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Servants and the Construction of Identity in the Eighteenth-Century Gothic Novel

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Servants and the Construction of Identity in the Eighteenth-Century Gothic Novel Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 4-17-2008 The Third Person in the Room: Servants and the Construction of Identity in the Eighteenth-Century Gothic Novel Jennifer Thomson Lawrence Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Lawrence, Jennifer Thomson, "The Third Person in the Room: Servants and the Construction of Identity in the Eighteenth-Century Gothic Novel." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/28 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE THIRD PERSON IN THE ROOM: SERVANTS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GOTHIC NOVEL by JENNIFER THOMSON LAWRENCE Under the direction of Dr. Malinda Snow ABSTRACT: “The Third Person in the Room: Servants and the Construction of Identity in the Eighteenth- Century Gothic Novel” explores the eighteenth-century Gothic novelists’ use of the stock servant character device to illustrate the tenuous nature of identity construction in a novelistic world torn between an admiration for its feudalistic past and a desire to embrace rising notions of individualism. I examine representations of real and literary servants to argue that the servant figure offers a convenient avenue for the discussion of class, social expectation, and economics, for as both family members and participants in the economy of the outside world, servants bridge the gap eighteenth-century authors find between their reclusive, feudalistic past and their social, individualistic present. Further, servants’ ties to the household associate them with the feminine perspective and provide authors, particularly authors of the Female Gothic, with a means of presenting the female voice in cases where it had otherwise been silenced by male oppression. In this work, I focus specifically on usurpation in Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otrant o¸ Robert Jephson’s The Count of Norbonne , and William Godwin’s Caleb Williams , maternal history in Clara Reeve’s The Old English Baron , Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian , and Sophia Lee’s The Recess , sexual surrogacy in Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho , and aristocratic criminalization in Charlotte Smith’s The Old Manor House . I examine these works in the context of eighteenth-century realistic literature, social criticism and historical frameworks as well as through the lens of current theoretical examinations of the eighteenth-century Gothic. INDEX WORDS: servants in literature, servants, domestics, Gothic, eighteenth century, class, gender, history, identity, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, Clara Reeve, Sophia Lee, Horace Walpole, William Godwin THE THIRD PERSON IN THE ROOM: SERVANTS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GOTHIC NOVEL by JENNIFER THOMSON LAWRENCE A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2008 Copyright by Jennifer Thomson Lawrence 2008 THE THIRD PERSON IN THE ROOM: SERVANTS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GOTHIC NOVEL By JENNIFER THOMSON LAWRENCE Committee Chair: Malinda Snow Committee: Murray Brown Tanya Caldwell Electronic Version Approved Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University April 2008 iv DEDICATION To my daughter, Meg, may you visit all the ruined abbeys, haunted castles, grand villas, and sheltered cottages this world has to offer, only at your leisure. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has long been my opinion that the best expressions of gratitude are short and sweet— brevity is the soul of wit, after all. So, like Polonius, I will be brief: I would like to thank the following people for their support: My husband and daughter, Eric and Meg Lawrence. Each of you has made sacrifices in various ways to accommodate my studies, and I appreciate those sacrifices more than I say. Thank you Eric for never questioning the logic of my decision to attend graduate school or the amount of time I devoted to it. Your love and support have guided me through this process, which has truly been a joint effort. Thank you to Meg for reminding me that there is more to life than dissertation chapters. My director, Dr. Malinda Snow, who provided constant and invaluable support. I am immeasurably honored that you agreed to work with me on this project, and I know that I would not have accomplished what I have in this work if it were not for your guidance, sound judgment, and encouragement. You always know the perfect thing to say, and I hope that I can continue to collect your pithy pieces of inspiration even now that I have finished this portion of my work. My committee members, Drs. Murray Brown and Tanya Caldwell for their support, insight, and encouragement. Thank you also for agreeing to work with me on this. Your suggestions have been invaluable. My father, Eric Thomson, who once accused me of being willing to argue with a fence post but who led by example. Here is my latest argument. I’m not sure that this fence post will move or that it will even hear me, but I thank you for speaking your mind and for challenging me to speak mine. vi My mother, Carol Thomson, who for as long as I can remember has enjoyed informing people that I walked and talked at nine months and that I was reciting poetry by two but who also managed to keep me grounded by reminding me that I never did my homework. You have taught me to consider the practicalities of every situation. Nothing about this topic is practical (what with the ghosts, desolate castles, and fainting heroines), but if there is any common sense in the presentation of it, I owe that to your instruction. My large and loving family. I thank you all for the enthusiasm, support, and love you have offered. I would particularly like to thank my brothers, Jonathan and Josh Thomson, each of whom instructed me in various ways, but both of whom have inspired me with their heroism and dedication to improving this world. I cannot express the admiration that I feel for both of you. I am proud to be your sister. Additionally, I owe a debt to my mother-in-law and father-in-law, Diane and Herman Lawrence, for their support and encouragement, as well as my nieces and nephews, Joseph and Jakob Thomson and Ashely-Kate, David, and Sarah-Grace Lawrence for making me smile on a regular basis. My dearest friends, Angela Hall-Godsey and Melissa McLeod, who are two of the most amazing women I’ve ever met and who continue to impress me everyday with their grace and intelligence. Thank you for the late-night strategy meetings, for inspiring me to work harder than I ever would have on my own, for cheering along side me during the happiest moments of my life, for holding my hand when I felt hopeless, and for letting me hold yours. I look forward to what we’ll come up with next. My mentor, Dr. Marti Singer, who goes above and beyond the call of duty on every occasion. Melissa McLeod once called you our fairy godmother, and I think beyond saying that you are an amazingly inspirational, wickedly intelligent woman, and a treasured friend, there is no better vii way to describe you. When I think of what it means to be an excellent teacher and mentor, you come to mind. We could have had no better leader or role model. My colleagues at Writing Across the Curriculum, Drs. George Pullman and Brennan Collins, who have shown inexplicable faith in me and unwavering support. Thank you both for your encouragement and advice. I cannot express how much I have valued your insights or how touched I have been by your eagerness to listen to my ideas, both academic and professional. My professors at Georgia State University’s English department, those who have instructed me formally in class and those that have instructed me in the hallway, in the elevator, in the parking garage, and sometimes at the sink in the restroom. You are a remarkable group of teachers whose dedication is evident everyday in the department. While I thank you all for your advice and support, I would like particularly to thank Dr. Stephen Dobranski, who worked with me early in my studies and who taught me to write and think as a scholar (he should not be held accountable for any flaws in this document, but any moments of clarity or grace are largely the result of his tutelage). Each of the people mentioned above are responsible in their own ways for inspiring me to finish this project. I could not have done any of this without your unwavering support. Thank you to you all. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 A Third Person in the Room 3 Feudalism or Something Different 5 Representations of Servitude in the Eighteenth Century 7 Serving the Gothic Household and Saving Matilda 10 Chapter Overview 15 Notes 22 CHAPTER 1 “LESS THAN WHAT I SHOULD BE; MORE THAN WHAT I SEEM”: GOTHIC SERVANTS AND THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CRISIS OF IDENTITY 29 Economics, Heredity, and the Construction of Identity in the Gothic 32 Otranto Usurped 40 Otranto Rewritten 51 Beyond Otranto : Caleb Williams as Unintentional Usurper 55 Notes 71 2 THE SERVANT HISTORIAN AND THE RECONSTRUCTION
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