Thesis Abstract Final

ABSTRACT Eves, Angels or Human Beings: G.K. Chesterton’s Female Characters Rachel A. Schultz Director: Ralph C. Wood, Ph.D. G.K. Chesterton remains one of the most heralded authors of the twentieth century. However, his views on “The Woman Question,” as outlined in his polemical essays, invite skepticism at best. In order to provide a more complete understanding of Chesterton’s perception of muliebrity, this thesis analyzes major female characters within Chesterton’s fiction: specifically the epic poem, The Ballad of the White Horse, the sweeping farce The Flying Inn, and the allegorically charged The Ball and the Cross. To achieve this purpose, the thesis works from principles of feminist criticism, testing whether each female character is portrayed with their own irreducible integrity or is flattened into a prop, whose sole purpose is to advance the development of male leads. Such lines of inquiry involve questioning whether females are portrayed as angelic, guiding figures or tempting eve figures instead of fully developed human beings with strengths, faults and their own significant storyline. An exploration of Chesterton’s fictional female characters complicates our understanding of his views on womanhood as held thus far. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS: Dr. Ralph Wood, Department of Religion, Great Texts and English APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: Dr. Elizabeth Corey, Director DATE: EVES, ANGELS OR HUMAN BEINGS: G.K. CHESTERTON’S FEMALE CHARACTERS A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Rachel A. Schultz Waco, Texas May, 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments . iii Chapter One: Introduction . 1 Chapter Two: The Female and the Family . 10 Chapter Three: The Ballad of the White Horse . 26 Chapter Four: The Flying Inn . 41 Chapter Five: The Ball and the Cross . 53 Chapter Six: Conclusions . 66 Bibliography . 70 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My deepest thanks to Dr. Ralph Wood, my thesis director and mentor, for continual guidance, inspiration and friendship. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Lynne Hinojosa for providing a solid foundation of feminist criticism upon which to build the lens for this thesis; also, thanks are due to Dr. Lynne Hinojosa for serving as a reader on my oral defense committee. Finally, I am extremely grateful for the generosity of Dr. Sarah Ford, whose classes have changed my approach to literature and who gave freely of her time in joining my thesis oral defense committee. Without these people and many more, I would not have succeeded as a thesis writer or have developed substantially during my time at Baylor University. iii CHAPTER ONE Feminist Criticism: A Lens To claim that anyone has conclusively summarized the legacy of G.K. Chesterton would be a daring assertion. Despite the multitude of essays, lectures, sermons and conversations surrounding his writings, this enduring author’s multi-faceted work calls readers continually to reconsider their perception of him. It is fitting that many should remember Chesterton by his pithy aphorisms, which present a complete idea by way of paradox, as his life was marked by a similar unusual quality. He challenged his friends when they were intellectual enemies, and befriended his enemies as his equals. He penned everything from allegorical fantasies to biting essays, while putting forth the Catholic hope in all venues. He treated the questions of the world as significant, but addressed them with a sense of humor that hinted at an abiding humility.1 Chesterton was a man who united seemingly contradictory qualities into a cohesive pursuit of what he believed to be true, good and beautiful. This, perhaps, is why his work inspired and informed his contemporaries and remains compelling to present-day thinkers. However, such an individual is bound to spur not only fervent admiration, but also serious criticism. Chesterton believed that each person had a responsibility to uphold their convictions and detested the all-accommodating tolerance he saw present in 1 The most succinct evidence of this aspect of Chesterton’s character may be a photograph of him in full cowboy garb, which he donned to act in a short film titled How Men Love, directed by J.M. Barrie. Motorcycles were involved. Whitebrook, Peter. William Archer: A Biography. London: Methuen, 1993. 