Walter Scott: The Geography Of Imagination In Waverley

 

 

A week spent in Edinburgh pouring over material relating to Scott’s narrative themes and styles has yielded information which I’m hoping to put to good use in my thesis. Right now, I’ve decided to blog about the feature repeatedly discussed by academics- setting. Scott fans clamoured after the majestic and evocative Highland settings conjured by his lavish prose. The descriptions were considered radical at the time- it gave the reader a sense of actually being present at the very scene. Yet there was a psychological element to this treatment of scenery that goes quite unnoticed earlier in the novels, yet becomes more evident as the novel progresses. Waverley is the perfect example of this. Not only does the narrative of the setting serve a visual purpose; it also charts the mental progress and development of the main character Edward Waverley as he grapples with his true identity (Millgate, 38). His time spent at Waverley Honour, Tully Veolan and Glennaquoich are imminently important in his psychological development as a man and discovering his true identity.

The environment of Waverley Honour is fraught with traditional pride and in the case of its young heir apparent, fond indulgence. Sir Everard Waverley and his sister Lady Rachel’s infatuation with their ancestors and the medieval chivalric past is directly inherited by their young nephew, whose education they are responsible for. He is permitted to indulge himself in reading of any kind, completely devoid of restriction. For Edward Waverley, this allows him licence to immerse himself in novels of medieval romance, where the code of chivalry, romantic daring and reckless adventure dominates the narrative- in short, his education is based entirely on his own interests, “so long as it afforded him amusement” (Scott, 14). This mode of education is implied by the author from the beginning to leave the hero of the narrative vulnerable and naive and devoid of “better discipline” which would have equipped him with the ability to make rational choices not based on an “inflamed” imagination (Scott, 14). His wild, roaming imagination is perfectly characterized by his isolated surroundings at Waverley Honour, his “favourite haunt[s]” being the “extensive…forest grounds” or “cliffy and wooded pass” which make up the “savage character” (Scott, 19) of his uncle’s estate. This bold description of an untamed wilderness perfectly characterizes Edward’s yet-untamed imagination. It is the first of several geographical locations that characterize his personal development, but one of the most important, as it is pivotal in embedding an excessive romantic nature into his character which will later lead him into danger on his travels in Scotland.

Glennaquioch displays Waverly’s heightened romantic imaginings at its most wildly impetuous. Probably the most poignant scene is that in the glen, where Waverley listens to Flora’s recitation. There is a method to Flora’s choice of location, which she herself frankly admits, “a Highland song would suffer…were I to produce it without its wild and appropriate accompaniments” (Scott, 118). She purposefully chooses a glen with an appearance of a “sylvan amphitheatre” with a “romantic waterfall…that corresponds with beauty” (Scott, 117). “Mossy banks of turf” complete this scene of “romantic wildness” (Scott, 117). Flora is already aware of Waverley’s romantic disposition; she calculates the impact this will have on him. She is proved correct. Waverley in enamoured with the surroundings-and with her. However, there is a very real danger. Flora is not deceptive in the malicious sense, but rather self-deceptive. The scene in the glen is her effectively acting out her own fantasy of patriotism which she wills with all her heart to come to fruition (Millgate, 49). She is determined to lead a life of romantic extremes, with a brilliantly executed performance from start to finish. Therefore, the faith Waverley places in both her and her brother is effectively a blind faith that falls away towards the novel’s conclusion when he gains a sense of reality. He cannot be as extreme as them- he is an antiquarian, not a martyr of the romantic.

