Braddon and Rossetti’s response to gender expectation in Victorian Brittan.
When one is to compare and contrast the way in which Victorian writers of prose and poetry respond to key issue of gender expectation and sexuality of the era, it is primarily important to grasp a tangible understanding of the problem in question. Throughout the Victorian area the perception and expectation of gender roles were largely distinct. Men were illustrated as the provider and protector of the family, which involved duties such as: supporting family monetary needs and allocating funds. Bearing this in mind it becomes increasingly evident that men were seen as far superior to women both physically and mentally. Whereas, women were seen as inferior to men with less rights. Their duties involved, obedience, childcare and household care. In order to illustrate how these values can contrast between two different pieces of Victorian literature, the prose ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’ by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and the poem ‘Goblin Market’ by Christina Rossetti will be analysed through themes such as: Marriage, Misogyny and Femininity.
Lady Audley’s Secret portrays a wide array of marriages throughout the text. As a result of this one can vividly see how marriage defies the gender expectations incorporated within Victorian literature. However more often than not the women of the text rebel against what is expected of them. This is in fact evident in the marriage of George and Helen Talboys, Lucy and Sir Michael and Phoebe and Luke. Within all these marriages the women distance themselves from the stereotypical expectation to be obedient to their significant other, and ultimately results in them begrudging or deceiving their superior. Both Helen and Lucy appear to be to much indulged in the idea of wealth and status that when the time comes that George and Sir Michael can no longer provide this for them, their respective marriages crumbles and falls apart. In sharp contrast, the marriage of Phoebe and Luke eventually cracks, but not before Phoebe initially shows obedience as she accepts Luke’s proposal in fear of upsetting him. However, in an era were females where predominately inferior to men Braddon manages to defy the gender expectation further, as at the end of the novel the successful marriage of Clara and Robert, and Alicia and Sir Harry is concrete, due to the fact that both parties view one another as equal along with these particular women having their own independence.
Unlike the perception of marriage and the lack of obedience women had for men in Lady Audley’s Secret, Rossetti presents the more anticipated portrayal of women within the Victorian era in her poem Goblin market. However, unlike the way that Braddon portrays her rebellion against gender norms through the use of marriage, misogyny and femininity, Rossetti opts to illustrate the vast issue of women and femininity throughout. Due to this observation whilst comparing and contrasting the two texts, the examples taking from Goblin market will solely relate to women and femininity, ultimately creating contrasting comparisons. For the purpose of comparison, the first two example of female behaviour and representation is portrayed in lines (1-2) and lines (42-43). ‘‘Morning and evening Maids heard the goblins cry’’(Rossetti 1-2). Here we see Rossetti burring her frustration with femininity within her era of writing as she presents what looks like a normally piece of literature, but in fact is crying out the message that only the ‘‘Maids heard the goblins cry’’, creating a sense that the goblins don’t offer any risk to males. Similar to this the second example of femininity occurs in lines (42-43) "We must not look at goblin men, we must not buy their fruits". (Rossetti 42-43). This coincides with the beliefs that a young female within this particular era should know nothing about sexual activities as they will end up gaining the upper hand, as Lady Audley did in Lady Audley’s Secret.
While marriage illustrates a clear rejection of gender expectation within the Victorian era, it does not completely overshadow the fact that throughout Lady Audley’s Secret there are limitless examples where anticipated gender roles are ignored. None more so than when viewing the text from a misogynistic point of view. A primary example of misogyny occurs when Robert illustrates his view of women throughout the development of the novel. This is ever more apparent when he begins to gain suspicious that Lady Audley killed is friend George and in turn is showing deceitfulness. This brings about the impression to Robert that all women are undependable and should be depicted as fraudulent. Elizabeth Tully reiterates this notion in her article ‘Gender and Role playing in Lady Audley’s Secret’ when she says that once ‘Lady Audley’s crimes are suspected, her metaphoric removal from the sphere of the angel in the house role is accomplished (Tully 486). Moreover, Lady Audley is only the beginning of Robert’s observations that women cannot be trusted. Once he begins to fall in love with Clara, he begins to grow a strong hatred for her continuous disapproval of him investigating George’s desertion. This in turn leads to the development of the feeling that women are non-obedient and incorporate too much influence, as they have the ability to deploy men at their ease. This greatly eludes to the notion that Lady Audley Secret is continuously defying the gender expectation of the era.