The Commonplace Book: Introduction
Control is everywhere. As varied and complex as the human experience is, one cannot escape the control of other people and things. In part, this commonplace book examines the different types of control most prevalent in the literature of the 1800s. The Victorian Era, in particular, was one of strictest eras with social rules and deeply ingrained propriety. As the century progressed, control was wrestled from people and given to people. In this commonplace book, I ruminate on the different types of control: control of others, control of the self and how people act when there are conditions beyond the control.
The first type of control to consider is found in the first four (barring “The Darkling Thrush”) articles of this commonplace book. In some aspect or another, they all comment on the role of the Victorian woman in society. The Victorian woman was primarily controlled by coverture, for upon marriage, the legal rights of a woman were taken by the husband. In other terms, the husband controlled the wife both legally, and in many cases, socially. In none is this more obvious than the “My Last Duchess” in which the woman in the portrait is jealously controlled by the husband that keeps her locked up. The author reveals that he might have killed her, which speaks to the complete control of men over women. This is also true of “In an Artist’s Studio” in which the painter controls the woman he draws totally and completely. He is said to “feed” on her day and night, imagining her to his own benefit. “Goblin Market” speaks to women for women, it is the only poem in the commonplace book that emphasizes female solidarity, but it is important to note that in the entire poem men do not exist until at the end when it is mentioned that the sisters “both were wives.” This poem emphasizes the importance of virginity, they are controlled by the societal expectation that virgins are pure and sexual immorality led to an eternity in hell. “Goblin Market” is also analogous to “The Lady of Shalott” in this manner, because the lady is controlled by the expectations of the artist. While “Goblin Market” serves as a reminder to women everywhere that sexuality is both undesirable in a woman and dangerous to the woman herself, “The Lady of Shalott” reminds the reader of the expectations of the artist in society. As Lizzy gives into temptation to relax her self-control, so does the Lady of Shalott, and both are condemned to die for it.
The second set of articles examines humans placed in situations where the control is out of their hands, for social or physical reasons. For example, in “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” the monk cannot control Brother Lawrence’s actions, and thus condemns himself to moral hypocrisy. Religion is also briefly touched on in “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” but no moral hypocrisy is found. Whereas “Soliloquy” examines the jealous male psyche, “Kingfishers” is still morally sound, and is more at peace with the control being out of the hands of humans. In this manner, you might consider “Soliloquy” as what happens to the moral psyche if one’s inscape is tainted with hypocrisy. Both of these poems touch on the moral actions of humans after a non-human situation is controls them.
“Ulysses” and “The Song of the Shirt” describes a social scene in which the control is wrested out of the main characters hands as a result of other human works. Ulysses is controlled by the self-imposed state of monarchy, and thus dreams for his freedom and days in which he was glorified. “Song of the Shirt” is a slightly more bleak version of this, the woman is controlled by the human-made Industrial Revolution, and thus her work is out of her hands. She however, does not dream of freedom, only resigns herself to the work and pleads with the men to release her.
Obviously, many of these works have many forms of control in them. For example, “Song of the Shirt” may be talked about in the context of a woman being controlled by men OR as humans being controlled by other humans. Many of the poems that involve gender fall into this category, and for that gender may be thought about as a subset of humans controlling other humans.
The final set of articles with quotations from Bleak House comment on the consequences of human control. As the middle class wrested control from the upper class in the Victorian Era, so fell the great Chesney Wold as a symbol of the aristocracy. As humans wrestled for greater control in the Industrial Revolution, consequences included a country plagued by grime and unhygienic waste, represented by the fog in the opening lines of Bleak House.
This commonplace book is an interdisciplinary multimedia experience that includes many links to other aspects of art and interviews about the relevance of control in the Victorian Era. While these links are not necessary to understand many of my critiques, all were chosen with great care to place the element of control in a wider world view. Some connect back to the Romantic Era of literature, while far more connect to the 21st century. This is why I chose, in some part, to include “The Darkling Thrush” as the first article to read, it places the reader in a (somewhat) current state of mind and allows the reader to walk backward in time. As the Victorian Era was dominated by control (whether or not that control was human facilitated or circumstantial) so is this century. This commonplace book will serve as a reminder to all that just like the Victorians, we are not as in control of our own future as we may like to believe. Enjoy!
