The Construction of “female evil”: Deviant women in selected English novels of the 19th century

Diplomarbeit

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie

an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

vorgelegt von Astrid KLIMA am Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Begutachter: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Hugo Keiper

Graz, 2009

Danksagung

Diese Diplomarbeit möchte ich meinem Freund Alwin widmen. Seit wir uns kennen hat er mich stets unterstütz und war für mich da. Es war gewiss nicht immer leicht mit mir und ich möchte mich hiermit bei ihm für alles bedanken, denn er hat mir die Kraft gegeben diese Arbeit und mein Studium zu vollenden.

Weiters möchte ich mich an dieser Stelle bei den Personen bedanken, die mir bei der Erarbeitung dieser Diplomarbeit geholfen haben. Mein herzlicher Dank gilt meinem Betreuer Herrn Ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Hugo Keiper, der mich immer freundlich unterstützt hat. Außerdem möchte ich mich bei meiner Freundin und Studienkollegin Karin Kraus bedanken die stets ein offenes Ohr für mich hatte und mir bei der Korrektur meiner Arbeit geholfen hat.

-2- The Construction of “female evil”: Deviant women in selected English novels of the 19th century

Diplomarbeit Von Astrid Klima

Abstract

This diploma thesis focuses on ‘female evil’, the deviant female characters of Romantic and Victorian novels – women who do not embody the ideal of femininity and womanhood of their time. The female characters presented in this thesis do things a typical woman of their time would never do. They lie, they cheat, they murder, they show and use their sexuality or they have fits of rage. They go off script and are consequently punished because there is no place for deviant women in a patriarchal society. In order to give an overview of four important types of female evil, four novels were chosen: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary E. Braddon, and Vanity Fair by Willliam Thackeray, each of them featuring a strong female character, representing a different type of female evil. In Dracula Lucy Westenra represents the female vampire, who openly shows her sexuality and lust and even feeds on children. Secondly, Bertha Mason, the madwoman in Jane Eyre , who behaves and raves like a beast, thus making it impossible for her husband to live with her so that he locks her up in the attic of his house. In Lady Audley’s Secret Helen Maldon the murderess, a beautiful blond woman, attempts murder twice in order to defend her newly found social position as Lady Audley. Last but not least Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair , the femme fatale, who uses people to get what she wants, not caring for the consequences of her actions. These four women are neither mother figures, nor are they good wives, and most of all they are not good women, according to Victorian standards, because they do not behave in accordance with their social position. It is their deviant behaviour, their ignoring of rules, norms and manners which turns them into outsiders and maybe that is the true reason why these women are presented as evil.

-3- The Construction of “female evil”: Deviant women in selected English novels of the 19th century

Diplomarbeit Von Astrid Klima

Abstrakt

Das Thema dieser Diplomarbeit ist das ‘Weibliche Böse’, deviante Frauencharachtere in der Englischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts – Frauen die nicht das gängige viktorianische Frauenideal der Zeit verkörpern. Die weiblichen Charaktere, die in dieser Arbeit präsentiert werden, legen ein Verhalten an den Tag, das eine typische Frau ihrer Zeit nie zeigen würde: Sie lügen, haben Wutanfälle, betrügen, morden und spielen offen mit ihrer Sexualität. Ihr Fehlverhalten wird über kurz oder lang natürlich bestraft, denn in einer patriarchalen Gesellschaft ist kein Platz für rebellische und deviante Frauen. Um einen Überblick über vier herausragende Formen des weiblichen Bösen geben zu können wurden vier Romane ausgesucht: Dracula von Bram Stoker, Jane Eyre von Charlotte Brontë, Lady Audley’s Secret von Mary E. Braddon, unf Vanity Fair von Willliam Thackeray. In jedem dieser Romane kommt ein starker weiblicher Charakter vor, der für eine unterschiedliche Form des weiblichen Bösen steht. In Dracula ist es Lucy Westenra, die Vampirin, die offen mit ihren Reizen und ihrer Sexualität spielt und das Blut von Kindern trinkt. Es folgt Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre , die Verrückte, die von ihrem Mann auf dem Dachboden eingesperrt wird weil er ihre Wutanfälle und ihr Fehlverhalten nicht mehr ertragen kann. Die dritte Figur ist Helen Maldon in Lady Audley’s Secret , die schöne blonde Mörderin, die auch vor Mord nicht zurückschreckt um ihre Position als Lady Audley zu verteidigen. Und zu guter Letzt wäre da noch Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair , die Femme Fatale, welche die die Leute ausnutzt und zu ihren Gunsten manipuliert, ungeachtet der Konsequenzen ihres Handelns. Diese vier Frauen, so unterschiedlich sie auch sind, sind keine gute Frauen, gemessen am viktorianischen Ideal. Sie weigern sich, die ihnen von der Gesellschaft zugeteilte Rolle als Frau und Mutter einzunehmen. Ihr deviantes Verhalten, das Ignorieren der Regeln, das Missachten von Normen und Benimmregeln ist was sie letztendlich zu Außenseitern werden ließ, vielleicht auch der wahre Grund, warum diese Frauen als böse dargestellt werden.

-4- Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 6 2. THE IDEA OF FEMALE EVIL – UNDERLYING CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS ...... 9 2.1. EPITOMES OF FEMALE EVIL ...... 12 2.1.1. Femme Fatale...... 12 2.1.2. Female warriors...... 15 2.1.3. Murderesses and female serial killers...... 16 3. THE INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF 19TH CENTURY LITERATURE IN ENGLAND ...... 19 3.1. 19 TH CENTURY ENGLAND ...... 19 3.2. 19 TH CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE ...... 21 3.2.1. The Romantic Period...... 21 3.2.2. The Victorian Period...... 22 3.3. WOMEN ’S RIGHTS IN THE 19 TH CENTURY ...... 23 3.3.1. Women and education ...... 25 3.3.2. Women and marriage...... 27 4. ANALYSIS OF DEVIANT WOMEN IN SELECTED ENGLISH NOVELS OF THE 19TH CENTURY ...... 29 4.1. DRACULA BY BRAM STOKER ...... 29 4.1.1. A short introduction to Dracula...... 30 4.1.2. Lucy Westenra – the female vampire ...... 32 4.2. JANE EYRE BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË ...... 39 4.2.1. General introduction to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre...... 39 4.2.2. Bertha Mason – the mad women in the attic...... 41 4.3. LADY AUDLEY 'S SECRET BY MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON ...... 48 4.3.1. A short introduction to Lady Audley’s Secret ...... 48 4.3.2. Helen Maldon – the murderess ...... 50 4.4. VANITY FAIR BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY ...... 57 4.4.1. A general introduction to Vanity Fair...... 57 4.4.2. Becky Sharp – the femme fatale ...... 60 5. CONCLUSION ...... 67 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 73

-5- 1. Introduction

The five sources of happiness: the first is long life; the second, riches; the third soundness of body and serenity of mind; the fourth, love of virtue; the fifth is an end crowning the life. Of the six extreme evils, the first is misfortune shortening the life; the second, sickness; the third, distress of mind; the fourth, poverty; the fifth, wickedness; the sixth, weakness. Confuciansim – Book of History

The polarities of ‘good and evil’ or ‘right and wrong’ are cultural universals. They are the pillars of morality and ethics. Ernest Hemingway once said: “I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.” (Thinkexist: “Morality”) This means that we as human beings do not only learn what is right or wrong, we also feel the difference without needing a law or religion to tell us. However, since the time we started to walk upright, certain rules have been established to function as guidelines for people. Our societies are based on theses rules and laws, which enable people to live together. Already in the Bronze Age King Hammurabi (1728 – 1686 BC) devised Hammurabi's Code, which is presumably the first written code of law in recorded history and provided a first general guideline of what to define as right or wrong, legal or illegal. All these laws organised everyday life. After all, it is more productive to help each other and respect each other’s property, family and life instead of stealing or murdering. However, besides these laws, which functioned as guidelines for people and enabled the ruling classes to punish those who disobeyed them, religion was and is the main provider of social rules by telling people how to life a respectable life. The Hindus believe in Karma, a doctrine stating that “one's state in this life is a result of actions (both physical and mental) in past incarnations, and action in this life can determine one's destiny in future incarnations. Karma is a natural, impersonal law of moral cause and effect and reincarnation.” (Columbia Encyclopedia: “Karma”) Christians believe in the concepts of heaven and hell and the power of salvation. In addition, the ten commandments, “a list of religious and moral imperatives [...] which are recognized as a moral foundation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam” (Wikipedia: “Ten Commandments”), function as a sort of moral code or law, telling people how to live a good life. Nevertheless, even if you obey all theses rules and laws, bad things can happen which have been and are explained differently by the respective religions. The ancient religions tried to explain the different forces in the universe with the concept of two equally strong but opposing forces. The Greeks and Romans had their gods, who were responsible for anything

-6- good and evil that happened on earth. However, no other religious tradition has focused more on the fight between good and evil than the Christian religion. The whole Christian tradition seems to be dominated by the ongoing and never-ending fight between God and Satan. It is a fight with no borders or boundaries. Therefore, in order to help people recognize the devil and evilness, in order to fight it or him, certain signifiers of evilness had to be defined. Because God is all beauty, the devil has to have an ugly shape and appearance. In addition, evil was linked to death, decay, destruction and bad character traits such as deceitfulness or aggressiveness. Interestingly, in the original Christian tradition evilness was not explicitly connected to the female sex. Except for the story of Adam and Eve, the New Testament includes no other stories featuring a woman as a main protagonist. There are no references of female demons, devils or other evil creatures. The story of Adam and Eve and how they got both expelled from paradise is based on the assumption that women are weaker and easier to manipulate. Because of Eve, mankind is born with the original sin. This story, despite the fact that the concept of original sin had been necessary because otherwise Jesus’ death would not have had that much meaning, labelled women as the weaker sex. Therefore it was also mainly them who were accused of witchcraft and all sorts of other failings because it seemed obvious that the devil has a much easier game with women than with men. But the middle ages passed, and so did the Renaissance, the Age of the Enlightenment, and finally, by the time of the 19th century, the power of the Church and religion started to fade, and science and economy prepared themselves to become the new gods. The prejudice against women however stayed. The Age of Industrialisation was an age of rapid change and technological progress, and women also wanted to be part of that movement and started to fight for their rights. In 19th century literature, however, we mostly find portrayals of typical Victorian or Romantic women. Novels such as Sense and Sensibility , Jane Eyre and Hard Times feature women who embody Victorian ideals of femininity, such as sensitivity, compassion and gentleness. They are good wives and mothers, look pretty, and support and obey their husbands. These works do not necessarily portray life as it was. The female characters presented in such novels function as role models, and woman of the 19th century who read these books were to be encouraged to want to be like the heroines of the books. This diploma thesis, however, will focus on ‘female evil’, i.e. the deviant female characters of Romantic and Victorian novels – women who do not embody the ideal of femininity and womanhood of their time. It was not easy to be a Victorian woman. The pressures on women in 19th century England were very high. In contrast to today when young

-7- women basically only have to model themselves after actresses, models and musicians in ways of looks and fashion, Victorian women additionally had to have the right manners. Numerous books were written, mostly by men, who had an ideal of the perfect woman in mind, and all living women had to try to live up to this ideal. From childhood these women were trained to be good wives and mothers, they were told how to look, how to behave, what to say in public and sometimes even what to think. However, there have always been women who wanted more from life and who did not want to accept their role in society, and naturally, these women are also to be found in literature. They are presented in ways, however, that make it impossible for the reader to fully identify with them. Rather, the reader was supposed to hate them and consider them bad. This paper will investigate what a 19th century woman had to do in order to be labelled ‘evil’ in fiction. The female characters presented in this thesis do things a typical woman of their time would never do. They lie, they cheat, they murder, they show and use their sexuality, or they have fits of rage. They go off script and are consequently punished for that because there is no place for deviant women in a patriarchal society. In order to give an overview of four fundamental types of female evil, four novels have been chosen: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary E. Braddon, and Vanity Fair by Willliam Thackeray. Each of them features a strong female character, representing a different type of female evil. First, we encounter Lucy Westenra, the female vampire , who openly shows her sexuality and lust and even feeds on children. Secondly, Bertha Mason, the madwoman , who behaves and raves like a beast and makes it impossible for her husband to live with her and so he locks her up in the attic of his house. Thirdly, Helen Maldon the murderess , a beautiful blond woman, attempts murder twice in order to defend her newly found social position as Lady Audley, and last but not least, we encounter Becky Sharp, the femme fatale , who uses people to get what she wants, not caring for the consequences of her actions. At the beginning of this paper some background information will be given about the underlying cultural and religious concepts of the idea of female evil and three famous and well-known types of female evil will be presented. Then, this paper will deal with the intellectual and cultural context of 19th century English literature and give some background information about women’s rights of that time. After this theoretical part the four novels will be presented and analysed, especially focusing on the four chosen female characters. At the end of this paper a conclusion will be done, summarising the main ideas and the newfound results.

-8- 2. The idea of female evil – underlying cultural and religious concepts

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" 4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Genesis 3.1-7

Until recently, the first three chapters of Genesis, the only Christian story starring a woman, determined the fate of all women in the Western world. These chapters were used by the Roman Catholic Church as a way to justify the mistreatment and downgrading of women in society. According to the Church, the passage proved the weakness and inferiority of women for various reasons. First, Adam is created in God’s image; Eve is only created out of Adam’s rib and therefore inferior. Second, Adam is the one who is asked to name all the beasts and the one in command in paradise; Eve is only created as a helper in addition to the beasts. Third, Adam is indirectly compared to the soul, Eve is compared to the body. Fourth, it was Eve who starts a theological discussion with the serpent, and her curiosity leads to the Fall. The serpent has an easy job convincing Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and the story takes its course. If the text had ended here, women would have still be seen as being weak, credulous, sensual and easy to manipulate, which was for many centuries considered to be a fact anyway. However, Eve also offers the fruit to her husband and so he also eats from the forbidden tree of knowledge. As a result of their disobedience of God’s command, they are both expelled from Paradise and from that moment people are born into original sin, “the privation of sanctifying grace” (Catholic Encyclopedia , s.v. “original sin”). So ultimately women are also held responsible for all the evil in the world. (Cf. Kuhlmann 2006) Sexuality plays a major role in the story, and once the link between women and the Fall of man was made, it was easy to present women as seductresses, the cause of all evil, and as the ones who enabled evil to come into our world. However, this view is not new. In Greek

-9- mythology a woman, Pandora, is responsible for the entrance of evil into the world, Helen of Troy is the cause of the Trojan War and the destruction of Troy, not to forget the Sirens, the Sphinx and the Gorgons. In the Talmud we find a reference of Lilith, who is said to have been Adam’s fist wife. She is Adam’s equal, made of the same material as he is. This fact leads to conflict because she does not want to take on a subordinate role – meaning that she does not want to lie under him during sexual intercourse – and leaves paradise. After that she has relationships with demons and bears their children. Lilith is a very beautiful woman, with long red hair, and it is told that she visits unwed men at night and takes their life energy through fantasies of imagined sexual intercourse. It is also said that she harms or kills infants. However, there is not a single reference to a woman who is responsible for all the evil in the world in the entire Jewish tradition, unlike the Christian tradition. (Cf. Kuhlmann 2006: 162) In the New Testament we find no stories of female demons, but in the Middle Ages stories of monks, who are tempted by the devil who appears as a beautiful woman, were told. Evil is presented to be masculine, namely the devil, who only uses a female form. In the case of the monks, evil not only means a danger to their chastity but also the loss of power over themselves. Another aspect of why women were usually associated with evil was that they were thought to be much easier to manipulate, and that is why it is claimed that Satan has so many female servants in the world. (Cf. Colpe 1993: 202)

Zweifellos wirkte sich das christliche Frauenbild verhängnisvoll aus, das der Malleus maleficarum mit der Behauptung auf die Spitze trieb, die Natur der Frau sei schlecht, weil die Frau im Glauben weniger standhaft, leichtgläubiger und sinnlicher sei als der Mann und deshalb dem Laster der Hexerei leichter verfalle. (Colpe 1993: 202)

In addition, living conditions were pretty hard in earlier times and especially during cold winters: rockfalls, avalanches, diseases and a high infant mortality turned life into a struggle of survival. All these disastrous natural events needed to be explained and the Roman- Catholic Church decided to blame it on women, despite the fact that, according to the scriptures, they could not be held accountable. Suddenly society had scapegoats to blame for their plight, as numerous witch trials show. If you look closely into the matter of witch trials, it not only becomes obvious that much more women than men were accused and executed, but also that if one examines “die bösen Taten, die Schäden, die im Prozeß dominant den Hexen vorgeworfen wurden, […] so stellen wir fest, daß deren Verwaltung traditionell überwiegend in den Händen der Frauen lagen.” (Colpe 1993:202) It seemed logical to suspect women, and once again the Church managed to blame all evil that happened in the world on

-10- women. Moreover, the witch trials also served as a means of suppressing everything the Roman-Catholic Church considered to be evil, such as sensuality, modern ways of living in a relationship and sexuality. (Cf. Colpe 1993) After the fall of Constantinople a great number of Greek scholars migrated to Italy and a new cultural movement was born: the Renaissance, which was the beginning of the disempowerment of the Roman-Catholic Church. Science slowly started to replace religion and in the long run the fear of Satan and hell lost its hold on people’s imagination. People started to understand that not everything can be blamed on the devil and that nature can be cruel sometimes. However, the Inquisition was never more active than during the early modern period. Numerous witch trials were held and the Roman Catholic Church fought against the new spirit. Still, the world was slowly changing and so was the status of women in society. Women gained more and more influence. Some were queens in their own right, others ruled from behind the throne. These women wanted to take fate into their own hands and be more than a man’s property. The change of the role of women in society also had an influence on the presentation of women in literature. The more women achieved in real life, the easier it became to present them as evil in fiction. In addition, the novel was born and so were new types of female characters, such as the femme fatale or the female vampire. 18th century novels like Pamela – or Virtue Rewarded, Evelina, or The Monk present different types of women. Matilda, one of the main characters in The Monk, is a perfect example of an evil woman, a femme fatale and sorceress. Pamela, on the other hand, is an exemplary English woman and functions as a role model for women of the 18th century. In the Western world the Christian tradition functioned as the central basis of the perception and construction of women. The examples of “female evil” mentioned above are only exemplary and were chosen to give a short insight into and an overview of the topic. However, there are many more which can be found within or outside the Christian tradition. It took women almost 2000 years to overcome these stereotypes and they are still fighting today. In the following chapter I will look into three types of “evil women” and it will become quite obvious that one of the biggest fears of men has always been the beautiful and intelligent woman.

