“It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirros. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows tha the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics diagree, the artist is in accord with himelf. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensly. All art is quite useless”(Wilde 42)
Wilde, Oscar. “The Preface.” The Picture of Dorian Gray, edited by Norman Page, Broadview Press, 2005, pp. 41–42.
“Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions…He becomes an echo of someone elses music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him”(Wilde 58).
“To Realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for”(Wilde 58).
“Our weakest motives were those of whose nature we were conscious. It often happened that when we thought we were experimenting on others we were really experimenting on ourselves” (Wilde 97)”
Wilde, Oscar.” The Picture of Dorian Gray, edited by Norman Page, Broadview Press, 2005.
Critical Commentary:
“…Caron then painted Dorian as a classic example of a young person ruined by corrupting influences, observing that the novel described “that boy’s life” from the time when “corruption [is] implanted in his mind from his conversation with Lord Henry Wanton” up to the point where Dorian has indulged in “all the vices that can be imagined.” Carson seems to have regarded this opening tableau as merely an instance of what we might call “The obsenity effect,” depicted within the story and capable of corrupting the reader in precisely the same way that Lord Henry corrupts Dorian”(763).
Stern, simon.”Wilde’s obscenity effect: influence and immorality in “the picture of dorian gray.” The review of english studies, vol. 68, no 286. 2017. pp. 756-772.
Historical Context:
“The luxuriously elaborate details of his “artistic hedonism” are too suggestive of South Kensington Museum and aesthetic Encyclopedias. A truer art would have avoided both the glittering conceits, which bedeck the body of the story, and the unavowing suggestiveness which lurks in its spirit. Poisonous! Yes.”
Punch Magazine, “our booking office” July 19, 1890. https://archive.org/details/punchvol98a99lemouoft/punchvol98a99lemouoft/page/340/mode/2up?q=wilde
Visual
“Iconography of Oscar Wilde.” Clark Library, 7 Apr. 2016, clarklibrary.ucla.edu/collections/oscar-wilde/iconography/.
“St. John is unmarried: he never will marry now…No fear of death will darken St. John’s last hour: his mind will be unclouded; his heart will be undaunted; his hope will be sure; his faith steadfast. His own words are a pledge of this: – “My Master,” he says, “has forwarned me. Daily he annouces more distinctly, – ‘Surely I come quickly’; and hourly I more eagerly respond, – ‘Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!” (Brontë 556).
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Broadview Press, 2022.
Critical Commentary:
“…The way I think about it is theological, right? Whenever we’re dealing with someone’s death and the reasons behind their deaths. Brontë is always someone who thinks that there is a real Christainness to the way someone dies…Like Aunt Reed summons Jane, St. John is saying “Here I come, Lord Jesus,”…What’s theological about it to me is that every other character is given at least some conversation around their death, but this white creole woman, this mad woman, right – this alcoholic woman, this licentious woman, right, isn’t”
“On eyre: final thoughts”. Hot and bothered, Not sorry productions, 2023
Especially the 30-minute mark to 34 minutes.
Historical Context:
“Henry says he is comfortably settled in Sussex [ where he was then a vicar], that his health is very improved and that it is his intention to take pupils after Easter…in due time he shall want a wife to take care of his pupils and frankly aks me to be that wife…I asked myself two questions – “Do I love Henry Nussey as much as a woman ought to love her husband? Am I the person best qualified to make him happy?” Alas Ellen my conscious answered “no” to both these questions”.
“What became of St. john rivers,” https://www.annebronte.org/2019/05/13/what-became-of-the-real-st-john-rivers/
Visual
British Library “The Juvenile Missionary Magazine.” 1844.
"In our pursuit of knowledge, we often desire a traceable path in our growth. For our ancestors and a select few modern writers, commonplace books provided a way to look back through past developments and brainstorm new experiences. Where they pasted drawings and photographs, we pin images on Pinterest. Where they jotted down notes and clipped readings, we tweet short blurbs and recommended links. To keep a commonplace is instinctual to intellectual cultivation."
