Female Constraint In Return Of The Native And Vanity Fair
In the picaresque novels Vanity Fair and The Return of the Native, both Thackeray and Hardy portray the female protagonists as rebellious and manipulative, actively scheming for self-advancement and liberating life. Their passion and egotistical desire for opportunities lead to their failure to fulfil the ideal role of a woman, in which they are expected to act subservient and virtuous. In nineteenth-century Britain, women began to lead an increasingly domestic and religious life due to greater evangelical influence. Therefore, they faced significant expectations of acting as ‘the angel in the house’ and were excluded from most occupations and activities. Chopin’s Selected Stories and Macbeth emphasise further the difficulty in gaining power and authority in a male-dominated world, and as a consequence, they decide to remove themselves from the oppressive society. Although they have tragic flaws, the authors satirize society as women can’t fulfil their ambitions, only succeeding by marrying into wealth or exploiting several men.
Both females face prejudiced treatment and are considered outsiders particularly due to their backgrounds, therefore they are determined to disobediently gain independence and a higher status. In Vanity Fair, orphaned Becky grows up in an academy where she is confronted with high society and students are judged by income. She is presented as possessing skills others don’t obtain, for example, although she claims she is ‘a thousand times cleverer’, she is considered ‘a person of the very lowest order and morals’ and her talents aren’t recognised. Due to her parents’ status, she is regarded as disgraceful; her mother was an ‘opera girl’, a morally corrupt profession unworthy of a lady. She, therefore, realises that to achieve her desires she must marry into the upper class, seemingly the only option to secure value in a patriarchal society. Becky believes she could ‘be a good woman if [she] had five thousand a year’ but due to lacking this ‘ideal income’ she can’t behave morally. Thackeray emphasises the corruption of money, having ‘no doubt in [his] mind that she would have been respectable; increased her fortune, advanced her family in the world’. Also, by portraying an accomplished yet disregarded woman Thackeray satirizes society, implying that status depends on income rather than talent. Similarly, Eustacia is seen as inferior due to being ‘A Corfu band master's daughter’ and having a surname which ‘is not her true one’. Hardy begins the novel with a dominating description of the heath highlighting its destructive nature; it exhaled ‘darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it’. Eustacia’s ‘motionless structure’ emerges, establishing her parallel with its rigorous nature. Moreover, Hardy uses surreal imagery to portray the heath as claustrophobic and ‘a cohesive force with great tragic potential’. The heath is an essential frame to the tragic plot and thus foreshadows her downfall, especially as the ‘fearful gloom and loneliness’ lead to her despair and desire to escape the ‘jail’, connoting to her confinement. The separation from the outside world and the insignificance of time and change; ‘division in time no less than a division in matter’, is reinforced by the perspective of the narrative voice, within the view of Rainbarrow. The heath’s remoteness reflects Higher Brockhampton where Hardy was born, caused by the lack of transportation, further showing the geographical constraints in society and representing the realities that lay behind the society which Hardy grew up in. Contrastingly, in The Awakening, due to the loose and impulsive Catholic nature of the Creole community, Edna becomes relaxed aiming to find her identity. The repetitive, opening lines of ‘Allez vous-en’ highlight the French society, demonstrative of illicit sexual pleasures supporting Edna’s determination to disobey conventions and weaponise her sexuality. The late nineteenth-century setting portrays the increasingly encouraging and passionate nature of society, differing from the restrictive environment depicted earlier in Thackeray and Hardy’s novels. However, similarly, being an outsider from Kentucky, Edna feels disconnected and inferior. Chopin also felt separated from the elite, aristocratic Creole community due to the religious and emotional differences.
Furthermore, their social nonconformity is considered ominous to society, thus they are disliked by other characters and are further separated from the community. Due to Becky’s impoverished background and thus not having ‘a friend or protector in the world’, she must become a governess although it’s ‘no social position worthy of attention’ and doesn’t do justice to her talents. However, she disregards the negative social stigma and takes advantage of the position by exploiting ‘the great rich Miss Crawley, with seventy thousand pounds’. The description of her wealth demonstrates Becky’s ambition to get ‘an entrée into Parisian society’ and climb into a higher social sphere through affluent women. Her strong-minded character is depicted as threatening to ‘conventional Victorian notions of femininity in [her] rise from orphaned obscurity to considerable social status’, as she demonstrates the possibility of social mobility despite her inferior beginnings and immoral ways. Furthermore, Becky’s desire to gain social standing becomes a desire for superiority, especially to Amelia, taking ‘place above her in the world’, therefore patronising ‘her with calm superiority’, portraying her distaste for other women and how she acts for sadistic enjoyment. Eustacia is also seen as threatening to conventional classifications, Hardy conveys her as distant from the community, by alluding to mythological creatures. She is referred to as behaving in a ‘Promethean fashion, Hardy’s reference to an intelligent Titan hero known for his trickery in battle stresses Eustacia’s chicanery. Hardy accentuates other characters’ disapproval of Eustacia, claiming there can’t ‘be any good in a woman that everybody spoke ill of’, as she has opposing values and no interest in a moral system shown by her ‘instincts towards social nonconformity’. Additionally, her conflict with Mrs Yeobright leads to Eustacia indirectly murdering her, as she is ‘stung by an adder’ after being rejected. The snake’s poison reflects Eustacia’s hateful denial and tormenting capacity. Lady Macbeth has a similar instinct to defy established authority through her ‘tyranny, which comes about, as her words acknowledge, through destruction, the destruction of people and of a whole country. That their personal contentment, safety and joy could be by this means’, refusing to be subordinate to anyone obstructing her ambitions. The females’ hostility towards others illustrates their persistent attempts to independently succeed and gain social status.
The authors emphasise society’s extreme expectations by presenting a female character who embodies the ideal by being domestic and submissive, contrasting against Becky and Eustacia’s defiant and rebellious behaviour. ‘The running parallel and contrast between Amelia and Becky provides the narrative backbone’, emphasising the structural unity encompassing the novel, created by the alignment of their adventures despite their opposing values. Chopin also presents two opposing female figures. Adele Ratignolle is key to unravel Edna’s identity, acting as the archetype of Freud’s model of the Madonna, highlighting the deviance of Edna’s character. Chopin portrays satiric and dramatic portraits of ideal, maternal figures whom ‘idolized their children, worshipped their husband, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels’ to emphasise society’s expectations and to contrast Edna’s unconventional approach ‘to do as she liked and to feel as she liked’.
However, the severe difficulty in sustaining this visionary identity, crucial in society, is portrayed by the characters’ underlying imperfections and downfalls.
