THE FEMINIST TROLLOPE: HERO(IN)ES IN THE WARDEN AND .
PPO%THE FEMINIST TROLLOPE:HERO(IN)ESINTHE WARDEN AND BARCHESTER TOWERSTHESISPresented to the Graduate Council of theUniversity of North Texas in PartialFulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree ofMASTER OF ARTSByDenise Marie Kohn,Denton,August,Texas1992B.A.
Kohn,The WardenDenise Marie,The FeministTrollope:and Barchester Towers. Master of ArtsAugust, 1992,106 pp.,Hero(in)es in(English),works cited, 47 titles.Although Anthony Trollope has traditionally beenconsidered an anti-feminist author,decade have shown that Trollope'sstudies within the pastlater novels show supportfor female power and sympathy for Victorian women who weredissatisfied with their narrow roles in society. A feministreading of two of his earliest novels,Barchester Towers,The Warden andshows that Trollope's feminism is notlimited to his later works.In The Warden,Trollope acclaimsfemale power and "wonan's logic" through female charactersand the womanly warden,Towers,Septimus Harding.Trollope continues to supportpositive portrayals of strong,androgynous Harding.In Barchesterfeminism through hisindependent women and theIn Barchester Towers, the battle of thesexes ends in a balance of power.
TABLE OF CONTENTSPageChapterI.INTRODUCTION:TROLLOPE AND FEMINISM.II. THE WOMANLY WARDEN:TROLLOPE'S FEMININE HERO.20III. BEAUTIFUL BARCHESTER:TROLLOPE'S FEMINIST PARADISE.48IV. CONCLUSION:THE FEMINIST TROLLOPE.92.NOTES.WORKS CITED. .iii.103
CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION:TROLLOPE AND FEMINISMFeminist criticism is one of the most excitinginterpretive theories to arise from the deconstructionistmovement.Feminist critics are interested in the study ofgender in literature and are committed to exposingpatriarchal thought that has marginalized women.While manytraditionalists have maintained that they are neutral orunbiased in their criticism,Kate Millet,Dale Spender,have shown thatfeminist critics such asSandra Gilbert,and Susan Gubarthese "neutral" theories sometimes representa patriarchal point of view that has led to the belittling offemale authors,critics,and characters in literature.Thesefeminist scholars and many others have provided readers withnew perspectives from which to read literature, which in turnenrich the knowledge and scholarship of all.Feministcriticism has catalyzed a new interest in overlooked writersand prompted furtherstudy and new evaluations of canonicalwriters.Anthony Trollope is a notable example of a canonicalwriter whose reputation is undergoing revision because offeminist criticism.Rebecca West,an ardent feminist,declared in 1957 that "Trollope was a feminist"1(167),yet it
2is only within the past decade that other feminist criticshave looked at Trollope's novelsWest's claim.Until recently,in enough depth to supportWest's opinion has been sharedby very few other critics. Michael Sadleir,who reawakenedscholarly interest in Trollope in 1927 with the publicationof Anthony Trollope:A Commentary,shaped the views of mostTrollope criticism to follow with the comment that Trollopeshows"scorn for feminist theory and ambition"(383). The"true essence of the Trollope heroine, " Sadleir said,isreflected in those characters who are "obscure and quietlydutiful" and "modest of mien,low-voiced, by modern standards(A Commentary 382). Sadleir maintainedstrangely feminine"that Trollope shared the views of Sir William Hardman,declared in 1863 that "unmarried girls are a mistake"who(ACommentary 383).In Female Characterspublished in 1933,C.in the Works of Anthony Trollope,C. Koets supported Sadleir'sobservations of Trollope.Koets believed thatTrollope's views of feminism. are very clear.Our author is constantly repeating that natureintended woman to be a mother,that thereforewoman's life can only be happy and complete in themarried state.they wish,refuted.Let women deny this as fiercely asthe fact remains a fact and cannot be(27)
3InL."Mr. Trollope's Young Ladies," published in 1949,E.Skinner offered readers probably more insight into himselfthan into Trollope with the comment that "Trollope had aremarkable faculty for depicting girls whose imbecilebehavior inflames one with a burning impulse to slap themhard and fast"In 1974,(197)another article about women in Trollope'sfiction also took up the charge that Trollope was an antifeminist.In "Anthony Trollope on'the Genus Girl,'" DavidAitken proposes the idea that Trollope created women who"conform to type little more than that they are allVictorians," and then shows why he believes such a theory isincorrect(417) . Trollope believed that a woman "is compelledby her very nature to occupy the roles allotted her byVictorian society," Aitken writes(418). Trollope alsobelieved that women "can love but once,"some corner of his imagination,(425)and ". inclearly seems to regard womenas mantraps and as a man to resent them for it," says Aitken(431). Aitken maintains that Trollope is an "anti-feministauthor"(424).These studies all share in common the fact they werewritten by men and are rather dated.Yet the gender of theauthor or the time period of the article cannot be blamed forthe concept that Trollope was anti-feminist.English Novel, published in 1984,In Women in thefeminist critic Merryn
