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The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada NEITHER MARY NOR MAGDALEN: THE FALLEN WOMAN, THE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE, AND THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY WOMAN POET by Nancy Martin A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies In partial fulfillment of the Master of Women's Studies Degree Department of Women's Studies Faculty of Arts Memorial University of Newfoundland January 2011 St. John's Newfoundland Abstract This study seeks to expand our understanding of the nineteenth-century fallen woman through an exploration of the ways in which she is represented in a small selection of dramatic poetry written by women who were directly involved with fallen women, either through reclamation work, or through social and political writing. The overarching premise of this study is that these female poets—Dora Greenwell (1821- 1888), Augusta Webster (1837-1894), and Mathilde Blind (1841-1896)—chose to represent the "fallen" woman in ways that challenged dominant conventions. Their poetry suggests that neither the arguments for reclamation—redemption through religious and domestic teaching—nor those for condemnation are adequate, as both are grounded in discourses that have more basis in myth than in reality. Rather, their "fallen woman" poetry, by focusing on the material conditions of fallen women themselves, illuminates the fallen woman's position and circumstance as complex and contingent and in so doing, challenges the "fallen woman" archetype. Their dramatic monologues, published in 1861, 1870, and 1891 respectively, function collectively in depicting not the voice of the fallen woman, but of fallen women. u Acknowledgments I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Sonja Boon of the department of Women's Studies and Dr. Mark Cumming of the department of English. This project would not have been possible without their expert knowledge, attention to detail, and constant encouragement. I am also indebted to the Canadian Federation of University Women St. John's Chapter, for their generous financial support, which afforded me the opportunity to conduct research in the United Kingdom. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Annette Staveley and Dr. Gordon Jones for their constant enthusiasm and support over the last six years; their passion, for both teaching and literature, has inspired me to pursue an academic career. I also owe debt of gratitude to my family, partner, and friends. Thank you for your unwavering support, your confidence in my abilities, and your patience. In particular, I would like to thank my parents, David and Ruth Martin, for the constant "check-in" phone calls, for the proud fridge postings, and for your endless good humor in dealing with a short-tempered grad student. To Brendon (and Koda), thank you for listening, every day, and for helping me "keep it all in perspective." To Melissa and Madge, thank you for making me laugh and for reminding me that "[I] can do it!" Finally, thank you to the Department of Women's Studies and to my classmates, Andrea, Laura, Lisa, and Ceysa, for making this program an amazing and challenging experience. in Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgments iii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 The "fallen woman" and the woman poet 1 1.2 Research materials 12 Chapter 2: Historical Context 2.1 The "Woman Question" and questionable women 14 2.2 The prostitute as "case study" 20 Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework and Methodology 35 3.1 Foucault and the body as a site of power 36 3.2 Kristeva and the "abject" fallen body 40 3.3 The monologue and the meeting of "self and "other" 42 Chapter 4: Dora Greenwell 47 4.1 Biographical sketch 48 4.2 "Christina" 50 Chapter 5: Augusta Webster 65 5.1 Biographical sketch 66 5.2 "A Castaway" 67 Chapter 6: Mathilde Blind 90 6.1 Biographical Sketch 91 6.2 "The Message" 94 Conclusion 109 Works Cited 111 IV Mary Carmichael, I thought, still hovering at a little distance above the page, will have her work cut out for her merely as an observer. I am afraid indeed that she will be tempted to become, what I think the less interesting branch of the species — the naturalist-novelist, and not the contemplative. There are so many new facts for her to observe. She will not need to limit herself any longer to the respectable houses of the upper middle classes. She will go without kindness or condescension, but in the spirit of fellowship, into those small, scented rooms where sit the courtesan, the harlot and the lady with the pug dog. There they still sit in the rough and ready- made clothes that the male writer has had perforce to clap upon their shoulders. But Mary Carmichael will have out her scissors and fit them close to every hollow and angle. It will be a curious sight, when it comes, to see these women as they are, but we must wait a little, for Mary Carmichael will still be encumbered with that self-consciousness in the presence of 'sin' which is the legacy of our sexual barbarity. She will still wear the shoddy old fetters of class on her feet. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929), 88 v CHAPTER ONE 1.1 Introduction There are some questions so painful and perplexing that statesman, moralists, and philanthropists shrink from them by common consent. The subject to which the following pages are devoted, is one of these. William R Greg. "Prostitution" 1850 In London, in 1851, Richard Redgrave's The Outcast was hung in the west wing of the Royal Academy of the Arts. Middle- and upper-class society, dressed in their finest, congregated before it, readily recognizing the contemporary scene before them, for depicted is the plight of the "fallen woman," a staple figure of nineteenth-century commentary, discussion, and debate. Indeed, complex and often contradictory discussions of her "fallen" body were constant throughout the period, taking shape in medical, religious, and literary forms. This popularity is not surprising given that her representation transgressed economic, political, social, moral, and philosophical boundaries. She was a perfect rallying point for those wishing to engage in the "Woman Question," whether it be for or against the social and political advancement of women. Redgrave's oil on canvas image presents a stern and merciless patriarchal figure casting his "fallen" daughter out into the cold: only snowdrifts appear to await the young woman and the illegitimate child bundled in her arms. On hands and knees her sisters plead for their father's mercy, while her brother places his head in his hands, resigned and hopeless. A didactic print hangs on the wall in the picture's indistinct background. Perhaps it depicts Abraham casting out Hagar and Ishmael—a story of guilt and exile. Or perhaps it presents the story of Christ and the adulterous woman; in other words, a story of forgiveness. It is, in fact, the lack of clarity of the background print that gives us pause, 1 for that same ambiguity also reflects nineteenth-century society's multiple and complex representations of the "fallen woman." Indeed, she was both reviled and pitied, and therefore inspired claims for both condemnation and redemption. Some previous scholarship has asserted that the representation of the fallen woman is invariably emblematic of a prudish—if not puritanical—nineteenth-century attitude toward sexuality. This was, however, not the case. Just as the viewer of Redgrave's painting is unable to ascertain whether or not the painter agrees with the father's actions, neither can a contemporary "viewer" of nineteenth-century texts pinpoint a cohesive, single, or constant understanding of the fallen woman. The term, fallen woman, itself served as a catch-all for the wide range of women's departures from the expectations of middle-class ideology regarding sexuality (Logan 9). It included married women who had affairs, unwed mothers, prostitutes, seduced servants, abandoned women—virtually any woman who had, or was expected to have had, sexual relations outside of sanctioned marriage.