-11- 2.1. Epitomes of Female Evil

In the following chapter three famous epitomes of female evil are presented: the femme fatale, the female warrior and female murderesses and serial killers. These three types of female evil were chosen because they are relevant for the analysis of the novels themselves.

2.1.1. Femme Fatale

The phrase ‘femme fatale’ is French and means “deadly woman”. According to the OED ‘femme fatale’ stands for “an attractive and seductive woman.”

A femme fatale is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. […] Her ability to entrance and hypnotize her male victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon. (Wikipedia)

Mythology, religion, history and literature are full of femmes fatales. Early mythical examples are Lilith, Salome, Aphrodite, Pandora, or the Sphinx and some even consider Eve to be a femme fatale, because she brought about the fall of humankind. “In truth the femme fatale is the archetypal depiction of men's fear of and desire for beautiful, strong, sensual women. […] The evolution of the ‘femme fatale’, with both literary and visual links to the biblical Eve figure, came as a response to increasing feminism and the desire by men to halt its spread.” (Independent 2008) In Romantic literature the character of the femme fatale started to flourish. The deadly vampiress in the Gothic novel seduces men and then sucks out their blood and life energy. She was the literal representation of men’s fear of a sexually independent woman. (Cf. Independent 2008) In Victorian literature the notion of the femme fragile was introduced, i.e. “the sickly, fainting, innocent and also ultimately doomed virgin of Victorian literature” (Independent 2008). The concept of the femme fragile may be based on the folklore character Griselda (cf. Frenzel 1963), a virtuous and beautiful peasant girl married to the Marquis of Saluzzo. The Marquis puts her through a series of ordeals which she all passes. The character of Griselda represents wifely obedience. The femme fragile is a woman who is totally dependent on men, which quite clearly represents the role of Victorian women in society. They were not allowed to vote, own property, speak in public or get a higher education, and they had to repress their -12- sexuality. The only thing they were allowed to lust for was money. However, women started to rebel against this repression and dependency. “Traditional definitions of masculinity were crumbling and men were getting nervous. Even though the femme fatale emasculates men, if she is successfully destroyed or controlled, as she usually is, this then guarantees masculinity.” (Independent 2008)

Femmes fatales in history: a few examples, ancient and modern The first femme fatale of the ancient world is Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and the last pharaoh. She was born in 69 BC in Alexandria. After her father’s death in 51 BC, she and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII were successors to the throne. Cleopatra was then seventeen or eighteen years of age. She was not as beautiful as she is depicted today. However, her charisma, her intellect and her ambitions opened her the doors to the Roman world. In 48 BC her brother and husband conspired against her and Cleopatra was forced into exile. She was determined to regain her throne and by seducing Julius Caesar she managed to become queen of Egypt again. After Julius Caesar’s death, Cleopatra devoted all her attention to Mark Anthony, and like Caesar before him, he forgot all about his other responsibilities. Seducing the Roman rulers allowed her to govern Egypt as she wished and kept Egypt from becoming a Roman province. Unfortunately for her, it was Octavian who managed to become Caesar in the end. After Mark Anthony’s suicide Cleopatra allegedly took her life, primarily in order to escape the kind of public humiliation her sister Arsione had to endure. (Cf. Royalty.nu) Another famous example of a femme fatale is Anne Boleyn, who was Queen of England for three years. She was a knight’s daughter and the niece of the duke of Norfolk. Anne spent her teenage years in France. When she was around twenty years old she returned to England. Her style and wit were her greatest charms and Anne had many admirers. Among them was the king himself. Henry VIII tried to make Anne his mistress. However, Anne did not give in, remembering the fate of her sister, who had gained nothing but scandal from being the king’s mistress. Anne Boleyn wanted to become queen of England. She had to wait seven years until Henry VIII sought an annulment of his marriage to Queen Catherine. That led to the separation of England from Rome and to the creation of the Church of England. After her first daughter, Anne had several miscarriages and could not give Henry the son he desperately needed. This also led to her downfall. On May 1536 Queen Anne Boleyn was publicly executed on patently false charges of treason, incest and adultery. (Cf. Kenneth 1994, Rayner 1958 and Tudorhistory)

-13- One of the most famous examples of a femme fatale in the 20 th century is Mata Hari, a woman who’s name has almost become a synonym for femme fatale. Mata Hari, her birth name having been Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was a Dutch dancer and courtesan. She started her professional dancing career in Paris. Mata Hari was a tall and extremely attractive woman and became famous over night because she was practically nude during her shows. The facts regarding her espionage activities remain obscure. It is not sure whether she worked for the Germans or the French or for both. In the end she was shot by the French on the charge of spying for the Germans. (cf. Britannica , s.v. “Mata Hari”)

Femme Fatales in 18th and 19th century English literature One famous literary example of a femme fatale, in the period under consideration, is the character of Matilda in Matthew Lewis’s gothic novel The Monk . The novel tells the story of the Capuchin monk Ambrosio, who is well respected among the people of Madrid, and his inevitable downfall, caused by a seductive woman. At the beginning of the novel Ambrosio seems to be the incarnation of piety. However, when he is tempted by the devil it turns out that he is a very weak character who easily gives in to carnal lust. Matilda, Satan’s instrument, seduces the monk and, breaking his vow of chastity, becomes only one of his sins on a long list. Matilda is presented as a diabolic beauty and witch. After Matilda, Ambrosio finds a new object of desire: the virginal Antonia. In order to satisfy his lust he asks Matilda to help him to seduce the girl. Now Matilda shows her real face, and even though Ambrosio is terrified by Matilda’s witchcraft he can not say no to her. In a dark crypt she performs her ritual. (Cf. Literary Encyclopedia , s.v. “The Monk“ and Praz 1988: 170-171)

Sie bekleidet sich mit einem langen, schwarzen Gewand, das mit zahlreichen unbekannten Goldbuchstaben bestickt und von einem Gürtel aus kostbaren Steinen zusammengehalten war, in dem ein Dolch steckte. Nacken, Arme waren unbedeckt: in der Hand hielt sie einen goldenen Zauberstab; ihre Haare waren gelöst und fielen wirr über ihre Schultern; die Augen funkelten schrecklich. Ihre ganze Haltung war dazu angetan, in dem Betrachter Ehrfurcht und Bewunderung zu wecken. (Praz 1988:171)

However, everything goes wrong. Ambrosio first kills Antonia’s mother and after he has raped Antonia, he kills her as well on Matilda’s request. In the end, he sells his soul to the devil in order to escape the death penalty only to be left to die in agony. (Cf. Literary Encyclopedia and Praz 1988: 170-171)

-14- The Marquis de Sade was greatly impressed by the novel The Monk and also wrote a narrative with a seductive woman in it: Juliette . Juliette can be described as a nymphomaniac who has no morals and stops at nothing, not even murder. John Keats and Edgar Allen Poe also used the type of the femme fatale. Carmilla, a novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and Dracula by Bram Stoker presented the gothic version of a femme fatale: a female vampire. However, no matter if vampire or femme fatale, these fictional characters represented the new, independent woman who knows how to use her physical appeal and is willing to do anything in order to get what she wants.

2.1.2. Female warriors

Throughout history, war and fighting have always been associated with men and except for the Amazons and some Celtic tribes we do not know of female military squads. However, one does not have to fight on the battlefield in order to be involved in war. Celtic women, for example, accompanied the troops, cooked for them and entertained them. Throughout the last two centuries women have worked as nurses and during the Second World War the Germans, as well as other nations, even used female pilots to fly new planes to the front. Despite the fact that most of the tasks assigned to women were dangerous, they only played a supporting role. However, there have been women like Joan of Arc, who led attacking armies, women who disguised themselves as soldiers in order to be able to fight for their country and women who defended their home because their husband was away. All these women took on typically male roles and willingly gave up some of their female identity. That becomes quite obvious in the historical description of some women. Queen Boadicea, for example, was described by one Roman historian “as a tall, terrifying-looking woman with fierce eyes, a harsh voice, and very long hair.” (Royalty.nu) On the other hand, women were considered to be the ones who had to be protected and rescued. They have always been seen as mother figures, life-givers and the caring ones. Women give life, they do not take it. So, a woman who is willing to kill and take another person’s life can not be a ‘real’ women. Men, on the other hand, are the hunters and the ones who have to protect the family. Nevertheless, from the beginning of man’s settlement, women realised that relying on a man’s help was not enough.

-15- The motifs why women decided to take the sword differ. In the case of queen Boadicea, the reason was revenge. Boadicea (meaning “victorious”), born around 26 A.D, was married to Prasutagus, king of the Iceni. Prasutagus was a client-king and after his death the kingdom passed into the hands of the Romans. His family was publicly humiliated, Boadicea was flogged and forced to watch her two daughters being raped, and the chief tribesmen were plundered. Queen Boadicea was furious and raised a rebellion. On their way south the rebel army destroyed London, Colchester, and other cities, killing about 70,000 people. However, the Romans acted quickly and defeated the undisciplined Britons in a desperate battle. After the defeat, Boadicea killed herself with poison. (Cf. Kenneth 1994, Rayner 1958 and Britannica) Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, on the other hand, claimed to have visions of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret, telling her to lead the resistance to the English invasion of France. She believed the voices she heard and so she cut her hair, put on a man’s uniform and picked up arms. The French were desperate and so it was not all that difficult to convince the captain of the dauphin's forces, and the dauphin himself, of her calling. After passing an examination by a board of theologians, she was given troops to command and the rank of captain. It is said that she wore a white armour and that her presence alone gave the troops back their hope and strength. Suddenly the fate of the French army turned and one victory followed the other. Finally Charles VII was crowned King of France in Reims and Joan of Arc was ennobled for her services to the country. However, the new king was afraid of Joan’s popularity among the troops and the people, and when she was captured and sold to the English, Charles VII did not even try to bail her out. The maid of Orleans was accused of witchcraft and heresy and put to trial. On May 30, 1431 she was publicly burned. Joan of Arc was only nineteen years old then. Rumour says that some of her closest friends tried to free her but that she refused to come with them. In a second trial her innocence was proven and in 1920 she was canonized. (Cf. Bois 1999)

2.1.3. Murderesses and female serial killers

In criminal law murder means “the unjustified killing of one person by another, usually distinguished from the crime of manslaughter by the element of malice aforethought” (Britannica , s.v. “murder”) The most important term in that phrase is ‘unjustified’. Contrary to a homicide, committed as an act of self-defence, in order to prevent another serious felony or to save another persons life, murder is an intentional act. Usually, most murders are

-16- committed within the family or the circle of friends, and mainly by men. The main motifs for such murders are jealousy, frustration or greed. (Cf. Britannica) Mythology and history is full of murderesses who killed for revenge out of jealousy, like Medea, Clytemnestra or Madeleine Smith, a Scottish woman who was accused of murdering her lover Pierre Emile L'Angelier, who threatened to tell everybody about the secret affair. However the charges against her could never be proven and she left Scotland after the trial. In the 19th and 20th century a particular fascination with serial killers can be observed, which may partly be due to the rise of detective fiction. It is a rare phenomena and the arbitrariness of the murders shock and terrify people.

We don't hear of many female serial killers, and that may be partly because women aren't as prone to commit any type of crime as men. Men are more aggressive and violent than women are, which is why female serial killers are less common. Women account for 14% of violent offenders (men are 6 times more likely to commit violent crimes).Because women don't kill for the same reasons as men, forensic psychologists find the term "female serial killer" controversial. This term is defined by sexual motivation and the desire for power over victims, which are characteristics that murderesses don't usually display. (Pawlik-Kienlen 2007)

Interestingly, women not only kill differently than men, they also have different motivations. “Female serial killers kill more quietly and less ‘violently’, with poison or other less detectable methods, like suffocation. Males tend to batter, strangle, stab, and shoot. Female serial killers kill for profit most of the time, while male serial killers kill for sexual reasons about half the time.” (Pawlik-Kienlen 2007) Over the years there has been a tendency to give female serial killers a certain particular type of names, such as ‘black widow’ or ‘angel of death’. A very famous ‘angel of death’ is Beverley Gail Allit, one of Britain’s most well known serial killers. The pediatric nurse killed four children, by injecting them insulin or potassium in order to cause cardiac arrest, and injured five others. Beverley Allit attacked thirteen children over a fifty-eight day period before being caught red-handed. She was sentenced to life-imprisonment. It is assumed that Beverley Allit suffered from Munchausen’s Syndrome, a personality disorder causing people to abuse or harm someone in their care in order to get attention. (Cf. Listverse) Elisabeth Bathory is another famous example. She was a Hungarian countess and probably the most prolific female serial killer in history. The “Blood Countess” killed and tortured over 600 girls and young women and rumour has it that she bathed in her victims blood in order to retain her youth. (Cf. Wikipedia)

-17- Mary Ann Cotton, an English serial killer, killed for profit. After the death of her first husband she collected insurance money, and a pattern was established. Finally, her lethal activities were discovered by the press, and by the time she was arrested she had killed about twenty people. (Cf. Listverse)

-18- 3. The intellectual and cultural context of 19th century literature in England

3.1. 19th century England

In 1789 the French people started to rebel against the oppression of the upper class, and the French Revolution and its lingering ideas were born. The slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” expressed the people’s demand for social equality for all. Especially the bourgeoisie demanded more rights and access to leading positions. The kingdoms surrounding France feared that the revolution would spread. However, it turned out that it might have been easier to fight revolutionary ideas than fighting the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1815, Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo, the original order was restored in Europe and Great Britain became the most powerful empire in the world. At that point it seemed as if the ideas of the French Revolution had simply been forgotten. The nobility was still the ruling class and the kingdoms in Europe seemed to be stronger than ever. However, in the end it was another kind of revolution, namely the Industrial Revolution, which took hold in the mid 18th century, that was to transform Great Britain and Europe forever. Within about eighty years England changed from a primarily agricultural society to a modern industrial nation. (Cf. Gilmour 1996)

Britain passed from being a predominantly rural and mercantile society, ruled by an aristocratic elite and a powerful Established Church, with a largely unofficial and only incipiently specialised intellectual life, to being a predominantly mercantile and industrial society, increasingly democratic and (within Christian bounds) religiously plural, whose intellectual life was fragmenting into various specialisations we are familiar with today. (Gilmour 1996: 3)

The old generation of aristocratic landowners was replaced by the wealthy factory owners of Mid and North England, where industrialisation brought about rapid urban growth. Masses of people moved to the cities in order to work in one of the numerous factories. The working conditions were harsh but now also the middle and lower class had a chance to make money. In addition, mass production and cheaper transport of goods had a huge effect on prices. So on the one hand life generally improved and people could not only buy more, but also more exclusive things. On the other hand the Industrial Revolution also caused social problems

-19- such as child labour, housing problems and unemployment. It became clear that something had to be done. (Cf. Gilmour 1996) The first challenge to the existing order came from the working class and their spokesmen. Trade Unions were founded in order to defend the interests of the workers. After several strikes different Reform Acts were passed by the English Parliament. Women and child labour were limited, the working hours were reduced and in 1885 about 40% of the male population was allowed to vote, whilst women were still not allowed to vote. Women started to fight for their rights but it took another 34 years until they were successful. The struggle of the different groups to reform and reconstruct the old aristocratic Anglican state shaped the intellectual and cultural life of the British people of that time. The climate of reform was the culture medium which proves fertile for intellectuals, scientists, writers and philosophers like Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill or George Elliot. In their works they portrayed, analysed and criticised the contemporaneous social situation, as in Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times, which aimed to highlight the enormous economic and social pressures Victorian people experienced. (Cf. Gilmour 1996) The 19th century was a time of rapid change. The church increasingly lost its power, science emerged and provided new world views, the system of the social classes was turned upside down and people found it hard to adjust to the new pace of life. “More than any previous generation the people we call Victorians were driven to find models of social harmony and personal conduct by means of which they could understand, control, and develop their rapidly changing world.” (Gilmour 1996: 20) One of these models was that of Gentleman and Lady. The Gentleman was a respected rank in society, referring to a person who is decent, generous, open and brave. This model served as a moral guideline for young people and was taken up by the middle class which, in order to distinguish themselves from the upper class, tended to be very conservative when it came to morals. (Cf. Gilmour 1996)

The Victorian moral revolution can be seen, in part, as another aspect of the middle-class challenge to aristocratic social leadership in the period, in which the challenge was legitimised by laying claim to the high ground – to a more inward religion, a tender domestic life, a more scrupulous and efficient conduct of public business, than the civilised classes traditionally practised. (Gilmour 1996:10)

-20- 3.2. 19th century English literature

3.2.1. The Romantic Period

Romanticism was an intellectual movement which flourished from the late 18 th to the mid 19th century and influenced works of literature and painting as well as music, architecture and criticism. Romanticism was a countermovement to Classicism and a reaction against the Enlightenment and 18th century rationalism. Instead of focusing on order, harmony or balance, Romanticism emphasized the emotional, the individual, the irrational, the imaginative and the subjective. Romanticists were interested in the historical past and the supernatural, believed in the goodness of human nature, stressed emotion over reason and criticised the development of capitalist society. The Romantic period was an age of individualism. In their works many Romantic poets presented their emotions and inner feelings. Contrary to Classicism, the main focus was on content and not on traditional form. Nature became an important poetic subject functioning as a sort of guideline which only needed to be studied closely in order to become conscious of oneself. In William Wordsworth’s poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, for example, the speaker is compared to a cloud. By establishing an inherit unity between man and nature it is shown how the speaker truly experiences every moment. However, romanticism was a movement with many aspects. Its interest in the historical past and old myths was reflected in the historical novel, such as Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe . Jane Austen’s famous novels, such as Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice, are examples of the novel of manners which is a close study of a society’s customs, values and morals. In narrative fiction. the most important subgenre that emerged out of Romanticism is the gothic novel. Gothic fiction in general showed the dark and irrational side of human nature, one example being E.A. Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Most of the stories are set in distant places in order to have greater stylistic freedom and also to better disguise the implied social criticism. Some authors questioned the progress of the new sciences and technical developments, as Mary Shelley did in Frankenstein. (Cf. Drabble 1996, Sanders 1996 and Baugh 1967)