The location of Tully Veolan, the Bradwardine residence, is complex as it encompasses every stage of Waverley’s romantic leanings and eventual disillusionment with its excess. When Waverley initially arrives in Tully Veolan to visit Baron Bradwardine, he immediately assesses it by a gothic and sensationalist standard. He critically deems the turret to be more a “pepper-box” than a “Gothic tower”, and concludes it a “monastic illusion” that suits his “fancy” (Scott, 39). In this chapter we can see how everything that surrounds Waverley passes through the romantic filter of his naive vision, showing a lack of practicality and acceptance of the ordinary. His next visit to Tully Veolan is under very different circumstances-he is there with a warrant for treason hanging around his neck. Kept in an enclosed, dark area, he does not immediately realise he is in Tully Veolan. He is in almost complete darkness, due to his surroundings and also as a consequence of his fever, so he cannot decipher where he is. Kept in his “cage” of a bed (Scott, 359) which is sealed with planks at the side to prevent vision, Waverley’s circumstances are very different to the lively social atmosphere of his former visit. In such circumstances, it is rather a culture shock to learn that his name, that he wore like a badge of honour, is of no use to him (Millgate, 44). Still, his psyche wildly grasps at anything gothic he can glean from his situation. His nurse is a “Highland sibyl”, the young lady (who is actually Rose Bradwardine) who visits him an “angel…guarding…the couch of his sickness” (Scott, 360). It would appear even the charges of treason have not yet given him enough practical perspective. However, his third visit to Tully Veolan finally opens his eyes and give him incentive to act with the practical precision that those around him require. Due to the recent conflict, Tully Veolan is in ruins and Waverley is horrified to find the picturesque place he so loved falling away to nothing. However, it is the unwavering kindness which Baron Bradwardine shows him upon this third visit that steels him with righteous determination to put events to rights (Millgate, 46). This newfound sense of moral purpose signifies the conclusion of Waverley’s personal progression- Tully Veolan is a symbol of him coming full circle from naive inexperience to mature understanding.

Such is Waverley’s education, an education mapped by each place he has resided. Each place had its own trials and lessons which Waverley endures and matures psychologically as a result. Thus the novel concludes with a certainty of who he is and where his place in the world ought to be.

 

Works Cited

Scott, Walter. Waverley Or Tis Sixty Years Since. Oxford: University Press, 2015.

Millgate, Jane. Walter Scott The Making Of A Novelist. Edinburgh: University Press, 1984.

Walter Scott Image. Google Images. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Scott&gt;

Waterfall Image. Google Images. <http://http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/map/grey-mares-tail-burn-galloway-forest-park/&gt;

Virginia Woolf and Dora Carrington: The Experimentation Of Feminine Representation

What interested me most about the writings of Virginia Woolf were the various radical portrayals of women; no woman was completely comprised of a single characteristic, or “creed” of identity. We’ll never know for certain who exactly inspired her female characters. But there is little doubt there were plenty to choose from among her radical circle. One that caught my attention particularly was Dora Carrington, an artist and member of the Bloomsbury group that came to work for the Woolfs’ publishing press with her husband Ralph Partridge during the period in which Mrs Dalloway was being written. Already well-known to Woolf due to her devoted companionship with Lytton Strachey (one of Woolf’s closest friends) they became firm friends. Woolf was intrigued by Carrington and documented with fond fascination the goings-on of her unorthodox lifestyle. Perhaps she sensed a kindred spirit. Carrington flew in the face of convention in every way possible in her personal life. Woolf’s writings fiercely upbraided the restrictions society imposed upon women, barring them from developing their true characters. Carrington’s complicated relationship with her own femininity and  her guarded manner relating to her artwork depict someone who might well have been a heroine in one of Woolf’s novels.

Carrington’s attitude to her femininity was mixed. To begin with, she went to some lengths to cast off a traditional feminine visage- in 1911 she took the drastic step of cutting her long hair in the style of a pageboy crop. It was an open declaration of revolt (Gerzina, 28) and the beginning of a lifelong courtship with an androgynous appearance. The object was simple-making her gender secondary to herself. She went a step further with her admittance in a letter to her then-lover Mark Gertler that she “hated being a girl” (Gerzina, 45). Her initial fear of sexual relations further emphasizes her inner turmoil over her identity as a woman. Gertler’s relentless attempts to persuade her to lose her virginity to him, coupled with pressure from the Bloomsbury group who assisted him in this venture, were repulsed fiercely by Carrington. Her naivety as a consequence of her upbringing in a Victorian home and her passion for freedom contributed to her view that such pressure on her was an attempt to assert ownership (Gerzina, 303). Woolf’s own tentative attitude to sexual relations seems to mirror those of Carrington’s-most likely she would have sympathized with Carrington’s predicament. Mrs Dalloway is full of connotations that imply marriage and the sexual relations that follow as a form of male assertion of ownership. Hugh’s forceful attempt to kiss Sally to recompense her daring to disagree with him in public recalls Carrington’s fear of sex as a physical violation. Similarly, Carrington’s allusions in her letters to her own bisexuality when referring to an encounter with a female friend, “I longed to possess her in some vague way” (Gerzina, 184) are oddly reminiscent of Clarissa’s confusion over her feelings for women “she did undoubtedly feel what men felt [for women]” (Woolf, 26). Thus, Carrington’s tumultuous relationship with her femininity reflects the restrictions of the society in which she lived, and such conflicted portraits of women Virginia Woolf was all too apt at portraying in her work.

