The New Woman The Rise of the Female Voice as a Metaphor for the Decay of Modernity
With the dawning of the twentieth century, a new voice appeared on the forefront: the Modernist woman had not only a strong voice, but many obstacles to overcome. Men still dominated the literature environment, creating female characters which lacked depth and complexity. However, the psychological advances of Sigmund Freud greatly influenced the characterization of females within literature. Henry James employed a side of hysteria greatly associated with Freud's works, while Virginia Woolf engaged in a more introspective, less exaggerated means of psychological unhinging. Both demonstrate the instability of their modern characters, as a metaphor for the uncertainty of the transition into the more scientific, modernized society, as well as a mean to voice their opinions on the feminist movement beginning to brew within English society. Marianne Dekoven discusses the ambivalence felt towards the "New Woman" during this time in her essay "Modernism and gender." "Much of this preoccupation expressed a male modernist fear of women's new power, and resulted in the combination of misogyny and triumphal masculinism that many critics see as central, defining features of modernist work by men" (Dekoven 174). James allows his governess to fall into an assumed madness, while Woolf manages to weave Clarissa Dalloway into the image of outer perfection and inner insecurity. Yet, both women are hearty in their convictions and strength, despite the intention of their authors.
Modern writers disregarded the standards set forth by their predecessors. Often times they sought refuge from the limitations set forth by reliable narrators and the realism present in prior works. As Peter Childs explains in his essay Modernism: "In fiction new writers spearheaded a rejection of several of the fundamentals of classic realism such as: a dependable narrator; the depiction of a fixed stable self; history as a progressive linear process: bourgeois politics, which advocated reform not radical change; the tying up of all narrative strands, or closure" (Childs 22). With this new found freedom, female characters were now employed as means of exposition, rather than mere romantic interests; and with the emerging psychological advancements, male and female characters were allowed greater room to explore their selves and their environment. Such is the case Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf allows the reader to experience the day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, as she prepares for her party. The reader is also invited to explore the slow mental decay of Septimus Smith, a war veteran who has lost touch with the reality of Modern London. While Septimus is losing grips with his sanity and is seemingly happy to do so, Clarissa emerges as a woman who, despite deep insecurities, manages to maintain control of the reality she has created for herself. However, James takes quite a different approach to the "New Woman" as he unravels the mind of the governess.The Haunting of the GovernessThere is little secret to the obstacles faced by women during the twentieth century, and many male writers did not support the notion of female empowerment. James is one who, while eventually agreeing to the possibility of female empowerment, found the thought of feminism unappealing. Dekoven writes: "Henry James's essay 'The Future of the Novel,' written in the pivotal year 1899, encapsulates in a single text this characteristic, irresolvably contradictory attitude of the male Modernists toward an empowered femininity. James begins with the standard modernist attack on femininity. He links it with the social and aesthetic deterioration of standards connected to a debased, feminine/feminized popular culture, by deploying the figure flooding frequently used in modern fiction..." His non-acceptance of the new female empowerment is evident within his novel The Turn of the Screw. In a novel of an almost entirely female cast, he portrays the women as manipulative, jealous, and in the case of the governess, subject to fits of madness. Yet, the novel is first seen as a ghost story.There can be no doubt that James was affected at an earlier age with tales of hauntings. In 1848, at the age of five, James heard tell of the Fox family, in Hydesville New York, which was contacted by mysterious rappings on the walls of their house. The mother and her two daughters eventually began to communicate with the mysterious noises. Another woman, a guest of the former occupants of the house, claimed to have seen the full figure of a man standing in the kitchen. This knowledge became the seed planted within James's mind, which would become the background for The Turn of the Screw. Many groups formed after the knowledge of the Foxes leaked out, including the Society for Psychical Research, which came out the founding of Trinity College. Peter Beidler describes the spiritualism phenomenon in his book Ghosts, Demons and Henry James: Henry James's knowledge of some of the key ideas and personalities associated with the psychical research leads me to call attention here to the fact overlooked virtually all previous scholars: that Douglas, the fireside reader of the governess's manuscript in the frame-story of The Turn of the Screw, had gone to Trinity college, Cambridge...Given that the three prime practionioners of serious psychical research in England at the time were all Trinity men and that Henry James knew all of them...personally, can there be any doubt that James's making Douglas a Trinity man was purposeful? By associating Douglas, the only person in the frame-story who had actually met the governess, with the very center of serious and scientific ghost research in England, was not Henry James setting himself up as a reliable judge both of her and of the narrative she writes? If a Trinity man