Dear Serial Readers,
Two chapters this time, both about the second marriage plot--Gibson's proposal to Clare (aka "Hyacinth" and "Mrs. Kirkpatrick") and Molly's reaction to this news. Were you surprised at all the attention and care lavished on these three characters and their various perspectives on this impending marriage? I thought Molly's heart-wrenching reaction to the news of this stepmother on the horizon was wonderfully detailed and varied in the wide range of confused feelings--anger, hurt, fear, surprise, worry, shy curiosity. Gaskell doesn't reduce Clare to a caricature of the wicked stepmother, but clearly she's not an idealized angel either, but rather human-scale in this "every-day" slice of realism, with her own interest in relinquishing the drudgery of schoolteacher. But what did you make of the proposal scene itself, in chap. 10? I loved the narrator's shifting between his and her viewpoints in this proposal that seems overdetermined, Gaskell suggests, by the social attitudes that dictate a second marriage is the best solution for Mr G's domestic woes, for Mrs K's hard lot as a schoolteacher and single mother, and for Molly as unmothered in a house of men. Yet there's much to suggest discomfort too with this overscriptedness.
It occurs to me that Victorian novels are loaded with second marriages of one sort or another, although at what point in the narrative the second marriage enters varies (late, for instance, in Middlemarch and in Jane Eyre). Any thoughts about this second marriage, at least the preview we get in these chapters through the shifting focus on Molly, Clare, and Mr. G? My favorite bit of class comedy was when Clare asks Molly to report on her father's pet likes and dislikes, and discovers to her dismay that he eats cheese! Cheese apparently was a food associated with unrefined tastes, with a strong smell, according to Clare! I also loved Roger Hamley's attempts to comfort Molly either directly (in his awkwardness with words) or indirectly as her "Mentor," leading her out of her misery through distractions. That passage reminded me of Gaskell's preface to her first novel, Mary Barton where she mentions that she turned to fiction writing as a distraction from "circumstances"--she doesn't clarify this, but biographical accounts attribute fiction writing as her husband's suggestion after the death of her very young son.
Reading these two chapters I became curious about what else appeared in the pages of The Cornhill in November 1864. I was quite astonished to see how several items seemed tooled to this novel's interests! Here are the contents of that issue, in order:
1. The lead item is the Prologue (first 3 chapters) of Wilkie Collins's sensation novel Armadale (the only one he published in this magazine)
2. "Middle-Class Education in England" by Harriet Martineau--this article is on female education and begins with this sentence: "If the education of middle-class Boys is a vague and cloudy subject to treat in writing, what is that of Girls?"
3. "A Tête á Tête Social Science Discussion"--complementing the above article is this story told by a father whose wife has just given birth to their ninth daughter--no sons. The narrative takes the form of a discussion by the narrator/father and his friend on the Woman Question, especially about how and whether a woman can support herself outside of marriage. There is also discussion of women's higher education.
4. "The New Mamma"--a drawing presumably referring to the scene between Molly and Clare (see sidebar)
5. The installment of this novel occurs here, in the center of this issue
6. "The Scottish Farm Labourer"--an informative article on this topic. Mr. Gibson is Scottish by background, and this subject of farm labour might figure later in the novel.
7. "At Rest"--consolation poetry about the death of a child, signed B.R.
8. "Col. Gordon's Exploits in China"--a travelogue/imperial adventure account by this explorer
9. "The Public Schools Report"--this item in the form of a letter responding to a report on boys public schools, especially Eton, printed in the July issue.
So, here you have the full context for this slice of our serial novel! Next time: chapters 12-14.
Serially Seconding,
Susan
5 comments:
I love that the proposal scene covers so many different perspectives at once. It really lets Gaskell show off her range and ability to change the tone -- from the light-hearted scene of the proposal itself to the deep hurt that Molly feels. I also enjoy the humor in the earlier part of the chapter; I enjoyed seeing Lord Cumnor's letter anticipate the entire marriage, to the surprise of Mr. Gibson and Mrs. Kirkpatrick.
Despite some of the fairy-tale business we had earlier, it's pretty clear that Kirkpatrick's not going to be a wicked stepmother. Her sensitivity to Molly's shock, and her interference to keep Lady Cumnor from separating Molly and her father, is appealing.
And Mr. Gibson is making me laugh. I love his line about the late Mr. Kirkpatrick's disapproval of second marriages (p. 111) and his disdain for the name "Hyacinth."