Kelsey McKinney, “Social Media: Nothing New? Commonplace Books as Precursors to Pinterest,” Ransom Center Magazine, June 9, 2015, https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine.
McKinney’s observation on the importance of commonplacing in finding connections and coming up with new ideas from the past holds very true for me. As I have gone through this course making entries on each novel, within each one, I always find myself thinking of a past class connection, another novel, or thinking of contemporary connections. I think that this concept of intellectual cultivation is also super interesting when we think about how we acquire knowledge in the first place, even before there were established institutions for learning, never mind the internet, people have longed to find a connection with what those who have gone before us. It is stimulating to think of what they thought or created, which I feel creates this loop of human connection. But at the same time, it raises new questions and new paths as each generation or even just an individual has something unique to bring.
The most significant point of growth that stemmed from my commonplace book differed from what I expected. Having spent time within previous courses that employ a feminist lens or with a particular interest in women’s role in authorship or within novels themselves, I expected those themes to dominate my commonplace book. While at the beginning, I did select items or quotes that had women’s roles at the forefront, such as noticing the unique connection Mary Shelley brings as her mother is Mary Wollstonecraft, or Jane Eyre’s recurring ideas about femininity, marriage, and women’s health, I started to shift around the middle of the term. With The Picture of Dorian Gray, I stumbled upon ideas that I had truly never thought about before and that were not associated with feminism in literature. I will delve into this idea later in my discussion of new ideas I hope to take from this course, thanks to commonplacing.
For my commonplace book, I chose to organize it by novels and then with each entry allowing for exploration into the text of the novel itself, historical connections via primary sources, criticism, reviews, etc., then contemporary criticism as well as visual sources to allow me to feel less limited thematically and find what I am interested in more organically as they emerged within each novel. Yet, I did try to stay on a particular theme for all the aspects of those mediums that I started to find limiting as I moved through our novels, and by the end, I had a variety of interests depicted in each section of my entries. I also chose to keep my commonplace book in an actual physical book, which felt more natural to me. I like the idea of writing out what interests me in a way that seems permanent and recursive to the practice of historical commonplacing. I definitely see aspects of McKinney’s argument within my commonplace book as I find threads that connect all my entries, even though they move from more specific interests stemming from the novel to later a broader branching out.
Commonplace Book Highlights – green links to each CPB entry page
At the beginning of my entries, I aimed to stay on a theme within each entry, such as looking for similarities from the novel and then the secondary criticism, historical context, and visuals. For instance, my entries on Jane Eyre followed a theme with each entry. One of my favorites was my entry #4 on marriage and Jane’s newfound independence from her ‘recovery’ of her fortune/inheritance discussed in the novel(Brontë 536). Then I grabbed an article following up on marriage commentary but adding layers of doubling thinking of Bertha (Diedrich), and followed with some historical context with marriage laws at the time and Bodichon’s remarks on them, which stems from previous work in another English course, “Criminals, Idiots & Minors: Victorian Women & The Law.” I ended with a visual of Bertha as I was just interested in depicting the scene where she sees Jane the night before her wedding (Garrett “The Figure of Bertha Mason” British Library). This entry showcases how I leave breadcrumbs of sorts for myself to items I found connected with this theme of marriage and just what one piece of the entry stirred up that led me to the next.
Another entry that highlights this earlier organization for me was also with Jane Eyre. At the end of the novel, I became very interested in what Brontë accomplishes by ending the novel in entry #5 the way she does with a rundown of everyone’s story, but the final word being on St. John (Brontë 556). From that, I chose to look at some critical commentary from a podcast titled “On Eyre” from the Hot and Bothered series. I found a connection to the end of the novel, where they discuss death, who deserves a Christian ending versus who doesn’t, and the effect of even finishing someone’s story in a certain way (On Eyre). From this, I became super intrigued by Brontë’s own relationship with the colonial missionary endeavors of Britain at the time and found a letter she wrote to her good friend Ellen Nussey about her brother. Many say he resembles St. John, and I could look for similarities or themes in the novel surrounding St. John’s proposal to Jane versus Henry Nussey’s proposal to Emily Brontë (AnneBronte.org). As there was so much discussion of the missionaries’ work in class, we spent time on the idea of Jane’s domestic imperialism; I found a visual from the British Library of a Juvenile Missionary Magainze and found that to connect as well (British Library).
