LIT4016 DISSERTATION

Gender in fin de siècle England (1897 – 1948):

Shifts and subversions of women in literature.

LIT4016: English Dissertation

Submitted by

Philip Sparrow

Student Number removed for LinkedIn

University of Northampton

April 2012

(9,768 words)

Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Shaking the Nineteenth Century Social System 5

Chapter 2: Mrs Dalloway, Gender and Modernity 14

Chapter 3: Restraint and Restoration in Nineteen Eighty-Four 25

Conclusion 35

Bibliography 40

BA English, LIT4016: Dissertation University of NorthamptonPhilip Sparrow Student ID: Omitted

Introduction

Social structures throughout history can always be seen and interpreted in

literature. As well as academic documentation such as journals and

literary criticism, novels can also be classed as historical documentation.

Authors present us with subjective interpretations of their cultural

contexts, and literary criticism inevitably follows. In either case, it is

difficult to separate novels from their contexts and conditions when they

are read (Chaney, 206). As readers we constantly associate with

references to our own culture within novels and their respective authors.

Society passes it culture on from generation to generation through the

process of documentation and sequential interpretation, although there

are times when there are overlaps between new social and cultural

changes presented in new and previous literature.

During the fin de siècle period between the nineteenth and

twentieth century many social and cultural changes occurred due to

several historical factors. The position of men and women during these

times shifted, and this is captured in literature from the time. However, as

society transitioned out of the Victorian period and into modernity, a

cultural overlap was present when looking at gender. The Second

Industrial Revolution secured men working as breadwinners for

households, whilst documented work for women was less common, and as

a result literature from the period depicts them as domestic carers

(Burnette, 24). However, this natural ordering of society was not nationally

accepted in the United Kingdom, and it was the emergence of first wave

feminism that raised the issue of the treatment of women in society.

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Literature of the time became an outlet for women, and a source of

interpretation for the current situation. An example of this is in Virginia

Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Maggie Humm summarises that in the text

“women are simultaneously victims of themselves as well as victims of

men and are upholders of society by acting as mirrors to men” (Humm,

22). As authors and critics began to raise issues such as this in literature,

it raised the question of how this issue being bought into public view

would affect the position of women, and in turn the androcentric order of

late Victorian society.

On the turn of the twentieth century fin de siècle literature focused

on society’s concerns and questions, as some saw the time to be an age of

promise, and others saw it as an age of degeneration (Schaffer, 3). Due to

this views expressed in literature varied, portraying women as either

visionaries or females breaking taboos by moving outside of their gender

scripts. Scripts I refer to are the natural coding of society and stereotypes

that are assumed when the subject of gender and social functions are

mentioned, such as domestic carers and breadwinners in the functional

Victorian family.

The gender scripts of war in the twentieth century reinforced

stereotypes of gender, creating a sense of what type of men and women

are associated with the United Kingdom. This itself created a separate

national identity that we can associate with. As a result there are those in

literature that act as a minority, and can be seen as being excluded from

their nation, due to going against social norms (Mills, 441). However, as

literature acts as a subjective conscious through writers such as Woolf and

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Orwell we always see varied representations of gender shifts outside of

what we as readers deem standard scripts.

This dissertation will act as an exploration of the fin de siècle period

of literature at the turn of the twentieth century. The aim of the

exploration is to show how women are presented within their own

domestic spheres where we see they are acceptable, and as they slowly

move out of their gender scripts and respective spheres. This will be done

using the androcentric order of society as the social norm. My exploration

will go from social norms to the boundaries of contextual gender scripts,

where we see social anxiety directed towards unfamiliar movements of

gender positioning

The three primary texts that will be used for this exploration will be

Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and George Orwell’s

Nineteen Eighty-Four. They will be analysed in chronological order, as I

believe this will show historical connections from culture to culture.

Dracula and Mrs Dalloway will be concerned with fin de siècle Victorian

society and its transition into the early twentieth century. This will include

the movements of the male and female gender in pre and post-war

contexts of World War One, as the war reinforced Victorian and Edwardian

gender scripts. The presentation of shifting genders in these times created

anxiety, which was not focused upon in Dracula and Mrs Dalloway.

However, in Nineteen Eighty-Four I will show how anxieties created in the

previous two texts and their cultural contexts surface, and manifest in

Orwell’s dystopian narrative. Due to its stylistic differences Nineteen

Eighty-Four’s analysis of its presentation will focus less on context, and

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more on how specific narrative techniques and theories create the

assertive, totalitarian rule over culture, and in turn gender in the text.

