Female Characters and the Pursuit of Freedom in Modernist Fiction - Essay Example

FEMALE CHARACTERS AND THE PURSUIT OF FREEDOM IN MODERNIST FICTION: A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO THE AWAKENING AND VILE BODIES Presented by ’s Name Class Due Date Women have no wilderness in them; They are provided instead; Content in the tight hot cell of their hearts; To eat dusty bread. (Bogan, 19) The word ‘wilderness’ has been a vastly discussed word in feminist criticism. It seems to bear two contrasting meanings within its fold; that of ‘the wild side of nature; the bohemian’ as well as that of ‘isolation and inaccessibility’. This word may be aptly used to describe the characters of Edna in The Awakening and Nina in Vile Bodies. The two female protagonists of these two novels are subject to changes within their conscious and subconscious self; changes which determine their gradual realization of an identity which was an unconventional and radical event in the lives of women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century England and America. The absence of any kind of fundamental economic, social or political rights, like right to property, freedom of speech and expression, right to vote or even the right to seek justice was the bane of the nineteenth and twentieth century woman. These social ills are reflected in the lives of these two women as they struggle to give sound to the incessant chatter of the inner voice throughout the novels. In the post-war world, when everything and everyone was coming to terms with the trauma of new beginnings; the emergence of a new genre of writing in English signaled the onset of yet another revolution. Writers like Kate Chopin and her women characters were a living example of a colonized race that sought redemption by a deviation from reality, thus, pushing them further into the maws of self-doubt and loathing; furthering them still from the ‘freedom’ of their being. Books like The Awakening portrayed the psychological journey of its female protagonist Edna Pontellier; pre-empting and skillfully projecting the image of the ‘war-torn’ inner self of an American woman in the wake of a new century. Another novel of tangential equivalence in terms of character-depiction is Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. The female protagonist in this novel Nina Blount is, among the other characters, a depiction of the loss of objective and purpose and the epitome of portrayal of the war-cradled ‘lost generation’. Interestingly, despite having non-intersecting personalities, the women characters in these novels like Nina, Agatha, Edna achieve a ‘vile’ and ‘ridiculous’ status of living because of their loose social conventions. The fallen angels like Chastity are the effeminate-degenerate as they break free from moral restraint, so cleverly put across in the lines “Chastity didn’t feel well, Mrs. Ape. She went below” (VB, 8). The so-called ‘child-like freedom’ thus became an object of lust. Modernist fiction as studied in the microcosmic domain of these two texts comes across as that of a struggle for liberation of the social, physical and most importantly, the emotional kind. Both the characters, Edna and Nina, characterize an independent streak within them which, in a subconscious way, drives all of their thoughts, words and acts. Ironically, these two characters are quite a polar opposite of each other but are conjoined at the need of a personal identity. This dormant streak of independence is however, unable to direct their individuality towards a well-defined goal in life. Awakening begins with screeching parrots and a mockingbird, followed by the lines “The parrot and the mocking-bird …..had the right to make all the noise they wished. Mr. Pontellier had the privilege of quitting their society when they seized to be entertaining” (Chopin, pp. 1, 2). On the other hand the beginning of the novel Vile Bodies with one foreboding sentence “ It was clearly going to be a bad crossing” (Waugh, 7) summarises the entire episodic portrayal of loss of everything chaste and innocent in the lives of the characters in this book where they cross over to newer ground and loose control. Edna and Nina are on the road to self emancipation but each of them sketches a graph that starts from an opposite end and skittles towards a common end, which is self-denigration. Edna, moved by her infatuation for Robert, sheds her inhibitions and finds voice and expression in music and painting. This expression gives her the courage to ‘swim out into the open sea’ but sadly her path to self-discovery leads her to a point where freedom becomes a fear and thus restrains and torments her. On the contrary, Nina is already a fast-paced young daughter of a rich aristocrat who has no qualms about her dependence on the male presence in her life, first in the form of her father and then, in the form of her husband. Her sense of self –expression accompanies a sense of boredom that comes from the unrestrained lifestyle she leads. Her statements like “I don’t believe really that divine things like that ever do happen(VB, 82) portray her belief in her own power to make the choices in her life. It is interesting to note that how a ‘house/home’ remains consistently an extended part of the character’s development through the text. Edna’s movement from the island cottage, to her palatial house and finally to a ‘pigeon-holed’ dwelling suggests that whatever her state of mind at any point in her life, a cemented enclosure was always there waiting for her. The fact that the chains of restraint kept pulling her back is significant. This happens each time she tries to get away from closed spaces; like in the first chapter when she sits in the balcony outside and cries or later when she refuses to go inside the cottage and prefers to stay in the open air, perched in a hammock. This theme of entrapment and enclosed spaces occurs in Vile Bodies in a comical and satirical manner. The very first chapter encloses the women Kitty Blackwater and Fanny Throbbing in their personal trappings “from wig to toe”. The bunks were yet another space of confinement from which they could not break-free, no matter how sea-sick and tormented they felt.