The last entry I want to highlight, later in the semester, I think, showcases how my thinking changed in what I wanted to put down in my entries and how much broader my connections were as opposed to these very text-specific on-theme entries at the beginning of the term. From Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, I chose entry #7, where I was putting down items that I just simply liked; for instance, the quotes from the novel are not all necessarily connected or the later material I put down, but they struck me as interesting or just beautiful writing. As I will mention later, the critical commentary was one piece of content that led me to think even more about this idea of influence that wasn’t explicit in the novel but made me wonder more about our changes in what influence means today( Stern 763). Then, something different emerged when looking at the historical context of Punch magazine as well. I wanted to know more about how this novel was perceived by the public and not just how the legal world saw him and his work and, then, grabbed some images again, not necessarily related but just for me to get more context into the personas of Wilde, as we discussed in class how Wilde as a celebrity figure is different than how he as a person might identify. (UCLA Library)
A projection or sketch of further research, reading, or writing projects my commonplace book supports or inspires.
For me, one particular but fascinating topic has jumped out of my commonplace book from the novels – I think it can apply to all of them in a way, but specifically, The Picture of Dorian Gray – and that is the discourses surrounding influence. Looking at Wilde’s writing, I felt something interesting in this critique of the power of good and bad influence on a person’s self-development. Meaning, in the scope of the novel, realizing one’s own desires, needs, interests, etc. Here, we see an influential actor in Lord Henry, who puts forth this theory of influence yet deliberately influences Dorian and allows him to play out his own experience, thus barring him from truly developing his own character and life.
From this, I wish to explore further how this novel foreshadows the influencer culture of today – propelled to new heights by social media. If looking at Wilde’s work, we can find an avenue to combat this toxic grip of social media’s false influence over increasingly more susceptible generations, losing the ability to discern reality and show genuine tastes and commodified consumerism. Then, I can also bring my political science interests to the table by wondering how this take on influence today has political implications and why certain atmospheres created by social media/influence have already altered mainstream politics.
Citarella, Joshua. “Are We Ready for Social Media Influencers Shaping Politics? .” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Apr. 2021, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/24/social-media-influencers-shaping-politics. ↩︎
Keating, Lydia. “I’m an Influencer, and I Think Social Media Is Toxic.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 1 Feb. 2022, slate.com/technology/2022/02/instagram-tiktok-influencer-social-media-dangers.html. ↩︎
Part II. Synthesizing & Applying:
2QSQ Connections
I do think that my commonplace book can connect with some of my 2QSQs which tend to be all textual and primarily from the novel itself. For example, my 2QSQ on Jane Eyre follows this interest in Jane’s feminism, and we can see in this case, I am questioning how the readers at the time felt she as a character was represented. These tend to be more focused on monster theory but I do see how her feminism comes back into my CPB with her marriage and new status and sense of autonomy.
With this other 2QSQ on Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, I can see how early on I was interested in influence and this idea of monstrosity stemming from the inability to think for yourself or how important it is in who you surround yourself with. Again, with my 2QSQs, I did bring the discussion back around to monster characteristics, but I can see how these ideas of personhood and society begin to shape up with help from the novel.
Exploration of relevant contexts enhancing my reading of the novels
The type of relevant contexts I looked to in most of my entries for my CPB stemmed from either the British Library, the Victorian Web, or scholarly articles from the back section of novels. When we had more specific directions – such as our assignment of looking at Welcome Catalog artifacts- I enjoyed spending time with interesting primary sources that I wouldn’t have found otherwise. A more fun source that I also got really into was a podcast on Jane Eyre called On Eyre from Hot and Bothered. They went into sections by chapter to analyze if Jane Eyre is still relevant and important enough to continue reading for personal or academic purposes. I found this super helpful in adding to what I had picked up by reading the novel, and it brought my thinking to new places. For instance, like with my example from CPB entry #4, I thought more about the religious element of the ending and how each character had an interesting personal connection to religion. Another part of my entries usually came from contemporary pieces of scholarly criticism that I would look up and get a sense of what the professional writing community is noticing and raising about each novel. For the case of my idea that came from reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, these pieces of scholarly work were helpful in setting off new ideas for my own writing.