On the whole, the aim of this exploration is to expose the shifts

women took in the early twentieth century, following the fin de siècle at

the end of the Victoria period. By conducting this exploration I hope to

draw conclusions on the effectiveness of gender shifts. This will include

how the androcentric centre of society is affected by women’s movements

outside of their typical gender scripts. Chronologically, the texts I have

chosen to include act as a response to each other, displaying how

messages regarding gender shifts has been taken and carried on to the

following generation. My analysis from chapter to chapter will capture the

progress and anxiety expressed in each text, and their respective

contextual backgrounds. By drawing my own conclusions on these

chapters I hope to prompt further questioning into this area of literary

study. This dissertation itself will conclude on the resulting effect of

anxiety expressed towards modern women, and the responses I believe

have been presented to us in Dracula, Mrs Dalloway and Nineteen Eighty-

Four.

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Chapter 1

Shaking the Nineteenth Century Social System

On the brink of the twentieth century Bram Stoker’s Dracula highlighted

and reacted to Great Britain’s new social identities. During the nineteenth

century significant changes were introduced to its social systems, which

spurred on reforms of various social identities. In 1801 the census was

formally implemented, although there are records of the census in the

eleventh century that was used solely for tax purposes. The census was

originally intended to act as a headcount for the number of men ready to

fight in wars, but from 1841 onwards it monitored growth and changes in

social distributions such as education, wealth and household numbers

(Malthus, 20). The changes in 1841 indicated that as a nation Great Britain

was becoming more aware of its national and social identities. As a result

further acts of parliament were introduced to rectify issues bought on by

the Industrial Revolution such as child labour in factories. The 1844

Factory Act and 1870 Elementary Education Acts were launched to help

the working classes attain more equal standards of living and quality of

life. These acts factor into the Victorian era’s transition into the twentieth

century.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula illustrates a British fin de siècle society in the

1890s where reforms had taken place, focusing upon domestic social

spheres where change was more apparent. This chapter will explore how

the text captures a modern and stable nation, and then shakes it with

fears of the unknown. Stoker attains control over this memorable narrative

by presenting us with historical and cultural symbolic episodes that aim to

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pinpoint weaknesses in Great Britain’s fresh social system and its morals.

In Eastern Europe we are introduced to Count Dracula, who is given to us

as an allegory for fear of the unknown and different cultures. The Count’s

castle is located in Romania, where the Dracula’s gothic and literary

elements come into play. The episodes I wish to explore with these factors

in mind focus on Great Britain’s social microcosms, such as general social

operations stemming from previously mentioned reforms. By doing I so I

hope to avoid overbearing historical and political metanarratives that

overshadow important social changes of the time that are portrayed in the

text.

The opening chapter of Dracula places us in Romania amongst the

Carpathian Mountains. In the first few pages we are introduced to Jonathan

Harker, who immediately reveals an obsessively modern theme to the text

that is recurrent throughout (McWhir, 31). The Carpathians are presented

to us in a Romantic fashion through Harker’s eyes as he sees “beauty of

every kind” amongst pastoral castles upon steep hills, streams and wide

margined rivers (Stoker, 9). Undertones in this passage are reminiscent of

the Romantic era, but Harker’s musings are those of a new Victorian man.

The passage’s focus is quickly diverted from this broad landscape view

towards an analysis of social classes at each station Harker stops at. He

describes the strange, barbaric appearance of the Slovakians he sees

purely based on their foreign attire of large belts, cowboy hats and long

black hair (Stoker, 9). We see momentary fear from Harker of the

Slovakian stereotype he pictures. As there is no other interaction between

him and the Slovakians, this fear has only been induced by the difference

Harker has seen in comparison to his British expectations of briefcases

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and formalwear. As we step into the Golden Krone in Bistritz Harker finds

civilisation once again and feels comfortable. This is also comparable to

his preoccupation of his train’s punctuality on the first page (Stoker, 7). As

stated previously, Anne McWhir identifies characterisation such as

Harker’s to be vital to Dracula’s overall story and the Count’s part in it.