-21- 3.2.2. The Victorian Period

In 1837 Victoria became Queen of England and during her reign England changed from a primarily agricultural society to a modern industrial nation. Victorian writers were interested in current issues of their time like the growth of English democracy, education, the rise of capitalism and materialism and the lot of the industrial workers. Contrary to Romanticist writers, they rather focused on the here and now. Nobility had been replaced by prosperity, the chain of being by the chain of command and religion by science. The Industrial Revolution finally brought the change the French Revolution had promised and the climate of reform and change also greatly influenced and guided Victorian writers. In his state-of-the-nation novel Hard Times Charles Dickens focused on the lot of working-class people and the social pressures people were experiencing. He drew a pretty accurate picture of the social situation of his time, showing the downside of industrialisation. William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair and Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles focused on the lot of women and the need of marriage in the Victorian era. In both novels the heroines are poor women, trying to make the best of life, who in the end make one more bad decisions which leads to their inevitable downfall. The rise of children’s literature brought fun back into literature because some works now classified as children’s literature were initially written for adults. The narratives and poems were thought to function as moral guidelines for children. One very famous writer of that genre is Lewis Carrroll with his two works Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. (Cf. Sanders 1996, Drabble 1996 and Baugh 1967)

-22- 3.3. Women’s rights in the 19th century

While desiring the fullest possible development of the powers, energies, and education of women, we believe that their work for the State, and their responsibilities towards it, must always differ essentially from those of men, and that therefore their share in the working of the State machinery should be different from that assigned to men …. To men belong the struggle of debate and legislation in Parliament; the hard and exhausting labour implied in the administration of the national resources and powers; the conduct of England’s relations towards the external world; the working of the army and navy; all the heavy, laborious, fundamental industries of the State. In all these spheres women’s direct participation is made impossible either by the disabilities of the sex, or by strong formations of custom and habit resting ultimately upon physical difference, against which it is useless to contend. (Gilmour 1996: 191)

In the 19th century it was assumed that men and women occupy separate but complementary spheres: the public sphere was occupied by men and the private, domestic sphere was occupied by women. This separation was considered to be due to women’s strengths such as being emotional, sympathetic, understanding, caring and domestic and based on the belief that women’s countervailing power, best exercised at home, would be lost in case they should enter the public domain. These two spheres would come together in marriage to complete the lack in the other. Therefore the main goal in a woman’s life was to get married. Marriage socially secured her but also enslaved her because in the 19th century women totally depended on men. First, women usually had no independent means of subsistence. Second, they were barred from universities and therefore could only get low-paid jobs. Third, they were not allowed to vote. Fourth, they were not allowed to speak in public or do any sort of business. Fifth, they had to obey their husbands will, even if it would mean to send children away. (Cf. Gilmour 1996: 17-28 and Dunbar 1953: 189-194) From childhood on women of the middle and upper classes were raised to be good wives and mothers. They were sent to boarding-schools where they were trained and prepared for their job. They learned to sing, play an instrument and speak a little French or Italian in order to be a good host. However, the main task in a woman’s life was to bear children and bring them up, manage the household and be a good wife, and for that a higher education was not necessary. This view was sanctified and supported by church, and contrary to other views, modern science did not challenge but rather supported it. (Cf. Gilmour 1996: 189-194)

-23- At a time when the right to vote was related to the voter’s presumed ability to exercise it wisely, women were felt to be at the mercy of their biology; menstruation, pregnancy, child-rearing, and the menopause were unsettling (and little understood) female phenomena, likely to make women unreliable in the polling-booth; and there was no lack of prestigious, conservative doctors willing to say so in public. (Gilmour 1996: 191)

Inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft, women like Caroline Norton, Florence Nightingale or Barbara Leigh Smith started to fight for their rights and challenged the views of their time. Between 1839 and 1928 several reform acts were passed by parliament and so step by step, the legal situation of women improved. The most important legal milestones for women were: (1) Infants and Child Custody Act (1839/73), allowing women who were divorced or separated but had not been proved adulterous to ask for custody of children under seven. (2) Married Women’s Property Act (1882) allowing women to keep all personal and real property acquired before and during marriage. (3) Women’s suffrage (1918/28), allowing women to vote and stand for parliament. (C.f. HastingsHistory) Due to such legal changes new liberties opened up for women in the second half of the century. Now also more and more middle-class women went out to work. However, leaving their home and pursuing an active career clashed with the stereotype of passive femininity. These women risked their marriageability and their social status. The social pressure was very high and so a lot of women conformed with the current role model. (Cf. Gilmour 1996: 193) Men of that time of course noticed such changes. They felt threatened by these new active women, fearing that their well-protected public domains of politics and trade might be invaded by the opposite sex. The masculine professional prestige totally depended on the view that men are the only ones who can handle business and do politics. So what where the consequences if women can do that as well, what are men here for and what is their very own domain? In addition they did not know how to deal with these new women and this new concept of womanhood, and that is why they fought against it. (Cf. Gilmour 1996: 189-194)

-24- 3.3.1. Women and education

In 19th century England women outnumbered men, and about thirty percent of women over 20 were unmarried. This surplus of women was caused by the high rate of emigration among young men at that time. Therefore, especially spinsters were encouraged to emigrate to the colonies, where men were in the majority. (Cf. Hastingspress) Many of these unmarried English women, on the death of a father or brother, had no means of support. Their education had most of the time been very superficial and so they had no real qualifications to earn a living. They ended up working in factories or as prostitutes. A good education would save them from ending up on the streets. (Cf. Dunbar 1953: 133-134) However, not only the working-class women needed better education. The middle and upper-class women likewise were tired of the trivial amusements of their social class. The only education they were granted was that of the numerous boarding schools, where they were prepared for their future life as a wife and mother. (Cf. Dunbar 1953: 133-134) Frances Power Cobbe, one of the most vigorous-minded of the female Victorian writers, did not have a very high opinion of boarding schools and describes her life at one of these establishments as follows:

The education of women was probably at its lowest ebb [then]. It was at that period more pretentious than it had ever been before…and it was likewise more shallow and senseless than can easily be believed…[…] All the pupils were daughters of men of standing…but all this fine human material was deplorably wasted. Nobody dreamed that any one of us could in later life be more or less than an ‘Ornament of Society.’ That a pupil in that school should ever become an artist or authoress...[…] Everything was taught us in the inverse ration of its true importance. At the bottom of the scale were Morals and Religion, and at the top were Music and Dancing: miserable poor music too. (Quoted in: Dunbar 1953:136-137)

The school Frances Power Cobbe describes was an expensive and fashionable one, so one can easily imagine what the cheaper establishments provided. After graduation young girls could work as a governess, in case they were not already engaged. For many families employing a governess was cheaper than sending all their girls to boarding schools. “The picture of the Victorian governess has come down to us deeply stamped with the features of Jane Eyre: a woman of intelligence, sensibility, and deep feelings, condemned by poverty to a life of repressions and frustrations.” (Dunbar 1953:137; cf. Dunbar 1953)

-25- Unfortunately, not all of these women were really qualified for their job but it was their only possibility to earn a living in a respectable manner. This fact led to exploitation and underpayment by employers. In order to help and support these women, the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution came into being and others followed. (Cf. Dunbar 1953: 138-140) Women had realised that their only way of getting political rights was based on a good education. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft asked in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women for equal education with men and equal opportunities to enter the professions. Her ideas were bitterly attacked by men as well as by women. Around forty years later, in 1843, Mrs Huge Reid published A Plea For Women , causing the same effect as her famous sister-in- arms. A newspaper asked in response to her work: “Of what use is education to the weaker sex? The professions and public offices are very properly not open to women. The most proper occupations for women are teaching young ladies, especially religion and drawing.” (Dunbar 1953:135) However, women did not give up and finally in 1849, the “Ladies College in Bedford Square”, destined to become the first college for women in the University of London, was established. In addition, the Sunday School movement began to exercise a great influence. Labour class children were taught to read the bible, a great development, given the fact that about 50% of married women in 1851 were illiterate. In addition, some factory owners offered schooling for the children of their workers during the day and adult education at night. Out of these uncoordinated experiments in educating the labour class grew a national system of elementary education. It was still a long way to go and it took women another century to reach the same level as men when it comes to education, but it was a start. (Cf. Dunbar 1953: 141-147)

-26- 3.3.2. Women and marriage

Under exclusively man-made laws women have been reduced to the most abject condition of legal slavery in which it is possible for human beings to be held...under the arbitrary domination of another's will, and dependent for decent treatment exclusively on the goodness of heart of the individual master. (Florence F. Miller: From a speech to the National Liberal Club )

In the pamphlet “A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cranworth's Marriage and Divorce Bill” (1855), Caroline Norton reviewed the position of married women under English law. In 1855 a married English woman had no legal existence whether or not she was living with her husband, and her property was his property. She was not able to make a will, leaving everything she owned to her husband. In case she worked, she was not allowed to keep her earnings. In case of a divorce, the woman was not allowed to defend herself and if she left the house without his permission in order to take shelter at someone else’s house the husband could sue for restitution of conjugal rights and thus force her to return to his home. Furthermore, English women could not sue for libel, could not sign a lease or transact business and could not bind their husbands to any agreement or claim support. (Cf. Caroline Norton) Nevertheless, a married woman had more rights than an unmarried one and so it can be said that “a female’s real existence only begins when she has a husband.” (Dunbar 1953:17) English girls knew this and so getting settled was their only aim. Marriage was not about romance, these longings had to be satisfied by reading passionate novels, it was about living a respectable life. The married woman had a status, a position in society, and despite the fact that she traded the authority of a father for that of a husband, she was able, for the first time, to give orders herself. As the mistress of the household she could make decisions for herself, instead of having to obey her parents. (Cf. Dunbar 1953: 22) In order to get a man interested, the girls had to reach the ideal of feminine perfection of their time, laid down by men. “Writers like Mrs Ellis made it quite clear what was expected: softness and weakness, delicacy and modesty, a small waist and curving shoulders, an endearing ignorance of everything that went on beyond household and social life.” (Dunbar 1953:20) Men did not want an intelligent wife, all they demanded was “charm, a high sense of domestic duty, admiration for and submission to themselves, and the usual accomplishments necessary for entertaining friends.” (Dunbar 1953:20) Having achieved marriage, bearing children and managing the household were a woman’s main tasks. As a result of the bad hygiene standards, a lot of women died in

-27- childbirth and it is a miracle that so many women survived and that families were so large at all. (Cf. Dunbar 1953: 23) The status of women in the English society of the 19th century was that of a second class citizen. No matter if high-born or working class, all women faced the same restrictions and prejudices. Thanks to some brave women who did not want to accept the given state of affairs, the women’s movement came into being. However, even today women have to fight for their rights and it will take a long time until the image of the weak and emotion-guided woman will finally fade and be forgotten. In the following chapters I will analyse four exemplary English novels, each featuring an extraordinary female character. I will show how female evil is constructed, how an evil female character is presented to the reader, what kind of images and stereotypes are used in the text and how those are related to the background outlined above.

-28- 4. Analysis of deviant women in selected English novels of the 19th century

“Schlechte Frauen oder böse Frauen sind Frauen, deren Handeln nicht mit den gesellschaftlich vorgegebenen normativen Weiblichkeits- Vorstellungen übereinstimmt und die deshalb kriminalisiert oder als unmoralisch bezeichnet werden.“ (Kuhlmann 2006: 148)

In 19th century England, the role of women in society was clearly defined: A woman’s purpose in life was to be a good wife and mother. Women who deviated from this socially defined role posed a threat to the patriarchal order and had to be punished. For my analysis, I have chosen four representative English novels of the 19th century: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary E. Braddon, and Vanity Fair by Willliam Thackeray, each of them featuring a strong female character. All four women deviate from the role of mother or wife in one way or another, and therefore, are presented as being evil. It is their refusal of playing their role in society that has been considered most shocking. I have decided not to present the novels in chronological order because I want to show how the different variations of female evil depicted in these novels, such as the female vampire, the madwoman, the murderess and the femme fatale, reflect the role of woman in society and mirror the general literary change away from Romanticism to Victorian literature.

4.1. Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula is a novel written by the Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 and figures the most famous vampire in literary history. The novel covers various themes and has therefore been associated with many literary genres such as gothic or invasion literature. “Dracula is a product of its time, exhibiting the contemporary interest in spiritualism and the occult, together with an optimistic and ameliorative philosophy.” (Cavaliero 1995:45)

-29- 4.1.1. A short introduction to Dracula

Dracula is an epistolary novel, composed of journal entries, letters, newspaper articles and transcripts of phonograph records. By mimicking real life media, this epistolary novel creates the impression of authenticity. The documents are presented in a logical, mostly also chronological order and due to the absence of an authorial narrator, the reader is far more immersed in the story and has to piece all its elements together for himself. At the end of the novel, the protagonists get to read the documents of the other characters, in order to enable them to act as a unit and operate on the same level of knowledge. As numerous as the sources of the novel are the themes covered in the book, such as the fear of colonization in reverse, the transgression of the border between madness and sanity, the consequences of modernity, the promise of Christian salvation and the threat of female sexual expression. The 19th century was the age of industrialisation and imperialism and is often described as a golden age. However, not all that glitters is gold. New technologies and scientific theories inspired people to question traditional belief systems. The novel shows that only by mastering old as well as new knowledge we can survive in the new, modern age. In addition, British people were afraid of being invaded by another nation, terrestrial or alien. England had brought civilisation to the world, but what if all these newly civilized nations turned against their masters? 1 In the novel, Christian belief symbols, such as a crucifix or holy water, as well as garlic, are the most effective weapons against vampires. “The novel is so invested in the strength and power of these Christian symbols that it reads like a propagandistic Christian promise of salvation.” (Sparknotes) Vampires are a threat to the Christian promise of salvation and eternal life because through their supernatural existence, they “offer an alternative to Christ’s Atonement, Redemption, and Grace in eternal life-in-death.” (Paulson 2007: 171) The threat of female sexuality is also a very prominent theme in the novel. Some critics argue that the novel displays typically Victorian male imagination indulging in the topic of female sexuality. Women’s sexual behaviour was dictated by society and women had only two respectable options: staying a virgin or becoming a wife and mother. Choosing neither of these two was socially unacceptable: such a woman was considered a whore and

1 For fine summary and additional information see sparknotes -30- made a social outcast. Dracula broaches the issue of suppressed female sexuality in Victorian society and the threat of sexually emancipated women, the female vampire, to society. 2 The story starts with the adventures of Jonathan Harker, a young English solicitor, who travels to Transylvania in order to conduct a real estate transaction with Count Dracula. Despite the fact that some locals warn him about his destination, Jonathan Harker decides to meet the count anyway and is at first charmed by Dracula’s gracious manner. After a while, Harker realizes that he is a prisoner in the castle and decides to find out more about his strange host. During his secret investigations he discloses Dracula’s dark secret. Fearing for his life, Harker risks an escape from the castle. In the meantime, Count Dracula has already managed to set foot on English soil and chooses Lucy Westenra, a beautiful and sought-after young woman, to be his first victim. Night after night, he secretly visits her and sucks her blood, thus making her weaker and weaker. Alarmed by Lucy’s frail condition, her friend Mina Murray and Dr. Seward, one of her suitors, send for Professor Van Helsing. Jonathan Harker has managed to get to Budapest, but he suffers from brain fever and so his fiancée Mina Murray travels there to nurse him and finally takes him back to England. Meanwhile, Van Helsing tries to fight Lucy’s illness with numerous blood transfusions, from her suitors, a method which proves not to work. Too late, the men realize what they are really fighting against and after another attack by the Count, Lucy finally dies. After Lucy’s death, the newspapers report children disappearing at night and that they were taken by the ‘bloofer lady’. Van Helsing quickly realizes that it is Lucy they are writing about. He leads Quincey Morris, another one of Lucy’s suitors, Arthur Holmwood, Lucy’s fiancée, and Dr. Seward to her tomb only to discover that their worst nightmare has come true: Lucy has become a vampire herself. Van Helsing knows what to do. He has Holmwood stake her heart, behead her and stuff her mouth with garlic, ensuring that Lucy’s soul can find eternal rest. Afterwards the men pledge to kill Dracula himself. Mina and her husband Jonathan Harker join them. However, time works against them because Dracula has bit Mina, creating a supernatural, spiritual bond between them and slowly turning her into a vampire. The men know that they have to act fast and catch Dracula before he manages to get back to his castle. They follow him to Transylvania, where Dracula is finally killed and crumbles to dust, Mina is saved and the group, except Quincey Morris, who died, safely returns to England.