thinks that the governess is a trustworthy witness and that her ghosts are genuine, why should we doubt? (38-9)Should the reader doubt the reliability of the governess? This is the question that most readers try to answer. If first considered to be a reliable source, then the story becomes a haunting tale of unlike none other. However, if the governess is a truly unreliable source, then James creates an air of insanity to parallel the growing fear of female empowerment. By making the governess ambiguous, James promotes the ideas shared by Freud and other male Modernists writers: females are the weaker of the sexes.Should the reader chose to view the novel as a ghost story, there were ample events occurring at the turn of the century to support the spiritual and metaphysical element to his novel. One such case, though it cannot be for certain that James had access to this information, is the story of the Bell family of Robertson County, Tennessee. In a strange twist of events, the story of the Bell Witch and the subsequent death of John Bell, the patriarch of the family, almost mirror that of the James novel. Part of the Southern American lexicon of hauntings, the Bell Witch is one of the first cases of a haunting which is solely responsible for the death of a man. Only the true details of the Bell family came to knowledge in 1995, when a handwritten manuscript of Richard Powell, a witness to the haunting of the Bell family, was unearthed. In the lengthy manuscript, he detailed the four years in which the Bell family suffered at the hands of the Bell Witch. John Bell was a farmer and businessman; a well-respected member of the Adams community, until he was found guilty of usury against Kate Batts. During the proceedings, Bell shamelessly called Kate a witch, to that she replied: "Witch, am I? Then let me offer you a witch's malefaction, Old John Bell: You may have you broad acres as well as mine, purchased at a penitence. You may have you big house and your salubricated health right now. But just you wait and see what sad changes shall soon descend upon you. And more than you among the Bells" (Powell 15). Shortly after, the family was besieged with noises and physical attacks, primarily centered on the Bell's young daughter Betsy. The spirit, who proclaimed herself to be the production of Old Kate Batts, not only physically attacked Betsy, but had lengthy conversations with many members of the Adams community, including the local pastor. When asked why the spirit would not leave the family alone, the spirit replied: "...I will not leave until Old Jack Bell dies" (Powell 79). Two years later, the spirit was granted her wish.While the Bell family tale occurred several decades before the birth of James and the subsequent writing of The Turn of the Screw, the similarities are uncanny. Paranormal researchers acknowledge that poltergeist occurrences, much like those in An American Haunting and The Turn of the Screw, is typically brought about in a household where there happens to be young women. It was the same case with the Fox family, who had two young daughters, twelve and fourteen. The connection between poltergeist and young women is still very much unclear, but the arrival of poltergeist tends to occur during times of extreme duress, such as discussed by Lauren Forcella in her essay: "Investigating Poltergeist Phenomena": During a poltergeist experience, the agent, in an attempt to relieve emotional stress, unknowingly causes the physical disturbances using mental forces. The mental mechanism that allows the poltergeist agent to unconsciously cause these physical disturbances is called psychokinesis. Psychokinesis, PK, more commonly known as "mind over matter," is the human ability to mentally affect the physical environment. Because the psychokinetic activity of the poltergeist agent is recurrent and spontaneous, this form of psychokinesis is termed RSPK or recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis. Most agents are unaware that they are causing the physical disturbances, and even those with vague awareness usually have no conscious control over how and when the disturbances will occur...Adolescence is commonly a stressful life period (psychologically and physically) and not surprisingly, the majority of reported poltergeist cases involve adolescent agents (the age range is from 12 or 13 to early 20s). However, people of all age groups are potential poltergeist agents (although there has been a noticeable lack of agents under 10 or 11). Like Betsy and the Fox girls, the governess is haunted by the former governess Miss Jessel and her supposed lover Peter Quint. Unlike the governess, the other girls had credible witnesses to the spiritual activity surrounding them, though initially many were skeptical to the girls' claims. Yet the governess differs in that she is (seemingly) the only one who can see the apparitions. While it is implied that the children are party to the ghosts, the reader cannot be sure that they truly do see them, as the governess does.The story of the Bell family is a first hand account of the former teacher and future husband of Betsy Bell, Richard Powell, who penned the manuscript for his daughter, in case Betsy should be "revisited" by the Bell Witch. The concern and fearfulness that Powell demonstrated in his manuscript begs the question if he did indeed believe that his wife was unstable. It is curious that a husband would make this statement, as if implying that the spiritual world had a definite affinity for Betsy. Could he have considered Betsy to have such a weakened mental state which would serve as a beacon for poltergeists? Knowing this true tale begs the question: was the governess similar to Betsy, in that she had a weakened constitution which invited spiritual activity to over take her, or was James simply attempting to show the fatal flaw in the New Woman?Most definitely it is James's supernatural overtones which make the novel both gothic and modern. With the Modernist movement, the return to paranormal and occult explorations becomes more and more commonplace. The removal of reason and human-centered thinking that marks the Modernists period, which prior to the twentieth century, as Childs explains, was not the case: "Above all, it is characterized by the attempt to place humanity and in particular, human reason at the centre of everything, from religion and nature, to finance and science" (Childs 16). Prior to this time, it was logic which guided most minds; the idea of something inside of one's self was unheard. It simply was not possible, until the Modernists arrived, considering if there was something more introspective to learn. By Carolyn Lawrence
