Carol Seajay, Lambda Book Report, 14(1), pp.4-5. Spooner, C 2007, Spiritual Garments: Fashioning the Victorian Séance, Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature, Cynthia Kuhn, and Cindy Carlson ed., Cambria Press, Youngstown, pp. 351-367. Waters, S 2011, Finger Smith, Virago Press Limited, London. Read More