“What Janet! Are you an independent woman? A rich woman? “Quite rich, sir…”But as yiou are rich, Jane, you have now, no doubt, friends who will look after you, and not suffer you to devote youself to a blind lamenter like me?” “I told you I am independent, still, as well as rich: I am my own mistress.” “And you will sta with me?” “Certainly…”(Brontë 536).
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Broadview Press, 2022.
Critical Commentary:
“Theres, in examining Jane Eyre as Brontë’s rebellious commentary on the conventional marriage model as one that leaves wives in a powerless subject position, I both place the novel into a social context and explore the importance of doubles. In readings of Jane Eyre as Brontë’s critique of nineteenth-century marriage, one element of doubling that has been considered only tangeltially is that of remarriage. By placing the novel within the novel within the nineteenth-century social practice of doubling I argue that the gothic device of the doppelganger reveals the potentially powerless subject position of both first and second wife in that Brontë contstitues Jane as Bertha’s alter ego, rather than the other way around”
“Nicole A. Diederich, Gothic Doppelgangers and Discourse: Examining the Doubling Practice of (Re)Marriage in “Jane Eyre” • Issue 6.3 • Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies.” Www.ncgsjournal.com, www.ncgsjournal.com/issue63/diederich.html.
Historical Context:
“A woman of twenty-one becomes an independent human creature, capable of holding and administering property to any amount; or, if she can earn monet, she may appropriate her earnings freely to any purpose she thinks good…But if she unites herseld to a man, the law immediately steps in, and she finds herself legislated for, and her condition of life suddenly and entirely changed. Whatever age she may be of, she is again considered an infant – she is again under ‘resonable restraint’ – she loses her seperate existence and is merged in that of her husband. “In short,” says Judge Hurlburt, “a woman is courted and wedded as an angel, and yet denied the dignity of a rational moral being ever after”. “
Smith, Barbara Leigh, and Boston Public Library. A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women : Together with a Few Observations Thereon. Internet Archive, London : Holyoake and Co., 1856, archive.org/details/briefsummaryinpl00smit/page/n5/mode/2up. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.
Garrett, Edmund. “The Figure of Bertha Mason (1897).” Illustration of Bertha Mason, The British Library.
"In our pursuit of knowledge, we often desire a traceable path in our growth. For our ancestors and a select few modern writers, commonplace books provided a way to look back through past developments and brainstorm new experiences. Where they pasted drawings and photographs, we pin images on Pinterest. Where they jotted down notes and clipped readings, we tweet short blurbs and recommended links. To keep a commonplace is instinctual to intellectual cultivation."
Kelsey McKinney, “Social Media: Nothing New? Commonplace Books as Precursors to Pinterest,” Ransom Center Magazine, June 9, 2015, https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine.
Discussion of McKinney’s observations on the practice of keeping a commonplace book
I feel her observation on the importance of commonplacing in finding connections and coming up with new ideas from the past holds very true for me. As I have gone through this course making entries on each novel, within each one, I always find myself thinking of a past class connection, another novel, or thinking of contemporary connections. I think that this concept of intellectual cultivation is also super interesting when we think about how we acquire knowledge in the first place, even before there were established institutions for learning, never mind the internet, people have longed to find a connection with what those who have gone before them thought or created – it does create this loop of human connection but at the same time raises new questions and new paths as each generation or even just individuals have something unique to bring.
