Female Transgression and its Consequences

In the eighteenth century, female behaviour was under constant, careful scrutiny, which reflected the existence of certain expectations regarding what was considered appropriate female conduct and what was clearly not.⁴⁵ Under such critical gaze, most women were careful to keep a stance that would portray a favourable image in the eyes of their society. This indicated their acute awareness of the scorn and ostracism they would inevitably be subject to if they decided to openly defy social mores. This fixation on the consequences that female transgression entailed reinforced the innumerable representations of the mockery that ‘rebellious’ women had to endure, including for instance being regarded as “the whining spinster, the evil murderess, the decaying prostitute” (Kitedge 2003: int 1).

As Kitedge argues, such images of women were usually taken as negative portrayals that appeared to verify sexist views regarding women’s attitude and position and, hence, writers’ general approach was often to try to establish more encouraging images of women. However, what is significant is that not all scholars take this approach and what frequently occurs is that, instead of rejecting ‘negative’ portrayals of women⁴⁶ they actually embrace such representations and acknowledge the “messages

45 Mirroring conduct books, critical works like Mary Poovey’s The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer:

Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen (1985) or Vivien Jones’ Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity (1990) revolve around the types of female conduct that came across as suitable female behavior.

46 These include images of women that are “frequently painful, grotesque, or pathetic” (Kitedge 2003: int 2)

115 that these depictions convey and the way this information was interpreted and negotiated by contemporary women” (Kitedge 2003: int 2).

This acknowledgement of the significance of ‘negative’ images of women proves to be especially relevant in Frances Brooke’s The History of Lady Julia Mandeville. In this novel, one of the main narrators is a female character, Lady Anne Wilmot, who cannot be described as the ‘perfect’ embodiment of the dutiful, virtuous heroine but rather as an insubordinate female whose witty narrative style has an undeniable charm to a modern reader.

Lady Anne is far from being a role model to follow and, instead, becomes a clear embodiment of ‘what not to do’ if one wishes to be a respected woman ‘of honour’.

Yet, despite her apparent disorderly disposition, Lady Anne’s narration manages to bring forward important aspects concerning women’s role that make the reader (re-) examine the way they interpret women’s attitudes. Lady Anne assumes the control of her narrative and, throughout her epistolary narration, her authority is ascertained.

In some instances, Lady Anne adopts a satiric tone in order to mock conventional modes of ‘proper’ female behaviour:

Lord! These prudes – no, don’t let me injure her – these people of high sentiment, are so

‘tremblingly alive all o’er’ – there is poor Harry in terrible disgrace with Lady Julia, for only kissing her hand, and amidst so bewitching a scene too, that I am really surprised at this moderation: – all breathed the soul of pleasure […] Well, I thank my stars I am not one of these sensitive plants; he might have kissed my hand twenty times, without my being more alarmed than if a fly had settled there; nay a thousand to one whether I had even been conscious of it at all” (vol i: 51-52)

Lady Anne’s mockery of established modes of acceptable female behaviour contrasts with the attitude other women had, as eighteenth-century women tended to

116 view transgression with apprehension, since they very well knew that once they

‘abandoned’ the secure area of propriety it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to return from that point and feel ‘protected’ from social criticism. Female transgression possesses a particularly prevailing force precisely because of the fact that it cannot be easily delineated.

The line that separates socially acceptable modes of behaviour from unacceptable ones is by no means unambiguous. Boundaries are often blurred and what was once deemed acceptable becomes less so and vice versa⁴⁷. This complicates the task of defining what transgression entails and hence the magnitude of the outcome produced by that transgression cannot be determined in a straightforward manner.

In this respect, Kitedge (passim) proposes that a way to fill this gap is to devote much more attention to anti-ideal female configurations, such as the figure of the ‘lewd’

or disorderly woman, which have the ability to enrich our understanding of the kind of conduct that was deemed transgressive and the repercussions that those transgressions had for the female community.

Female reputation was the main subject around which transgression was defined.

The concern was not so much directed towards preventing female sexual transgressions, which as critics like Kitedge note “would have been private and largely undetectable”

(2003: int 6). Rather, social monitoring of female ‘correct’ demeanour was perceived through those ‘signs’ that indicated that some women were more prone to easily deviate from social rules and regulations. Thus, purity and virtue needed to be unambiguously discernible in a very evident manner.