4Williams maintains that Trollope's fiction depicts women as"clinging creatures who needed male support"Within the past decade,however,(125).this traditionalinterpretation of Trollope has undergone change.Feministcritics have found that Trollope's novels are concerned with"The Woman Question" and are sympathetic toward women whowanted to break free from the constraints of Victoriansociety.InThe Androgynous Trollope:Attitudes to WomenAmongst Early Victorian Novelists, Rajiva Wijesinha statesthat Trollope shows a deeper understanding and objectivitytoward women and marriage than any other Victorian novelist,male or female(337). In the 1982 study,Wijesinha comparesTrollope's depiction of women and marriage to the works ofCharles Dickens, William Thackeray,and George Eliot.Wijesinha looks mainly at Trollope's later works and assertsthat his "feminist tendencies" are chronological indevelopment(179). Trollope's novels and his representationof women reflect his own "androgynous mind," says Wijesinha(39).In the same year, Trollope's feminist tendencies werealso explored in the well-written,Relations: Dickens, Thackeray,well-researchedTrollope,Victorian Sexual System. The authors,Susan MacDonald,and Myra Stark,QorruptCollins and theRichard Barickman,find that Trollope's novelsare based upon a "conservative plot" that focuses on thestandard Victorian trialsof courtship and careersuccess and
5a "radical counterplot" that questions and clashes with thetraditional Victorian goals and assumptions of the main plot(235). The study declares that "in his understanding of theoppressive nature of patriarchal values,West's conclusion:he merits Rebecca'Trollope was a feminist'"(203).Like The Androgynous Trollope, Corrupt Relations finds achronological development in Trollope's support of feminismand focuses mainly on his later novels. The authors ofCorrupt Relationsstate thatBeginning with the genre of the domestic novel inthe Barchester series,Trollope graduallytransforms his courtship stories until they belongmore properly to the tradition of theapprenticeship novel;they trace the education of ayoung woman--or two or three--in the social andpsychological dynamics of male-female relationshipsin a male-dominated marriage system.mid-1860s and later,. By theTrollope is much more likelyto treat courtship as an apprenticeship to thedifficult career of marriage."Early heroines"(204-05)such as those in DoctorThorne,1858, and Framley Parsonage, published in 1861,affect their own fates," according to Barickman,and Starkpublished in"hardly evenMacDonald,(205).Trollope's feminism is further studied in Women inTrollope's Palliser Novels by Deborah Denenholz Morse,which
6was published in 1987. This study focuses exclusively on fiveof the Palliser novels:FinnCan You Forgive Her?(1869), Phineas Redux(1864), Phineas(1876), The Prime Minister(1876)and The Duke's Children (1880). In these novels, Morseexplores the "manifestations of Trollope's disquiet with hisculture's assumptions" about women (2) . Trollope's conflictbetween affirmation and subversion of traditional femaleroles is evident in"ambiguous characterization,tensionbetween narrative intent and resolution, betweencharacterization and narrator's commentary,and illustration,"says Morseor between text(2).While Morse does not ultimately declare Trollope afeminist,she does believe that he was liberal in his viewsof women."Ultimately, Trollope's vision of women's rights ismarital equality," she states.And the ideal of maritalequality in the Victorian period does show a support forfeminism.She writes:If Trollope's perception of Woman's role waslimited,it was much more elastic than that of mostof his contemporaries.Trollope's definition ofwomen's rights was an egalitarian marriage. But inthe context of a culture in which ideal women weresupposed to deny much of what a natural human beingmight feel and express, Trollope's vision of arelation between two intelligent sexual beings who
7were equals within their private union of Man andWoman is subversive.(6)All three of these studies find that Trollope questionedtraditional gender roles and supported female power, yet allthree focus primarily on his later works,those publishedfrom 1860 to 1880. Jane Nardin focuses on twelve ofTrollope's earlier novels in one of the most recent studiesof Trollope,He Knew She Was Right:The Independent Woman inthe Novels of Anthony Trollope, published in 1989. Nardincorrectly points out that critics need to study the feminismof these earlier works to understand the later novels,are more widely considered feminist in naturebook,which(xviii). In hershe says thatTrollope ceased to organize his novels aroundconventional Victorian notions of female and malenature and began to subvert those earlier than mostcritics have realized: the shift from acceptance todissidence was, in fact, completed between thewriting of Barchester Towers in 1855 and that ofThe Belton Estate in 1865.Like previous feminist critics,(xvii-xviii)Nardin finds thatTrollope subverts traditional views of women throughconflicts between the narrator's comments and the actualevents and between the main plot and subplots. And she,too,finds a chronological development in Trollope's feminism.believes that Trollope's opinions on women's rights,likeShe