General description of my commonplace book
For my commonplace book, I chose to organize it by novels and then with each entry allowing for exploration into the text of the novel itself, historical connections via primary sources, criticism, reviews, etc., then contemporary criticism as well as visual sources to allow me to feel less limited thematically and find what I am interested in more organically as they emerged within each novel. Yet, I did try to stay on a particular theme for all the aspects of those mediums that I started to find limiting as I moved through our novels, and by the end, I had a variety of interests depicted in each section of my entries. I also chose to keep my commonplace book in an actual physical book which to me just felt more real…I like the idea of writing out what interests me in a way that seems permanent and also recursive to the practice of commonplacing historically. I definitely see aspects of McKinney’s argument within my commonplace book as I find threads that connect all my entries, even though they move from more specific interests stemming from the novel to later a broader branching out.
Discussion of 2-3 examples from my entries that illustrate my approach and interests
At the beginning of my entries, I found myself looking to stay on a theme within each entry; such as looking for similarities from the novel to then the secondary criticism, historical context, and visuals. For instance, my entries on Jane Eyre followed a theme with each entry. Two of my favorites here were one on marriage and Jane’s newfound independence stemming from her ‘recovery’ of her fortune/inheritance discussed in the novel(Brontë 536), then I grabbed an article following up on marriage commentary but adding layers of doubling thinking of Bertha (Diedrich), then gave some historical context with marriage laws at the time and Bodichon’s remarks on them which stems from previous work in another English class titled “Criminals, Idiots & Minors: Victorian Women & The Law”. Then, I ended with a visual of Bertha as I was just interested in the depiction of the scene where she sees Jane the night before her wedding (Garrett “The Figure of Bertha Mason” British Library).
Another entry that highlights this earlier organization for me was also with Jane Eyre, and it was at the end of the novel that I became very interested in what Brontë accomplishes by ending the way she does with a rundown of everyone’s story, but the final word being on St. John (Brontë 556). From that, I chose to look at some critical commentary from a podcast titled “On Eyre” from the Hot and Bothered series and found a connection to the end of the novel, where they discuss death and who deserves a Christian ending versus who doesn’t and also the effect of even finishing someone’s story in a certain way (On Eyre). From this, I became super intrigued by Brontë’s own relationship with the colonial missionary endeavors of Britain at the time and found a letter she wrote to her good friend Ellen Nussey about her brother, who many say resembles St. John and how I could look for similarities or themes that find there way into the novel surrounding St. John’s proposal to Jane vs Henry Nussey’s proposal to Emily Brontë (AnneBronte.org). As there was so much discussion of the work of the missionaries and in class, we spent time on the idea of Jane’s domestic imperialism, I found a visual from the British Library of a Juvenile Missionary Magainze and found that to connect as well. (British Library).
The last entry I want to highlight, later in the semester, I think, showcases how my thinking changed in what I wanted to put down in my entries and how much broader my connections were as opposed to these very text-specific on-theme entries at the beginning of the term. From Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” I chose the entry where I was putting down much more that I just simply liked, for instance, the quotes from the novel are not all necessarily connected to one another or the later material I put down but they struck me as interesting or just beautiful writing (Wilde 42-97). The critical commentary, as I will mention later, was one piece of content that led me to think even more about this idea of influence that wasn’t explicit in the novel but made me wonder more about our changes in what influence means today( Stern 763). Then something completely different emerged in looking at the historical context from Punch magazine I wanted to know more about how this novel was perceived by the public and not just how the legal world saw him and his work and then took some images again, not necessarily related but just for me to get more context into the personas of Wilde, as we discussed in class how Wilde as a celebrity figure is different than how he as a person might identify. (UCLA Library)
A projection or sketch of further research, reading, or writing projects my commonplace book supports or inspires
For me, one very specific but incredibly interesting topic has jumped out of my commonplace book from the novels – I think it can apply to all of them in a way, but specifically The Picture of Dorian Gray – and that is the discourses surrounding influence. In looking at Wilde’s examination, I’d allege a critique of the power of influence, both good and bad, on a person’s ability to truly foster self-development – meaning in the scope of the novel or realize one’s own desires, needs, interests, etc. We see here a powerful actor in Lord Henry who puts forth this theory of influence yet deliberately influences Dorian and allows him to play out his own experience, thus barring him from truly developing his own character and life. From this, I wish to explore further how this novel foreshadows the influence culture of today – propelled to new heights by social media, and if looking to Wilde’s work, we can find an avenue to combat this toxic grip of social media’s false influence over increasingly more susceptible generations losing the ability to discern reality and show, genuine tastes and commodified consumerism.