2 For fine summary and additional information see sparknotes -31- 4.1.2. Lucy Westenra – the female vampire

Bridging the gap between believers and humanists was the vampire, the undead, a Levitical abomination in that it is both alive and dead, man and monster, a figure of sin related to the Pan-Satan who replaced God. Satan and the demons were “gods,” different from us, impingers from outer space, but the vampire is one of us, an obscene version of Christ’s Incarnation – and so of his Passion and Redemption. (Paulson 2007: 171)

Vampires are damned to eternal life in death, instead of eternal life in paradise. They feed on humans like parasites and are therefore “partly living through or by means of human beings, and to that extent dependent on them, like evil itself, from what she can be or do”. (Paulson 2007: 173) Vampires are the incarnation of evil. They are driven by instinct and the need for human blood. Being bitten by a vampire does not only mean that you turn into a monster with supernatural powers, it also means that your soul can never find eternal rest, that you will live on and on, committing sin after sin, unable to find peace. Associating a woman with something as evil as a vampire increases the horror, because traditionally women stand for beauty, tenderness and motherhood. Therefore, as stated above, a female vampire is the first creation of female evil I will focus on. In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Lucy Westenra, a beautiful young woman, is bitten by Dracula and turns into a “grotesque, albeit voluptuous monster, someone from whom men recoil.” (Nyberg 2002: 489) According to Pfister’s typology, as outlined in Wenzel’s book Einführung in die Erzähltextanalyse , Lucy Westenra can be described as a dynamic character. Once turned into a vampire, Lucy has a different personality, behaves differently and speaks differently. The words used to describe her physical appearance differ from those which were used to describe her when she was still human. Once turned into a vampire, the adjectives used to describe her beauty contain sexual allusions, which was not the case when she was still human. “Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness.” (Stoker 1994: 288) However, no matter if human or vampire, her character is relatively one-dimensional and completely defined. As a human being, she symbolizes the beautiful ‘prize’ all men want to win, and as a vampire she stands for the rebellious new woman who has to be conquered and destroyed. Dracula is an epistolary novel, and so there is no authorial narrator. Lucy as a human being is characterised both via the other characters in the novel and via her diary entries, which provide an insight into her thoughts and feelings. After her death, she is only described by Dr. Seward who narrates the events that happened in the churchyard. On the one hand Dr.

-32- Seward can be considered a reliable source. First, he is a doctor, and secondly he has done nothing so far to arouse the reader’s suspicion. On the other hand Dr. Seward was in love with Lucy and one of her suitors, and therefore it can be argued that his portrayal of the events is not an objective one. In addition, several passages in the text hint at him being somehow involved in taking drugs. However, the fact that Lucy is a Vampire and threat to society is proof enough for Lucy’s evilness and can hardly be questioned. Therefore the necessity of killing her is fully understood and accepted by the reader. From the beginning of the novel it is difficult for the reader to sympathise with Lucy, as she appears to be superficial and shallow, contrary to Mina Murray. Thus, it is hardly surprising that Lucy becomes Dracula’s first victim. Further, her death is not the real drama in the book. “Lucy Westenra is marked from her first lush entrance in the novel. Three men propose to her in one day, and she greedily wants them all.” (Nyberg 2002:48) After the three proposals Lucy asks Mina Murry in a letter: “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her?” (Stoker 1994:81) Lucy knows that she is beautiful and sexually attractive. She enjoys her power. “She clearly has an effect on men long before she becomes a vampire.” (Nyberg 2002:48) Her beauty charms them all and even Van Helsing once said: “The disease – for not to be all well is a disease – interests me, and the sweet young dear, she interests me too. She charm me, and for her, if not for you or disease, I come” (Stoker 1994:157) Lucy’s physical beauty is being referred to numerous times, which stands in contrast to the other major female character in the book, Mina Murray, who, symbolising the perfect Victorian woman, plays a supporting and somewhat asexual role. Dr. Seward praises Mina, saying that “She is one of God’s women fashioned by His own hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter, and that its light can be here on earth. So true, so sweet, so noble, so little an egoist – and that, let me tell you, is much in this age, so sceptical and selfish.” (Stoker 1994: 258) Lucy is never described in that way. However, Lucy is not only a very beautiful young lady; she is also a very emotional one, openly showing her feelings for Arthur Holmwood, her fiancé. In a letter, she writes to her close friend Mina Murray, “I love him. I am blushing as I write, for although I think he loves me, he has not told me so in words. But, oh, Mina, I love him; I love him; I love him!” (Stoker 1994:76) This overflow of emotions was not expected in a Victorian woman. Marriage was not about love and romance, it was about living a respectable life. As the story proceeds, Lucy is getting weaker and weaker and her physical beauty fades. “She was ghastly, chalkily pale; the red seemed to have gone even from her lips and gums, and the bones of her face stood out prominently; her breathing was painful to see or

-33- hear.” (Stoker 1994:164) The three men fight for her life but in the end it is Lucy’s mother of all people who, by removing the garlic around Lucy’s neck, is effectively responsible for her death. After Lucy’s death, her beauty is again praised: “Death had given back part of her beauty, for her brow and cheeks had recovered some of their flowing lines; even the lips had lost their deadly pallor. It was as if the blood, no longer needed for the working of the heart, had gone to make the harshness of death as little rude as might be.” (Stoker 1994: 221) And the woman who performed the last offices for her says: “She makes a very beautiful corpse, sir.” (Stoker 1994: 222) The reason why physical beauty plays such an important role in Lucy’s case is that it is her beauty that gives her power. As a human being she charms three men and they all fight for her life and even give their blood for her. After the numerous blood transfusion Van Helsing comments on the sexual symbolism and consequences of this act: “Said he not that the transfusion of his blood to her veins had made her truly his bride? […] If so that, then what about the others? Ho, ho! Then this so sweet maid is a polyandrist, and me, with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife, am bigamist.” (Stoker 1994: 240-241) According to C.F. Bentley the blood acts as a substitute for sperm, hence Lucy lost her virginity during these symbolical sexual intercourses. (Cf. Klemens 2004: 115) As a vampire Lucy easily manages to seduce children. Despite the fact that she bites them, they want to see her again. Once turned into a vampire Lucy becomes the incarnation of beauty and sexuality, openly showing what she wants, contrary to typical Victorian women who would have never openly showed their sexual desires. After Lucy’s burial, the newspaper reports children disappearing at night and that they were taken by the ‘bloofer (=beautiful) lady’. Again Lucy is defined through her physical appearance. Instead of common criminals or murderers, who are mostly given names that stand for their terrible deeds, Lucy is primarily associated with beauty. Van Helsing realizes that Lucy’s struggle is not over yet and prepares himself and the others for what is still to come. The group of men, Van Helsing, Quincey Morris, Arthur Holmwood and Dr. Seward, hides in the cemetery, waiting for Lucy to appear. “Far down the avenue of yews we saw a white figure advance – a dim white figure, which held something dark at its breast.” (Stoker 1994: 287) Lucy holds the child at her breast, yet not to nurse it, but to feed on it. The child turns into nourishment for the mother, instead of the mother nourishing the child. Once she is done she carelessly flings the child to the ground. This of course is a complete reversal of traditional norms and stereotypes:

-34- In ihrem vampirhaften Dasein, also einer Existenz , die von weiblichen Trieben gelenkt, allein auf die Erhaltung des persönlichen Lebens und Wohlergehens reduziert ist, und der Handlungen von sozialem bzw. selbstlosen Charakter fremd sind, hat sich die Frau weitestgehend vom Rollenstereotyp der führsorglichen, beschützenden, friedvollen und vor allem mütterlichen Frau entfernt. Der weibliche Vampir ist die fleischgewordene Antithese zum viktorianischen Frauenideal. Der bis zur Asexualität idealisierte angel in the house der viktorianischen Zeit bricht aus seiner Rolle aus und wird zum sexualisierten bedrohlichen Teufel, der sich auf Friedhöfen herumtreibt und der Welt der Toten näher steht als der der Lebenden. (Klemens 2004: 130)

Having to watch this act of female violence against a small and innocent child horrifies the men, especially Arthur. Before her transformation, he and Lucy were about to be married, they would have had children of their own. However, while still alive, Lucy has mixed feelings about her future role as a mother and wife. She is not ready for her new life. During the day she prepares herself for her new role in society, during the night, however, she sleepwalks, which can be interpreted as an unconscious act of rebellion; she tries to run away. Lucy “fungiert als eine Repräsentantin des weiblichen Aufbruchs im 19. Jahrhundert und des Kampfes der Frauen um die Selbstbestimmung ihrer weiblichen Rolle, die in ihren Anfängen zunächst ein Kampf um weibliche Mitbestimmung an der Definition der Frauen- und Mutterrolle war.“ (Klemens 2004: 132) As a vampire, Lucy is free from all social boundaries. She does not have to conform anymore. However, in the end, this is exactly the reason why she has to die. Symbolically, her rebellion threatens the patriarchal order. Lucy’s deviant behaviour is punished by death and the patriarchal order is restored. (Cf. Klemens 2004:135- 136) The four men are horrified, for they do not exactly know what awaits them, but they get closer and can now finally see Lucy. “Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness. […] by the concentrated light that fell on Lucy’s face we could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe.” (Stoker 1994: 288) The men never actually see how Lucy bites the small child and sucks its blood, they only hear the child cry, and by the fresh blood on her lips and chin they can tell what she has just done. This act of female violence against an innocent child shocks the men. The image of Lucy with blood running down her face is a picture of pure evilness. She looks more like a beast of prey than a human being. (Cf. Klemens 2004)

-35- The blood stain on Lucy’s white death-robe has two different connotations. On the one hand it is a symbol of Lucy’s evilness and her dreadful deed but on the other hand it also stands for her lost innocence. A respectable woman would lose her virginity in her wedding night. A blood stain on the sheets would have been proof not only of a successfully consummated marriage but also of the woman having lost her innocence. In Lucy’s case, however, she lost her innocence when she bit the first child. (Cf. Klemens 2004: 133-134) Before Lucy becomes a vampire she is being courted by three men. All of them are equally in love and all of them give their blood in order to save her. In a way she had a very intimate relationship with all three of them, and it is those three men and Van Helsing who come to the graveyard in order to kill her. At the beginning, Dr. Seward is very much in love with her, but the moment he sees Lucy the vampire, his feelings of love change into hate and he is willing to kill her. He hates her and fears her on equal terms because he cannot bear this radiance of femininity and sexuality which Lucy emits. In this scene Lucy represents the new woman: self-confident, totally aware of her femininity and unwilling to conform to conventional role models. As a man of his time he cannot love a woman like that, (cf. Klemens 2004: 134) as Dr. Seward himself recalls:

Lucy’s eyes in form and colour; but Lucy’s eyes unclean and full of hell- fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew. At that moment the remnant of my love passed into hate and loathing; had she then to be killed, I could have done it with savage delight. As she looked, her eyes blazed with unholy light, and the face became wreathed with a voluptuous smile. (Stoker 1994: 288)

Lucy is an unmarried woman when she dies. Virginity and sexual passivity are expected of her. By choosing children to feed on and thereby producing new vampires, she assumes the role of a mother, although a totally perverted one. A patriarchal society determines a woman’s social as well as sexual role in society, and as a ‘single mom’ Lucy openly resists the patriarchal power structures and is therefore considered to be a threat to society. “Es ist also letztendlich die Ausdrucksform ihrer weiblichen Sexualität (die sich in der Mutterschaft körperlich manifestiert), die als Gegenmaßnahme von Seiten des Patriarchats, indem man sie moralisch ächtet, auch eine soziale Ächtung erfährt. Dies stellt Lucy als ledige Mutter in die Nähe einer anderen Kategorie von Frauen [...] – die Prostituierte.“ (Klemens 2004: 134) According to patriarchal views, a woman with deviant sexual behaviour can not be a good mother. Therefore she is of no use to society and has to be eliminated. (Cf. Klemens 2004: 135) Interestingly, Arthur’s reaction is different, as Seward tells us:

-36- She still advanced, however, and with a languorous, voluptuous grace, said: ‘Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others, and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!’ There was something diabolically sweet in her tones – something of the tingling of glass when struck – which rang through the brains even of us who heard the words addressed to another. As for Arthur, he seemed under a spell; moving his hands from his face, he opened wide his arms. (Stoker 1994: 289)

Arthur cannot resist her and had it not been for Van Helsing, who holds a crucifix between them, he would have answered to her call and would have been lost forever. Lucy is trapped between Van Helsing and the tomb, which she can not enter because the men have placed some sacred emblems around the entrance. The Christian symbols hold her back and like a trapped animal she shows her true face, no longer hiding the evilness behind a façade of beauty.

Never did I see such baffled malice on a face; and never, I trust, shall such ever seen again by mortal eyes. The beautiful colour became livid, the eyes seemed to throw out sparks of hell-fire, the brows were wrinkled as though the folds of the flesh were coils of Medusa’s snakes, and the lovely, blood stained mouth grew to an open square, as in the passion masks of the Greeks and Japanese. If ever a face meant death – if looks could kill – we saw it at that moment.” (Stoker 1994: 289)

Even though the men know that Lucy is a vampire, her beauty tricks them and makes it difficult to believe that she is truly evil. In myths and legends even in the Holy Bible, demons, trolls or the devil are traditionally described as ugly, misshapen figures. Even in todays’ movies, you can often instantly tell who the bad guy is. Associating physical appearance with character makes it easier to judge strangers and tell good from bad people. In Dracula, Lucy the vampire disguises herself and hides her evil character behind a beautiful face, a strategy which might remind one of the devil, who sometimes uses the same trick to seduce and tempt people. However, this is only a disguise, and at one point or another the mask will fall. So it happens in Lucy’s case, and by showing the men her anger and hatred, she makes it easier for them to forget the Lucy they have known and concentrate on the vampire who is standing before them. Van Helsing removes the emblems from the door and Lucy can enter the tomb in order to lie down and rest. The men return the next night in order to fulfil their task. When they open the lid of the coffin, they see her lying there in all her death-beauty. Dr. Seward’s thoughts about this encounter describe the men’s feelings. “She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there, pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth – which it made one

-37- shudder to see – the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity.” (Stoker 1994: 292) The men are ready to kill the ‘beast’. Van Helsing takes a wooden stake and asks the group of men: “Instead of working wickedness by night and growing more debased in the assimilation of it by day, she shall take her place with the other Angels. So that, my friend, it will be a blessed hand for her that shall strike the blow that sets her free. To this I am willing, but is there none amongst us who has a better right?” (Stoker 1994: 294) Arthur Holmwood accepts the offer and so the man who loves her best is chosen to kill and free her. Arthur drives a stake through Lucy’s heart and by killing the vampire in her, he saves her soul. After the bloody deed is done, the men look down and see “Lucy as we had seen her in her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity. True that they were there, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and pain and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth to what we knew.” (Stoker 1994: 298) They consider themselves as the saviours of Lucy’s immortal soul. The patriarchal order is restored and mankind saved from evil. However, “Lucy is more than killed; she is erotically conquered by the man she was to marry. Her staking is clearly sexualized. There is brutal agony in the union of Arthur […] and Lucy; the first intercourse is nightmarish, and it is the only time Arthur really gets close to her. Arthur’s act of love for Lucy highlights the possibilities for violence and cruelty in sexual behaviour.” (Nyberg 2002:48) Read in turns of social symbolism one could say:

Die gewaltsame Vernichtung dieser Frau wird von den Männern als eine von der Frau provozierte, notwendige und deshalb gerechtfertigte Konsequenz ihres gesellschaftlich nicht sanktionierten weiblichen (mütterlichen) Verhaltens dargestellt. Eine gewalttätige Frau kann, in Stokers Werk, von einer patriarchalisch geprägten Gesellschaft nicht geduldet werden und die Männer, als Vertreter und Nutznießer dieser Gesellschaftsordnung, sorgen dafür, dass eine derart ‚aus der Rolle gefallene’ Frau eliminiert wird. (Klemens 2004:132)

As a vampire Lucy personifies the anti-Victorian woman. The victim at the beginning of the novel turns into an offender, harming innocent children. She has to be punished and death is the chosen penalty. Lucy functions as a contrast to the perfect and angel-like Mina Harker who can be considered to be a portrayal of an ideal Victorian woman. It is no surprise that this female role model survives in the end and that the beautiful seductress, who Lucy has been from the beginning, has to die. In addition, Lucy also typifies another form of female evil, namely that of a femme fatale. The concept of a female vampire and a femme fatale are closely linked. Both types of

-38- woman are seductresses who lead men into dangerous situations which can cost them their lives or, in case of the female vampire, even their souls. The femme fatale’s power over men, same as the female vampire, is grounded on her beauty and her sexual attraction. Therefore, both are versions of anti-women who have to be destroyed in order to ensure the patriarchal order.

4.2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is one of the outstanding Victorian novels written by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. The novel was first published in 1847 in London under her pen name ‘Currer Bell.’ The influential and partly autobiographical novel abounds with social criticism and gothic elements.