8those of most Victorians,"were gradually liberalized by thesuccess of the women's movement" between 1855 and 1865(HeKnew She Was Right 11). Nardin does not consider BarchesterTowers,the first novel in her study,as feminist in nature,though several female characters do challenge Victoriannotions of femininity.Instead, Nardin thinks the novelreaffirms traditional views of women and that the narrator'stone "is more consistently misogynistic than is usually thecase,and there is a lot of rib-digging,(He Knew She Was Right 39).antifeminist humor"Nardin's analysis leads thereader to believe that Trollope's feminism must have beenonly slightly developed or nonexistent when he began writingBarchester Towers in 1855.In my own study,an even earlier novel,I have found that Barchester Towers andThe Warden,Ironically, these two novels,by most feminist critics,support feminist views.which are studied very littleare Trollope's two most widely readworks. While there certainly may be some chronologicaldevelopment in Trollope's feminist themes, these two earlynovels affirm feminist ideas and need to be studied moreclosely to present a full picture of his work.In thisthesis, I will deal exclusively with The Warden andBarchester Towers,two of Trollope's earliest novels.Trollope started writing The Wardenin 1852 and published itin 1855. He started writing Barchester Towerspublished it in 1857.in 1855 and
9Trollope believed that "the novelist,conscience,if he have amust preach his sermons with the same purpose asthe clergyman,and must have his own system of ethics"(AnAutobiography 222). When The Warden and Barchester Towers areread from a feminist perspective, it becomes evident thatTrollope preaches a system of feminist ethics that upsetspatriarchal domination and supports female power andequality.Rev.In The Warden,Septimus Harding,feminine in nature.Trollope creates a male character,who by Victorian social standardsThroughout The Warden,ismost of the maleand female characters act according to gender-based norms ofthe mid-Victorian period.Harding,however,follows thevalues and behavioral patterns considered the norm forfemales. Harding, the story's main character, uses hisfeminine traits to subvert masculine authority.His status atthe novel's end as a moral person is an acclamation of thefeminine.In Barchester Towers,the sequel to The Warden and thesecond book in the Barchester chronicle, Trollope continuesto support feminism through his affirmation of Harding. Inthis longer, more complex novel, however, Trollope's supportof feminism is broadened. No longer do most of the othercharacters act along prescribed societal notions of femaleand male behavior.Barchester,In the happy,pastoral world ofgender is no longer a litmus test for behavior orvalues. Female independence and strength are championed as
10women show they can fight for themselves and the good of thecommunity. Many women have equal value and equal power within many instances women have more effectualmen; indeed,power than men. Barchester Towers depicts a world that is afeminist utopia.VictorianPart of the problem with analyzing literature from afeminist perspective is that there is no single definition of(Ruth 4). The word "feminism" has been used to"feminism"signify many different ideas,agree what the term means,and feministswhich accountsthemselves do notfor the widevariety of opinions expressed by feminist literary critics(Ruth 4).Although feminism--and its proponents--tend toresist classification,feminism is often considered to havetwo basic orientations: "radical" and "liberal or moderate"(Ruth 429).programs,Sheila Ruth,an advocate of women's studiesexplains the difference between the two by sayingthat liberal feminists "want to secure for women a piece ofthe pie;radical feminists want to change the pie"(429).Liberal feminism is an outgrowth of liberalism and is oftenassociated with people such as Mary Wollstonecraft,Stuart Mill,and Margaret Fuller(Tong 11,13).JohnIncontemporary society, liberal feminism is represented bygroupssuch as the National Organization for Women.Radicalfeminism is more often associated with Marxist or socialisttheorists and groups.Ruth points out,word radical is a relative term"however,that "the(428). And rhetorician
