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―That Inevitable Woman‖: the Paid Female Companion And

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―That Inevitable Woman‖: the Paid Female Companion And ―THAT INEVITABLE WOMAN‖: THE PAID FEMALE COMPANION AND SYMPATHY IN THE VICTORIAN NOVEL By LAUREN NICOLE HOFFER Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in English August, 2009 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Carolyn Dever Jay Clayton Mark Schoenfield James Epstein Copyright © 2009 by Lauren Hoffer All Rights Reserved For Chris, who has traveled along this road—and many others—by my side iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation, but more importantly, my development into the scholar I am today, would not have been possible without the invaluable guidance and support of my committee. Professors Carolyn Dever, Jay Clayton, Mark Schoenfield, and Jim Epstein have each taught me much and fostered my growth throughout my graduate career; I have been continually touched by the virtuosity of their insights as scholars and their generous enthusiasm as teachers and mentors. In particular, I owe an, to my mind, incalculable debt of gratitude to my Co-Directors, Jay Clayton and Carolyn Dever. Their careful, caring readings of my work as well as their supportive feedback have not only buttressed me in my efforts along the way but have pushed me to be a better writer, scholar, and by example, teacher. My meetings with them throughout my five years at Vanderbilt have been the highlight of my graduate career. The Vanderbilt University Center for Ethics also contributed to the composition of this dissertation. I would like to thank them for the Dissertation Fellowship but also for the opportunity to work with the talented, interdisciplinary group of graduate students they assembled in the Fall of 2008. Sarah Hansen, Tamara Trafton, Matt McCullough, and Juan Carlos created a stimulating environment in which to explore and challenge ideas, and their comments and questions helped to shape the third chapter of this project. A group of amazing administrative women in the English Department also supplied necessary assistance and encouragement; thank you to Donna Caplan, Janis May, and Sara Corbitt for all of your help, patience, and support. Thank you also to Brian Rejack, whose attentive, thoughtful readings of most of the chapters in this project during the iv drafting stage enabled me to overcome interpretive roadblocks and allowed me to see my arguments in new ways. Like all of the colleagues mentioned thus far, Christina Neckles has influenced the project that follows, but she has done much more than that. Over the course of our graduate careers, Christina has been the epitome of all that is most treasured in a ―companion‖—kind, fun, constant, supportive, and above all, sympathetic. Her own quiet brilliance has inspired me, while her friendship has brightened many a professional and personal milestone. I would also like to thank my family for their constant flow of encouragement and love. Candice, Kristen, and Helene Wood suffered many stressed out, ranting phone calls and always responded with comfort and advice, sustaining me in the tougher times. To my first teachers, my parents Diane Wood and Chris Wood: I have striven to make you proud, and because of the unfaltering love and affirmation you have filled my life with, I know I have. Finally, no acknowledgement of mine could ever be complete without thanking my husband, Chris Hoffer. Thank you for your sacrifices and saintly patience. Your love, understanding, and unerring faith in me have carried me through. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION …..…………………………………………………………………….... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...…………………………………………………………..... iv INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………….. viii Chapter I. ―SHE BRINGS EVERYTHING TO A GRINDSTONE‖: THE COMPANION‘S CRITICAL WORK IN DAVID COPPERFIELD AND LITTLE DORRIT........................................................................................... 1 The Companion as Dickensian ―edge-tool‖................................................ 3 ―She is always dangerous‖: Rosa Dartle ................................................... 9 ―That eminent varnisher‖: Mrs. General ................................................. 27 Conclusions: To Criticize the Critic ....................................................... 43 II. ―I WAS AT WORK IN YOUR HOUSE AS A DETECTIVE‖: THE COMPANION AND THE SECRETS OF THE HOUSE IN LADY AUDLEY’S SECRET AND ANNE HEREFORD ................................................. 48 Detection, Narrativity, and the Female Detective .................................... 54 ―Amongst all the privileged spies‖: The Companion as Detective in Lady Audley’s Secret ...................................................... 