Carrington In Slade School Of Art

Another crucial part of Carrington’s identity was her role as an artist. She was clearly an artist of outstanding ability, and it has long been in dispute why she remained in the shadows while other Bloomsbury artists touted acclaim for their endeavours. David Garnett particularly accuses Strachey and Partridge of not taking Carrington’s artist ambitions as seriously as they should have done (Elinor, 31). Michael Holroyd disputes this strenuously in his biography of Strachey, insisting that he always expressed his admiration and encouragement of her work (Elinor, 31). Whatever the case, Carrington did confess to feeling intellectually inadequate whilst in the company of the “Bloomsburies”; she even confessed to feeling “stupid and hopeless about [her]self” (Elinor, 31). However, while she did not publicly exhibit her work, a compilation of her work arranged by her brother Noel Carrington brought her talents to light. What was remarkable about Carrington’s work was her ability to transform a project of domesticity, such as the designs of her own homes in Tidmarsh and Ham Spray, into an expression of her own artistic prowess. Her apt hand at landscape is reflected in her combination of the sublime and banal; the swan designs on the windows carry a distinctly romantic element, and the oranges of the building also lend a touch of the exotic. However, this is balanced by the cool blue and green of the sky and field that encompasses it. Her unique vision of creating her own ideal space within a conventional domestic sphere might not evoke radical artwork in its assumed terms, but that she does so is innovative and clever, changing convention to suit her. One can only imagine how coveted Carrington’s work may have been in her lifetime had it been made public.  Mrs Dalloway also reflects on how ambition has been cherished and yet inevitably been pushed to one side for the sake of the domestic through Clarissa, Peter, and Sally. Clarissa abandoned Peter, Sally and “all those plans” for the security offered by Richard Dalloway-and she is not without regret. It rears its head when she meets Peter once more, and reflects on how different her life could have been had she married him and pursued what they had once dreamed of. Perhaps Woolf was considering her own fellow female members of Bloomsbury and an anxiety for them to exercise their full potential.

Glass Painting By Carrington, Ham Spray House

Carrington’s Landscape Portrait Of Tidmarsh

Carrington’ eventual suicide, borne of grief over the death of Strachey, was deeply distressing to Woolf-particularly as Woolf had been the last person to speak to her before she died. She expressed a relief and gratitude to being alive, little realizing she herself would take the same tragic course of action years later. However, Woolf and Carrington’s artistic endeavours stand aloft from their tumultuous personal lives-almost “a room of one’s own”, the sphere where society did not oppose or oppress them, but allowed full expression of the self.

 

Dora Catrington At Slade School. Google Images.                                              <http://spartacus-educational.com/ARTnevinson.htm> 

Virginia Woolf. Google Images. <http://www.independent.co.uk&gt;

Elinor Gillian. “Vanessa Bell And Dora Carrington: Bloomsbury Painters”. Women’s Art Journal Vol.5 No.1. News Brunswick: Women’s Art Inc, 1984. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1357882&gt;

Gerzina Gretchen. Carrington: A Life. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.

Glass Ensemble By Dora Carrington. Google Images. <http://www.pinterest.com&gt;

Portrait Of Tidmarsh House. Google Images. <http://paintingdb.com&gt;

 

Seminar Series: Elizabeth Bowen And The Landscape Of Loss

Dr. Eibhear Walshe’s seminar about Elizabeth Bowen and the complex concept of landscape in her work was very insightful examination of the thematic formulas she used to great effect. I knew her work vaguely, as I am studying the modernist novel as a part of my thesis work but had never studied her influences. There was great emphasis on physical and psychological geographical elements and Anglo-Irish identity as concepts of vital importance; the significance of a place of escape (however small a space), Bowen’s sense of instability within the country of her birth and her experimentation with interaction .

