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Self-Making: Acts of Performance in the Victorian Novel

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Self-Making: Acts of Performance in the Victorian Novel Self-Making: Acts of Performance in the Victorian Novel Catherine Quirk Department of English McGill University, Montréal October 2019 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Catherine Quirk, 2019 Table of Contents Abstract . i Résumé . iii Acknowledgements . vi Introduction . 1 Chapter 1. Writing Performance: Self-Making and Performance Theory in the Nineteenth- Century Actress Memoir . 26 Chapter 2. Performing Respectability: Contrasting Stage and Society in the Theatrical Novel . 73 Chapter 3. Offstage Performance: Acting an Identity in No Name . 108 Chapter 4. “I acted to please myself”: Self-Making and Audience in Villette . 128 Chapter 5. Self-Making in the Home Department: Performing Identity in Dombey and Son . 145 Chapter 6. “I have been proved not to be myself”: Dual Consciousness and Failed Performance in Armadale . 167 Epilogue. Self-Making through Silence . 193 Works Cited . 212 i ABSTRACT “Self-Making” combines an examination of the self-conscious, theatrical construction of identity with attention to the malleability of character attributed to socio-economic changes. In the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries—the latter stages of the industrial revolution in Britain—an unprecedented number of people migrated from their ancestral rural homes to ever- expanding urban centres. While some saw this urbanization as a mark of the destabilization of the country and longed for a return to the relative stability of the not-too-distant, pre-industrial past, many others used the opportunity to recreate their personal identities outside of the previously restrictive ties of family and home. Critics considered such self-creation dangerous, as it allowed for the blurring of historical boundaries of class and status. Supporters, however, saw the hypothetical ability of all men (and it was a predominantly masculine opportunity) to form a self separate from an inherited identity as a great democratic advancement. This perspective gave rise to a series of self-help narratives in the Victorian period, both fictional and factual, which take their name from Samuel Smiles’s 1859 text, Self-Help. Smiles’s work documents a string of men whose respective talents and devotion to hard work allowed them to rise from lower-class beginnings to become leaders in the fields of industry, politics, and the military. The concept of “self-help” was primarily directed at men making their way in the world through a combination of hard work, temperance, and frugality. But many characters in novels of the period, both actors and non-actors, use explicitly theatrical techniques of self-invention. This is especially true of female characters, excluded as they are from most professional paths. Using the language of the stage and methods of characterization employed by nineteenth-century actresses, “Self-Making” applies the self-help narrative beyond the expected area of the economically self-made man. “Self-Making” posits theatrical technique as a female alternative to ii self-help, a method by which women in the nineteenth century could create viable social identities. I bookend and underscore my discussion of the fiction of the period by reading the parallel self-making evident in the autobiographical writings of nineteenth-century actresses, distilling from published writings and associated archival sources the performance theory practiced by each actress. The memoirs of Fanny Kemble, Marie Bancroft, Stella Campbell, and Elizabeth Robins chronicle the actresses’ respective stage careers, reflect on the development of the English stage, and illuminate their own theories of performance. Each of the actresses creates a written character by way of the same techniques she shows herself using on the stage. In their theatrical novels, Geraldine Jewsbury and Florence Marryat address the same anti-theatrical rhetoric which underlies Bancroft’s constructed self. Both novelists subvert an anti-theatrical hierarchy by identifying the stage as the sphere of innate authenticity, and society as dependent on deception. Wilkie Collins and Charlotte Brontë use the actress figure in their novels to comment on the performative nature of identity. They emphasize the necessity of adapting these characterizations to the requirements of diverse off-stage situations, anticipating Campbell’s theorization of performance as a collaboration between actor and audience. Elsewhere, Collins imbues his villainous female characters with the duality Kemble cites as necessary to any performance, as does Charles Dickens. Both novelists write characters generally treated as femme fatale figures; I argue that their villainy is instead