Sigmund Freud’s “Uncanny” can interpret the brief fear that is

displayed in Bistritz by Harker, which is frequently associated with the

Gothic genre. Freud states the key to an uncanny environment is how it is

sustained and that it is done consistently (Freud, 3). In the Golden Krone

hotel the text establishes religious symbolism that consistently maintains

an uncanny atmosphere in the narrative. The uncanny expresses a

familiarity to home that is also unfamiliar somehow, which is what makes

it so frightening as it is uncomfortably close to familiar images readers,

writers and characters alike can associate with (Freud, 1). In Dracula’s

contexts Catholicism had a prominent ritualistic and pietistic nature in

eastern Europe. Harker is presented to us as a Protestant man, which was

the standard in England at the time. Victorian Protestantism opposed

Catholicism of any kind, as its main aim was to reform society against

Catholic traditions despite the public being aware of Catholic roots (Sykes,

76). Harker doesn’t come across as a radical Protestant, but the hotel

landlord and his wife startle him with their unfamiliar Catholic gestures,

typical of the Romanian religious culture. Examples of this are when the

wife hands him a cross for protection later on after the couple crossed

their chests in the lobby (Stoker, 10 – 11). In spite of their intentions

Harker remains aware his response wasn’t accepted as indicated by their

reactions, and he becomes concerned with his own social position in

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Bistritz. Upon his departure the swelled crowd at the inn door put a

religious charm on Harker to guard him against “the evil eye” (Stoker, 12).

As he expresses, this gesture from the crowd is the last thing he wanted to

see before heading deeper into the country. At this point the uncanny is

definitely manifest within the narrative as Harker becomes more and more

uncomfortable as the chapter progresses. An increasing sense of

uncertainty is sustained throughout chapter one through the Romanian

religious culture it represents. Stoker successfully sets up the text by

pulling us away from British social norms, by seating us in an eastern

European setting where the culture and the uncanny have a foreign grasp

of the reader and characters.

In chapter two the uncanny is sustained in a similar fashion,

indicating that it is definitely Stoker’s key stylistic device in the novel.

With Count Dracula’s introduction the second element of Stoker’s fearful

gothic narrative, known as the literary fantastic is secured and integrated

into the text. The fantastic is introduced during the final moments of

chapter one where Harker is travelling towards the castle which seemed

like a dream or nightmare, which can both exceed reality’s set laws

(Stoker, 19). This scene presents us with the idea that the text has its

characters and readers on the borders of reality and fantasy, where

changes unfamiliar to us are the most questionable (Todorov, 26).

Together the uncanny and fantastic create Dracula’s literary mode that

consistently breaches its own internal laws (Zgorzelski, 289). A prime

example of this boundary breaking nature is the text’s focus on sexual

subversion. Harker’s journal entries in the castle show the Count gradually

dominating the narrative and inverting familiar contextual

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representations. Firstly the Count’s dominance is asserted before any

sexual subversion takes place. Our initial encounter with Dracula doesn’t

hesitate to show his power, as Harker barely has time to register his

impulsive movements as the Count’s grasp makes him wince (Stoker, 22).

Due to this, suspicions that the Count is not human are confirmed here,

and as a result the narrative progressively portrays him as a monster from

this point onwards. Dracula’s human form and monstrous mask is the key

to the distortion he creates in the text (Craft, 107).

As Harker explores the castle in chapter three, hints of dominance

from chapter two mature to produce distorted and subverted images. His

journal entry on the sixteenth of May clarifies the effects of the fantastic

and uncanny I have presented so far. The persona we associated with

Harker in chapter one has dissipated into man reduced to questioning his

own sanity (Stoker, 43). Evidence that he has had an elementary

education and that he is a man concerned with punctuality and formal

dress is far less evident to us, as he spends most of his time searching for

an escape route and a familiar feels of home. All that remains to him is his

love Mina. He manages to sustain his journal writing for her, which is the

last remotely modern feature we see at this point. In this state Harker

becomes more vulnerable to the elements at play within the castle. As

with previous analysis there are always points in each scene of the text

where the narrative devices are at their peak. In chapter three we see a

subversive climax when the Count’s three brides have Harker under their

control. Jonathan is faced with three highly sexualised female figures,

which contrast other female representations we are given in the text.

Harker specifically depicts that they are collectively “fair as can be” with

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“wavy masses of golden hair” and “brilliant white teeth” (Stoker, 44).