Kelsey McKinney observes that commonplace books function like roadmaps of one’s intellectual development → the route may be circuitous, but when we look through a commonplace book, it becomes possible to see “past developments and [to] brainstorm new experiences.”
→ with the premise that commonplacing is “instinctual to intellectual cultivation”…
Which entries are the most notable signposts of the development of my thinking about our course themes or questions? (discussed above)
Part 2: Synthesizing and Applying – Discussion of connection(s) to relevant 2Q-S-Q entries
2QSQ on influence (Wilde) – follow up with CPB entry on influence and why this moment (Fin de siècle) may add to my other ideas of influence today and the strong feels of societal shifts/change/degeneration
SOURCE IDEAS:
“England is bad enough, I know, and English society is all wrong. That is the reason why I want you to be fine. You have not been fine. One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours seem to lose all sense of honour, of goodness of purity. You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there. Yes: you led them there, and yet you can smile, as you are smiling now. And there is worse behind. I know you and Harry are inseparable” (183)
“Was it really true that one could never change? He felt a wild longing for the unstained purity of his boyhood— his rose-white boyhood, as Lord Henry had once called it. He knew he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption, and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that, of the lives that had crossed his own, it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame. But was it all irretrievable? Was there no hope for him? (248).
SYNTHESIZING COMMENT/ANALYSIS:
These two passages, nearing the end of the novel, bring up themes of English society, corruption/influence, mirroring/doubling within Dorian and Harry, as well as this final hope/question of redemption and a correction of one’s past. The first quote I found interesting as it brings in a lot of commentary and critique of their society and the feelings at the turn of the century — also remembering ideas in the past chapters about corruption from books, which side of town was desirable or seedy and how people based their judgments off of one’s appearance and social actions. I liked the contrast to the first quote we see in this second excerpt, where Basil told all this to Dorian right before he saw the portrait, and only after Dorian murders does he begin to feel remorse and wish to atone. The questioning we see from Dorian and his rationale as he moves from the influences of Harry to Basil is intriguing.
QUESTION:
In terms of monsters, this shifting moment toward acknowledging his monstrous behaviors and deeds is something to think about further when we look for people to blame. I wonder what we, and readers at the time, could look to and grapple with regarding this idea of corruption and pleasures. Does Dorian perhaps represent this middle ground, swayed by both Basil and Harry…but which proved stronger and why? Dorian is his own person, unlike what we saw with Jekyll and Hyde; is Wilde’s choice to portray Dorian more as a blank slate, maybe reminiscent of critiques made way back in Frankenstein?
2QSQ on Jane’s feminism (Brontë) – follow up with CPB entry on independence and marriage and what that could bring to discussions on Jane’s feminist attitudes yet monstrous doubling with Bertha.
PART 1: PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION
SOURCE IDEAS:
“Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? —You think wrong! — I have just as much soul as you, — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am, not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, — as we are!” (338).
“As regards the author’s chief object, however, it is a failure — that namely, of making a plain, odd woman, destitute of all the conventional features of feminine attraction, interesting in our sight. We deny that he has succeeded in this. Jane Eyre, in spite of some good things about her, is a being totally uncongenial to our feelings from beginning to end”.(592) — Rigby’s Quarterly Review, 1848.