Susan, I love hearing about the other contents of the magazine! That illustration is at the beginning of my novel, and form the first chapter I thought it was Molly and worried that it was Clare. I can't be as sanguine as Joshua about Clare/Hyacinth not being an evil stepmother. I don't think she is going to be evil, but I think she is totally selfish, which neither Dr. Gibson nor Molly are. I do enjoy that we see her perspective as well as his and Molly's, but I'm finding HCK's perspective to be much like the early Tito's in Romola: centered on ease and comfort and herself. She doesn't want her daughter to come so that she won't be shown up by a younger woman's beauty? Hmmm. I don't mean to suggest she'll end up nearly as depraved as Tito, just that someone as generous and self-doubting as Molly can easily be harmed by someone as utterly self-centered as HCK.
For example, HCK doesn't want Molly to come with her because HCK doesn't like girls and she wants to keep her little indulgences.
I also loved the cheese section! And the variety of tones is great. And I want to say yes to Susan's comment from last time about hearing more about servants than usual, such as knowing about Bethia,and knowing that Dr. Gibson at least cares a bit about her future, and the novel clearly presents the point that she was less at fault than the calf lover Mr. Coxe.
I'm finding Roger completely adorable, and much more sensitive than I would have thought. I liked his early desire to be far away from anyone crying--as he approached poor Molly, back on a bench under a tree again, suffering, I thought he was going to be a very poor consoler, and he sounds a bit brusque at first. When I look back at that section, I find myself wondering why I had that opinion, since his thoughts and actions are always about someone else, even if not always about Molly. Well, it's true he pretends to despise lunch and only to eat it for his mother's sake, though he's quite hungry. But aside from that, he really thinks about the two of them.
I think what most made me start to dislike Osborne was not so much that he did poorly at school, but that he had been the driving force of the household rather too much--I find the tone so subtle here. I don't think there's much direct critique of him, but instead we see how he's been overly defended all of his life. And his poetry is rather, umm, tedious.
I went back over earlier chapters this past week, and I wanted to speak up for Mary, Lady Cuxhaven, as being a pretty attractive character, too, and a nice addition to her sister Harriet. Mary is pretty astute, it seems to me, in Chapter 8, when she is by and large generous in her assessment of Clare, but points out that Clare was a bit too "flattering and indulging" as a teacher, and that it's a bit odd that she is never with her daughter. She also was the one who tried to be kind to Molly back in Chapter 2 when Molly was stuck in the drawing room at the Towers, although Mary was also abrupt. So, it seems to me that Mary and Harriet both have some outstanding characteristics, despite their rather self-centered parents!
Off to read more!
Kari--Thanks for expanding our palette of "daughters" in this novel! I would also like to keep track of other items that appeared in each issue of the magazine--so thanks for letting me know about that!
Like everyone else, I loved the proposal scene! For me, the most interesting aspect of Gaskell's handling of this scene is the very pragmatic attitude that both Mr. Gibson and Hyacinth take. She's thinking all about comfort, and so is he to some degree. This deflates any over-sentimentalization of this second marriage. I especially liked Hyacinth's hysterical tears in response not to the fulfillment of romantic fantasies about the dashing doctor, but instead because "she need not struggle anymore for a livelihood" (p. 109). The disconnectedness of these two uncomfortable "lovers" is hilarious (although I do also empathize with Hyacinth's difficult situation as a women having to support herself and her daughter).
I have to say that I'm with Kari in terms of being skeptical of Hyacinth. My favorite section of this installment was the account of her secret life at Ashcombe with "the dirty dog's eared delightful novel from the Ashcombe circulating library, the leaves of which she turned over with a pair of scissors; the lounging-chair which she had for use at her own home, straight and upright as she sate now in Lady Cumnor's presence; the dainty morsel, savoury and small, to which she treated herself for her own solitary supper" (p. 134). This description of secret "luxury" reminded me in some ways of Jane Eyre once again, and Miss Temple's comfortable room in the midst of Lowood squalor, to which she invites Jane and Helen Burns. But Hyacinth's version of sanctuary seems a debased self-indulgent version, one that she is not planning to share with an "orphaned" Molly if she is to go to Ashcombe.
I'm wondering what kind of fireworks will be in store for us when Mr. Gibson and Hyacinth get to know each other after marriage and all of these secrets come into the open!
Thank you, Susan, for giving us the fascinating context for this installment. I find it interesting that words themselves, like "tete-a-tete" become an intertextual thread, not only within the chapters of the installment, but also between Gaskell's novel and other selections in the Cornhill.
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