Modern writers disregarded the standards set forth by their predecessors. Often times they sought refuge from the limitations set forth by reliable narrators and the realism present in prior works. As Peter Childs explains in his essay Modernism: "In fiction new writers spearheaded a rejection of several of the fundamentals of classic realism such as: a dependable narrator; the depiction of a fixed stable self; history as a progressive linear process: bourgeois politics, which advocated reform not radical change; the tying up of all narrative strands, or closure" (Childs 22). With this new found freedom, female characters were now employed as means of exposition, rather than mere romantic interests; and with the emerging psychological advancements, male and female characters were allowed greater room to explore their selves and their environment. Such is the case Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf allows the reader to experience the day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, as she prepares for her party. The reader is also invited to explore the slow mental decay of Septimus Smith, a war veteran who has lost touch with the reality of Modern London. While Septimus is losing grips with his sanity and is seemingly happy to do so, Clarissa emerges as a woman who, despite deep insecurities, manages to maintain control of the reality she has created for herself. However, James takes quite a different approach to the "New Woman" as he unravels the mind of the governess.The Haunting of the GovernessThere is little secret to the obstacles faced by women during the twentieth century, and many male writers did not support the notion of female empowerment. James is one who, while eventually agreeing to the possibility of female empowerment, found the thought of feminism unappealing. Dekoven writes: "Henry James's essay 'The Future of the Novel,' written in the pivotal year 1899, encapsulates in a single text this characteristic, irresolvably contradictory attitude of the male Modernists toward an empowered femininity. James begins with the standard modernist attack on femininity. He links it with the social and aesthetic deterioration of standards connected to a debased, feminine/feminized popular culture, by deploying the figure flooding frequently used in modern fiction..." His non-acceptance of the new female empowerment is evident within his novel The Turn of the Screw. In a novel of an almost entirely female cast, he portrays the women as manipulative, jealous, and in the case of the governess, subject to fits of madness. Yet, the novel is first seen as a ghost story.There can be no doubt that James was affected at an earlier age with tales of hauntings. In 1848, at the age of five, James heard tell of the Fox family, in Hydesville New York, which was contacted by mysterious rappings on the walls of their house. The mother and her two daughters eventually began to communicate with the mysterious noises. Another woman, a guest of the former occupants of the house, claimed to have seen the full figure of a man standing in the kitchen. This knowledge became the seed planted within James's mind, which would become the background for The Turn of the Screw. Many groups formed after the knowledge of the Foxes leaked out, including the Society for Psychical Research, which came out the founding of Trinity College. Peter Beidler describes the spiritualism phenomenon in his book Ghosts, Demons and Henry James: Henry James's knowledge of some of the key ideas and personalities associated with the psychical research leads me to call attention here to the fact overlooked virtually all previous scholars: that Douglas, the fireside reader of the governess's manuscript in the frame-story of The Turn of the Screw, had gone to Trinity college, Cambridge...Given that the three prime practionioners of serious psychical research in England at the time were all Trinity men and that Henry James knew all of them...personally, can there be any doubt that James's making Douglas a Trinity man was purposeful? By associating Douglas, the only person in the frame-story who had actually met the governess, with the very center of serious and scientific ghost research in England, was not Henry James setting himself up as a reliable judge both of her and of the narrative she writes? If a Trinity man thinks that the governess is a trustworthy witness and that her ghosts are genuine, why should we doubt? (38-9)Should the reader doubt the reliability of the governess? This is the question that most readers try to answer. If first considered to be a reliable source, then the story becomes a haunting tale of unlike none other. However, if the governess is a truly unreliable source, then James creates an air of insanity to parallel the growing fear of female empowerment. By making the governess ambiguous, James promotes the ideas shared by Freud and other male Modernists writers: females are the weaker of the sexes.Should the reader chose to view the novel as a ghost story, there were ample events occurring at the turn of the century to support the spiritual and metaphysical