4.2.1. General introduction to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative telling the story of the eponymous character Jane Eyre. The plot of Jane Eyre follows the form of a Bildungsroman , focusing on the emotions and experiences of the main character’s growth into adulthood. The novel contains elements of social criticism, the difficult social position of a governess in the class system, and the Gothic horror story. The narrative is basically the story of a woman’s quest for love. Therefore, the theme of love versus autonomy is very prominent in the novel. Jane Eyre does not only search for romantic love, but also for a sense of being valued. However, she fears that marrying Edward Rochester would mean losing her autonomy. Jane does not want to depend on him and belong to him; she wants to be his equal. Her struggle to find the right balance between moral duty and earthly pleasure continues throughout the entire novel. Jane’s high sense of morals does not allow her to marry Rochester or live with him, while he is still married to Bertha. Her religious upbringing and high sense of morals forces her to leave her beloved one. 3 Gender relations are another very important theme in Brontë’s work. As a woman who wishes to be a man’s equal and not his property, Jane must fight against patriarchal domination. The three central male figures, Mr. Brocklehurst, Edward Rochester, and St. John Rivers each try to keep Jane in a submissive position. However, Jane has a strong will and does not falter. She fights for her independence and only after she is financially independent

3 for fine summary and additional information see sparknotes -39- and has proven to herself that she can live alone, she returns to Rochester and marries him. The novel also criticises the strict social hierarchy of Victorian England. The complicated social position of a governess and the difficulty of making ones living without the aid of either inherited wealth or a husband, as the Brontë sisters experienced themselves, is perhaps the most important theme treated in the novel. 4 The novel’s first setting is Gateshead Hall where Jane Eyre, a young orphan, lives with her uncle’s family. After her uncle’s death, Jane’s situation changes dramatically. Mrs. Reed, her aunt, and her cousins openly neglect and abuse her. One time, as a punishment for fighting with her cousin, Jane is locked up in the room in which her uncle died. Believing that she sees her uncle’s ghost, Jane panics and passes out. After this incident, Mrs. Reed decides to send Jane away to Lowood School. However, it turns out that life at Lowood is grim and not idyllic at all. The students are starving and freezing, while Mr. Brocklehurst, the school’s headmaster, and his family live a life of comfort and luxury. Jane makes friends with a young girl named Helen Burns, who shows Jane other ways of looking at things. A typhus epidemic strikes Lowood, almost half of the children die. Among them is Helen Burns, who dies of consumption. This tragedy draws public attention to the school, several improvements are made and Jane’s life improves dramatically. She spends eight years at Lowood, two of them as a teacher. After having been a teacher for two years, Jane accepts a governess position at Thornfield. Mr. Rochester, a dark, moody, but passionate and charismatic man, is Jane’s employer, and the more she gets to know him, the more she falls in love with him. However, strange things are happening at Thornfield. One night, Jane saves Rochester’s life – his bed was on fire. However, the servant seemingly responsible for the fire, Grace Poole, continues to work at Thornfield. Jane concludes that Mr. Rochester is hiding something from her. Edward Rochester finally asks Jane to marry him, promising her that he will tell her the truth about everything after their first year of marriage has passed. However, it does not take that long for the secret to be revealed. The wedding day finally arrives. The wedding ceremony is interrupted by Mr. Mason and a lawyer who declares that Rochester cannot marry Jane because he already has wife – a woman called Bertha who he married as a young man in Jamaica. Bertha has gone mad, and therefore, Mr. Rochester locked her up in the attic of Thornfield. The wedding is cancelled and Jane Eyre leaves Thornfield immediately.

4 for fine summary and additional information see sparknotes -40- Jane Eyre wanders around, begging for food and sleeping outdoors. Finally, three siblings, Mary, Diana and St. John Rivers, who later turn out to be her cousins, take her in and offer her food and shelter. They befriend Jane and St. John offers her a job as a teacher in a charity school. Jane lives a simple but happy life. St. John, a clergyman, finally gets the chance to go to India as a missionary and asks Jane to accompany him as his wife. Jane refuses because she is not in love with him. The money she inherited from her uncle enables her to live an independent life which she does not want to sacrifice. Finally, Jane realizes that she has to leave her cousins and travel back to Thornfield and find out what has become of the man she loves. When she arrives she finds that Thornfield has been burned to the ground. Bertha Mason caused the fire. Rochester tried to save her but she killed herself by jumping from the roof. In the process, he lost his eyesight and one of his hands. Jane immediately travels to his new residence and declares that she will never leave him again. They marry soon after her return. After two years, Rochester regains sight in one eye. They have a son together and Jane states that she and Rochester live a life as equals.

4.2.2. Bertha Mason – the mad women in the attic

In the 19th century, women were forced to suppress their sexuality and their intellect. It was expected of women to stay home and look after their children. In addition, women were infantilized by their husbands and not allowed to take responsibility for themselves. For example, Beecher and Beecher Stowe (1869) state that a mental illness can be triggered by the excessive exercise of intellect or feelings. The worst mental action was said to be novel- reading and building castles in the air, as it severely undermines the vigour of the nervous system. Clarke (1873: 17-106) argues that intellectual activity is bad for a woman’s health and for her ability to bear children and claims that women who graduate from college have undeveloped ovaries. And as a woman’s ovaries and uterus were said to determine a woman’s mental health, the physical consequences of intellectual activity could trigger mental diseases as well. Deprived of all intellectual activity, some women became depressive or melancholic, others were too active, too emotional, for a woman. Neither a woman’s body nor a woman’s mind were really understood by doctors at that time and so insanity was very often the stated diagnosis for women who behaved differently. “Madness was often defined (for a woman) to

-41- be ‘active’, to have a place in the world other than that of a mother, wife, and caregiver for others.” (Teachman 2001: 112) A popular method to treat female mental diseases was the rest cure. Women were literally put to bed and not allowed to do anything until their condition improved: this involved limited intellectual activity, along with enforced rest, seclusion, diet, and various types of electrical stimulation and massage, because women were thought to be passive beings who have got to conserve all their energy for bearing children. They can only regain sanity if they are put back to passivity. Bertha Mason Rochester, the mad woman in the attic, is far from being passive. Her emotional and violent outbursts disgust and appal her husband and so he shuts her up in the attic of his mansion. Bertha Rochester is another type of a Victorian anti-woman, namely that of madwoman, and the second creation of female evil I will focus on. Bertha Mason’s character is a very interesting one. According to Pfister’s typology she can be described as static, one-dimensional and totally defined. (Cf. Wenzel 2004: 58-59) Nevertheless she is a fascinating and ambivalent figure. The reader has to rely entirely on the information other characters in the novel give about Bertha. Therefore, the alleged state of her mental health and her life story can be seriously questioned. Of course, Edward Rochester seems to be a reliable source; however, he also has motivations to change some parts of the story in order to make it more agreeable, both for Jane Eyre and for the reader. Until the end, the reader has to decide for his own whether to fully trust Rochester’s story, or to make up his/her own mind. When Edward Rochester first meets Bertha Mason, she appears to be a beautiful young woman, “the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty.” (Brontë 2006: 352) All the other men in town seem to envy him. Despite the fact that he does not really know her and has hardly ever spoken to her, Rochester marries her, his main motivation being her money. He takes her to England, “a land so different in culture and climate from the Caribbean Island on which she was born and raised that, had she not already been exhibiting serious signs of mental imbalance, the move itself would have likely driven her mad.” (Teachman 2001: 17- 18) Soon after the marriage he finds out that “Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; idiots and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard! – as I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on family secrets before.” (Brontë 2006: 337) At that point, it is not sure whether Bertha Mason is really mad or not. The reader can only rely on what Edward Rochester narrates and it is up to the reader to trust him or not. It is

-42- a fact that her behaviour, her violent outbursts, her drinking and her openly displayed sexuality, can not be respected by an Englishman of the 19th century. However, it is not entirely clear whether it is madness that is driving her, or her different cultural background which makes it difficult for her to adjust to the strict English social norms. Bertha behaves in ways that Victorian society does not sanction and “a woman in the position of Bertha Rochester could easily have been diagnosed as morally insane, even before her behaviour degenerated into the animalistic form we see when we finally meet her in her attic room.” (Teachman 2001:138) Morally insane basically means that a woman was considered to be disreputable and degenerate. Diagnosing people who did not fit into society as morally insane was a way of disposing of them. “In fact, madness in women was often described in the medical articles of the day as a tendency toward drunkenness and lascivious desires. Bertha indulges her desires; therefore she must be ill. Such was the logic of Victorian social mores and medical practices.” (Teachman 2001: 18) When Jane Eyre arrives at Thornfield, Bertha has already been shut up in the attic for more than ten years. If she had not been mad before, she is definitely mad now. At the beginning of Jane’s stay at Thornfield Bertha is not physically present, it is only her laughter, her moaning and her growling, which Jane hears, that account for her presence.

A dream had scarcely approached my ear, when it fled affrighted, scared by a marrow-freezing incident enough. This was a demoniac laugh – low, suppressed, and deep – uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber door. The head of my bed was near the door, and I thought at first the goblin-laughter stood at my bedside – or rather, crouched by my pillow: but I rose, looked round, and could see nothing; […] Something gurgled and moaned. Ere long, steps retreated up the gallery towards the third-storey staircase: a door had lately been made to shut in that staircase; I heard it open and close, and all was still. (Brontë 2006: 173)

It is only laughter, but the adjectives used to describe it associate the person belonging to it with something evil and demon-like. It is more the laughter of a man than that of a woman because it sounds low and deep, very different from what one typically expects of a woman’s laughter. The word ‘goblin’ activates the reader’s imagination, adding another negative connotation to the laughing person. This short scene arouses the reader’s suspicion and creates suspense. The next time Bertha is being referred to, is when she attacks her brother who wants to visit her. Despite the fact that in this scene, she also does not physically appear, the reader gets more information about her. The reader still does not know what she looks like or who she is or why she is shut up in the attic. However, her actions characterise her: Bertha hurts

-43- her brother with a knife. This outburst of physical violence towards another human being adds an additional aspect of evilness to her character. Not only does she injure another human being, it is her brother she stabs, one of her closest relatives alive. In this scene, Bertha is more than willing to kill.

“Directly, sir; the shoulder is just bandaged. I must look to this other wound in the arm: she has had her teeth here too, I think.” “She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart,” said Mason. I saw Mr. Rochester shudder: a singularly marked expression of disgust, horror, hatred, warped his countenance almost to distortion. (Brontë 2006: 246)

Another aspect of evilness is added to Bertha Mason in this scene, namely that of a vampire. Bertha bites her brother and sucks his blood, and although nothing is explicitly said about it, sucking the blood of another human being is a direct reference to vampirism. Mason, her brother, even recounts that Bertha said that she wanted to drain his heart, meaning to kill him. Later in the novel Bertha Mason is once more associated with a vampire. Jane Eyre herself makes that comparison when describing Bertha’s visage and features reflected in the mirror.

“Fearful and ghastly to me – oh, sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a discoloured face – it was a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments!” […] The lips were swelled and dark; the brow furrowed: the black eyebrows widely raised over the bloodshot eyes. Shall I tell you of what it reminded me?” “You may.” “Of the foul German spectre – the Vampyre.” (Brontë 2006:327)

Bringing up the image of a vampire in connection with Bertha Mason is a very clever move. The female vampire, as discussed in the previous chapter, stands for the incarnation of evil. Female vampires are a perversion of motherhood and femaleness because instead of being caring and loving, all they want is to destroy. Bertha’s madness has the same effect on her character. She is a monster, unable to fulfil her duty to her husband because she is neither able to be a good wife nor is she able to be a good mother. Despite the fact that Bertha Mason is not a real vampire, parallels between her and Lucy the vampire can be drawn. Bertha, same as Lucy, is very beautiful before her transformation. All men admire her and want to own her. However, by showing her sexuality, her passions and her inner rebellion, she turns into a monster which either has to be destroyed or at least confined. Bertha Mason again stands for the new rebellious woman of the nineteenth century. However, she is not only the most active and direct female character in the novel, she is also an “avatar of Jane. What Bertha now does , for instance, is what Jane wants to do. Disliking

-44- the ‘vapoury veil’ of Jane Rochester, Jane Eyre secretly wants to tear the garments up. Bertha does it for her. Fearing the inexorable ‘bridal day,’ Jane would like to put it off. Bertha does that for her too.” (Gilbert/Gubar 1984: 359) Rigney (1980) states that “passion” is Brontë’s euphemism for sexuality and that in a patriarchal society which suppresses women, the price paid for love and sexual commitment is insanity and death, and therefore, in order to survive in the Victorian age, a strong feminist consciousness and chastity are the only two means through which independence can be achieved. Bertha Mason stands for all the women who did not manage to be independent and had to pay their price. The story of her life and marriage is an exaggerated portrayal of a deviant Victorian woman’s fate in a patriarchal society. Edward Rochester is a typical man of his time. He is proud, conceited and possessive. He is legally bound to a woman he cannot love and respect. Initially, he has married her for her money, but his father and brother died soon after the marriage and Rochester inherited everything. So “Bertha was not useful to him, even on financial terms, for very long. And the basic incompatibility between them, the result, from Edward’s perspective, of her drinking and lascivious desires, which eventually degenerated into outright lunacy, became significantly more pronounced in his eyes as her financial value to him diminished.” (Teachman 2001: 159) However, he cannot divorce her because first, it was difficult to obtain a divorce in Victorian England and second, in case of a divorce he would risk public humiliation, and that he does not want. So in his eyes, the only way to live a happy life, is a bigamous marriage. It is not until Mr. Mason and his lawyer confront him that Rochester is forced to tell the whole story. In the second half of the novel, Jane sees Bertha Mason- Rochester for the first time. However, ten years of confinement and isolation have broken Bertha’s spirit and she has turned insane. (Cf. Teachman 2001: 159-169)

In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face. (Brontë 2006: 338)

Bertha has transformed from a human being into an animal. She behaves like a beast of prey, like a tiger in a cage, and that is what she is. Hidden from society, barred from all social life and amusements, she is hungry for freedom and revenge. Seeing Edward Rochester, her jailor, wakes her aggressions and she attacks him the moment she gets a chance. Her third violent attack shocks Jane Eyre and all the other people in the room. Bertha seems to be a

-45- dangerous, even deadly dangerous, person but she never attacks Grace Poole, or Jane Eyre or anyone else, only those people responsible for her miserable life and imprisonment. Because all her actions have a motive, her madness can be questioned. Of course, her behaviour is not that of a normal human being, but ten years of isolation can do strange things to a human. In addition, mental illness is not hereditary in the sense that if a mother is mentally ill, the child will necessarily be mentally ill too, as stated by Dr. Mosgrave in Lady Audley’s Secret. Therefore Edward Rochester’s statement “Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; idiots and maniacs through three generations!” (Brontë 2006: 337) can be questioned. Bertha Mason attacks her husband. She is described as a tall woman, equalling her husband in size and strength, and that is exactly a symbol of what Jane Eyre wants to be as well in order to be able to “battle him [Rochester] in the contest of their marriage. Bertha, in other words, is Jane’s truest and darkest double: she is the angry aspect of the orphan child, the ferocious secret self Jane has been trying to repress ever since her days at Gateshead.” (Gilbert/Gubar 1984: 360) Bertha does not accept the bonds of marriage and continually tries to escape. She does not accept her situation, quite in contrast to Jane Eyre, who is willing to give up her independence and accept her new role as wife and future mother.

“Ware!” cried Grace. The three gentlemen retreated simultaneously. Mr. Rochester flung me behind him: the lunatic sprang and grappled his throat viciously, and laid her teeth to his cheek: they struggled. She was a big woman, in stature almost equalling her husband, and corpulent besides: she showed virile force in the contest – more than once she almost throttled him, athletic as he was. He could have settled her with a well-planted blow; but he would not strike: he would only wrestle. At last he mastered her arms; Grace Poole gave him a cord, and he pinioned them behind her: with more rope, which was at hand, he bound her to a chair. (Brontë 2006: 338-339)

Bertha resents Rochester’s mastery from the beginning and openly shows her rebellion, contrary to Jane Eyre, who suppresses it. However, Bertha’s rebellious attitude is severely sanctioned. Bertha’s fate shows what happens to women who do not conform to social norms.

Bertha represents that part of the Victorian woman that is not to be seen, not even to be admitted to exist. She reflects the instinctive animalistic part of the woman’s nature, filled with violent rage at being repressed. The consequences for a woman of showing her deepest passions publicly in Victorian England were severe. A woman could be considered “unnatural” merely for allowing anyone, including her husband, to be made aware that she enjoys sex or that she feels intense anger or frustration. The respectable woman of this time was calm, passive, and subservient. (Teachman 2001: 19)

-46- Bertha is not willing, nor able to play the role of a submissive and passive wife. Rochester cannot control her, which undermines his position as husband and man of the house. Bertha’s insanity costs her her freedom, her sexuality and her humanness. However, being the wife of a Victorian ‘macho,’ as Rochester is, might have had similar consequences. Women of that time were well prepared for their roles as mothers and wives. From childhood on they were trained to please their future husbands. Bertha is the personified Victorian anti-woman. She fulfils none of the numerous ideals of feminine perfection of that time. She is neither soft, nor weak, modest, graceful and charming.