Using their physical beauty to seduce him, the brides are pictured circling

him as if they were performing a ritual. When one bride steps over Harker

to target his neck we see a more animalistic scene of hunting where the

woman is a creature dominant over the man. This scene acts as a direct

subversion of roles and genders in the text we are accustomed to. The

overall process can be compared to the Catholic rituals shown to us in

chapter one, but with extreme reactions. Harker expresses a strange

attraction to his predicament with the brides but we are also made aware

of his discomfort. Before the Count enters the bridal chamber Harker

describes himself in a “languorous ecstasy”, once again showing the effect

of the uncanny and literary fantastic directly referenced in the text

(Stoker, 44). The dream-like experience we share with Harker is amplified

when the Count enters the scene. In the same way we see roles changing

with Harker and the brides, we see Dracula dominate him with one piece

of dialogue. An authoritative mask is established as the Count yells, “This

man belongs to me!” as he is no longer just asserting his strength, but

claiming total control over his surroundings. Due to the monstrous mask

Dracula has he can be seen as an impure, evil being. His control over

Harker shows a desire to overpower those purer than himself, which is a

fear that was expressed with regard to the Slovakians earlier. The episode

in the brides’ chamber also displays the purity motif as Jonathan’s position

is reversed from when he was introduced to us. More importantly the last

remnant of Jonathan’s modern self appears to us as Mina. As his partner

she acts as a beacon of purity that brings Dracula into the urban labyrinth

that is London.

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As a new late Victorian woman Mina is presented as one who is

focused on her domestic responsibilities as a partner, such as helping

Jonathan with stenographs and type writing (Stoker, 62). However, she

also bears the image of a modern feminist woman who has the beginnings

of self-sufficiency with her job as an assistant schoolmistress. Dracula

portrays Mina as a developing character with these factors who is always a

step below her male counterparts, but she aspires to their social statures

throughout the text. As a modern feminist figure she is depicted as more

capable than women in literature before her. As a result she transcends

the internal laws of the text regarding the social identity. In terms of

modernity she is a pure image, and it is this that draws Count Dracula to

her.

The Count’s invasion into Mina’s part of the story begins with the bite

marks on Lucy Westenra’s neck, which Mina mistakes for her own

accidental pin-pricks with a safety pin (Stoker, 103). From here on the plot

of Dracula in general becomes distorted as the Count repeatedly causes

social disruption on mainland. One episode can summarise Dracula’s

actions in the Great Britain as Stoker utilises Mina efficiently as a symbolic

element to create a single, iconic incident. The moment in question is

when Dracula attacks Mina in front of Jonathan, Helsing and the others.

This scene is thoroughly prepared for, building up Mina’s importance to

the men around her. Mina is held up like a crucifix with her arms at full

tension and faced towards the onlookers, almost using her as a weapon

against them (Stoker, 300). We can consider this the Count’s final

distortion to the text, as his nightly visits to Mina’s neck are concluded

with her blood-smeared dress. Mina is described by Van Helsing as having

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the brain of a man and how fortunate he and the others are to have her in

their situation (Stoker, 250). This shows how Stoker illustrates Mina’s

cultural saturation at its climax, where she is pushing the gender ruling in

the text, as she is almost completely equal to men. With such value Mina

becomes a rich source of culture we rely on, and when it is forcefully

removed the fear of vampirism becomes an exploitative force (Wicke,

468). When Dracula takes away Mina’s purity by drenching her in her own

blood, and partially turning her into a vampire the text itself loses its last

symbol of modern stability and faith in its new social mode. Once the

Count has been killed there is a small restoration in the modern narrative

as any evidence or memory of Dracula is blotted our from Harker’s mind

(Stoker, 402). Stoker’s interview with Winston Churchill summarises the

situation we are left with, hinting that society has backpedalled slightly

and needs to reconstruct itself “toward[s] a better, fairer organization of

society” (Stoker, 438).

