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Female Characters in the Poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson

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Female Characters in the Poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9406701 "Well, she was a woman": Female characters in the poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson Weil, Eric A., Ph.D. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1993 Copyright ©1993 by Weil, Eric A. All rights reserved. 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 "WELL, SHE WAS A WOMAN": FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THE POETRY OF EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON by Eric A. Weil A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 1993 Approved by (c> 1993 by Eric A. Weil APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dissertation Advisor: | \ XU Committee Members: A. " Date of: 8 Acceptance V^- by1 Committee Date of FinaajOral Examination li ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the members of my committee for their support. To Tom Kirby-Smith, my dissertation director, thanks for frequent and incisive comments on the drafts of this project, and for maintaining hi3 sense of humor. To Dr. Murray Arndt, thanks for the loan of his study room in Jackson Library. To Dr. Denise Baker, thanks for the reminders to persevere and for remembering my subject. To Dr. Jame3 Ellis, thanks for the encouragement. Of course, nothing I can write here will be sufficient to thank my wife, Anne, for her love, encouragement, and sacrifice throughout the project, and for knowing when all of us had to get away from it for awhile. Special appreciation goes to Nathan and Gretchen, who put up with having a part-time father for longer than they should have been expected to endure. And thanks to my mother, Davie, whose unwavering support also made this dissertation possible. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my father, Herbert W. Weil. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page APPROVAL PAGE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABBREVIATIONS v PART ONE: CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. A SURVEY OF CRITICISM ON ROBINSON'S WORKS 15 III. ROBINSON AND GENDER 36 IV. FEMALE FRIENDS 59 V. LITERARY INFLUENCES 87 PART TWO: VI. SINGLE WOMEN 114 VII. MOTHERS 130 VIII. WOMEN IN AND OUT OF LOVE 143 IX. WIDOWS 174 X. PROSTITUTES AND SUICIDES 186 XI. SPECIAL CASES 204 XII. CONCLUSION 217 BIBLIOGRAPHY 224 APPENDIX 240 iv ABBREVIATIONS For the long poems, the first reference will be designated by prefixing ££ before the page number, and additional references will be designated with only the page number. For the short poems, all quotations are taken from the Collected Poems, unless otherwise indicated. Where there may be some confusion about the sources of Robinson's letters, I have used the other abbreviations listed below. Robinson, Edwin Arlington. Collected Poems. New York: MacMillan, 1937. ££ Cary, Richard, ed. Edwin Arlington Robinson's Letters to Edith Browsr. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1968. £L Torrence, Ridgely, ed. Selected Letters of Edwin Arlington Robinson. New York: MacMillan, 1940. IIS. Sutcliffe, Denham, ed. Untrianoulated Stars: Letters of Edwin Arlington Rohinson to Harry rte Forest- Smith 1A90-190S. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1947. v WEIL, ERIC A., Ph.D. "Well, She was a Woman": Female Characters in the Poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson. (1993) Directed by H.T. Kirby- Smith. 243 pp. American poetry began to change during the early modernist period, becoming less generalized and less sentimental in its portrayal of people and the situations they encounter in daily life. E.A. Robinson was one poet whose characterization of women demonstrates a variety of notions about the status and roles of women in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. Over 65 poems, including all but one of the book-length poems, involve women in some way. The fir3t half of this dissertation is a socio-historical feminist investigation of literary, personal, and social influences that shaped Robinson's views of women, addressing nineteenth-century expectations for women and their expression in the magazine poetry, Robinson's friendships with women, and hi3 wide reading in Victorian novels. The second half groups poems according to the roles in which Robinson portrayed the female characters. Chapter VI treats single women and Chapter VII treats mothers. Chapter VIII is the longest chapter, as it explores Robinson's women in relationships with men. Robinson'3 several widows appear in the poems discussed in Chapter IX. Chapter X expands on Robinson'3 capacity for sympathy for the disrespected and the despairing — prostitutes and suicides. Chapter XI examinies the poems with biblical, imaginary, and allegorical women figures. It would be a mistake to hypothesize "progress" in Robinson's attitude toward women coincident with the women's movement of the 1890- 1930 period. Some poems exhibit the prevalent stereotypes of women and their roles from the stock literature of the 1890's (and these stereotypes are not limited to his poems written in that period). However, many of Robinson's poems, from throughout his career, portray women in roles as individuals, fresh and unique characters whose struggles remain a valuable indicator of women's concerns in a patriarchal society. 1 PART ONE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION "To any man, woman, or critic who will cut the pages -- I have done the top." -- epigraph to The Torrent and the Niaht Before Robinson's first book, 1896 With these words, Edwin Arlington Robinson invites a wide audience to enter the world of Tilbury Town and its environs, a world of strugglers and failures and generally lost individuals wondering if they can make any connection at all with other human beings. The invitation is somewhat ironic, in that apparently none of the 312 copies of the first edition of The Torrent and the Niaht Before was sold but all were given away. Robinson sent them to friends, family members, editors, critics, and fellow poets at his own expense, simply to get some reaction to his work. The critical response was meager but generally favorable, and his career spanned another forty years, including periods of constant rejection and privation, labels of both "too experimental" and "old fashioned," and finally the accolades of both critics and general readers along with enough money to discharge his debts and to live comfortably. He persevered. That Robinson included women in his hoped-for audience is important for reasons beyond the fact that women 2 made up the majority of the poetry-reading public of the 1890's. Although Robinson's male characters have garnered more attention because their names serve as the titles for many poems both long and short, his female characters also deserve attention, not simply because a few of them also lend their names to titles, but because Robinson included women as well as men when he wrote poems describing the difficulties of modern life. Over the years, scholars and critics have disagreed considerably regarding E.A. Robinson's views toward women and his depictions of women in his poems. While Robinson is generally given credit for creating realistic characters caught in the shallowness of materialism or in an artistic or psychological Slough of Despond, some reviewers during his lifetime and some scholars since have faulted him for the narrow range of problems and situations afforded to female characters in the poems. The purpose of this dissertation is not to take sides in this debate, but to point out that Robinson's characterization of women demonstrates a variety of notions about the status and proper roles of women in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. I believe that in a sense, both sides are correct. Robinson poems can be found that exhibit some of the worst stereotypes of women and their roles from the stock literature of the 1890's (and these stereotypes are not limited to his poems written in that period); and Robinson poems also can be found that exhibit women in roles as individuals in the modernist era of 1900-30, when some notable rights victories were won. In other words, it would be a mistake to hypothesize "progress" in Robinson's attitude toward women coincident with the women's movement. This dissertation will not 3 be arranged chronologically, but according to the various roles played by the female characters.
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