 

The examination of Bowen’s travel memoir A Time In Rome delves into the character of Livia and her predicament as the wife of Augustus Caesar.  Bowen appeals to the reader to imagine the thoughts of Livia during that period; her relationship with her husband, the necessity of remaining stoic within the position she held and most poignantly her possible desire for an “Elsewhere” when the chaos of the political storm in which she lived became too difficult psychologically (Bowen, EBOOK). Dr Walshe noted a description of Livia’s private room in her villa Prima Porta, which Bowen had visited in the course of her travels in Rome and lavishly describes with acute detail. A slave probably designed the painted garden, but it was her haven, her place of security and peace. She completes the aesthetic as the owner who finds solace within its walls. This concept of an “Elsewhere” is highly reminiscent of the writings of Virginia Woolf, a close friend of Bowen. Woolf’s emphasis on the female space is present in all her writings, most particularly in Mrs Dalloway and A Room Of One’s Own. This search for a space to thrive in likewise dominates Bowen’s work. The theme of shifting and unstable geography crops up again and again (Walshe, 29), suggesting an ongoing search for a place that can allow for authentic existence.

Bowen’s Anglo-Irish identity was also alluded to, as it is fundamental when considering her writings. It is clear that Bowen took immense pride in her heritage, yet her innate sense of her identity was fraught with uncertainty. The Heat Of The Day stands as a tribute to the stability and dependability of the Irish Big House (Walshe, 31). However, Bowen possesses an uncomfortable feeling that the privileges of her class are based on “inherent wrongs”-a clear insinuation of her sense of a lack of entitlement to ownership. They are the “conquerors” (Walshe, 34) of another’s land. With this in mind, Bowen’s Court appears to have been a most complicated inheritance. Nonetheless, it was the seat of Bowen’s family for generations, and her eventual decision to sell it when she arrived back in Ireland can have been no easy choice. In spite of her asserted relief that the eventual demolition of the building had been a “clean end” (Walshe, 38), it had been her “one private image, one peaceful scene” for many years (Walshe, 38). The loss of such a steadfast symbol of her identity again points to the instability of assured place that Bowen reflects on.

 

 

Dr Walshe also mentioned Bowen’s role as a novelist in a modernist context. I briefly mentioned her connection with Virginia Woolf  earlier in the blog. Her links to her contemporaries did not end their however. It seems there was an influence via Joyce as is evident from her essay on Finnegan’s Wake. If we were to look at all three novelists and contemplate what they have in common, it would be delegating speech to a  secondary role in the narrative and allowing free-flowing consciousness to take centre stage. Bowen’s essay from 1945, entitled “Notes On Writing A Novel”, insisted that “Speech is what characters do to each other” (Teekell, 63). This entirely different definition of interaction places the responsibilities of carrying the novel successfully firmly on the shoulders of the characters’ “silent” moments-they must be just as profound as any dialogue that may take place. Woolf and Joyce use this to great effect in Ulysses and Mrs Dalloway-the dialogue acts as rather a brief, continuous interval between the flow of the stream of consciousness narrative of each of the respective characters. With this modernist influence in mind, Bowen’s experimentation with interaction places her among the innovators of the “renaissance” of the novel form.

In conclusion, the seminar was very informative about Bowen and her work. As part of my thesis will be dealing with modernist writers and their various styles, I look forward to researching more about Bowen and her place within this circle.

 

 

Picture Of Bowen Court. Google Images <http://thisrecording.com/today/2010/9/2/in-which-elizabeth-bowen-lives-in-windowless-rooms.html >

Walshe Eibhear. “The Smile Of Livia: Elizabeth Bowen and Augustan Rome”. Classics Ireland Vol.16. Dublin: Classical Association of Ireland, 2009.  <http://www.jstor.org/stable/41408136>

Teekell Anna. “Elizabeth Bowen And Language At War”. New Hibernia Review/Iris Eireannach Nua Vol.15 No.2. Michigan: University Of St. Thomas, 2001. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/23068127 >

Bowen Elizabeth. A Time In Rome. EBOOK. < https://books.google.ie/books?isbn=1446496864>

Textualities 2016: A Conference Contemplation

After all the preparation, its a little hard to believe its all over, perhaps a little deflating, truth be told! The prospect of a conference was daunting and nerve-racking- I think we were all of one mind on that score. Giving a coherent and timely presentation on a topic relevant to our thesis subject sounds fairly straightforward but the precise attention to detail, timing and layout would strongly beg to differ. Add the responsibility of a website (in the case of Sara, Hawraa, Cliodhna and I) and it leaves you with a fairly pronounced sense of its importance.  After weeks of tense preparation, the 4th March dawned and the Western Gateway Building awaited in its forbidding form…….