11Karlyn Kohrs Campbell believes that all feminism isbecause itattacks the basic values of our culture"radical"(388).Toril Moi believes that as "politically motivatedcritics"feminists need to make their own views clear tocounter the view of "patriarchal power politics,often presented as intellectualwhich is so'neutrality' or'objectivity'" (119). As a feminist,I am more closelyaligned with liberal feminist thought.Liberalfeministsbelieve that all people--men and women--are of equal valueand have unalienable rights to liberty and the pursuit ofhappiness. As a liberal feminist,I am committed tosupporting a partnership society in which both men and womenshare knowledge,authority,and work.Liberal feminists tendto believe that gender-specific policies that cast men indominant roles and women in submissive roles are detrimentalto both men and women (Tong 4). Liberal feminists believethat biology is not destiny for women or men. As a literarycritic,I support Moi's view that feminist criticism andtheory should be "relevant to the study of social,institutional,and personal power between the sexes"(118).Feminist critics should be interested in exposing theinvalidity of patriarchy,(Moi 118) which Kate Millet hasdefined simply as male dominance over femalesIn The Warden and Barchester Towers,(25).Trollope showssupport for many of the basic beliefs of liberal feminism.Trollope upsets the notion that being female--a term that
12signifies biological gender--guarantees femininity--a termthat signifies social patterns of behavior imposed bycultural normsAt the same time,(Moi 122).he upsets thenotion that being male guarantees masculinity.Both novelschampion characters who dare to defy conventional VictorianIn Victorian England,ideas of femininity and masculinity.women were generally regarded as the "weaker sex" or"inferior sex"(Williams 2).It was "universally accepted asa biological fact" that women lacked sexual desire and thatthey were "inferior to man in all ways" (Altick 54). Theideal,feminine woman "was to cultivate fragility" and leanon the arm of a man(Altick 53).She was the angel in thehouse, a quiet, passive, domestic woman who was a"subservient" and "submissive" wife(Altick 53). The "'ideal'specimens of Victorian girlhood and womanhood" were thosewomen who were "wrapped in an aura of virtue and innocence"(Altick 56). For most Victorians,unpleasant,even alarming,"there was somethingabout strong-willed women whoinsisted on using their minds"(Altick 54). Considering therestricted lives of most upper- and middle-class Victorianwomen,says Richard Altick,it is not surprising that so manyof them suffered from neurasthenia(56). In many ways,definitions of femininity and masculinity have changed littlesince the Victorian era.The 1988 Webster's New WorldDictionary defines "feminine" as "having qualities regardedas characteristic of women and girls,as gentleness,
13weakness,delicacy,modesty." "Masculine" is defined as"having qualities regarded as characteristic of men and boys,as strength,vigor, boldness." Trollope's subversion ofbiological essentialism--the belief in essential female andmale natures---in these two novels was radical in VictorianEngland and would still be considered radical by much ofsociety today.Although these two novels are radical in their feminismand I believe Trollope was a feminist,I do not want tomisconstrue Trollope as a radical feminist.Trollope was atransitional feminist, a person who was caught between whathe saw as the evils of a patriarchal society and yet who didnot believe that complete change was practical or possible.Trollope himself was opposed to all idealists and ideologiesand is better known for his criticism of ideological feminismthan his support of it."Of course,everyone knows how alongwith the Queen, Trollope disapproved of the 'mad, wickedfolly of Women's Rights,'"Starkdeclare Barickman, MacDonald, and(195). Such comments have made good copy for criticsfor many years.Yet emphasis on Trollope's vituperativeremarks have led to the conclusion that there was a sort ofDr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde split between Trollope the man andTrollope the artist.In their study,Barickman,MacDonald,and Stark conclude thatthere are two Trollopes--the seemingly hostilecritic of the Victorian women's movement and the
14sympathetic Victorian sociological novelistcapturing in fiction the tensions being felt byupper-class men and women.(196)In the past, critics have concentrated on biographicalinformation that supports the view of Trollope the man as ananti-feminist.For feminist critics, this position cannot buthelp lead to the idea that a strange split existed betweenthe personalities of the man and the author.discussion of Trollope,however,In any feministit is importantto look atboth sides of Trollope's views on feminism. And yet "Trollopethe man's"in feministsupport of feminism has been strangely overlookedstudies.Biographical information does exist tosupport the idea that Trollope sympathized with feministgoals.Trollope's mother was Frances Milton Trollope,a popularand prolific author of nove
Trollope's earlier novels in one of the most recent studies of Trollope, He Knew She Was Right: The Independent Woman in the Novels of Anthony Trollope, published in 1989. Nardin correctly points out that critics need to study the feminism of these earlier works to understand the later novels, which are more widely considered feminist in nature .
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