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Dissipation, Divinity & Didactic Narrative Structure In Dissipation, Divinity & Didactic Narrative Structure in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall By David Scott A thesis subm itted to Sonoma State University in partial fu lfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS 10 English Professor Chingling Wo " Professor Timothy J. Wandling Date Copyrighl© 20 J 4 By David Scott II Authorization for Reproduction of Master's Thesis I grant permission for [he print or digital reproduction of this thesis in its entirety, without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide proper acknowledgement of authorship. DATE: '"='"'" ' = David Scott Dissipation, Divinity & Didactic Narrative Structure in Sarah Scott's Millellillm Hall Thesis by David Scott ABSTRACT My study examines Sarah Scott 's narrati ve response to dissipation and corruption caused by the growth of mercantile capitalism. I argue that this phenomenon is strongly associated with the city of London, and how the ma in characters of Scott's novel - the ladies ofMillenium Hall - are driven from this space 10 the country because of what London has become. I further suggest that the reasons for this move are what inspires them to enact thei r own version of society, in the form of a phi lanthropic and utopian community. I view these women as applying the power of religious authority to qualify themselves in their endeavors and in this manner, I shed light on a potential allusion to the Vestal Virgins of Ancien t Rome. This projects connects mercantilism and dissipation in the city, the utopian alternative in the country, and the divine nature that the women assume to the didactic structure of the text that provides a transformative experience for the reader. Chair: __________~~-_ Signature Date 04-/ 30 /20{ r- Acknowledgements I would like 1O acknowledge Professors Chingling Wo and Timothy J. Wandling for helping me not only to formulate this thesis, but for helping me to understand bener the principles of literary criticism. In addition. I would like to acknowledge all of my SSU professors who contributed to my larger understanding o f the Engl ish language and how it is taught, in the order in whi ch I took their classes: Greta Vollmer, Anne Goldman, Noelle Oxen handler, Scott Mi ller and Cathy Kroll. Last but nOi least, I would li ke to acknowledge Merle Williams in the SSU English Department for keeping everythin g in such impeccable order so that this thesis could even be possible. Thank you from sincerest depths of my gratitude. v Table of Contents L Introducti on .... .............. ..... ... ... ...... .. .. ..... .. ... ........ .... ............ ...... 1 U. Getting Away from London ................. .............. ...... ... .. ... ... .... ... .. ... 17 m. Didacticism and the Vestal Virgins of En gland .... ..... '" ...... ', .... ...... ... ... ... 49 IV. Bibliography .. ... ... .. ...... ... .. ..... ............. ... .... .......... .. ... ...... ...... .. 76 VI 1 Chapter I ~ Introduction In my reading of Sarah Scott’s A Description of Millenium Hall (1762),1 I contend that it is a social problem novel that addresses London’s dissipated lifestyle which resulted from the growth of mercantile capitalism during the early eighteenth century. I argue that the novel’s women have harnessed the power of religious authority to sanction and develop a utopian community which stands as an alternative to and a critique of the London city space as affected by dissipation. Because the novel details specifically the lives of six women who come to comprise the “Ladies” of the Hall, I argue that their activities as a group pose an allusion to the six Vestal Virgins of Ancient Rome. Lastly, I argue that the connection between the critique of London and the divine authority that the women are imbued with works with the didactic structure of the novel to perform a transformative experience for the reader. Scott’s target audience was London’s patrician class, and because her novel went through four editions, this publication activity is testament both to the quality of Scott’s writing, and to the presence of a compelling interest in her ideas. Though it has not been traditionally credited for any significant role in the rise of the novel as a literary form, it has nevertheless been studied for its unique features.2 Traditionally considered a text that 1 The full title reads: A Description of Millenium Hall, and the Country Adjacent: Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants, and such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections, as May Excite in the Reader Proper Sentiments of Humanity, and Lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue. 2 See Watt; his rise of the novel studies focus on the works of Samuel Richardson, Daniel Defoe, and Henry Fielding, but makes no mention of Scott’s text as a contributor to the novel’s growth as a literary form. As M.A. Rabb notes, a change in eighteenth-century studies occurred when gender studies were introduced, inspiring her to include Millenium Hall in her novel courses “because of its contrast to the canonical list of the five male ‘greats’: Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Smollet” (7-10). 