 

 

 

Only it wasn’t so threatening after all! We arrived early to make sure our presentations were uploaded and in working order for the day ahead. The room was small with a nice comfortable atmosphere and it served to alleviate nerves a great deal.We busied ourselves with setting up our laptops, as we were going to live-tweet and blog about the various presentations throughout the conference. After the scramble for electric sockets, we took our seats and waited for the conference to begin. Our guests included lecturers, friends and family members, which added to the sense of a warm, supportive setting. So, with everything in place, the conference commenced at 9:30.

We were divided up into panels; each panel had a speaker that introduced each of the presentations and conducted “question time” after the panel had concluded their topics. “Question Time” would then follow the presentations-anybody present was free to ask questions about the respective topics. The panel was seated in a group whilst receiving these questions. I was on Panel Two, and our speaker was Maria Manning. The minute our panel was announced, it was a tense few minutes for me, anxiously distracting myself with Twitter until I was called to speak!

 

 

My topic was the heroic figure and its preservation and representation in literature in the various genres down through the years. I was originally going to stick to the texts I am examining for my thesis, but I thought some background on the significance of the heroic figure was vital to emphasize the significance of the character in fiction. It is not simply a figment of literature but of variations of cultural influence and taste from the past to the present. It is such a complex figure, a seemingly stoic mould that was broken down and subjected to contemporary experimentation- which is what makes Scott and Woolf’s take on the figure so important, as they are both from two completely different genres of literature style and their opinions of the matter show the gulf of progression and change.

I enjoyed “Question Time”, as it was interesting to get the reaction of your audience to your work-also, as our topics were largely connected to our thesis titles, it was vital in the sense of getting feedback from our lecturers in relation to our ideas and the direction they were going. Regarding the range of topics covered in the conference, it was extensive and the originality of each presentation was amazing . From Beowulf to Shakespeare to Scott to Bronte to W.H.Auden to Akira to John Malkovich-the list was endless. The enthusiasm shone through, completely engaging the audience from start to finish and making it a very enjoyable experience.

Overall it was a wonderful afternoon. I would definitely say I have gained far more confidence in public speaking and presentation skills. Thus concludes my first conference experience. Pecha Kucha? No bother!

Live Blogging: Isolation In Victorian Literature

Today was the day we’d all been waiting for-the Textualities conference! Fair to say we were (and are!) all fairly nervous! However, I think the atmosphere has de-tensioned over the last hour or so, thank heavens! Waiting, I think, is probably the focus of the copious nerves. Once you are up at the podium, the nerves go once you begin to talk. We are going group by group of four or five, and each group of speakers is then invited to answer questions from the floor. We began at 9.30 this morning, and are currently about half-way through the conference.

Having been a fervent fan of all things Bronte since I was thirteen, I was looking forward to Denise’s presentation on the theme of isolation-and I wasn’t disappointed! Denise gave a precise and informative account of the governess figure in particular and how it is the personification of isolation.She focuses on Villette, which was an original take. Mostly the focus rests on Bronte’s best-known novel Jane Eyre when dealing with the governess figure, so it was great to see Villette in the spotlight. I found the examination of the consolation of imagination to the lone governess figure particularly interesting. The female figure seems to exert a form of independence through this, even though she is in a lonely predicament. It is seen in Jane Eyre, but in Villette it is most pronounced. Unlike Jane, Lucy is left bereft of any consolation in human form towards the novel’s conclusion, so all she has to turn to is her own imagination once more. She even ends the novel with an explicit reference to imagination, “Let the reader imagine…” It is a stark admission that it is only through the imagination that she can receive any emotional fulfillment. Equally interesting is the comparison with the Henry James novel The Turn Of The Screw, which I had never heard before, but in retrospect is very accurate!