As critics have observed, this applied to different areas of women’s lives, including “rules dictating dress, comportment, conversation, and even physical response

47 As Kitedge points out: “the boundaries of acceptable behaviour shift over time, place and circumstance;

and the dangers that lie ‘beyond’ are unspoken” (2003: int 1).

117 (flushing and blushing)” (Kitedge 2003: int 6). These regulations were gender based and thus, inevitably, a given set of specific attitudes⁴⁸ were directly associated exclusively to

‘feminine’ correctness, which prompted females to go to extreme lengths to make sure that what they publicly displayed were ‘feminine’ ideal traits that ‘proved’ their true virtue and that left no doubt as to their total and utter refusal of those attitudes that would indicate that they are not “sexually restrained females” (Kitedge 2003: int 6).

Lady Anne’s narration often denotes such lack of restriction:

The heart of a woman does, I imagine, naturally gravitate towards a handsome, well-bred fellow, without enquiry into his mental qualities. Nay, as to that, do not let me be partial to you odious men; you have as little taste for mere internal charms as the lighest coquette in town. You talk sometimes of the beauties of the mind, but I should be glad, as somebody has said very well, to see one of you in love with a mind of threescore”

(vol i: 92)

With her openness and apparent lack of disregard for what would be considered

‘decent’ for a female to express, Lady Anne’s narrative authority comes to represent what the critical community have termed a ‘lewd’⁴⁹ woman. Throughout the eighteenth century, the meaning of the term ‘lewd’ gradually shifted its original meaning and came to be applied to those females who in some way deviated from established rules of

‘proper’ behaviour.

Originally, ‘lewd’ did not necessarily imply an unfavourable conception of women but what it has always indicated has been a failure to fit into established

48 In these regulations the notion of class becomes particularly detectable, as the rules defining which behaviours were socially acceptable “were instituted by the wealthier and gradually trickled down to the working classes” (Kitedge 2003: int 6).

49 As can be seen in the OED’s definition of the term, in the eighteenth century, lewd did not exclusively denote unchastity; it also had other connotations, such as “bad, vile, evil, wicked, base; unprincipled, ill-conditioned; good-for-nothing, worthless, ‘naughty’” (“Lewd”)

118 parameters. During the eighteenth century, the term acquired a gender dimension, as it came to be “linked exclusively to aberrant sexual behaviour” (Kitedge 2003: int 2)⁵⁰. In women’s case, sexual transgressions were the more ‘serious’ ones, as they were those whose consequences were more directly felt. Whenever women’s sexuality came to be regarded as intolerable then their ‘transgressive’ state was noticeably magnified.

Those females who did not display the kind of attitude that was expected from them conventionally had to receive some sort of reprimand for their lack of compliance⁵¹. One of the most dreaded punishments was social ostracism, by which they would lose not only their personal, individual ‘value’ but also their sense of

‘dignity, as they would very likely be subject to parody and they would then somehow become a caricature of the person they used to be. If a woman was described as

‘transgressive’, this would annul “all personal value and would place one in a role that denied power and assured victimization” (Kitedge 2003: int 7). Being considered an

‘atypical’ female had the undesirable effect of removing one’s sense of identity, which then becomes unrecognizable. As a ‘lewd’ woman, the individual ceases to be identified as ‘proper’ and acquires the identity of an outcast who does not fit into the category

‘acceptable’. Lady Anne herself dwells upon this and doubts that she would satisfactorily fulfil the ‘proper woman’ characterisation:

Do you know, Belville, I begin to dislike myself? I have good qualities, and a benevolent heart; but have exerted the former so irregularly and taken so little pains to rule and direct the virtuous impulses of the latter, that they have hitherto answered very

50 The current meaning of the term was acquired in the eighteenth century, the moment it “designated one as ‘lascivious, unchaste’” (Kitedge 2003: int 1).

51 Kitedge notes that this added a “false sense of security to gender-compliant women who wished to deny their inability to determine their social/economic status or physical safety” (2003: int 7).

119 little purpose either to myself or others. I feel I am a comet, shining, but useless, or perhaps destructive; whilst Lady Belmont is a benignant star (vol i: 132)

Lady Anne’s assertion of her failure to correctly become a ‘proper’ wife serves the purpose to highlight the inconsistencies and ambiguities that surround such a role.

Her declaration introduces her as a woman who, whilst possessing good qualities, ultimately fails to become a good wife, which sheds some doubt as to what extent such idealization of wifely duty is actually achievable – or even desirable.