9291
Dr. DeRosa
Engl 23e
3/24/2000
Women Having Sexual Desires in the 19th century?
“Women were not generally thought of
as thinking, feeling subjects with desires” (James, 248). Tired of such thoughts, Edith Wharton and
Henry James, expose the theme of depreciating women due to their sexual needs
in All Souls and The Turn of the Screw. From the once traditional perspective of male gender, women were
perceived as objects of male desire, yet unable to feel desire themselves. This idea was especially apparent in the
male-dominated world of thought in the 19th century. The authors choose unreliable narrators to
further elaborate the thought process of Victorian society.
In the eighteen hundreds, sex was
considered a taboo. Wharton depicts the
theme of women’s sexual frustration, which is a direct cause of the decline in
class status. The widow Sara Clayburn,
the main character of All Souls, lives a alone life with the
servants. The story begins by foreshadowing
a woman’s loneliness. The main action
that takes place in this novel is Mrs. Clayburn’s search through the isolated
house for her servants. In her search,
she hears a man’s voice in the servants’ quarter, the kitchen that she failed
to recognize. Her search and its result
directly parallel the search and recognition of the sexual frustration that has
built up and forgotten within her.
Although in our present society, it would be natural for Mrs. Clayburn
to experience this feeling, consequently, her Victorian society criticizes her.
During that period, women ‘s sexual
desires were not accepted. As Mrs.
Clayburn searches through her house, she hears the voice of “an invisible
stranger… low, but emphatic, and which she had never heard before… so low… but
passionately earnest, almost threatening” (Wharton, 264). Wharton’s choice of
diction describing the man’s voice is a perfect description of Mrs. Clayburn’s
sensual longing. The desire is
“passionate”, in a sense, a secret that she hides within herself, which is only
now bursting out. Victorian society
looks down upon women whom they believe are sexually frustrated. The male voice comes from “the kitchen,
[which holds] the clue to the mystery” (Wharton, 263). Because kitchen represents the servants’
ground, Mrs. Clayburn society status becomes equal to that of a servant. Mrs. Clayburn continues to search for that
mysterious, misplaced voice within the house, or within her, when she climbs
down the stairs. The gradual search
down the stairs symbolizes her betrayal of her class standing by having the
sexual feelings of disappointment.
Wharton uses symbols to illustrate
that women were looked down upon for their sexual feelings. Though similar to Wharton’s message, James
uses the male-female sexual role reversal and its consequences to illustrate
society’s unacceptance of women having sexual desire. This role reversal proves to be the evident during the governess’
first meeting with the deceased Peter Quint.
Quint’s clothing, his red hair, “bold hard stare” eyes, and wide mouth
with thin lips are all significant in revealing Quint as a sexual hysteria
(James, 46). Quint appears in his
employer’s clothes, a disguise that James uses to show Quint's resemblance to
Satan. According to many texts, the red
hair represents the ultimate evil. Many
critics believe that intense eyes have strong sexual significance, and Quint’s
wide mouth and thin lips portray his cruel personality. The governess’ sexual tension is reflected
through seeing Quint outside looking in through the window, the window to her
souls. Quint looks straight into her
mind, allowing her thoughts and feelings to be exposed. She switches roles with the sexually
hysterical Quint when she runs and looks into the house from where Quint previously
stood. Ironically, what she sees
through the window, is what Quint saw the in the sexually frustrated governess,
and she saw the sexually hysterical servant.
This role reversal indicates that women do have feelings of desire just
as men do. Unfortunately, because of
this reversal, Flora now labels the governess as a whore.
In the Victorian society, women were
commonly characterized as the mother, the lunatic, or the whore. When Mrs. Gross and the governess arrive at
the pond to rescue Flora from Miss Jessel, the little girl appears upset and
throws herself on Mrs. Gross for comfort.
Flora, representing the public’s reaction of Wharton’s time, rejects the
governess, who she regards as the whore, and runs back to Mrs. Gross, the
mother role. This incident points out
that the Victorian society disapproves of women whom have sexual desires and
considers them whores.
In addition to using these two
sexually deprived women to reflect the negative opinions of the 19th
century on women who have such sexual desires, the unreliable narrators in
these stories also add to the rejection of women’s sensuality. In All Souls, the narrator, Sara
Clayburn’s cousin, retells the mysterious story, or “facts, as far as they can
be called facts, and as anybody can get at them” (Wharton, 252). The narrator’s style obscures the
story. The mysterious disappearance of
the servants leaves the audience unsatisfied with the ending.
Due to the frame narrative of All
Souls, the story shows to be more complicated that the narration to The
Turn of the Screw. Being in love
with the governess, Douglas provides an undependable, biased judgement of
her. The unreliable narrator
illustrates the Victorian society suppressing women to be inferior to men.
James uses the governess, a woman to tell the tale. Priscilla Walton, a feminist critic who explains that “Femininity
is a mere masquerade of male subjectivity” (James, 255). By telling the story through a woman’s point
of view, it proves that males are the superiority. It shows that a man can tell a story from a woman’s point of view
and still retain that masculinity; proving that the man is above the woman.
The unreliable narrators in The
Turn of the Screw and All Souls provide the audience with the
Victorian culture, where women are viewed as just objects. Women dared not show their feelings,
especially on such subjects as sex, for the society automatically crush them
down. To expose the mind frame of the
male superiority and female inferiority society of their time, Wharton and
James choose this way of thinking as the underlying theme of the novels. They expose the norm, that women do
experience sexual frustration hoping to bring their society to the realization
that it is time for a change.
Publishing Company. NY, 1973.
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press,
1995