University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/34697 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. LIFE ON THE LAND The Interrelationship between Identity and Community in the Irish Fiction of Maria Edgeworth, William Carleton and Charles Lever By GEORGE O'BRIEN Thesis presented for the degree of Ph.D. UNIVER2ITY CF WARI;ICY, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. September 1979 CONTENTS Page No. INTRODUCTION 1 The Status of Nineteenth Century Irish Fiction 1 2 Historical and Cultural Contexts of Nineteenth Century Irish Fiction 6 3 Edgeworth, Carleton, Lever and the Contemporary Literary Context 16 4 Identity, Community and Edgeworth, Carleton and Lever 22 Footnotes to Introduction 31 CHAPTER I - Maria Edgeworth 1 Introduction 35 2 The Irish Novels in the Edgeworth oeuvre 43 3 Maria Edgeworth's Irish Novels 52 (i) Castle Rackrent 55 (ii) Ennui 65 (iii) The Absentee 81 (iv) Ormond 100 4 Maria Edgeworth and Nineteenth Century Irish Fiction 119 Footnotes to Chapter I 126 CHAPTER II - William Carleton 1 Introduction 129 (i) Carleton and Edgeworth 129 (ii) William Carleton: The Intellectual Background 142 2 William Carleton: Violence and Learning 156 (i) Violence in the 'Traits and Stories': The Assault upon Place 156 (ii) Learning in the 'Traits and Stories': Individuality under Stress 179 3 William Carleton and Tradition 213 Footnotes to Chapter II 223 CHAPTER III - Charles Lever 1 Introduction 227 (i) Lever and Harry Lorrequer 231 (ii) Lever and Contem p orary Irish Culture 248 continued CONTENTS (continued - 1) Page No. 2 Lever and the Condition of Ireland Question 258 (i) The Daltons: Identity and Exile 264 (ii) The Martins of Cro' Martin: Identity and the Family 280 (iii) Luttrell of Arran: Identity and Race 300 3 Charles Lever and the Nineteenth Century Irish Novel 316 Footnotes to Chapter III 323 CHAPTER IV - Towards a Tradition 1 The Achievement of Edgeworth, Carleton and Lever 327 2 Irish Fiction: Nineteenth Century and Afterwards 339 Footnotes to Chapter IV 355 BIBLIOGRAPHY 356 SUMMARY This thesis examines and evaluates the response made by three nineteenth century Irish writers of fiction to the most pressing social problem of their time, namely: How might life on the land be firmly established and maintained? The three writers concerned — Maria Edgeworth, William Carleton and Charles Lever — are shown to possess a common artistic vision, which is preserited as an answer to the question posed. The answer consists of a demonstration of how the resources of an enabling individual must blend with the requirements of life on the land as it is, losr way of introduction, the significance of the theme for both the literary and socio—political contexts of the period (1800-1872) is described, and the problems of dealing with-nine- teenth century Irish fiction— problems concerned with its status in the national cultural heritage, its variety and its artistic characteristics — are outlined. The four Irish novels of Maria Edgeworth are given a special status irnher overall output, and her handling of the theme"in them is considered as the prototype of her succlssors' manner of dealing with it. Carleton and Lever are taken as portraying the Edgeworth model under stress. Carleton's work is represented by a selection of pieces from his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasant_ Lever's by three novels from the 1850's and '60 1 s. All three writers are located in their contemporary cultural milieux, and their individual treatments of the theme are described and. compared. In conclusion, a general characterisation' of the type of fiction ploduced by- the t---icn is offered, and a basis for its artistic relationship to Irish fiction of more recent times is rehearsed. The thesis facilitates a new periodisation of the history of nineteenth century Irish fiction. It also offers a revised conception of a tradition, of Irish fiction. These are the contributions it makes to knowledge of the subject treated. INTRODUCTION 1 The Status of Nineteenth Century Irish Fiction The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overvie% of the fiction produced by three cstensibly unrelated nineteenth certury Irish authors, Maria Edgeworth, William Carleton, end Charles Lever. Each of these authors has a niche in nineteenth century. literary history. Maria Edgeworth, as the author of Castle Rackrent, 1 'the first regional novel in English, and perhaps in all Europe', occupies the securest position. Carleton has an enduring place in his homeland for being 'the great memorialist of the peasant civi- 2 lization of Ireland which perished with the Famine.' And Lever is, at least, an interesting example of Victorian pen-fever.3 Yet the status of all