(VB, 12). Nina’s comment “It’s a house called Doubting and it’s all falling down really” (VB, 64) is in sharp contrast to the softer, more emotional statements made by Edna and tells the two women apart in terms of rationality and acceptance of reality. Nonetheless, the one common thing that drives both of them is the desire to fulfill certain passions which have neither reason nor validity. Edna’s unexplained attraction towards Robert and Nina’s brave attempt of posing Adam as her husband in front of her eccentric father; show the ‘wild’ streak in both of them, waiting to be let loose. Incidentally, when they both do acquire the self-awareness to do so, Edna draws within herself and cannot find the courage and Nina rejects Adam for she sees a wealthier support in Ginger. The insatiable thirst to do something wild, which is beyond the scope of societal acceptance, drives them to create a new identity but is soon to relegate as they themselves don’t identify with that identity and thus, resign to an inner solitude. “I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.”“I don’t know what you call the essential….but a woman who would give her life for her children could do no more than that---your Bible tells you so.”(Chopin, 122) The development Edna’s character from a quiet, compliant wife to an expressive and rebellious woman chalks a journey of self-discovery. Edna’s slow and gradual realization of her needs, desires and preferences do not quite win her much acclaim in her husband’s eyes, nor with her friend and companion Adele. The conversation between the two about giving up one’s life for their children takes us through the loop where Edna’s desire to break free is still guided by certain rules which are etched in her ‘upbringing’ by the ‘colonized gender’. This ‘little’ truth is pulled out of her sub-conscious by Adele, whose happiness and identity take meaning because of her role as a mother-woman. “All desire is connected to madness. But apparently one desire has chosen to see itself as wisdom, moderation, truth, and has left the other to bear the burden of the madness it did not want to attribute to itself, recognise in itself.”(Irigaray, 415) Nina justifies Luce Irigaray’s words by allowing herself the freedom to go against the grain and letting the desire to prefer self-gratification pervade over the emotions of love and commitment. She, therefore, makes a conscious choice to be the ‘mad one’ and suffer the consequences of her decisions with fortitude. Here, she becomes the polar opposite of Edna in the way that whereas Edna’s choice to keep her love for Robert led her to inner solitude, it was Nina’s manic rush into the material acquisitions and rejection of emotions that led her to the same end. Here, we may assert that female characters in modernist fiction are tempted and tormented by a dream of freedom which cannot be realized. Even the transitive silence of Mademoiselle Reisz between her widowhood and life as a pianist; and the ultimate picture of ‘mother woman’ ,Adèle Ratignolle, ultimately draw attention to the mores of a society where the life of a woman is nothing more than an auxilliary unit in the lives of their men and children. Whether women like these choose to withdraw or become blatantly superficial and gawdy in manner and expression, like Mrs. Melrose Ape and Lady Circumference in Vile Bodies, they ultimately generate an interlocked reader-response. While the former, in their poise and calm, express a disinterest, hence defiance towards society; the latter, in all their superficiality, project a defiant conformism. However, it is interesting to note that Mademoiselle Reisz’s complete withdrawal from superficial interactions after her husband’s death and her black drapes do not limit her sense of free expression which is visible in her comment on Edna’s response to her music. This self-limiting and a withdrawn life, without any dependence on husband or son and that spurts out only in the notes of music, comes across as a consequence of a self-directed inward rebellion. The ‘tormenter’ then, is not society but the chattering of an awakened mind. It is possible, then, that she might have transmitted her strength and quiet solitude to Edna subconsciously, which later led Edna to adopt a life of solitude with her love or ‘infatuation’ for Robert, giving her purpose. But then again, was this freedom? Or confinement in a new garb? The very fact that the author etches out Edna’s character with an introduction to caged birds and ends with ‘holed-up’ pigeons, and later the ‘dressing out of the ceremonial Tuesday gown’(Chopin, 129), ‘stomping on the wedding ring’(135) or ‘breaking a vase’(135) screams out loud that whether linear or vertical, the dimensions in a woman’s life during those times were essentially encompassing, and not liberating. Her state of mind and realisation of the elusive dream is reflected perfectly in the words “inner fire….sweet, half darkness…..devoid of hope”(134). The very fact that the female characters are trying to break free from a current existence to an imaginary or perceived one, only to acquire greater solitude, further fortifies the control of men in the negative domain of their psyche. This loss of hope, desire and consequently ‘freedom’ expresses itself in a radical dimension in Nina Blount’s case. She puts on the mask of the escapist-feminist, who in her aimless pursuits and lack of purpose in life, ends up getting caught in a relationship that could not possibly bear the burden of financial misery. Her love for Adam is shallow as her own sense of self-worth which incidentally, waxes and wanes in proportion to her father’s/husband’s/lover’s wealth. "If only you were as rich as Ginger, Adam, or only half as rich. Or if only you had any money at all." (Waugh, 271) Nina, as any other character in the novel, comes across as a unit of a social setup in early twentieth century Britain, when freedom of expression and manner became misnomers for the abuse of the same. The image of the female existence is best described in this novel by the narrator describing cars, and in the process, drawing a parallel between cars and women. In being so, they seize to exist as individuals with an independent thought process and no matter how modern or intellectually evolved, do remain a machine to be steered by a male hand. “…mere vehicles with no purpose above bare locomotion . . . have definite being just as much as their occupants. . . . Not so the real cars, that become masters of men; those vital creations of metal who exist solely for their own propulsion through space. . . . These are in perpetual flux; a vortex of combining and disintegrating units. ( Waugh,161) These words embody the essence of the statement in question. Whether a vehicle meant for the purpose of mobility or a machine created for an ulterior motive, a woman’s existence attains a significant manifestation in the satisfaction of the person driving it. Only when the machine becomes one with the brain, it achieves a reverend status and not merely because of ‘being’. The freedom to choose is thus limited to the choice of purpose and not identity. Even the winner’s trophy- “a silver gilt figure of odious design, symbolizing Fame embracing Speed" (163), is symbolic of the phallic energy using the feminine force to attain a formidable form. Nina’s understated attempts at asserting her independence reflects in her casual stance about every important event in her life. A first sexual encounter, which, in those times, would be considered by a woman as a moment to behold and cherish, is given a puny status by Nina as almost like a visit to a dentist. ("Ive never hated anything so much in my life"). However, the physical and emotional pain underlying the statement is overshadowed by the nonchalant attitude towards sex and promiscuity. Whereas in The Awakening, beneath Edna’s, stoic calm, throbs a seismic point, which erupts directionless and unguided; the "circling typhoon" (321), in Nina’s case grows from the outward to the inward, taking in all sense and sensibility with it. Modernism in England and America, as expressed in the frenetic attempts of the female characters in the two books, was a direct outcome of the effects of a displaced society, trying to contain a live force within clichéd parameters. The breaking away from the female stereotype, thus becomes either idealized or denigratory, both states being either elusive or undesirable. Noted British author and critic Rebecca West remarks, “I only know that other people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat and prostitute.” The dream of freedom for women; in the early twentieth century in general and the female characters of The Awakening and Vile Bodies in particular; thus remains, forever distant and elusive. Referencesskip to main | skip to sidebar References Bogan, Loiuse.(1986). ‘Sexuality, the female gaze, and the arts: women, the arts, and society’ By Ronald L. Dotterer, Susan Bowers, Susquehanna University Eagleton, Mary (ed.), Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader. Basil Blackwell. Guerin, Wilfred L..Labor, Earle. Morgan,Lee.Reesman, V & Willingham, John R..(2004) A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press. Irigaray, Luce.2003.’The Bodily Encounter with the mother’. Modern Criticism and Theory. Singapore: Pearson Education Leitch, Vincent B..(1988). American Literary Criticism from the thirties to the eighties .Columbia University Press. Showalter, Elaine.(2003). Modern Criticism and Theory 2004. Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness. Singapore: Pearson Education. _____________. (1986) ‘The Feminist Critical Revolution’. Elaine Showalter (ed.), The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature and Theory. Virago Press. Spacks, Patricia Meyer.(1976). The Female Imagination: A Literary and Psychological Investigation of womens writing. George Allen and Unwin Waugh, Evelyn.(1930). Vile Bodies. London: Chapman. West, Rebecca.. "Mr Chesterton in Hysterics: A Study in Prejudice"(1982) .The Clarion, 14 Nov 1913. Read More