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I afraid, this post is not going to be much feminist, but some time ago I sumbled here across a Wuthering Heights discussion and that made me contemplate my love/hate relationship with the british literature. Which is long and changeable. It went roughly like this:
My teen central European self reading obsessively through british detective stories: "Waw, this is something! Except for this 'a rich person murdered in his/her mansion, all the family members suspect' cliché. It's so worn out and overused! Plus who would believe, so many members of the British nobility are such as greedy, selfish, snobbish, emotionally damaged bastards, they would literally be willing to murder their closest relatives for money and titles?"
Me in my twenties making it to the British upper-class "romances": Oh... now I got it! Honestly, my family is far from perfect, but if they were like that, I'd probably kill them all in the day of my eighteenth birthday (presumably by poisoning the birthday cake?) just to get rid of them. The inheritance would be just a pleasant bonus. And even if some Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot showed up, whatever? British prisons can't be THAT bad compared to this.
Me nowadays watching and reading every documentary about the British royalty I can find due to the lockdown enhanced boredom: "Sooo... it wasn't just a piece of fiction, after all. They truly are like that. Thinking of it, these... guillotines! They are not so bad invention after all. Wondering if these Britons have ever heard of them.
And to make this post at least little bit feminist, I noticed a very peculiar position the servant staff occupies in this stories and that the servant/master relationship dynamics is surprisingly similar to what exists in prostitution. The money and the status of the nobility not only allows but somehow requires to hire an employee to provide them with services of the most intimate nature, every healthy adult should be able to do for themselves. And the servants not only obey, but they do their best, because due to the immense social and economic power imbalance between these two classes, they literally have no other choice. So far, so very clear. But surprisingly, the nobility dessn't seem as satisfied with only this. As if they need an illusion, that there is something more in this purely economical relationship. That their butlers and maids are serving them not for money but out of pure love and devotion. Regardless of them not knowing sh*t about their servants or at least considering them real human beings. And it seems, the "love and devotion" illusion, not the actual work, is crucial for the role of the British high-class servant.
P.S. Sorry for my Englist. Obviously, it's not my first language. :-)
I read Wuthering Heights as an adult and I was gobsmacked at how it’s been touted as a romantic novel. I don’t think even Brontë wanted Heathcliffe to be perceived as the ideal man either.
If anything it’s a gothic romance, not a romance in the contemporary sense.
As a Brit, I admit our literature is a box of frogs, if you’re interested I highly recommend the Odd Women by George Gissing. Yes, written by a man, but it gives a historically accurate portrayal of women cross class during the times in England.
Well, I would say, your literature is sort of fascinating, especially the one, that takes place in the upper class. For example the Wuthering Heights! I was shocked, how toxic and unbeareble every character was and how boring and insignificant lives they led. (Except Heathcliffe, who at least was able to have some work done, instead of sitting there, being a burden for society.) And how I couldn't care less about their final fate. (Like, who cares, if this spoiled rich chick marries her cousin A or cousin B?) But something tells me, it wasn't precisely the author's intention.
BTW thank's for the tip.
Check out Jeeves and Wooster. Great comedy that satirises it all. One thing that cuts across class is taking the piss.
Oh I have 2 for you to read that will add to the picture!
First is Wilkie Collins' The Woman In White, one of the first detective stories that set the pattern for the genre. It also deals with how much middle to upper class women were at the mercy of their husbands.
Then you have to read Lady Audley's Secret, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. She wrote it in answer (protest?) to TWiW, as a feminist who couldn't stomach the passive, fainting heroine Collins imagined. She took Collins' heroine for her looks (the stereotypical blonde angel) and gave her the intelligence of Collins' villain, a Machiavelli type. It's kind of genius as a work of fiction and ahead of its time.
Both books explore the way genteel women were essentially prostituted to the highest bidder, only by marriage which stripped them of all autonomy and property.
Late to the party but I second the motion heartily!
Also Collins created some fascinating women in The Moonstone.
The English Civil War predated the French Revolution by over a century. They had the reputation of king-killers long before the French took it over.
Have you read Dorothy L Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey series? Written in the 20s and 30s, Wimsey is an aristocrat shattered by his WWI service, and his detective work does not revolve around the nobility at all. Hardly even gentry, most of it.
As someone from an establishment Canadian family of British Isles descent (including aristocracy and landed gentry) I really enjoyed this. Toxic behaviour plus money is not a good combination – it can lead people to believe they're doing just fine in terms of how they treat other people. Without that money, they'd risk becoming trailer-park trash because no one would want them around, but they don't see it that way.
Unlimited access to privileges and wealth combined with lack of self-reflection is a highway to hell, especially if it lasts for centuries. Naturally I've never met any member of British nobility myself, but believe, the literature they have written by themselves for themselves must somehow reflect their true selves. And from my perspective, it's not a nice view. You are probably right about the fact, they don't realize other people would never tolerate them, if it wasn't for their money. For it's really striking how, in the literature the domestic staff still genuinely worships their masters despite being treated like a trash by them.
As a Brit learning about British history is just finding out that class , money and status was everything. The victorians believed being poor was a reflection of your sins and essentially it’s all your fault. British society was made up of many ridiculous rules particularly for women!! for example men who modelled for paintings ( usually very poor men) were considered to be idealistic men that were posed to reflect men’s Godlike qualities but women who posed for paintings were considered disgusting harlots, infact the stigma was so great against women that they had to pay women more as the shame it carried was greater. Most women who were painted were anonymous, desperate women. Many of them likely prostitutes, all of them likely to be desperately poor. There was so many double standards and restrictions lol There were laws that prohibited peasants from wearing the same clothes and fabrics than the royals / upper class, even if you made the damn clothes yourself as it helped distinguish the peasants from royalty in the street. Sorry for the random fact dump but history is an interesting subject , especially looking at the ridiculousness of the ways we lived , thought and dressed lol