60 ―I have only done my duty‖: The Detective as Companion in Anne Hereford ............................................................. 84 The Companion‘s Feminine Modes of Detection ................................... 99 III. WILKIE COLLINS‘S COMPANION NOVELS: NARRATIVE RANK, READER SYMPATHY, AND THE NOVEL AS COMPANION ................... 103 ―Sweet companionship‖: The Victorian Reader, the Novel, and Sympathy ......................................................................................... 108 ―I take it on myself […] to tell the story‖: Madame Pratolungo as Companion Narrator .......................................................................... 114 ―The truth itself turns liar, and take her side‖: The New Magdalen and Reader Sympathy ............................................................................ 136 Contemporary Reactions to Collins‘s ―Schools of Sympathy‖ ............. 155 vi IV. ―NOBODY CAN ENTER INTO ANOTHER‘S NATURE TRULY‖: RECIPROCITY, HOMOEROTICISM, AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN DESPERATE REMEDIES AND THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE ............................................................................................... 158 Employer-Employee Relations in Victorian England ............................ 162 ―Dependence upon the whims of a strange woman‖: Sympathy and Homoerotic Desire .......................................................................... 170 ―‘Tis a conspiracy‖: Rerouting Homoerotic Desire into Heterosexual Marriage ......................................................................... 187 Hardy‘s Desperate Remedies ................................................................ 209 V. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 215 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 221 vii INTRODUCTION SYMPATHY FOR HIRE In William Makepeace Thackeray‘s novel Vanity Fair (1847), the narrator breaks the thread of the story to provide his readers with an ironic aside on the paid female companion: An article as necessary to a lady in this position as her brougham or her bouquet is her companion. I have always admired the way in which the tender creatures, who cannot exist without sympathy, hire an exceedingly plain friend of their own sex from whom they are almost inseparable. The sight of that inevitable woman in her faded gown seated behind her dear friend in the opera-box, or occupying the back seat of the barouche, is always a wholesome and moral one to me. (395) Thackeray‘s comment alludes to the ambiguous power dynamics involved in the female companion position, especially when such a figure is ―hire[d]‖ and paid for her services. She is an ―article‖ to her mistress, a fashionable accessory, always ―behind her‖ and in ―the back seat;‖ yet the companion is simultaneously ―inseparable‖ from her employer, ―necessary‖ for providing protection, amusement, and above all, ―sympathy.‖ Thackeray‘s narrator is imprecise regarding this sympathy the ―tender creature‖ desires and the ―plain friend‖ can provide, however. In Vanity Fair and other Victorian novels featuring a paid female companion, sympathy functions as the central aspect of the mistress-companion relationship. The companion must identify and, in a sense, identify with her mistress‘s needs, whims, opinions and moods, as well as her reputation and marriage prospects. In short, she should sympathize and adapt with her mistress. But what are the consequences of this sympathy for hire? What avenues to power and viii advantage might it allow between two women whose intimate bond is characterized by the superimposition of an economic, employment relationship? Further, what opportunities does this ambiguous dynamic offer authors in the Victorian period? There are several companion figures in Vanity Fair, but Thackeray‘s Rebecca Sharp is the Victorian era‘s most memorable example of a companion who manipulates her relationship with her mistress, and specifically the sympathetic expectations that defined the role, to achieve her own ends. By the time Miss Matilda Crawley visits Queen‘s Crawley, Becky has already succeeded in ingratiating herself with Sir Pitt. By finding ―many different ways of being useful to him‖ and becoming ―interested in everything appertaining to the estate,‖ Becky makes herself more than just the governess of Sir Pitt‘s daughters; she becomes ―almost the mistress of the house‖ but does so with such ―circumspection‖ and ―great prudence‖ that no one suspects her of any self-serving design (93). Ever tongue-in-cheek and suggestive, Thackeray‘s narrator says nothing of all this other than that Becky ―was a very clever woman‖ (96). When Miss Crawley arrives, Becky is quick to turn her attentions to the family‘s wealthy matriarch: ―Miss Crawley had not been
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