What’s love got to do with it? Romanticism, Suppression, and British Literature.
As we in the literary field of study have grown to learn, love is a common concept expressed in British literature. It is the backbone to almost every great story, and the hidden foundation behind many of its most well-known works. When we are young, we read these great love stories and deliberate if we will ever have the same luxury when we grow older. Will we find our one true love? Where on earth is our Mr. Darcy? However, blame it in on a feminine heart, or maybe even my piranha like criticism, but what we never really do notice about these great love stories is the positioning of the women within them.
Although for entertainment purposes, the concept of love in the modern day has not really changed a whole too much. I cannot fully blame it on a still socially developing society, or a lack of women’s rights. I cannot only point out the fact that there were a few missing feminists in the crowd. The fact of the matter is, in the aspect of love, very little has changed since our much beloved “Jane Eyre” or “Pride and Prejudice.” If the British had anything perfected, one aspect would have been their ability to romanticize this suppression. However, my job isn’t to point out this gender related dominance, it is to learn and grow from it.
What would have happened if Elizabeth had told Mr. Darcy that “her love doesn’t cost a thing?” Or Leonora in “The Good Soldier,” what if she had been secretly siphoning her husband’s money in to a hidden account for her grand escape? Her husband was financially irresponsible to begin with, would he have really even noticed? Poor Leonora, what if she had used this money to run off to America and meet her knight in shining armor, who would save her from a life of abuse and infidelity? Would this have been any less romantic? The sad truth is how such potentially strong women are turned in to such victimized creatures of love. Today, most women would be booking a flight on Expedia the moment that they found out their husband was doing the deed with every dame in town. But somehow, we find this acceptable despite knowing this.
Oh, I don’t blame the women in these novels for their choices. I know that at the time, having someone trade your father 10 sheep for your hand in marriage was probably really romantic. But why is it still romantic today? If many of you have ever read, or seen the movie “Austenland,” a comical representation of Austen mixed with the present day, you will fully understand how perplexing this is. Could these women have been happy without a man to save them? Not all British literature contains a Mr. Darcy, and some of these male characters are not only down right agonizing to read about, they are superbly cruel to their female counterparts. Could this representation of women and their love lives in books have actually caused more suppression during their time periods than good?
In the duration of my college career, I have learned about a concept called the “single story.” In the field of anthropology, it is the tendency of human beings to see something as the way in which they are depicted. If we are told that these stories are romantic, we are likely to think that they are romantic too. The transaction of women for money is not a new concept, and one that will surely not be disappearing in the near future. However, these concepts run rampant on the pages on some of British literature's most famous titles. Despite this, I can’t help but wonder if they would have been any less romantic if the women within them had called to action, or sought independence. Where was “Miss Independent,” and if she existed, why didn’t we hear about her? Was it sexism, an underdeveloped culture, or a mixture of both? And if so, why are these beloved novels still so sought after and critiqued to this day?
William Shakespeare once spoke that, “Love asks me no questions, and gives me endless support.” However, I have to beg to differ. If you have ever been married before, then you surely know that love consists of about 10 million questions and that sometimes, support isn’t endless. His wife may have been standing in the corner silently, but I assure you, that woman had things to say. A silent woman is a dangerous one, I’ll have you know. Do these ideals still exist in our present day society? And do these kinds of books and spoken words keep them alive and thriving? And why is sexism so romantic? In my journey to uncover the truth about female suppression in our favorite British novels, I hope to clarify this not only for the women of today, but for the women who inspired them.