element to his novel. One such case, though it cannot be for certain that James had access to this information, is the story of the Bell family of Robertson County, Tennessee. In a strange twist of events, the story of the Bell Witch and the subsequent death of John Bell, the patriarch of the family, almost mirror that of the James novel. Part of the Southern American lexicon of hauntings, the Bell Witch is one of the first cases of a haunting which is solely responsible for the death of a man. Only the true details of the Bell family came to knowledge in 1995, when a handwritten manuscript of Richard Powell, a witness to the haunting of the Bell family, was unearthed. In the lengthy manuscript, he detailed the four years in which the Bell family suffered at the hands of the Bell Witch. John Bell was a farmer and businessman; a well-respected member of the Adams community, until he was found guilty of usury against Kate Batts. During the proceedings, Bell shamelessly called Kate a witch, to that she replied: "Witch, am I? Then let me offer you a witch's malefaction, Old John Bell: You may have you broad acres as well as mine, purchased at a penitence. You may have you big house and your salubricated health right now. But just you wait and see what sad changes shall soon descend upon you. And more than you among the Bells" (Powell 15). Shortly after, the family was besieged with noises and physical attacks, primarily centered on the Bell's young daughter Betsy. The spirit, who proclaimed herself to be the production of Old Kate Batts, not only physically attacked Betsy, but had lengthy conversations with many members of the Adams community, including the local pastor. When asked why the spirit would not leave the family alone, the spirit replied: "...I will not leave until Old Jack Bell dies" (Powell 79). Two years later, the spirit was granted her wish.While the Bell family tale occurred several decades before the birth of James and the subsequent writing of The Turn of the Screw, the similarities are uncanny. Paranormal researchers acknowledge that poltergeist occurrences, much like those in An American Haunting and The Turn of the Screw, is typically brought about in a household where there happens to be young women. It was the same case with the Fox family, who had two young daughters, twelve and fourteen. The connection between poltergeist and young women is still very much unclear, but the arrival of poltergeist tends to occur during times of extreme duress, such as discussed by Lauren Forcella in her essay: "Investigating Poltergeist Phenomena": During a poltergeist experience, the agent, in an attempt to relieve emotional stress, unknowingly causes the physical disturbances using mental forces. The mental mechanism that allows the poltergeist agent to unconsciously cause these physical disturbances is called psychokinesis. Psychokinesis, PK, more commonly known as "mind over matter," is the human ability to mentally affect the physical environment. Because the psychokinetic activity of the poltergeist agent is recurrent and spontaneous, this form of psychokinesis is termed RSPK or recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis. Most agents are unaware that they are causing the physical disturbances, and even those with vague awareness usually have no conscious control over how and when the disturbances will occur...Adolescence is commonly a stressful life period (psychologically and physically) and not surprisingly, the majority of reported poltergeist cases involve adolescent agents (the age range is from 12 or 13 to early 20s). However, people of all age groups are potential poltergeist agents (although there has been a noticeable lack of agents under 10 or 11). Like Betsy and the Fox girls, the governess is haunted by the former governess Miss Jessel and her supposed lover Peter Quint. Unlike the governess, the other girls had credible witnesses to the spiritual activity surrounding them, though initially many were skeptical to the girls' claims. Yet the governess differs in that she is (seemingly) the only one who can see the apparitions. While it is implied that the children are party to the ghosts, the reader cannot be sure that they truly do see them, as the governess does.The story of the Bell family is a first hand account of the former teacher and future husband of Betsy Bell, Richard Powell, who penned the manuscript for his daughter, in case Betsy should be "revisited" by the Bell Witch. The concern and fearfulness that Powell demonstrated in his manuscript begs the question if he did indeed believe that his wife was unstable. It is curious that a husband would make this statement, as if implying that the spiritual world had a definite affinity for Betsy. Could he have considered Betsy to have such a weakened mental state which would serve as a beacon for poltergeists? Knowing this true tale begs the question: was the governess similar to Betsy, in that she had a weakened constitution which invited spiritual activity to over take her, or was James simply attempting to show the fatal flaw in the New Woman?Most definitely it is James's supernatural overtones which make the novel both gothic and modern. With the Modernist movement, the return to paranormal and occult explorations becomes more and more commonplace. The removal of reason and human-centered thinking that marks the Modernists period, which prior to the twentieth century, as Childs explains, was not the case: "Above all, it is characterized by the attempt to place humanity and in particular, human reason at the centre of everything, from religion and nature, to finance and science" (Childs 16). Prior to this time, it was logic which guided most minds; the idea of something inside of one's self was unheard. It simply was not possible, until the Modernists arrived, considering if there was something more introspective to learn. By Carolyn Lawrence