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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Marcela Nejezchlebová Brezánska Harriet Vane: The “New Young Woman” in Dorothy L. Sayers’s Novels Master‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M.Litt. 2010 1 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. 2 I would like to thank to my supervisor, PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSs., M.Litt. for her patience, valuable advice and help. I also want to express my thanks for her assistance in recommending some significant sources for the purpose of this thesis. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 5 2. Sayers‟s Background ............................................................................................ 8 2.1 Sayers‟s Life and Work ........................................................................................ 8 2.2 On the Genre ....................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Pro-Feminist and Feminist Attitudes and Writings, Sayers, Wollstonecraft and Others: Towards Education of Women ........................................................ 22 3. Strong Poison ...................................................................................................... 34 3.1 Harriet‟s Rational Approach to Love .................................................................. 34 3.2 Harriet‟s Relationship with Her Murdered Lover ............................................... 42 3.3 Wimsey‟s Female Helpers .................................................................................. 44 4. Have His Carcase ................................................................................................ 50 4.1 Harriet, the Professional, the Investigator and the Suspect ................................ 50 4.2 Harriet and Peter – the Development of their Relationship ................................ 56 5. Gaudy Night ........................................................................................................ 61 5.1 Academic Career vs. Domestic Sphere ............................................................... 61 5.2 Identity and Self-confidence ............................................................................... 67 5.3 Love and Relationships ....................................................................................... 72 5.4 Academic Work vs. Writing of Detective Novels .............................................. 78 6. Busman‟s Honeymoon ........................................................................................ 82 6.1 Harriet from the Point of View of Others ........................................................... 82 6.2 Harriet‟s Marriage ............................................................................................... 86 6.3 The Country Women .......................................................................................... 92 7. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 97 8. Summary ........................................................................................................... 103 9. Resumé .............................................................................................................. 104 10. Works Cited ...................................................................................................... 105 11. Apendix ............................................................................................................. 109 4 1. Introduction Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 – 1957), a writer of detective fiction popular even today, wrote all of her mystery novels during the 1920s and 1930s. It was a period when the position of women started to take a different shape. During the First World War a lot of women had to start to work to fill in the vacant places in the job market. At first it was assumed that several women would be necessary to substitute one man but it soon turned out that women were capable to become a full-value replacement of men. Although many of these women retired back to their homes when their help was not needed any more, this common experience influenced the further development of female professionalism and other feminist issues. With the term the “new young woman” I refer to the group of young ladies who gained their independence through the conscious entry into the world of employment and decided to go on even in the time where their professionalism was not further demanded. Before this change occurred, most of the employed women were either servants or workers in textile factories, often badly paid and dependent. In the course of the war women entered spheres of professional life previously occupied by men only. Their achievements could not stay unobserved by the authorities and significant social changes followed. With the Removal Act of 1919 women were allowed to step into such fields as law or accounting and in 1920 it was possible for a woman to gain a university degree. One of the first such women was Dorothy L. Sayers. Her young female character Harriet Vane seems very autobiographical and like her creator, she has to deal with the consequences of her professionalism. In my thesis I aim to show how different the new young woman was compared to other female characters of Sayers‟s novels and also in which areas the life of Harriet resembles the life of the author. I want to show what the young woman of the era had to 5 deal with and plan to accentuate the heroine‟s values in the context of the social circumstances of the 1920s and 1930s under the influence of a new phase of feminism. In chapter two I reveal the background of Dorothy L. Sayers divided into three main spheres. I concentrate not only on her life and work but also on the genre of detection which accompanied her for more than fifteen years of her professional life, stressing the role of female writers. I include a section briefly outlining the development of feminism till the 1930s residing on a full specification of this subject due to its extensity and irrelevance to the topic of this thesis. I begin the actual analysis in chapter three, starting with the first novel where Harriet appears. Strong Poison reveals her unconventional past and touches upon her sexual behaviour. In this novel she meets Sayers‟s great detective Lord Peter Wimsey for the first time and he immediately falls in love with her. I concentrate on Harriet‟s approach to love generally and also on her relationship to her former lover. I show Harriet‟s specificity pointing out the other female characters, Miss Climpson and Miss Murchison, who are Wimsey‟s helpers in investigation. Chapter four presents the development of the mutual relationship between Harriet and Lord Peter. In Have His Carcase they are both engaged in an investigation but this matter does not influence the fact that they have plenty of time to get to know each other better and shift their relationship closer to a friendship. I aim to demonstrate Harriet‟s manifestations of masculinity and how they influence all spheres of her life including her job and the possibility of a new relationship. In the following chapter I deal with many different spheres of Harriet‟s life. In Gaudy Night she comes back to the university where she studied, thus opening not only the topic of a suitable career for an educated lady but most of all the up-to-date subject of female professionalism combined with family and domesticity. I disclose how 6 Harriet struggles in relation to her own identity and display further development of her relationship to Lord Peter which starts from a position where it seems rather hopeless only to end in an engagement at the end of the novel. Sayers‟s own views, uncertainties and doubts seem to be reflected in Gaudy Night not only in the thoughts and actions of Harriet Vane but also in thoughts and actions of the dons. In this novel Annie – the perpetrator – violently attacks the whole area of female education and professionalism. Her attitudes might be viewed as a personified inner world of doubts and insecurities of all the female professionals. The subject of the sixth chapter is Sayers‟s last detective novel The Busman’s Honeymoon, originally written as a play. The newly wedded couple want to spend a calm honeymoon in a shire of Harriet‟s childhood but they get disturbed by a murder which occurred in a house they have just bought shortly before they moved in. The investigation of the crime reveals many unsettled topic of their life together and I want to point to their struggle to make the marriage successful. The novel begins with an exchange of letters and abstracts from a diary of Peter‟s mother which makes it possible to demonstrate the ways the society could have viewed the sort of woman represented by Harriet. I use a contrast with the country women too as their characters are very significant. The thesis covers the heroine‟s development from confusion to harmony throughout the selected novels. In the conclusion I try to present how Harriet Vane developed in order to achieve her professional as well as her private integrity. I observe her progress with stress on the femininity and masculinity in her and Peter‟s actions and thoughts. I also outline the most significant issues from Sayers‟s background.