1 many modern ideologies.2 He did not feel compelled to apologize for holding a firm opinion, and his proactive rebuttal of what, in his view, were problems in the world necessarily incited controversy. Chesterton’s critique of these modern issues often aroused critical concern, especially regarding “The Woman Question.” This phrase is used to describe the discussions surrounding the role of women in society that surfaced with new vigor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and continue to play a prominent role in current political, religious and cultural dialogue.3 Chesterton’s stance on this matter rested on an understanding that men and women were “absolutely equal” and “very different.”4 He wrote extensive critiques of the suffragettes, whom he saw as not working toward freedom from male hegemony, but enslavement to capitalism. He directly opposed women’s right to vote through a number of arguments, claiming, for example, that half of society should remain untouched by the dark realities of politics and commercial specialism.5 While Chesterton viewed his statements as a defense of women’s rights to be what they were created to be, commentators often claim his arguments seek to rationalize morally the subordination of the opposite sex.6 For 2 This attitude is expressed in a good deal of Chesterton’s work, most directly in Heretics. Chesterton, G. K. Heretics. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg, 199. 3 Utell, Janine. "The Woman Question." The Modernist Journals Project. Accessed September 1, 2015. 4 Lauer, Joseph Quentin. G. K. Chesterton: Philosopher without Portfolio. New York, New York: Fordham University Press, 1988. 144. 5 Chesterton, G.K. "Part Three: Feminism, or the Mistake about Woman." In What's Wrong With the World, 78-86. Seven Treasures Publications, 2009. 6 Ibid., 29. 2 example, Maurice Evans claimed that “in order to convince woman that she is very fortunate in having the protection of marriage, [Chesterton] paints a rather erroneous picture of masculine values.”7 In addition, many critics assert that Chesterton’s descriptions of early feminists were unnecessarily harsh. He did, in fact, describe a bevy of suffragettes as bringing to his mind legends of “a Bacchic orgie, a Witches Sabbath.”8 Another famous remark was his quip that in the feminist movement “twenty million young women rose to their feet with the cry ‘We will not be dictated to’ and proceeded to become stenographers.”9 These statements were provocative in his day and have hardly gained endorsement since. Chesterton’s expository works outlining his position on multiple aspects of “The Woman Question” are indispensable. However, literary analysis of Chesterton’s female characters is sparse— indeed, nearly nonexistent. This is clearly problematic, since Chesterton crafted his fiction to embody his leading convictions, which he outlined more directly in his essays. To leave these texts, as they bear upon “The Woman Question,” unexamined is to neglect Chesterton at his depths, and possibly misunderstand his conception of what makes women unique. In the words of Emily Dickinson, to “tell the truth but tell it slant” sometimes allows an author to achieve a greater deal of nuance 7 Evans, Maurice. "Political Beliefs." In G. K. Chesterton, 66. London: Cambridge University Press, 1939. 8 Chesterton, G.K. "The Queen and The Suffragettes." In What's Wrong With the World, 84. Seven Treasures Publications, 2009. 9 Ward, Maisie. "Clearing the Ground for Orthodoxy." In Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 205. New York, New York: Sheed & Ward, 1943. 3 through the fullness of character, plot, scene and image.10 When dealing with the complexity of human life, a story not only epitomizes an idea, but also makes it unforgettable. Therefore, without a concentrated study of Chesterton’s major female characters, we are unlikely to grasp the entirety of his standing on “The Woman Question.” Such an exploration may also blunt the charge that Chesterton is a mere chauvinistic bigot, easily dismissed. To complete this inquiry, it is important first to consider the legitimate questions raised by the tradition of feminist criticism. One of the concerns of feminist criticism directly relevant to a study of Chesterton’s work is the tendency of authors to use female characters as mere plot devices constructed to further the development of rounded male characters. In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem Aurora Leigh, the fictional character Leigh effectively voices this difficulty, telling her suitor: You misconceive the question like a man Who sees the woman as the complement Of his sex merely. You forget too much That every creature, female as the male, Stands single in responsible act and thought… I too have my vocation—work to do, The heavens and earth have set me. (Book II, 460-466)11 Through Leigh, Browning expresses the unsatisfying result that ensues when the female sex is portrayed as a mere accompaniment to a male counterpart. In this paradigm, female characters are constructed only as a mechanism to help a male character complete 10 Dickinson, Emily. "Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant." In The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Reading ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1999. 11 Showalter, Elaine. "The Female Tradition." In A Literature of Their Own, 22- 23. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1977. 4 his journey.12 Such depictions of women are, in a word, flat. They stand like cardboard cutouts, backdrops to the intended action of the story—the maturation of the male. Female characters wielded in this manner usually remain static.

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