Bertha has functioned as Jane’s dark double throughout the governess’s stay at Thornfield. Specifically, every one of Bertha’s appearances – or, more accurately, her manifestations – has been associated with an experience (or repression) of anger on Jane’s part. Jane’s feelings of “hunger, rebellion, and rage” on the battlements, for instance, were accompanied by Bertha’s “low, slow ha! ha!” and “eccentric murmurs.” (Gilbert/Gubar 1984: 360)

At the end of the novel, Bertha dies. As a representation of the anti-woman she has to be destroyed. Contrary to Dracula , where Lucy is killed by her fiancé, Bertha commits suicide by jumping off the roof. Maybe she knows that she will never be free again and is unwilling to endure her situation any longer. Taking her own life is her last act of rebellion. Rochester tries to save her but she escapes him forever. An eye-witness describes the situation:

And then they called out to him that she was on the roof, where she was standing, waving her arms, above the battlements, and shouting out till they could hear her a mile off: I saw her and heard her with my own eyes. She was a big woman, and had long black hair: we could see it streaming against the flames as she stood. I witnessed, and several more witnessed, Mr. Rochester ascend through the sky-light on to the roof; we heard him call ‘Bertha!’ We saw him approach her; and then, ma’am, she yelled and gave a spring, and the next minute she lay smashed on the pavement. (Brontë 2006: 493)

However, some critics, such as Rigney (1980), argue that Rochester is both rescuer and killer because in his effort to save his wife he provokes her suicidal leap into the flames. He calls out to her and she refuses to obey him one last time. Therefore, in this novel, as well female evil is destroyed by a man and the patriarchal order is once more saved. Interestingly, in the end it is Bertha and not Jane Eyre who tames Rochester and turns him into an agreeable husband, because by losing his eyesight and one of his hands during the fire, he suddenly depends on the help of others. Only then, Jane Eyre returns and marries him. Before that incident, her wish to be treated as an equal would not have been fulfilled. With

-47- Bertha’s death Jane’s inner rebellion also vanishes because there is nothing she could rebel against any more. Bertha Mason, the madwoman in the attic, personifies and symbolizes the suppressed woman in the nineteenth century. Women were forced to hide their true nature, to suppress their natural female character traits in order to please men. Bertha does not hide her feelings, rebels openly and is destroyed in the end. Bertha’s ‘evilness’, her inner rebellion, is hidden behind a beautiful shell. However, Bertha’s physical appearance changes over time, and reflects her mental state. In contrast to Lucy, who not only stays beautiful all the time and is saved in the end, Bertha cannot be saved. Lucy turns into an anti-woman because she is bitten by Dracula, Bertha is rebellious from the beginning and therefore she has lost her right to salvation. As Rochester puts it; “It is not because she is mad I hate her.” (Brontë 2006: 347)

4.3. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

4.3.1. A short introduction to Lady Audley’s Secret

Lady Audley's Secret is a sensation novel written by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It was first published in 1862 and was extremely successful. The novel is told by a third person anonymous narrator. A sensation novel’s specialty is the “’infiltration of the everyday by exotic, bizarre, or criminal secrets’, ihre Antriebskraft der heimliche Ekel vor der nur mit Mühe aufrechterhaltenen bürgerlichen Idylle. Die Welt des sozialen Alltags wird in ihnen [...] von außen, mit dem Blick des Voyeurs für versteckte Laster und Heuchlereinen erhellt.“ (Pordzik 2001: 126) Sensation novels are designed to evoke basic feelings in the reader and are based on the themes of crime, imposture, adultery, or false incarceration in a madhouse. (Cf. Wynne 2001: 2) “Sensationsromane stellen […] die sozialen Verunsicherungen und Irritationen dar, die der domestic realism in immer neuen Anläufen zu bewältigen versucht hat. Ihre Handlungsschauplätze sind […] die gepflegten Wohnzimmer der suburbs.“ (Pordzik 2001: 125) The narratives often feature women who fight for their freedom, which usually costs them their social respectability. These women appear as murderesses, kidnappers or bigamists. (Cf. Pordzik 2001) A very important theme in Lady Audley’s Secret is the Victorian anxiety about the domestic sphere. The seemingly innocent and beautiful lady turns out to be a murderess and bigamist. The home, which is supposed to be a refuge, becomes a crime scene. 5 Thus,

5 see Wikipedia: “Lady Audley’s Secret” -48- Braddon attempted to call attention to the discrepancy between the stylised Victorian ideal of womanhood and reality. (Cf. Pordzik) Further major themes are the anxiety about the increasing urbanization of Britain, gender and class, unstable identities and madness. 6 To give a brief overview of the plot: Lucy Graham, doctor Dawson’s young and beautiful governess, marries Sir Michael Audley. Little is known of Lucy’s past, except the fact that she is an orphan and used to be Mrs. Vincent’s student in London. Shortly after the wedding Robert Audley, Sir Michael’s nephew, meets George Talboys, an old school-mate of his, who has just returned from Australia with an enormous fortune. George Talboys cannot wait to see his wife and his son, who he had to leave behind three years ago in order to try his luck in Australia. However, it seems that he returned too late because he finds an obituary in the newspaper, stating that his wife has just died. At first George Talboys refuses to believe this, but after visiting her grave he has to acknowledge that his beloved wife is really dead. He leaves his son under the care of his father-in-law and asks Robert Audley to be his guardian. Robert Audley cares for and is worried about his friend, and in order to distract him, he invites him to come with him to his wealthy uncle who lives in a beautiful manor in the country. Robert is anxious to meet his uncle’s new wife. However, Lady Audley avoids meeting the two men, but especially George. When they are shown a portrait of the Lady of the house, George appears to be greatly struck by it but does not explain his reaction. The next day, George disappears and Robert Audley decides to look into the matter. Robert Audley is convinced that Lady Audley is, in some way, involved in George’s disappearance and begins to collect evidence against her. Eventually he pieces together the puzzle and makes a crucial discovery: It turns out that Lucy Audley’s real name is Helen Maldon and that she is married to George Talboys. Unwilling to live a life of poverty she abandoned her son and enrolled in Mrs. Vincent’s school in London. After that she took the position of a governess and later married Sir Michael Audley. When she finds out that her first husband is about to return to England, she fakes her own death in order to be able to live her new life as a lady. Robert Audley confronts Helen with this information and asks her to leave Audley Court. Helen feels threatened by Robert, and in order to get rid of him she sets the inn he stays at on fire. Fortunately Robert survives and returns to Audley Court. Lady Audley now knows that she has lost the game and confesses her life’s story to Robert and Sir Michael Audley. She claims that she is mad and that she had no choice but to leave her old life and child behind and find a new, wealthier husband. After this confession, Sir Michael Audley

6 see Wikipedia : “Lady Audley’s Secret -49- immediately leaves England with his daughter Alicia, leaving it up to Robert to deal with the matter. Robert Audley decides to consult a doctor, who is willing to declare Lucy insane. After that, Robert has her committed to a mental asylum in Belgium, where she confesses the murder of her first husband. At the end of the novel, we learn that George has survived the attack on his life and has managed to leave for Australia; Robert and Alicia are happily married, and Helen dies in the asylum.

4.3.2. Helen Maldon – the murderess

Physiognomics, “broadly understood as the hermeneutic (re-) constitution of the internal character, desires, and dispositions of human beings based on the interpretation of the body as a system of meaningful signs” (Gray 2004: 17), is a system of knowledge which has its root in the ancient world. In the 19th century new forms such as Franz Joseph Gall’s phrenology or Petrus Camper’s biometry emerged. All these theories claimed that a person’s character and intellect can be told from the shape and form of their skull, body and face. It was believed that criminals or murderers could be identified via the shape of their skull. In addition, biometry, for example, was used to prove the white man’s superiority over coloured people. People of the time were aware of such theories. A pretty face was considered to be the mirror of a pure soul. However, in Lady Audley’s Secret the opposite is true. Helen Maldon is a beautiful, doll-like young woman with a dark secret. Her acquaintances are charmed by her pretty face. “Wherever she went she seemed to take joy and brightness with her. In the cottage of the poor her fair face shone like a sunbeam. She would sit for a quarter of an hour talking to some old woman, and apparently as pleased with the admiration of a toothless crone as if she had been listening to the compliments of a marquis.” (Braddon 1998: 11) Yet, it turns out that she is not only a bigamist and a fraud, but also attempts murder twice. Most violent crimes are committed by men, therefore a woman who kills shocks people because it is hard to believe that a woman who can give life would willingly take it from another person. Studies show that “most women who commit murder do so in the context of an intimate relationship or family strain” (Flowers 1995: 84), their main motivation being jealousy, fear or greed. In Helen Maldon’s case the motive for her attempted killings is self-preservation. The murderess is the third expression of female evil I will focus on. At the beginning of the novel Helen Maldon “appears everything the domestic heroine should be. Like Jane Eyre, she is a governess who has worked her way up from poverty, and

-50- her marriage to the 56-year-old Sir Michael Audley, like Jane’s to the blinded Rochester, promises to demonstrate a woman’s nurturing devotion.” (James 2007: 78) In addition, “she has all the signifiers of innocence, fair hair and blue eyes, and is a beacon of social responsibility.” (James 2007: 78) The anonymous but omniscient narrator, always referring to Helen Maldon as ‘my lady’, which might lead the reader to assume that he must have had a relatively close relationship with her, uses statements of other figures in the text to characterise the heroine of the narrative. At the beginning of the story Helen Maldon appears to be a pretty, friendly but rather naïve young woman. Only Alicia, Sir Michael’s daughter from his first marriage, does not think well of her new stepmother: “She is a vain, frivolous, heartless little coquette.” (Braddon 1998: 106) However, this antipathy has its roots elsewhere, namely in losing her position as daddy’s favourite. In addition, the anonymous narrator gives the reader deep insights into Helen Maldon’s thoughts and feelings and reveals the true motivations for her actions. Helen Maldon is a round character, constantly evolving and changing in the narrative, which is somehow reminiscent of certain types of detective fiction. With her unknown past, her innocent beauty and her modesty, Helen Maldon resembles Cinderella. The poor young heroine finally finds her prince, Sir Michael Audley, and goes from poverty to riches, enjoying the luxuries of her fairy palace. (Cf. Talairach- Vielmas 2007: 3) In addition, “Braddon fashions the stereotype of the Victorian angel as a domestic fairy, and the novel’s constant hammering of the heroine’s fairy beauty in her enchanted castle gives a touch of magic to the narrative – the better to reveal the heroine’s criminality.” (Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 3) Helen Maldon, alias Lucy Graham, appears to be the ideal Victorian woman. She is not only beautiful but also caring, modest and only interested in childish amusements. She does not like to read or study, loves society and can spend hours admiring her jewels and other treasures. Lucy is a living Victorian cliché. Sir Michael Audley is charmed by his little wife although he knows that she has only married him for his fortune and his position, whereas he has married her for her beauty.

That one quiet evening sealed Sir Michael’s fate. He could no more resist the tender fascination of those soft and melting blue eyes; the graceful beauty of that slender throat and drooping head, with its wealth of showering flaxen curls; the low music of that gentle voice; the perfect harmony which pervaded every charm, and made all doubly charming in that woman; than he could resist his destiny. Destiny! Why, she was his destiny! He had never loved before. (Braddon 1998: 12)

-51- Quite early in her life Helen Maldon realizes that her fate is dependent upon marriage and that being prettier than the other girls might enable her to marry a wealthier husband than them, Sir Michael Audley is exactly what she has been aiming at. It does not occur to her that her first marriage to George Talboys might be a problem. “What drives the heroine off the track is her acceptance of a feminine script which asserts that woman has neither power nor the financial means to live if unmarried.” (Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 122) In Victorian times marriage was not about romance, it was about living a respectable life. The married woman had a status, a position in society and therefore all the girls had but one aim in life – to find a husband. They were trained from childhood to please their future husbands. However, they also entirely depended on men and expected from their husbands to care for them financially. Since George Talboys’ father denies his son any financial support, George, as a soldier, is unable to provide for himself and his family. He tries to get a well paid job but fails. At that point Helen Maldon is extremely disappointed.

“I thought dragoons were always rich,” she used to say, peevishly. “Girls always want to marry dragoons; and tradespeople always want to serve dragoons; and hotel-keepers to entertain dragoons; and theatrical manages to be patronised by dragons. Who could have ever expected that a dragoon would drink sixpenny ale, smoke horrid bird’s-eye tobacco, and let his wife wear a shabby bonnet?” (Braddon 1998: 185-186)

It becomes obvious to the reader that the only reason why Helen Maldon married George Talboys in the first place, was wealth. At the end of the novel she tells Sir Michael about her first husband and states that “I loved him as much as it was in my power to love anybody; not more than I have loved you, Sir Michael; not so much; for when you married me you elevated me to a position that he could never have given me.” (Braddon 1998: 346) Unfortunately for Helen Maldon, her husband returns from Australia and in order to continue her new life as Lady Audley, she feels she has to take certain steps. She fakes her own death and lets her husband believe that he lost his beloved wife. However, fate takes another course. Even though Helen manages to evade George Talboys and Robert Audley at Audley Court, she cannot prevent them seeing her portrait, and George Talboys immediately recognizes his wife.

-52- For my lady, in this portrait of her, had something of the aspect of a beautiful fiend. Her crimson dress, exaggerated like all the rest in this strange picture, hung about her in folds that looked like flames, her fair head peeping out of the lurid mass of colour, as if out of a raging furnace. Indeed, the crimson dress, the sunshine on the face, the red gold gleaming in the yellow hair, the ripe scarlet of the pouting lips, the glowing colours of each accessory of the minutely-painted background, all combined to render the first effect of the painting by no means an agreeable one. (Braddon 1998: 72)

Alicia Audley, Sir Michael Audley’s daughter, says that she believes that the painter did not exactly paint what he actually saw, but rather what lies underneath, meaning that Lady Audley might look the way he painted her. The portrait is painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style, which “was famous for its reliance on physiognomical and phrenological theories and was very often close to photography in its blunt portrayal of human features. With its photographic realism Pre-Raphaelitism was hyper-realism, able, as Sir Michael Audley’s daughter thinks, to uncover details invisible to the eye.” (Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 121-122) The picture shows a beautiful woman with all the signifiers of femininity; however, the painter, same as Alicia, has managed to see behind the beautiful façade of Lady Audley. The painter proves physiognomy wrong because he shows that a pretty face does not equal an innocent soul. He portrays Lucy as a “beautiful fiend” (Braddon 1998: 72), thus hinting at mythological stories of beautiful demons like Lilith. The demon inside Helen Maldon is her will to use her beauty as a tool and weapon, as well as her hereditary taint of madness. “Did she remember the day in which that fairy dower of her beauty had first taught her to be selfish and cruel, indifferent to the joys and sorrows of others, cold-hearted and capricious, greedy of admiration, exacting and tyrannical, with that petty woman’s tyranny which is the worst of despotisms? Did she trace every sin of her life back to its true source?” (Braddon 1998: 293) Helen Maldon has always believed that she deserves more in life, and once she has become Lady Audley she does not want to lose her status and her luxuries any more. So, when George Talboys, her actual husband, confronts her at Audley Court, she pushes him down the well in order to be able to keep her secret. “Lucy Graham is driven to murder and possible madness by the prospect of returning to routine family life with Talboys.” (James 2007:79) Helen Maldon does not want to go back to her old life. She has given up everything in order to become Lady Audley: not only has she left her father and son behind, but also her former identity. In the novel identities are of small consistency. Helen Maldon changes her names and identities like dresses in order to get what she wants. Thus, she shows how fluent ideas and concepts of femininity really are and that the ideal of true womanhood is only a concept

-53- created by men, nothing but a script for women to guide them in order to find a husband. Helen uses her knowledge in order to trick people, but she is only a fake, just as her portrait is only a cheap work of art amongst masterpieces. (Cf. Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 121-130) “The novel, playing upon the illusory nature of modernity, offers, like Audley Court, a series of images, from tantalizing objects meant to trigger off desire to an artificial heroine who plays the part of the domestic fairy and conceals her unruly nature behind dresses, laces and shimmering satin.” (Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 121) Lady Audley “is just a copy of the feminine ideal.” (Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 125) 7 Robert Audely cannot believe that his friend has simply left without saying a word and decides to look into the matter. Interestingly he “appears to seek more to unveil the identity of his beautiful aunt [...] than to find the missing corpse. In fact, throughout the novel, Robert Audley’s inquiry maps out a construction of femininity based on a fragile reproduction of stereotypes which the guilty woman has learned to handle carefully.” (Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 123) Helen Maldon has learnt to present the most pleasing character possible to her environment. She uses common stereotypes of and criteria for an ideal woman to dazzle everybody around her. It was to be expected that Robert Audley first has to learn to look behind the masquerade in order to be able to solve the mystery of his friend’s death. Helen Maldon embodies the “feminine ideal to perfection, and femininity appears as a series of visual codes. To uncover their secrets, the detectives must read and decipher the construction of the modern ‘lady’, the perfect face that outsmarts the codes of physiognomy.” (Talairach-Vielmas 2007: 113) Helen Maldon counts on the power of her beauty and her child-like appearance. Her manner and looks make it difficult to believe that she could harm even a fly. However, when threatened, Helen Maldon fights like a lioness for her cubs. She has defended herself once against George Talboys and she is willing to do it again. When Robert Audley confronts her at Audley Court, stating that he knows her secret and is willing to reveal it, she threatens to kill him. “’You shall never live to do this,’ she said. ‘ I will kill you first . Why have you tormented me so? Why could you not let me alone? What harm had I ever done you that you should make yourself my persecutor, and dog my steps, and watch my looks, and play the spy upon me? Do you want to drive me mad? Do you know what it is to wrestle with a madwoman?’” (Braddon 1998: 273) In this scene Helen Maldon uses madness as an excuse for her actions. She does not want to be held accountable. When she confesses her life-story, she tells Sir Michael and

7 reminiscent of Jean Baudrillard’s understanding of the Simulacrum -54- Robert Audley that her mother was a madwoman and that it is not her fault that she is mad as well. But could a madwoman really have woven this web of lies and deception?

“You have conquered – a madwoman! […] When you say that I killed George Talboys, you say the truth. When you say that I murdered him treacherously and foully, you lie. I killed him because I AM MAD! Because my intellect is a little way upon the wrong side of the narrow boundary- line between sanity and insanity; because when George Talboys goaded me, as you have goaded me; and reproached me, and threatened me; my mind, never properly balanced, utterly lost its balance; and I was mad! (Braddon 1998: 340-341)

Helen Maldon tries to defend her actions, and claims that every time an immoral and criminal deed was done, it was madness that guided her. But it was more the fear of losing her jewels and nice dresses that has driven her. Sir Michael Audely leaves it up to Robert to deal with his wife. Robert “Audley seeks to prove Lady Audley’s madness partly to save his friend and his uncle’s family from scandal, but largely because his notions of the feminine cannot reconcile sane femininity with the criminally duplicitous behaviour of which he intuitively knows Lady Audley to be guilty.” (Pykett 1992: 94) As stated in the previous chapter, madness can stand for an inability to behave within societal norms, and Helen Maldon has crossed the line several times. She is a calculating, cold-hearted woman who did not love her son – “I did not love the child; for he had been left a burden upon my hands” (Braddon 1998:347) – and is willing to leave her child with her father, who is an alcoholic, ignores the holy bond of matrimony and becomes a bigamist; moreover, she even tries to kill her first husband. From the outside she appears to be the ideal Victorian woman, but her deeds tell a different story. Robert Audley consults Dr. Mosgrave, but when he has told him the entire story, the doctor seriously doubts that Helen is actually mad. He does not see any evidence of madness in anything Helen has done.

