<I>Gaudy Night</I>

Volume 6 Number 3 Article 11 6-15-1979 Head Versus Heart in Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night Margaret P. Hannay Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hannay, Margaret P. (1979) "Head Versus Heart in Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 6 : No. 3 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss3/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Contends that in Gaudy Night “Sayers has so carefully woven together the setting, the theme and the plot that the mystery itself provides a major part of the commentary on the theme of intellectual integrity.” Another theme is the achievement of the “delicate balance” between head and heart. Additional Keywords Sayers, Dorothy L.—Characters—Peter Wimsey; Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night; Stephen P. Gaddis This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss3/11 Head Versus Heart In Dorothy L. Sayers Gaudy Night M argaret P. Hannay Gaudy Night has been both praised and damned as a importance for many of you, as they do for me. As Sayers has detective novel that attempts to be something more than a various characters say throughout the novel, "What shall we "whodunit," a combination of a mystery story with a serious do with the people who have both hearts and brains?" treatment of values; critics seem hard pressed to decide whether it should be treated as a serious novel ruined Sayers does not underplay the popular fear of the by the frivolous detection, or a detective novel fatally learned woman; she has given to Shrewsbury College an encumbered with a serious theme.1 But if we begin "ominous"patroness in Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury, who by suspending our disbelief in the possibility of a valid seemed "to be the epitome of every alarming quality which a hybrid, we find that Sayers has so carefully woven together learned woman is popularly credited with developing."3 the setting, the theme and the plot that the mystery itself The students at Shrewsbury tend to eschew her example, provides a major part of the commentary on the theme of not wishing to appear so learned that they frighten off the intellectual integrity. men. Miss Aayton, expected to take a First in Languages, declares that she will have to make her Geoffrey believe "I In any consideration of Gaudy Night we have the only did it by looking fragile and pathetic at the viva" advantage of her own comments in her essay by the same (129). The elegant Miss Millbanks always delared that "she title. While we certainly have to be aware that the author was a scholar only because she would not be seen dead in the may not always accomplish her intentions, it is useful ridiculous short gown of a commoner" (126). Lest this be to know what those intentions were. Sayers tells us that taken as too sexually biased, we are also shown a male "in Gaudy Night three trains of thought, which had been undergraduate who excused himself from a conversation by converging for some time in. .my mind, happened to "murmuring something in an apologetic way about work meet": the ambition to produce a Wimsey book which would and his tutor, as though they were rather indelicate be "less like a conventional detective story and more like necessities" (159). a novel"; the desire to write a 'straight' novel "about an Oxford woman graduate who found, in middle life, and after But these are merely comic indications of the difficulty a reasonably satisfactory experience of marriage and mother in combining learning with "real life." it is the dons of hood, that her real vocation and full emotional fulfillment Shrewsbury who illustrate the various permutations of the were to be found in the creative life of the intellect"; the life devoted to scholarship, for ail of them have chosen to necessity to arrange a marriage for Lord Peter and Harriet be single—with the exception of Miss Chilperic, who was Vane—a process which involved humanizing Wimsey and "remarkable chiefly for being engaged to be married to a building up Harriet so that "she could accept Peter without junior don at another college" (89). loss of self-esteem." She discovered that by setting the novel in Oxford she could solve all three problems at Miss de Vine comes closest to representing the person once: with head but no heart, the woman of whom Harriet says "If anything came between her and the service of truth, On the intellectual platform, alone of all she would walk over it without rancor and without pity—even others, Harriet could stand free and equal with if it were her own reputation." This ruthless dedication to Peter, since in that sphere she had never been false intellectual truth provides the mainspring of the plot; when to her own standards. By choosing a plot that Arthur Robinson stole a document that would disprove his should exhibit intellectual integrity as the one great thesis, she exposed the fraud without hesitation. When the permanent value in an emotionally unstable world I case is later presented to the other dons (under Lord Peter's should be saying the thing that, in a confused way, skillful manipulation of the conversation) they ail agree that I had been wanting to say all my life. Finally, such dishonesty cannot be tolerated. But Miss de Vine must I should have found a universal theme which could be come to realize that although her initial action was justified, made integral both to the detective plot and to the she should have cared about Robinson's personal fate, taking "love-interest" which I had, somehow or other, steps to prevent the academic disgrace from eventually to unite with it. (89) causing his death. In addition to providing this crucial por tion of the plot. Miss de Vine has two other important func tions. First of all, she demonstrates the militant extreme So the plot, the theme, and the setting are admirably of scholarship. She is termed "a fighter, indeed" whose jointed, inevitably making this narrative more of a novel proper arena is in the quadrangle at Shrewsbury, "a soldier and less of a crossword puzzle. But what of Sayers' other Knowing no personal loyalties, whose sole allegiance was to aims? How can the 'straight' story of a woman who finds the fact," a person with no understanding of compromise. her true fulfillment in scholarship, not marriage, be re As the extreme example of intellect ruling the heart, she is conciled with the necessity of arranging a marriage for balanced against Annie Robinson, whose fierce personal Harriet and Peter? On the surface, these aims seem con loyalties leave no room for the intellect. Secondly, her in tradictory; indeed, they are incompatible if we look only tellectual objectivity makes her a valuable counselor for at Harriet and Peter. But if we survey the larger structure Harriet: she warns her that people who make other people of the novel, we see that it focuses not only on the general their jobs are dangerous, she predicts that the important "relationship of scholarship to life," as Sayers said, but things will reveal themselves by overmastering her, she more particularly on the "problem of the intellectual woman." points out that a man who values objectivity would be worth Is it womanly to choose scholarship instead of family? Does marrying. If fact, to her are given Sayers' best words on that decision necessarily produce a bitter and twisted spirit? marriage: "If you ever find any kind of repose with him, it Does the decision to put family before one's vocation lead can only be the respose of a very delicate balance" (423).4 to even greater bitterness? Is it possible to combine scholar Harriet comes to see her almost as a nun, having a "power ship and family in such a way that neither suffers? I ful spiritual call" to scholarship, aware of her repressions suspect that these questions have more than academic and able to handle them. 33 The repressions which can warp the spirit are displayed her children, the total ignorance of intellectual integrity. in Miss Hillyard, the frustrated spinster, one who has When Annie complains about learned ladies with "no heart apparently been mistaken in choosing scholarship instead of in them," when she warns young Viscount St. George that marriage. Significantly, she is not a good teacher and perhaps "We murder beautiful boys like you and eat their hearts out," not a true scholar at all; her lectures on Constitutional she is emphasizing the perennial danger of those with heads Development remain a college joke.

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