three has to some extent been obscured by the critical criteria applied in the revaluation of Irish literary culture which took place, broadly speaking, in the years 1E91-1922, the years of the Irish Renaissance. These criteria were brorEht into being by two distinct, though not entirely unrelated schcols of thought, one with a bias of nationalist ideology, whose most notable srokesman was Daniel Corkery; the other, with a predominant emphasis on artistic excellence, articulated by W.B. Yeats. Edgeworth and Lever particularly suffered at the hands of the nationalists. The former, for example, was criticised in the following terms: But as for entering into the national aspirations of Ireland, or realising that Ireland had a significant history of its own out of which a new history should develop, she would have been incapable of such flights.4 Lever is summarily dismissed for belonging to a 'shameful literary tradition!.5 And it is noteworthy that in the two 7cst notable works produced by leading cultural politicians of the dayr one makes no mention of nineteenth century Irish fiction, while the other 6 gives it short shrift. 2 The attitudes of ouch critics are misleading. There is a narrowness in them which desires to override - and, indeed, imrli- citly to deny - the complexities and contradictions of the national literary heritage. The decay of community, the fragmentation of common cause, the illusory sense of both nest and future, are among the most deep-seated and abiding fears in nineteenth century Irish fiction. These fears, which the trio of authors dealt vith below particularly tried to comprehend, achieved their most ironical realisation in the works of those nationalist critics who repudiated their terms of comprehension. Nevertheless, the nationalist critics must not be dismissed. Their historical outlook was the result of a desire for historical processes to be reversed, as well as for a new perspective on national culture to hold sway. They witnessed a turn of historical events in their favour. Naturally enough, they believed that the triumph of that moment - particularly since it could be seen as much a victory for ideological intensity as for actual force of arms - provided the energy to restructure the view of the past. Interestingly, the terms used by a conte ,nporary American critic suggest some of the contradictions of the effort to restructure, when applied to literature: The value cf the fiction of the 'eriod Lefore the great famine is on the whole hi3 L orical in the larger sense: not artistic. It takes on significance chiefly as a remaking of Irish life, which, by virtue cf such artistic qualities as it possesses, does what history prope; can hardly do - creates the illusion of the life of the past.' In other words, the ultimate aim of nineteenth century fiction is to create history. This is done by emnloying methods superior to those of the historian, even though the end product - 'the illusion' - seems to be an attenuation of the veracious, though 3 evidently somewhat lifeless, picture drawn by the recorder of facts. The artist cannot exist alongside the historian, it seems: somehow the notion of believing in fiction as such is inconceivable. And the past remains locked in its pastness; this is the achievement of 'remaking'. In attempting to marry two kinds of intellectual attainment, both ostensibly concerned with matters of record? Krans only reminds us of how separate and distinct they are. Yet we find essentially the same view repeated by a more powerful mind with a more intimate perspective on Irish literature, who discovered early in his writing career 'that there was nothing before George :!oore in prose ... except minor forerunners, who - axe of no interest to anybody but historians.' 8 The emphasis on artistic achiever:ent, if not this particular judgement, is a tacit tribute to Yeats, Par- ticularly to Yeats in his role of critic of nineteenth _century Irish literature. To a large extent our appreciation of nineteenth century Irish literature - particularly verse, of course - echoes Yeats's appreciations. But, as can be seen from his articles on Mangan, Ferguson, Allingham and the poets of the Nation,9 Yeats emphaSised in his artistic forbears only those characteristics which he found attractive, and those technirues and concerns which nurtured his own developing craft. In assuming the role of cultural trustee he did take nineteenth century Irish fiction into account, however, most notably in a short-lived enthusiasm for Carleton. As might be expected the raw power and sense of hidden native life which are Carleton's distinguishing marks claim most of his attention, the better, one feels, because of its stimulus to the Blake-haunted fledgeling poet.