New Woman Fiction

CHANNELING CHARLOTTE: WOMAN's SECRET AND GREAT POWERS IN ELIZABETH ROBINS' WHITE VIOLETS

“…9 Heilmann's work on the New Woman is critical in this regard, since Heilmann argues that the New Woman herself is a double-coded trope of modernity, which extended beyond the fin-de-siècle period and ''stood at once for the degeneration of society and for that society's moral regeneration''. 10 As Angelique Richardson and Chris Willis in particular note, the New Woman ''did not appear from nowhere''. 11 She possessed a ''radical inheritance'', which, in the case of White Violets, we can see established in Charlotte Brontë, traced through Selina Patching, and vested for the future in Barbara, the Wild Child.…”

“…by making women characters the focus of the narrative voice, writers first and foremost appealed to their contemporary readers to adopt a (multiplicity of) female viewpoint(s) as opposed to the conventional male vantage point which shapes so much even of oppositional Victorian literature. 25 Indeed, the tensions between a Victorian and modern practice are deeply embedded in the frisson between Selina and Barbara, even as their relationship allows for a women-centered unity.…”

“…In this case, Barbara underscores an important typology of the New Woman, who, as Ann Heilmann theorizes, works to restore a moral order through the force of her convictions. 23 While Barbara does battle with the male bullies, Selina waits impotent on the banks, trying to coax the boys away with the bribe of a penny, and thus suggesting the stark contrast between the decorous and ineffective Victorian and the impulsive physicality of the modern.…”

“…Indeed, this version of empowerment fully accords with what Heilmann typifies as distinct to New Woman fiction, which insisted that ''true companionship must allow for separate space and individual development''. 26 The Wild Child's cunning is best demonstrated in the way she defies Selina's advice and cajoles the Reverend Patching, Selina's father, into giving her a ''boy's education''. Barbara knows that if she is too polite to the vicar, if she says ''Please Mr. Patching explain this difficulty'', as Selina suggests, the Vicar will stop with the lessons because he would realize he was educating her: ''If I did it like that he'd be bored.…”

“…Heilmann notes about New Woman fiction more broadly that such a doubling of characters offers a ''reflection of multiple female subjectivities'' and, thus, ''the texts may challenge modern readers to engage in a diversity of perspectives''. 24 Such a device leans toward a modern treatment, Heilmann argues, since [. .…”