2 prefigures the principles of feminism, modern critics are also interested in its formal features and aspects of social engagement. To borrow from Crystal Lake’s terminology, Millenium Hall is a “hybrid text” (680). Unlike character driven narratives such as Samuel Richardson’s Pamela: or Virtue Rewarded (1740), or Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), Scott’s novel utilizes the formal features of both of these novels and combines them with a blend of her own techniques and imagination to produce a text that makes explicit observations about society and how it should function. What makes her ideas stand out lies most significantly in the fact that they are brought out in the form of fiction, yet they are not necessarily cloaked under the guise of subtext. The intermixing of forthright and conspicuous social criticism with the aspect of fiction renders Millenium Hall as unique, replete with a wealth of historical material for critics and scholars interested in the sociocultural situation of the mid-eighteenth century. The country of England at the time was seven decades into a process of change extending from two of the greatest events known to British historians: The Restoration of the Monarchy and the Glorious Revolution. The Restoration marks the dividing line between England as governed by Oliver Cromwell’s Interregnum and the 1660 reinstatement of the Stuart monarchy under the reign of King Charles II. In this particular situation, the country experienced blowback from the constraints of a puritanical society in which the social order transformed from rigid religiosity into a kind of sanctioned hedonism. 3 The Glorious Revolution in 1688, alternatively, resulted from the death of Charles. At the threat of his Catholic brother James II assuming the English throne, 3 See Starkey, Chapter 19, for further reading on these periods and their monarchs. 3 English Parliament backed King William III of Orange of the Netherlands, by virtue of his marriage to the daughter of Charles, Princess Mary II, in a campaign to drive the Catholic heir from the country. Millenium Hall’s connection to the Restoration and the Glorious Revolution is learned when we come to understand how the text is a response to their long term effects. Though London town had been steadily growing from the period of the Tudor Monarchy, the sudden Dutch king arriving from his equally expanding country provided the impetus for nudging open the floodgates to an entirely new world of trade. “[A]ll of this trade flowed to Britain and the continent through British ports, most often London: from 1722 to 1724, the metropolis handled over 80% of England’s imports, 67% of its exports, and 87% of its re-exports” (Bucholz & Ward 89). A flourishing system of mercantile capitalism had taken root so that opportunities for wealth became prospects for countrymen and citizens as never seen before, where the “capital thus generated made London’s merchants rich” (91).4 If we consider the previous liberalization of society under King Charles II – with its aspects of heavy libation, sexualization of women and scandal – then the sudden growth of London’s trade market combined with this hedonistic way of life proved to be the perfect concoction for social disaster. By the 1730s London’s streets became overcrowded lanes full of people that were somehow tied to the mercantile trade phenomenon, where the taverns and gambling clubs, in turn, took advantage of the populace in their mercantile pursuits. “As this implies, taverns provided a degree of connection and conviviality – innocent and illicit – that had the potential to take the edge off of the hustle and bustle of urban life” (Bucholz & Ward 190). Yet the 4 See both French and Grassby for more information on the phenomenon of mercantile capitalism. 4 notion of taking “the edge off” gets blown out of proportion when one considers the great gin epidemic that wreaks its havoc from 1720-1750. People became serious drunkards, and yet this was only a portion of the problem. Gambling plunged men into debt, the aristocratic class conducted their socially corrosive scandals, the world saw its first financial bubble collapse in the South Sea Company, and prostitution grew to ruin the lives of women at an alarming rate. As it seems, mercantile capitalism, in its latest and expanding form, laid the foundation for a multitudinous series of unforeseen problems to arise. Scott’s novel follows in a trend of which writers sought to criticize the corrosion of English life through fictionalized documentation. Female authors such as the Fair Triumvirate of Wit – Aphra Behn, Delarivier Manley and Eliza Haywood5 – initiated much of this kind of criticism in the form of prose in what scholars now refer to as Amatory Fiction.6 In this type of novel, the amorous scandals of the aristocracy are simulated through the use of skilled plot and character development.
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