CONTENTS Introduction 2 .................................................................................…….......... Rendell´s Crime Novels 4 1. ..................................................……............…...... Appearance of the Characters and Setting 7 2. ..........................................…...... 2.1 Dangerous Ordinariness 7 .............................................................…. 2.2 Gothic Sublime 12 .........................................................................….. Importance of Family Background 18 3. ......................................................……. 3.1 Characters Coming from Deprived Background .......................…. 20 3.2 Characters Coming from Middle and Upper-Class Background ... 30 Class Barriers 35 4. ....................................................................................……… 4.1 A Fatal Clash between the Classes ...........................................….. 37 4.2 Class Imprisonment 48 ..................................................................….. 4.3 The Socially Excluded 51 ..............................................................….. Racial and Ethnic Otherness 56 1 5. ...............................................................…….. Transgressions in Gender 61 6. ...................................................................……... Conclusion 66 .........................................................................................……… Bibliography 70 ......................................................................................……… INTRODUCTION This diploma thesis analyses different social issues that influence the individual´s personality and his or her emotional and social development in the following selection of nine novels by Ruth Rendell: Wolf to the Slaughter (first published in 1967), The Best Man to Die (1969), The Face of Trespass (1974), A Demon in My View (1976), A Judgement in Stone (1977), A Sleeping Life (1978), The Bridesmaid (1989), The Keys to the Street (1996), and Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (2001). I attempt to take into consideration the social life and changes that took place over the span of four decades this selection covers. The selected books fall into the two categories of Rendell´s works, the Wexford novels, with a leading character of Chief Inspector Wexford, and social thrillers that lack the questing detective. 2 Ruth Rendell is the acclaimed British author with an established reputation in crime fiction who has transformed the criminal genre by blending the mundane aspects of everyday life with the murky impulses of obsession, greed, desire, envy and fear. My aim is to find a close parallel between the psychology of Rendell´s damaged characters and the circumstances that have led them to commit the crime. I focus on Rendell´s responses concerning the contemporary British society through a detailed examination of her characters who often seem to be the victims of the social system. I divide my diploma thesis into six chapters. The first chapter briefly describes the genre that the novels written by Ruth Rendell represent. The second chapter analyses the relations between the appearance of the characters and their psyche in the context of Rendell´s detailed description of the setting including the Gothic features she employs to emphasize the existence of the ever-present danger of crime. The next chapter examines the influence of family background and childhood on the character´s mind and behaviour. This chapter also concentrates on different social, cultural and economic factors in family life that are possible sources of disruptive and criminal behaviour. The fourth chapter deals with the topic of class structure, class differences and conflicts that Rendell critically discusses in her novels. The following chapter is closely related to the previous one concerning the notion of ethnicity and race in connection with the British feelings of superiority that considerably influence the individual´s life and identity. The last chapter of this thesis explores Rendell´s construction of gender and its stereotypes with regard to the family upbringing and Freud´s psychoanalysis. In my analysis of the relations between culture and personality, I inquire into psychological studies, research and approaches for a wide range of personality disorders published in the works by Cyril Höschl and Michael R. Zales. Considering the issue of class, ethnicity and gender I rely on Ivan Reid´s demonstration of the ways in which social 3 differences reach into every area of human life, and Arthur Marwick´s survey of the development of British society in particular periods in which the selected novels were written. Among other sources listed in the bibliography, I also draw on inspiration from various articles commenting Rendell´s personal and social life and work. 1. RENDELL´S CRIME NOVELS Ruth Rendell publishes in three related genres of literature: the Wexford detective series, social thrillers, and psychological novels, which she writes under the name of Barbara Vine. She creates novels that release her from the standards common to detective fiction because they not only examine the psyche of different characters, but also break new ground in the area of social critique. Rendell´s works directly challenge the reader to consider social problems of contemporary British society. This diploma thesis deals with the first two categories of Rendell´s novels. The Wexford novels take place in a fictional provincial town of Kingsmarkham and each of them can be seen as a continuation of the life of Inspector Reginald Wexford and his family. Rendell provides the reader with deep insight into Wexford´s personal life together with his loyalty and responsibility for the police force. Reginald Wexford is a thoughtful, witty, and insightful policeman as well as a family man who adores his two adult daughters, although 4 he is not blind to their flaws. While solving the crimes together with his sidekick, Inspector Michael Burden, Wexford´s own family problems keep him busy as well. He always balances on the edge between his own family life and the interrogation of strange and perplexing cases. McDermid adds that Rendell successfully manages to provide the reader “with fresh insights into Reg Wexford´s personality as he struggles to balance his responsibility for a major investigation with a personal drama that threatens the very foundation of his life” (McDermid, On Inspector Wexford). However, his family crises always help him to solve the crime. Rendell uses Wexford´s character to characterize other individuals in her stories often guiding the reader to various plausible yet wrong conclusions. Despite including fundamental aspects of a traditional detective story, such as a police procedure, surprising turning points, a sufficient number of false scents and single mistakes based on a monotonous routine of police work, Wexford novels undoubtedly break new ground in detective fiction. Not only do they examine the hidden motives behind the particular crime, but they also deliver a strong message concerning the class, gender and racial inequalities influencing the psyche and mind of their characters. Rendell elaborates the above-mentioned characterizations further in the second category of her novels called social thrillers, which somewhat differ from traditional Wexford whodunits because there is neither “the Great Detective“ nor the extensive criminal investigation following the central line of the novel. Instead Rendell puts a psychological study dealing with the criminal´s anamnesis and personality in the foreground. Here the study of her characters is deeper, including the social pressure which eventually provokes their violent response. These people usually went through a traumatic childhood experience which is pent up for some time but which, at the moment of the increasing menace, causes a growing panic leading to desperate resistance to the whole environment. 5 However, it is not only Rendell´s characters that make her novels so special, but also the dramatic setting and story that help to create a compelling whole. Thus Wexford´s fictional Kingsmarkham is almost as real and atmospheric as London, which Rendell uses as the setting for her non-Wexford novels. Rendell demonstrates an exceptional ability to draw the reader into the streets of both Kingsmarkham and London to get acquainted with their environs intimately. Rendell´s writing skills are coupled to her sharp eye for social criticism giving a picture of contemporary British society. Her characters often balance along the edge of society and sanity, trapped and imprisoned in a class system, gender stereotypes, and cultural bias. The dark sides of their antisocial and disruptive behaviour are firmly rooted in their family background as well as in social inequality and oppression. The suspense of Rendell´s novels arises from the uncertainty of whether or not social justice will be served. They represent a serious challenge to the very society upon which Rendell makes her critical comments. 6 2. APPEARANCE OF THE CHARACTERS AND SETTING Rendell is frequently concerned both with the external appearance of her characters and the environment they occupy and provides a vivid description of these. Writing about the characters and setting seems to be more important for Rendell than to write about the crime itself. A great deal of her crime writing is not about the crime but about the people leading ordinary lives whose circumstances conspire to push them over the edge. Her portrayals