She ran away from her home, because her home was not a pleasant one, and she left it in the hope of finding a better. There is not madness in that. She committed the crime of bigamy, because by that crime she obtained fortune and position. There is no madness there. When she found herself in a desperate position, she did not grow desperate. She employed intelligent means, and she carried out a conspiracy which required coolness and deliberation in its execution. There is no madness in that. (Braddon 1998: 370)

According to Dr. Mosgrave all the things Lady Audley has done are completely understandable and comprehensible along rational lines. He goes on saying that “The lady is

-55- not mad; but she has the hereditary taint in her blood. She has the cunning of madness, with the prudence of intelligence. I will tell you what she is, Mr. Audley. She is dangerous.” (Braddon 1998: 372) Lady Audley is dangerous “because she is not what she appears to be, because she cannot be contained within the bounds of the proper feminine.” (Pykett 1992: 94- 95) At the end of the narrative, as we have seen, Helen Maldon is committed to an asylum in Belgium. Even though she is allowed to take most of her treasures with her, she starts to realize that the game is finally over and that not even her beauty can help her now. “She plucked at the feathery golden curls as if she would have torn them from her head. It had served her so little after all, that gloriously glittering hair; that beautiful nimbus of yellow light that had contrasted so exquisitely with the melting azure of her eyes. She hated herself and her beauty.” (Braddon 1998: 384) Helen dies in Belgium, and the anonymous narrator’s bottom-line is: “I hope no one will take objection to my story because the end of it leaves the good people all happy and at peace.” (Braddon 1998: 437) Lady Audley’s Secret features a woman driven by the pressures and rules of her time to take extraordinary measures. She is not happy with her situation and decides to do something about it. Of course, the means she chooses to reach her goal are not agreeable ones; however, it can be questioned if she really had a choice. If she had done nothing she would have accepted her lot and might have waited forever for her husband to return to her. Helen decides to try her luck a second time. In the 19th century a woman could not simply apply for a job and earn her own money, the only way to become rich was either to marry or to inherit money. Helen does not want to accept the fact that her husband is suddenly poor. She wants more from life, and when he is unable to fulfil her wishes, she takes measures to do so herself. In the end she is punished for exactly that and labelled insane. However, her insanity has to be seriously doubted because unlike Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre, she does neither behave like an animal nor is she unable to normally interact with people, she only does things one would not expect from a woman.

Lady Audle’s Secret deliberately blurs the issue of whether its heroine acting – her process of self-construction – is the product of her madness, or the result of cool calculation. In either case it is explicitly associated with the process of self-fashioning required by any respectable Victorian girl seeking to make her way in the world. […] Lady Audley’s self-proclaimedly heartless attitude to her situation is, from one point of view, simply a more than usually honest assessment of the nature of the choices open to the would-be genteel woman. (Pykett 1992: 93)

-56- 4.4. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero by William Makepeace Thackeray satirises 19th century English society and was first published as a serial in 1847/48. The novel was Thackeray’s first work. The title Vanity Fair is borrowed from John Bunyan’s allegorical story The Pilgrim’s Progress : the town Vanity, where a never-ending fair is held, stands for man’s sinful attachment to worldly things and amoral behaviour. (Cf. Literary Encyclopedia, s.v. “Vanity Fair”)

4.4.1. A general introduction to Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a story told by an ambiguous and inconsistent narrator who sometimes seems to be an intradiegetic narrator who actually meets some of the characters in the book and at other times an authorial narrator who is omniscient and only tells the story. The omniscient narrator is both creator of the story and its critic, its stage manager and its observer and includes all different types of perspectives and ways of looking at things into his presentation. (Cf. Academic Brooklyn, s.v. “Thackeray’s Vanity Fair ”) As implied by the title, the most prominent theme in the novel is people’s vanity and selfishness, which are the major motivations of the characters in the book and influence their actions and views. In this work Thackeray aimed at satirising Victorian society, a society where people worship wealth, power and class and are corrupted by them. The loss of values such as love, friendship and hospitality are the price of this kind of worship. (Cf. Academic Brooklyn) Another crucial theme treated in the novel is the contrast between appearance and reality. The narrative provides a glimpse behind the beautiful facades of middle and upper- class families and shows that not all that glitters is gold. Some characters in the book, motivated by self-interest, misrepresent themselves and prefer living a life of appearances and illusions over a truthful life. In addition, the novel also shoes how vanity, selfishness, egoism and false values affects people’s lives and relationships. (Cf. Academic Brooklyn) The novel is set at the beginning of the 19th century, the time of the Napoleonic Wars, and the story’s two principal characters are Becky Sharp, a strong-willed young woman, and the kind, humble but naïve Amelia Sedley who have just graduated from Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for Young Ladies. Amelia invites Becky to meet her family at Russel Square, where Becky is introduced to Captain George Osborne, who is engaged to Amelia, and Joseph

-57- Sedley, Amelia’s brother. Becky Sharp, having neither mother nor father to help her in marriage matters, decides to take fate into her own hands and ensnares Joseph Sedley, hoping to marry him. However, Captain Osborne thwarts Becky’s plans and she has to leave the Sedley family. The young woman enters the service of baronet Sir Pitt Crawley and becomes the governess of his daughters. Sir Pitt admires Becky and even proposes to her, only to find out that she has already secretly married his second son, Rawdon Crawley. Rawdon Crawley used to be the favourite of Sir Pitt’s elder sister, Miss Crawley’s. However, by choosing to marry a governess, Rawdon has lost any chance of inheriting Miss Crawley’s large fortune. The young couple constantly attempts to make up with Miss Crawley but never succeeds. Meanwhile, Amelia Sedley has not been so lucky. Her father has gone bankrupt and due to that, George Osborne’s father forbids his son to marry the daughter of his former friend and ally. However, George decides to marry Amelia against his father’s will and therefore is disinherited by him. Before he has the chance to try and reconcile with his father, he and his best friend William Dobbin, who had encouraged him to marry Amelia, receive orders to go to Brussels. The two women decide to accompany their husbands to Brussels. At the ball in Brussels, George, who has already grown tired of Amelia, sends Becky a note, asking her to run away with him. He regrets this however, and goes back to his wife. The next morning, George Osborne, William Dobbin and Captain Crawley, Becky’s husband, are sent to Waterloo. Whereas Amelia is desperate, Becky is virtually indifferent to her husband’s departure and prepares for the worst: She makes money by selling her horses and carriage and already plans to become the mistress of one of Napoleon’s marshals in case he should win. George Osborne dies in the battle, leaving a heart-broken Amelia and an unborn son behind. Amelia decides to live with her parents. Now that his friend George Osborne is dead, William Dobbin tries to win Amelia’s love, but the memory of her dead husband is still too deeply rooted in Amelia’s heart and she cannot return the love and kindness Dobbin shows her. Finally he leaves England and goes to India for many years. Meanwhile, Becky tries to become a member of London society. She wins Lord Steyne’s affection and suddenly all doors open for her; she is invited to all the parties and only consorts with the crème de la crème of London. She is even presented at court to the Prince Regent, and it seems as if all her dreams have come true. Her son, whom she does not care for, and her husband seem to be forgotten.

-58- However, Becky and Rawdon are not as wealthy as they appear. They live beyond their means, live mostly on credit and go so far as to ruin honest people who trusted them in order to retain their social position. Rawdon, who gambles heavily, does not seem to be aware of the effects of their doing. Becky, on the other hand, does not care and even accepts jewellery and money from her admirers. Everything seems to go well until Rawdon discovers Becky and Lord Steyne alone in Becky’s chambers and suspects them of having an affair. It can be assumed that Becky has prostituted herself because Rawdon finds a check of £1000. He leaves his wife and accepts the position of Governor of Coventry Island, arranged by Lord Steyne. Becky, who has lost both husband and credibility, leaves England and travels through Europe. However, wherever she decides to settle down for a while, her past catches up with her. Amelia finally decides to accept the offer of her son’s grandfather and gives the boy away, knowing that he will have a much better live. Shortly after, Joseph Sedley and William Dobbin return to England. Dobbin still cares for Amelia but cannot get more than simple affection from her. However, he decides to stay with her and take care of her and her son. When George Osborne’s father dies, it is revealed that young George will inherit half his fortune and that Amelia will also be provided for. Amelia, George, Joseph and Dobbin decide to go on a trip to Germany, where they meet Becky again. Becky has not been so fortunate the past years: Her looks have changed, and so has her character. She drinks heavily, gambles and it can even be suspected that she earns her living as a prostitute. Amelia feels sorry for her old friend, and despite Dobbin’s warnings, she and Joseph decide to offer Becky a new home. After a quarrel with Amelia, Dobbin realizes that he has wasted his love on a woman who is not worth it and unable to return it and leaves. However, Becky shows Amelia the note George had given her at the ball, asking her to run away with him. Finally Amelia realizes that she had loved the wrong man for so many years. After reading a love note written by Amelia (produced before Becky’s confession) Dobbin returns to her and they soon marry, but even though they live a happy life, Amelia knows that he feels more love for his child than for her. Becky charms and seduces Joseph Sedley, and after his mysterious death she inherits a large sum of money and calls herself Lady Crawley.

-59- 4.4.2. Becky Sharp – the femme fatale

In the late 19th century social Darwinism, a new theory based on Darwin’s theory of natural selection, was very popular. According to this theory, “the weak were diminished and their cultures delimited, while the strong grew in power and in cultural influence over the weak. Social Darwinists held that the life of humans in society was a struggle for existence ruled by ‘survival of the fittest,’ a phrase proposed by the British philosopher and scientist Herbert Spencer.” (Britannica) Hence, people who fail in life, meaning that they are poor, unsuccessful or unmarried, are considered to be not sufficiently fit. Until about a century earlier, the theory of the ‘Great chain of being’ had explained the differences in social class and wealth. In the nineteenth century, however, it was finally up to the individual to find his or her place in society. William Makepeace Thackeray wrote and published his novel eleven years before Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species was published. Despite the fact that he could not have based his story directly on the theory of social Darwinism, Vanity Fair is a story about the survival of the fittest. Especially Becky Sharp, a young ambitious woman who does not want to accept her status and role in society and chooses to take matters into her own hands, can be considered a social Darwinist avant la lettre:

From an economic standpoint, in her faith that her own powers of erotic persuasion will triumph over the naïve Amelia Seldey, Becky Sharp is not only the Victorian flirt as capitalist entrepreneur, she is, in a prescient apprehension of The Decent of Man and its social ramifications, one of nineteenth-century fiction’s fiercest social Darwinists; in an uncertain, unstable, and competitive economic market, where a spouse’s money may evaporate over night, the survival of the fittest depends on the careful multiplication of potential lovers who may come to serve as husbands, or at the very least, future providers of income. (Kaye 2002: 107)

Becky Sharp focuses her full attention on men because she knows that only by securing a wealthy husband she can climb up the ladder of social success. She uses the power of the female sex to charm and seduce men. She leads them into compromising and even deadly situations, not caring what the effects of her actions might be. Becky Sharp personifies one of the most feared notions of evil women, namely that of the femme fatale, which is the last concept of female evil I will discuss. Becky Sharp is an ambitious, amoral, manipulative woman without any conscience. She demonstrates this right at the beginning of the book by throwing out of the carriage a bible, which she had received before the departure from Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for

-60- Young Ladies. This scene foreshadows future events. Becky’s eagerness for wealth and status is enormous and she is willing to do anything it takes in order to reach her goal. She does not care about religious and social norms. During Becky’s stay at the Sedley household she tries to make herself agreeable to everyone. Thackeray shows that Becky is “responding realistically to her situation, and at the same time is doing what would conventionally be expected of her. It was expected that one in her situation should be grateful and prudent, and pleasant to everyone. But prudence, for instance, can involve both calculation and selfishness, and we are intended to see this applying to more than just Becky.” (Calder 1979: 48)

It became naturally Rebecca’s duty to make herself, as she said, agreeable to her benefactors, and to gain their confidence to the utmost of her power. Who can but admire this quality of gratitude in an unprotected orphan; and, if there entered some degree of selfishness into her calculations, who can say but that her prudence was perfectly justifiable? “I am alone in the world,” said the friendless girl. “I have nothing to look for but what my own labour can bring me; and while that little pink-faced chit Amelia, with not half my sense, has ten thousand pounds and an establishment secure, poor Rebecca (and my figure is far better than hers) has only herself and her own wits to trust to. Well, let us see if my wits cannot provide me with an honourable maintenance, and if some day or the other I cannot show Miss Amelia my real superiority over her. Not that I dislike poor Amelia: who can dislike such a harmless, good-natured creature?—only it will be a fine day when I can take my place above her in the world, as why, indeed, should I not?” Thus it was that our little romantic friend formed visions of the future for herself—nor must we be scandalised that, in all her castles in the air, a husband was the principal inhabitant. Of what else have young ladies to think, but husbands? Of what else do their dear mammas think? (Thackeray 1994: 79)

In this passage Becky describes herself as being “alone” and “friendless”, but it is exactly this fact is which motivates her. “Becky knows that she is superior to Amelia in intelligence, and in attractions too; the problem is that she must prove it, and the only way in which she can do so in terms that everyone will understand is by taking a place ‘above her in the world.’ And the only way that can be done, because a woman is nothing on her own, is by securing the right husband.” (Calder 1979: 48-49) So Becky is also only a “victim of established pressures” (Calder 1979: 49) and trying to operate in the society she was born in. When her plan to marry Joseph Sedley, Amelia’s brother, is prevented by Captain George Osborne, she does not grief much about her lost chance and simply focuses her attentions on somebody else. Becky enters the service of the baronet, Sir Pitt Crawley, and secretly marries his second son. “Becky watches everyone, and puts to good use what she

-61- sees. She captures Rawdon Crawley because she understands and anticipates him, and sees what sort of women attract him, and then becomes that sort of a woman. She does the same thing with George Osborne.” (Calder 1979: 49) Unfortunately for her, Miss Crawley, Rawdon’s rich aunt, is not pleased with the marriage between her favourite nephew and a poor governess. Becky’s dubious bohemian background does not please the respectable old lady, and as a consequence she disinherits Rawdon Crawley. Rawdon’s yearly salary would have enabled them to live a decent life, but Becky wants more. At the ball in Brussels, where she meets Amelia and her husband George Osborne, she is able to show off her great talent of charming the masses.

Mrs. Rawdon Crawley’s debut was, on the contrary, very brilliant. She arrived very late. Her face was radiant; her dress perfection. In the midst of the great persons assembled, and the eye-glasses directed to her, Rebecca seemed to be as cool and collected as when she used to marshal Miss Pinkerton’s little girls to church. Numbers of the men she knew already, and the dandies thronged round her. As for the ladies, it was whispered among them that Rawdon had run away with her from out of a convent, and that she was a relation of the Montmorency family. She spoke French so perfectly that there might be some truth in this report, and it was agreed that her manners were fine, and her air distingué. (Thackeray 1994:270-271)

Becky charms everyone, including George Osborne, who even asks her to run away with him that night. Only William Dobbin seems to be immune to her seductions and is able to look behind the charade. “She writhes and twists about like a snake. All the time she was here, didn’t you see, George, how she was acting at the General over the way?” (Thackeray 1994: 267) This is not the first time in the novel Becky is compared to a snake. Miss Pinkerton even calls her a viper once. “I have nourished a viper in my bosom.” (Thackeray 1994: 12) “Thackeray uses animal imagery a great deal to describe and reflect on human behaviour. In Vanity Fair the whole of society is characterised by suggestions of wild beast, savagery and cannibalism. People maul each other and feed on each other. Within this Rebecca operates as a snake or a serpent.” (Calder 1979: 49) Becky Sharp 8 is therefore not only compared to a dangerous animal, she is also compared to the serpent, the devil in Christian tradition, who convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. She is the seductress, the femme fatale, who deprives men of paradise. The morning after the ball, Rawdon Crawley, George Osborne and William Dobbin are sent to Waterloo. Becky, as we have seen, does not care much. “Knowing how useless regrets are, and how the indulgence of sentiment only serves to make people more miserable,

8 telling name -62- Mrs. Rebecca wisely determined to give way to no vain feelings of sorrow, and bore the parting from her husband with quite a Spartan equanimity.” (Thackeray 1994: 276) It is not that Becky is not fond of her husband. She has always been kind to him, but he is more a servant for her than an equal. She wants to mingle with the crème de la crème of English society and he cannot not help her in that matter. “She looked upon him as her errand-man and humble slave. He might be ever so depressed or sulky, and she did not mark his demeanour, or only treated it with a sneer. She was busy thinking about her position, or her pleasures, or her advancement in society; she ought to have held a great place in it, that is certain.” (Thackeray 1994: 503) Little Rawdon, Becky’s only son, is also only a burden for her. She does not love the child and it seems as if she only bore him to do her duty as a wife. She rarely sees him and could not care less when he is ill or crying. “’It’s my cherub crying for his nurse,’ she said. She did not offer to move to go and see the child. ‘Don’t agitate your feelings by going to look for him,’ said Lord Steyne sardonically. ‘Bah!’ replied the other, with a sort of blush, ‘he’ll cry himself to sleep’; and they fell to talking about the opera.” (Thackeray 1994: 362) Becky gives numerous parties in the little house she shares with Rawdon, drives into the city in a carriage, owns wonderful gowns and expensive jewellery and lives the life of a rich man’s wife. However, the truth is that they actually live on credit. They neither pay their landlords, nor their milliner’s bill, and even borrow money from Briggs, who used to be in Miss Crawley’s service and is now Becky’s companion. Whereas Rawdon does not seem to realize the full consequences of his actions, Becky is entirely unaffected by the fact that because of her, people are financially impaired or even ruined. As she sees it, she would not have to cheat if she were rich. However, when Becky does have the chance to do some good and pay back some people, she does not take it and prefers to hide the money.

