The social issue of gender equality and whether it changed in our readings is something to consider. The example that comes to mind is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”. We should consider Miss Hellen Stoner’s treatment, such as her fear of her stepfather, Dr. Roylott, her isolation, and her financial situation.
The main plot is how Miss Stoner has gone to Holmes for assistance after her sister’s death. The mysterious circumstances boils down to this quote from her, “The very horror of my situation lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it as the fancies of a nervous woman.” (page 1212). I’ll break this down a bit more.
This quote reveals that during this time women, especially if they were unmarried were at the mercy of another, specifically a male relative, at the beginning when she says, “my fears are so vague”. In this story we read the horrors that Dr. Roylott committed, from murdering his native butler in Calcutta and being able to get off lightly, considering he took a life. To throwing the blacksmith into the river out and about in a fit of rage, which Miss Stoner had to pay to keep from public exposure. I’m not sure these instances are, “so vague” because of her isolation at his family seat. She continues with her mother’s death after returning from Calcutta and how her mother was financially secure, allowing the family with the ability to live comfortably. The financial security that Miss Stoner and her sister would be able to have a dowry once married. Her mother’s death might be ruled an accident, but as she continues her tale of how shortly before her twin sister’s wedding and how she died mysteriously, which resulted in Dr. Roylott ability to keep her dowry. What’s more intriguing is that Miss Stoner is due to be married in the spring and she fears for her life. As she tells Holmes and Watson in that same quote, where she possibly believes herself crazy, “fancies of a nervous woman.” In her case and based off her story her nerves are warning her that there’s danger, even if she herself can’t prove it.
This story also points out the treatment between men and women. For instance, her isolation. Her stepfather realizes on some level it’s easier to control her by isolating his stepdaughters. The girls were only allowed to see an aunt from their mother’s side, but only for short visits. The idea that if the sisters were to marry than their Dr. Roylott wouldn’t have control of them, especially to the money, which seemed to be spent on him and trying to keep his antics from public exposure (court?).
This story is also an example of women being at the mercy of relatives, which was normal in one period, but I don’t believe it’s still relevant today. Which is to say that women have more freedom. We can look for jobs and have our own money and spend as we see fit. I don’t think it’s really changed so much in the literature that we read. When we read Austen’s Northanger Abbey, she wrote Catherine as a socially awkward woman of marrying age who had this fanciful imagination of The General and his diseased wife. Catherine always jumped to the wrong conclusions. What might something to consider is that Austen may have had to portray Catherine in this light because of the idea of not getting the story published. Was there a story that I might have missed within Later British Literature that challenges this status quo? The authors themselves might have challenged this inequality between genders, but the story they wrote might have perpetuated the inequalities.
Brit Lit 2020 