SYNTHESIZING COMMENT/ANALYSIS:
With these two passages, I am thinking about how we might look into the public perception of Jane as both this beacon of feminist thinking of her time, full of questions and revolutionary thinking regarding social/class structures of England, and then this idea of her “unnatural” unearthly” connotations throughout the novel. This quote from chapter 23 is so poignant that I can’t pass it by without acknowledging it and just the sheer power it brings through the page. Not only is this an example of one of her moments where she truly speaks her mind, forgoing this ‘doctrine of endurance’ and is unashamedly bold, but think of the social conventions she alludes to that a poor, plain governess could speak in such a way to a wealthy, high-standing man. Looking at the argument Rigby makes in this review, they acknowledge how popular this book is — but immediately jump into naming all the reasons why it is dangerous. I am thinking of how this brings in our discussion of monster theory and the idea that there is such a lack of categorization implied within Jane and why these reviewers would feel she is just totally not relatable — shunned, so to speak, from the ‘conventional features of feminine attraction”. She is poor, an orphan, a woman — this is what is supposed to define her. Yet, she is the rightful inheritor of decent wealth, intelligent, and caught the attention of a conventionally superior man. She subverts so many of these boxes that gave the Victorian culture its order, and perhaps this could play into further discussion of Brontë’s choices to craft the novel in such a way where the interior of a person cannot fit in with this constructed society.
QUESTION:
Why do we think the public responded so greatly to Jane’s character and perhaps found these moments of rebellious thinking and redefining femininity so relatable, yet reviewers think her so unappealing? What might this say about this genre’s ability to generate a desire to live through this mysterious, thrilling, adventurous but not truly wishing to participate in its reality?
Discussion of how your exploration of relevant contexts enhanced or influenced your reading of the novels
Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Elizabeth Clarke Manning and Nathaniel Hathorne, is a highly regarded American Renaissance writer. Educated in Maine at Bowdoin College, Hawthorne wrote to make sense and beauty out of the human experience (Poetry Foundation). This is especially true in his interest in colonial American pre-history and his history as a descendant of John Hathorne – a leading Judge in the Salem Witch Trials. His notable works include The Scarlet Letter, “Young Goodman Brown”, and The House of Seven Gables. His writing is a testament to the American Renaissance literary era,incorporating the natural landscape of America, Indigenous references, and origin stories such as the Puritans(Tuttle). In a period where literature became an avenue to explore what it meant to be an American – to face moral and political identities – Hawthorne’s work exemplifies literature’s power in redefining a nation’s mood.
“Young Goodman Brown”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835, is set in 1600s Puritan Salem, Massachusetts, harkening back to America’s colonial pre-history. Hawthorne’s allegorical short story follows a young Puritan, Goodman Brown, who must leave his doting wife, Faith, and journey into the dark woods on an unknown, perhaps evil, task. Encountering many questionable figures in the woods, Brown begins to question his entire community. As his piety faces its ultimate test, he holds on to the unshakable convictions of his wife for refuge until that foundation, too, is broken. True to an allegorical structure, this story operates on two entirely different levels – the literal being a young man leaving his wife to attend a witch meeting. Yet, the symbolic level rises above as we can look at the strategies Hawthorne employs to make his much greater critique of the Puritan faith. Specifically, this notion of doubt and a deeply troubled society obsessed with rooting out evil and questioning everyone’s faith.
"Hawthorne indeed produces the very essence of that wild and heathen forest, for I, too, remember the shaking of faith that desolate wilderness inspires with savage creatures lurking and howling in the cover of night. The path of those turning away from the glory of God and heaven above must then face the consequences of a snarled and evil road. As Heb. 3:12-13 reads, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” I only hope one’s readers take its truest meaning away from this dark tale – never dare to abandon one’s Puritan beliefs and the harmony of its community, for pre-destined are we each, and thou can never be too doubtful."
- Mary Rowlandson, author of A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
"I am proud beyond belief to read such a thrilling, well-crafted, and cautionary tale. While my great-grandson must have changed the spelling of our name to avoid the excess of fame following wherever he went – as I cannot think of any other reason – he is right to look back on our family’s involvement in this dark hour of Salem. Indeed, this story shows the true level of darkness I encountered as I swiftly and relentlessly strove to oust Satan’s work as the highest court of the colonies and return that community to God. Some say I showed no remorse for those who dared to doubt my and God’s authority; I say look to Hawthorne’s description of that vital Puritain realization. With that dubious and ominous night that young Goodman Brown was initiated into the very heart of our religion – that those all aroud us may harbor the true nature of a foul and wicked sinner."
- Judge John Hathorne, great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne & leading judge in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692