a self-conscious act, performed to protect a private self. Throughout the nineteenth century, actresses and fictional characters alike self-consciously separate performing and performed selves, allowing for the creation of a sustained public identity while preserving the privacy of the self. In doing so, these women generate a form of self-help that looks beyond the expected masculine, economic practice. iii RÉSUMÉ « Self-Making » examine la construction identitaire théâtrale consciente en relation avec la malléabilité du personnage attribuée aux changements socio-économiques. À la fin du XVIIIe siècle et au début du XIXe siècle—durant les étapes ultimes de la révolution industrielle en Grande-Bretagne—un nombre sans précédent d’individus ont quitté leurs demeures rurales ancestrales afin d’émigrer vers des centres urbains en expansion. Alors que certains associaient à cette urbanisation la déstabilisation du pays et désiraient un retour à la stabilité relative d’un récent passé préindustriel, de nombreux autres ont profité de l’occasion pour recréer leurs identités personnelles en dehors des domaines restrictifs de la famille et du domicile. Les critiques considéraient cette création de soi comme dangereuse, dans la mesure où elle permettait la dissolution des bornes historiques de classe et de statut. Les partisans, cependant, reconnaissaient un progrès démocratique important dans la possibilité pour tous les hommes de se distinguer de leur identité héritée (ce fut une opportunité à prédominance masculine). Cette perspective a donné lieu à une série de récits « self-help »1 durant l’époque victorienne, à la fois fictionnels et factuels, qui prennent leur nom du texte de Samuel Smiles publié en 1859, Self- Help. Le texte de Smiles documente un nombre d’individus pour qui les talents respectifs ainsi qu’un dévouement au travail acharné leur ont permis de surmonter les échelons sociaux afin de devenir des succès dans les domaines de l’industrie, de la politique et de l’armée. Le concept de « self-help » s’adressait principalement aux hommes qui se frayaient un chemin dans le monde en combinant travail acharné, tempérance et frugalité. Mais de nombreux personnages dans les romans de cette période, acteurs et non-acteurs, emploient explicitement des techniques théâtrales d’invention personnelle. Ceci est particulièrement le cas pour les 1 « Self-help » désigne l’action ou le processus de s’aider soi-même, de s’améliorer ou de surmonter ses problèmes sans l’assistance des autres. iv personnages féminins exclus de la plupart des voies professionnelles. En utilisant le langage de la scène et les méthodes de caractérisation employées par les actrices du XIXe siècle, la dissertation « Self-Making » applique le récit de « self-help » au-delà du domaine typique de l’homme économiquement autonome. « Self-Making » propose la technique théâtrale comme alternative féminine de « self-help », méthode par laquelle les femmes du XIXe siècle pourraient créer des identités sociales viables. Je souligne ma discussion sur la fiction de cette période en lisant dans les écrits autobiographiques d’actrices du XIXe siècle une construction de soi parallèle, tout en tirant de mémoires publiées et de sources archivistiques associées une théorie de performance pratiquée par chaque actrice. Les mémoires de Fanny Kemble, de Marie Bancroft, de Stella Campbell et d’Elizabeth Robins relatent la carrière de chacune des actrices, reflètent le développement du théâtre anglais et éclairent leurs propres théories de performance. Chacune des actrices crée un personnage écrit à l’aide des mêmes techniques qu’elle utilise sur la scène. Dans leurs romans théâtraux, Geraldine Jewishbury et Florence Marryat considèrent la même rhétorique anti- théâtrale qui sous-tend le soi construit de Bancroft. Les deux romanciers subvertissent une hiérarchie anti-théâtrale en identifiant la scène comme la sphère de l’authenticité et la société celle des artifices. Wilkie Collins et Charlotte Brontë utilisent la figure de l’actrice dans leurs romans afin de commenter sur le caractère performatif de l’identité. Ils soulignent la nécessité d’adapter ces caractérisations aux exigences de diverses situations hors-scène, en anticipant la théorie de performance de Campbell en tant que collaboration entre acteur et public. Ailleurs, Collins anime ses personnages féminins crapuleux de la dualité indispensable à toute performance, tel que citée par Kemble et Charles Dickens. Les deux romanciers écrivent des personnages généralement traités comme des figures de femme fatale; je suggère que leur v méchanceté est plutôt un acte conscient, accompli afin de protéger un soi privé. Tout au long du XIXe siècle, les actrices et les personnages de fiction séparent délibérément leurs sois performants et performés, ce qui leur permet de créer
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