And who knows but Rebecca was right in her speculations - and that it was only a question of money and fortune which made the difference between her and an honest woman? If you take temptations into account, who is to say that he is better than his neighbour? A comfortable career of prosperity, if it does not make people honest, at least keeps them so. An alderman coming from a turtle feast will not step out of his carnage to steal a leg of mutton; but put him to starve, and see if he will not purloin a loaf. Becky consoled herself by so balancing the chances and equalizing the distribution of good and evil in the world. (Thackeray 1994: 405-406)

However, it is only a matter of time that her past actions and her doings come back to haunt her. Shortly after the moment of her ultimate success – being presented to the Prince Regent – her husband finds her and Lord Steyne together in her chambers. Rawdon suspects them of

-63- having an affair behind his back. Despite Becky’s efforts to make him change his mind he decides to leave his wife. This most compromising moment ruins Becky’s life and everything she has been working for. However, the narrator never says whether she is really guilty of adultery or not. “Becky’s determined toying with Lord Steyne, a pivotal event that at last destroys her marriage, has as one of its rationales the financial buttressing of her household. In a context in which flirtation operates beyond or above libidinal desire, Beck’s outraged cry on being discovered – ‘I am innocent!’- is more than technically true.” (Kaye 2002: 36) And so it remains open if Becky is really guilty or had only aimed to increase her family’s fortune during a financially unstable period. (Cf. Kaye 2002: 16)

She knew he would never come back. He was gone forever. Would he kill himself?—she thought—not until after he had met Lord Steyne. She thought of her long past life, and all the dismal incidents of it. Ah, how dreary it seemed, how miserable, lonely and profitless! Should she take laudanum, and end it, to have done with all hopes, schemes, debts, and triumphs? The French maid found her in this position—sitting in the midst of her miserable ruins with clasped hands and dry eyes. The woman was her accomplice and in Steyne’s pay. “Mon Dieu, madame, what has happened?” she asked. What had happened? Was she guilty or not? She said not, but who could tell what was truth which came from those lips, or if that corrupt heart was in this case pure? All her lies and her schemes, an her selfishness and her wiles, all her wit and genius had come to this bankruptcy. (Thackeray 1994: 517)

Rawdon Crawley is in a fury and even challenges Lord Steyne to a duel which can be prevented only at the last moment. After that he accepts the position of Governor of Coventry Island and tries to pay back as much of his debts as possible. Becky leaves England and tries to start all over again in Europe, but her past always catches up with her and she has to move on. She becomes a lonely wanderer. The things the narrator tells us about Becky’s lifestyle leads the reader to assume that she has been involved in activities even more shady than her usual con games, including prostitution. In addition she has lost her looks, has started to drink heavily and consequently has also lost her singing voice. So, when Becky resurfaces again in the story, she is utterly destitute and deteriorated. The narrator aptly compares Becky with a siren – a bird-woman and seductress from Greek mythology.

-64- In describing this Siren, singing and smiling, coaxing and cajoling, the author, with modest pride, asks his readers all round, has he once forgotten the laws of politeness, and showed the monster’s hideous tail above water? No! Those who like may peep down under waves that are pretty transparent and see it writhing and twirling, diabolically hideous and slimy, flapping amongst bones, or curling round corpses; but above the waterline, I ask, has not everything been proper, agreeable, and decorous, and has any the most squeamish immoralist in Vanity Fair a right to cry fie? When, however, the Siren disappears and dives below, down among the dead men, the water of course grows turbid over her, and it is labour lost to look into it ever so curiously. They look pretty enough when they sit upon a rock, twanging their harps and combing their hair, and sing, and beckon to you to come and hold the looking-glass; but when they sink into their native element, depend on it, those mermaids are about no good, and we had best not examine the fiendish marine cannibals, revelling and feasting on their wretched pickled victims. (Thackeray 1994: 620-621)

Calder argues that this passage is about the hypocrisy of 19th century English society. “Only in a cannibalistic world can Becky the cannibal make use of her talents. […] The siren is ‘she’ but also ‘it’ and ‘they’. The ‘monster’ is hypocrisy and deceit in general, the corpses all those who have failed according to society’s artificial standards, and in a cannibalistic world you either are a corpse, or you are feeding on a corpse. And the siren represents all women.” (Calder 1979: 51) Becky’s understanding of the workings of society and her ability to read other people enable her to manipulate and deceive them. However, her talents would be useless if society were not so superficial and only focused on wealth, social status and power. Contrary to the other women in the book, Becky not only fights the system by believing that a poor governess has also the right to become a rich man’s wife and be presented at court, she also does not accept woman’s role in society. “Most of the male characters in the book exploit women, out of habit or deliberate scorn and cruelty, or a combination of both. […] These men treat the women of their households as slaves: only Becky escapes this. Only Becky is able to turn the tables on the men.” (Calder 1979: 53) The moment Becky meets Amelia, Joseph Sedley and William Dobbin again, she knows that this is the chance to turn things around. Once more she devotes all her attention to Joseph Sedley and manages to charm him once more. She knows that this is her last chance. Therefore her selfless action of telling Amelia the truth about her husband can be also be seen as a clever strategic move of getting Amelia and Dobbin out of the way.

-65- “Couldn’t forget him!” cried out Becky, “that selfish humbug, that low-bred cockney dandy, that padded booby, who had neither wit, nor manners, nor heart, and was no more to be compared to your friend with the bamboo cane than you are to Queen Elizabeth. Why, the man was weary of you, and would have jilted you, but that Dobbin forced him to keep his word. He owned it to me. He never cared for you. He used to sneer about you to me, time after time, and made love to me the week after he married you.” (Thackeray 1994: 665-666)

In order to prove her accusations she shows Amelia the note George Osborne had given to her at the ball in Brussels asking her to run away with him. Amelia can finally crush the idealised image of her husband and marry William Dobbin. This action may be the best thing Becky ever did for another human being. However, her motives can be seriously doubted because once Amelia and Dobbin are married, Joseph Sedely is all hers. Joseph realises too late how dangerous his new companion really is and supposedly gets killed by her. Although nothing in the text supports this assumption, in the original publication Thackeray included some illustrations done by himself. One of these shows Becky standing behind a curtain holding a vial in her hand. The title of the picture is “Becky's second appearance in the character of Clytemnestra”, referring to charades where Becky had played Clytemnestra, a femme fatale who murdered her husband and Cassandra, a Trojan princess, (cf. Wikipedia, s.v. “ Vanity Fair (novel)) foreshadowing later events. Becky’s whole life is a charade. We are neither asked to applaud and admire her, nor are we asked to condemn her. Becky Sharp is a product of society. “The figure of Becky is a measure of just how debased society has become. If a wild and wicked woman such as this has been installed at the heart of the Christian English home, implies the narrator, then all indeed must be Vanity Fair.” (Hughes 1993: 7) As all the other women in 19th century English society, Becky does not have many options to choose from. “Two alternatives open to the well-bred middle-class young woman: to be either a wife or daughter. Rebecca is ultimately neither, and her vagabond life is the price she has to pay for this escape.” (Calder 1979: 53) Much as Helen Maldon, Becky Sharp tries to fight the system and reach a position in society she is not destined to take. She uses the power of her femininity and her sexuality in order to get what she wants from men. She tricks people, lies and charms them, but in the end she is not able to win the fight, only some battles. The novel shows that some people rise in society, like Dobbin, and are able to improve their position, but they will only be able to keep it if they fought for it honestly.

-66- 5. Conclusion

Schlechte Frauen oder böse Frauen sind Frauen, deren Handeln nicht mit den gesellschaftlich vorgegebenen normativen Weiblichkeits- Vorstellungen übereinstimmt und die deshalb kriminalisiert oder als unmoralisch bezeichnet werden. (Kuhlmann 2006: 148)

Notions of the ‘ideal’ woman have been different from age to age and from culture to culture. In regions where life was hard, where winters were cold and every pair of hands was needed for work, women had more rights than in regions where the climate was milder and people could spend more time on thinking rather than having to struggle for survival. Thus for example, while some Celtic women took up arms and fought against the Roman armies, Roman women were expected to manage the household and care for the children. In addition, it can be said that the more highly developed the religious system was, the more the rights of women were restricted. When natural religions in Europe, East-Asia and North-Africa were replaced by the polytheistic religions of the Greeks and Romans and later on by the monotheistic of the Christian religion, the Jewish religion or later of Islam, women lost their positions as priestesses and oracles and were increasingly excluded from the religious world. More precisely, it can be said that since the monotheistic religions came into being, which spread the belief in only one male god, the social, religious and political position of women in society constantly diminished. In the Christian tradition, for example, women were presented as weak, easy to manipulate and responsible for the Fall. Despite the fact that in the early Christian communities women were not downgraded, the stronger the Christian movement and the Catholic Church became, the worse things got for women. Of course, there have always been better and worse times for women. In addition, the ideal of beauty also changed over time. In the Middle Ages, for example, a woman had to have a girlish figure and small breasts whereas in the baroque era voluptuous women with broad hips were considered to be beautiful. Sometimes the eyes had to be blue, sometimes brown. The standards changed constantly, the same as fashion did.9 By the 19th century things had not changed much. Women were allowed to go to school and get an education, but their main purpose in life was still considered to become a man’s wife and bear children. Compared to men women had almost no rights and for an unmarried woman it was almost impossible to manage her life without the help of relatives.

9 for additional information see Wikipedia: “Schönheitsideal” -67- However, not all women accepted their fate, and some started to rebel against the existing social order. The women’s rights movement came into being and slowly but steadily the social and legal position of women in society improved. Similarly, the female characters presented and discussed in this paper do not want to accept the position given to them by society. They want more from life and are willing to do everything necessary in order to get it. In this thesis four different types of female evil are defined, presented and analysed: the female vampire, the madwoman in the attic, the murderess and the femme fatale. Each one of them stands for a different form of female evil; however, they also have things in common. Bram Stoker’s idea to introduce a female vampire in Dracula was brilliant and shocking at the same time. At the time the novel was written, the myth of vampires was not popular in England and Stoker, together with J. Sheridan Le Fanu and John Polidori, was one of the first to base his story on this old East-European legend and myth. The concept of a female vampire was especially shocking and abhorrent because it symbolised the anti-woman, the complete reversal of the ideal woman. However, this type of female evil is not responsible for its actions. Lucy Westenra is bitten by Count Dracula and therefore turns into a vampire herself. Anything evil she does can ultimately be blamed on the Count. Moreover, once she is killed, her soul is freed and can rest in peace. So, in Stoker’s novel an evil female character is presented, hunted and killed, but also saved in the end. Lucy is never blamed for her actions. The concept of an evil male part and a weak female part, which is manipulated, transformed and used as a weapon, is reminiscent of various Christian stories. In Genesis, it was also the woman Eve who was seduced by the serpent. In the Middle Ages, it was women who were accused of witchcraft and intercourse with demons and devils, and in Lucy’s case it is Count Dracula who used her for his evil intentions. In any case, the only thing a woman could be blamed for in such a case was her weakness. Bertha Mason in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, a Creole woman, is presented as an animal-like monster locked up in the attic. She tries to kill her husband Rochester, sets the house on fire, stabs her brother, drinks, shouts and does all the things a modest woman would never even think of. Since it is not only her existence which prevents the two lovers to be together, but also because her actions described in the novel are meant to shock and repel, the reader, despite the fact that he is meant to hate this character, can not help but sympathise with this poor creature because she is mad and cannot be blamed for her actions. Bertha Mason’s deviant behaviour, just as Lucy Westenra’s, is explained – in her case by a hereditary taint of madness. Again, it seems as if a totally evil woman who is evil out of her

-68- own free will can not be thought of. Nevertheless it has to be said that the fact of Bertha’s original madness can be questioned: It is Rochester who defines her as mad and it may also be possible that the reason for locking her up in the first place was her temper and her bad manners resulting from a different cultural background and upbringing. However, it is out of question that, even if she was not mad when he married her, she is definitely mad when Jane Eyre arrives at Thornfield. Therefore, Bertha is likewise not responsible for actions which are either explained by her insanity or by ten years of solitary confinement. In case these years of imprisonment are indeed responsible for her mental state, it would be a man again who is responsible for a woman’s evilness, just as in Lucy’s case. The case of Helen Maldon, or Lady Audley, is a little bit more complex than the first two presented. Helen Maldon is a beautiful young but poor woman who wants to live a life in luxury. When her first husband is no longer able to fulfil her wishes and demands, and leaves for Australia to dig for gold, she decides to marry a second time. Everything seems to work out well until her first husband returns and Helen Maldon is forced to take certain steps to defend her position as Lady Audley. She attempts murder twice, lies and manipulates. However, in the end she loses the battle. That is when she tries to defend her actions by telling her husband and his nephew that she is mad, just as her mother. Interestingly, in contrast to Bertha Mason, who was characterised as being mad due to her husband’s actions, Helen Maldon calls herself mad. However, her obvious motivations for her well-planned actions make it hard to believe her. In addition, contrary to the first two characters, Helen Maldon in a sense typifies the perfect woman. Her looks as well as her manners are perfect: she is beautiful, caring and only interested in childish amusements. On a superficial level she never threatens the patriarchal power structure: she does not rave or drink, nor does she show her sexual desires. All she ever wanted was to be married to a rich husband. As the other two characters discussed above, Helen Maldon has a reason for her actions – her madness. However, in contrast to Bertha Mason in actual fact, her mental state seems to be quite in order, despite her craving for luxury. The only excuse she has for her evil deeds is self- preservation: she does not want to go back to her old life and defends her new one by all means she deems necessary. Helen Maldon is clearly a product and a victim of societal standards and norms. As a single-mom she has no chance to improve her situation and so she decides to start all over again. The question whether she can be blamed for her actions is difficult to answer. Of course, all her actions are wrong, but her situation is difficult. It is thus understandable that living a life in poverty with a drunkard as a father, not knowing if the

-69- husband, who left without saying goodbye, will ever return, is not something somebody easily accepts if he or she sees a way out of it. The fourth character analysed in this paper is Becky Sharp in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair , a young, ambitious and clever woman who knows how the system works and decides to make use of her knowledge. Becky Sharp is well aware that an unmarried woman in Victorian society has no rights and small opportunities. Therefore, her first aim is to get married to a rich man. Her first attempt fails but eventually, she becomes Rawdon Crawley’s wife. Unfortunately, he is not as rich as Becky would like and so she lives on credit, knowingly ruining other peoples lives. She lies and cheats and manipulates people, does not care for anyone but herself. However, as opposed to the first two characters presented in this work, there is no supernatural or genetic excuse presented for her actions. Moreover, compared to Helen Maldon, her social position is also not as bad as Helen’s. Becky Sharp has rich friends, an education and the chance to make a living by being a governess. Of course, she might not have become rich, but she would have lived a nice, respectable life. However, this is not enough for her: She always wants more, and when she has, she still wants more. She is never satisfied and does not know when to stop. She is entirely to be blamed for her actions because it is only her ego and her pride that drive her. She has neither mercy nor pity and does not care about anyone but herself. At the beginning of the novel the reader might sympathise with Becky and admire her for her wit and her will to change her stars. After all, it was not easy to be a woman without a family in the 19th century. However, when Becky manages to get what she wanted, namely a rich husband from a good family, it is still not good enough for her. Therefore, one may doubt whether Becky can be seen as a victim of society. Unlike Helen Maldon, who is satisfied once she has found a new home and a rich husband, Becky keeps going. In the course of this diploma thesis a lot has been said about female evil and its different forms and types. But what do all four women, discussed, have in common? First of all, none of the four women presented is a mother figure. Two of them have children, but they are no mothers for them because, in a way, both abandon their sons. Secondly, they are not good wives: Lucy is presented as a sexual being for whom one man is not enough, Bertha clearly neither respects her husband nor is she able to be a good host and entertain guests, Helen Maldon marries another man the moment her husband is gone and does not seem to believe in the part of the wedding vow where it says “in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow”; and for Becky Sharp, her husband is nothing but an asset, and she allegedly even betrays him. Thirdly, they are not good women because they

-70- do not behave according to their social position, and maybe that is the true reason why these women are presented as evil. Another interesting fact is that the first three women discussed in this paper all use violence or physical force: Lucy Westenra hurts children by biting them, Bertha Mason wrestles with her husband, stabs her brother and lays fire twice, and Helen Maldon attempts murder twice. Physically hurting other people is evil, but especially in the case of children. However, they all have or give a reason for their actions, and at least the first two of them are clearly not responsible for their actions, meaning that they are not themselves when they commit them. Becky Sharp, on the other hand, does none of theses things. She never hurts anybody by physical force. She uses her power of manipulation to get to people. She hurts them in a different way and out of her free will. So, on the one hand, she can be seen as the least evil of the four women presented because all she does is play games so to speak. On the other hand, however, she is the most evil character because all her actions are well-planned and done on purpose, and she even seems to be fully aware of the consequences. Becky Sharp is therefore the most threatening one of the four because she plays the game well and always seems to have an ace up her sleeve. She is clever and except for the accusation of adultery, nothing can be traced back to her or could be held against her. The 19th century was an age of rapid change, and as technology and science improved, literature and social life changed as well. Literature has always mirrored real life, no matter whether by trying to mimic it or whether by showing us the complete opposite. The order in which the novels are discussed mirrors the cultural shift from Romanticism to Victorianism. Victorian literature focuses more on real-life situations and the effects of the industrial revolution, but women are also presented differently. The more clearly Victorian the novels get, the more evil the women become. It seems as if the moment women started to step out of men’s shadows, their own potential for evilness became visible. Evil women in literature are no longer the victims of an evil force or person, it is their own free will and doing that makes them evil. This development also mirrors the insecurity of men when it comes to women. Men felt threatened by this female force. If women want to have the same rights as men, take the same positions as them, what else are they capable of? It seems as if a successful woman could not be good at the same time, because good women stay at home and bear kids. Otherwise they would get corrupted, and therefore women’s minds had to be protected by men. However, many of the things these women do would not shock anybody in our times. Society has radically changed over the past century and nowadays women would have to do

-71- much more than drink in public, betray their husbands, or perhaps even kill somebody, in order to be labelled truly evil. Especially in modern movies, but in modern literature as well, strong women who fight for themselves and do not need a helping hand are very popular. It is no problem anymore to present a woman that is able to combine her work as a politician, FBI agent, manager or doctor with her duties as mother and wife. Of course, in 19th century England things were different and deviant behaviour, meaning not behaving according to the strict social rules, was enough to be considered evil. Nevertheless the last question which has to be asked is who decides what or who is good or evil? “How can activity be good or wicked? That which is performed with good intention is good; and that which is performed with evil intention is wicked. That which purifies the soul or by which the soul is purified, is merit – producing a happy feeling. That which keeps the soul away from good is demerit – producing an unhappy feeling.” (World Scripture) It seems that in the end it is all a matter of perspective.

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