To conclude, Dracula’s narrative is an assertive one that subjects its

internal laws to extreme trauma. Contextually we see significant

metanarratives from political and social history drawn together to create

microcosms of a fin de siècle society. Stoker’s ability to create this society

accurately presents us with a condensed, stronger image of late Victorian

society going through various social changes. As a part of the gothic genre

Dracula has a library of interpretations and literary techniques to take into

consideration, but the most significant are psychoanalytical and

contextual readings that show us the value of interpretative thought, and

the effects upon its distortion in the text. Stoker presents us this reading

systemically, by using gothic techniques at his disposal. The uncanny and

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literary fantastic are Stoker’s largest weapons for breaking down his own

modern narrative. Each of these narrative techniques create a fearful

mode where we see a battle for supremacy between the old and new. This

mainly applies to Mina and Jonathan Harker as well as Dracula. Each have

large amounts of the text in their control by asserting their culture. Harker

and Mina are beacons for modernity, whilst the Count represents a

subversive, eastern European culture. Representations of modernity are

reduced to neat and tidy educated men and women that arose with the

new middle class towards the twentieth century. By forcing the raw and

unfamiliar upon the new middle class, Dracula reveals a social system that

has just reformed, but evidently isn’t stable. We see in particular the rise

of the new woman in Mina, who has greater potential as a character to act

independently. The text attempts to fight Mina’s development, but it is the

one strength the count helps develop throughout the text. Mina is the

image of a strong, resilient woman that breaks the boundaries of her

scripted gender roles, which is carried across into twentieth century

literature such as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.

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Chapter 2

Mrs Dalloway, Gender and Modernity

This chapter will explore Clarissa Dalloway as a new woman in a post-

Victorian and post-war societal frame, and how her internal conflicts and

observations of her surroundings show England is still suffering from

anxieties expressed in Dracula. This shall concern how Woolf carries

issues that Stoker mentioned into the early twentieth century, regarding

gender movements in a post-war context.

Mrs Dalloway’s main thematic concern is gender operations in

modernist Britain. Woolf’s modernist narrative portrays Clarissa as a

modern woman through a stream of consciousness style. A cultural

overlap becomes apparent as a result of this since Victorian gender scripts

can still be seen in the text, where women are idealised inside the

domestic sphere to help their husbands and children. Clarissa is

characterised as a “Victorian Angel in the House”, which idealises her

inside a domestic sphere (Elliott, 1). This Victorian gender script is

reinforced by the First World War as women were not obliged with

conscription, but manned munitions factories and cared for their children

(Adams, 123). Clarissa takes a step outside of this mandatory domesticity

in Mrs Dalloway and encounters images that conflict with her outlook on

masculinity, femininity and their respective scripts. Aspects of the novel’s

context are included within it, making these images prominent in

comparison to appropriated genders of the time.

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England is painted in similar fashion to its portrayal Dracula. We are

presented with stable attitudes towards positioning, and appreciation for

improvements to education and social policies such as 1902 Balfour Act,

which restructured the academic hierarchy in England, spreading power to

Local Education Authorities. This made views expressed in Mrs Dalloway

more accessible to an ever-growing educated middle and upper class.

Progress such as this was instigated during the Efficiency Movement,

which aimed to refine the political, social and economic infrastructures

inside England. Mrs Dalloway uses Clarissa to acknowledge the resulting

national identity present in the early twentieth century, but also to explore

the cracks surrounding gender where men and women were having

separate experiences of post-war Britain.

Virginia Woolf integrates these contextual factors into Mrs Dalloway,

creating an obsessively modern text in the same fashion as Dracula.

England’s concern with its modern identity is established through Clarissa

on the first page of the novel. She expresses domestic concerns towards

Rumpelmayer’s men arriving and purchasing flowers in Lucy’s place

(Woolf, 5). This resembles Jonathan Harker’s obsessive modern anxieties

towards the rustic appeareances of the Bistritz locals, and time of his

trains explored in chapter one. Woolf successfully frames Clarissa’s

assumed feminine role in the text here, readying us for the movements

she makes in Mrs Dalloway. Another interpretation of this is that Woolf is

setting up an appropriate image of a woman in order to give her modern

thoughts validity.

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The thematic concerns of gender and modernity are combined

when looking at Clarissa. As a character she is an embodiment of Mrs

Dalloway’s cultural overlap, contexts and modernist approach in terms of

gender identity. Conflict is created in the novel due to these contrasting

elements residing in Clarissa’s character. The resulting issue of this is that

of the post-Victorian self. The novel presents Clarissa as a new-type

woman who sits between Victorian and modern stereotypes of women.

She has control within a domestic sphere, but does not have a masculine

figure overshadowing her. This results in Clarissa being a representation of

the “Victorian self” she would still be expected to be in the early twentieth

century, and a privately independent persona that bears resemblance to

modern models of women (Forbes, 38). The modern aspect of Clarissa

comes to fruition when she is placed within the public sphere amongst

overt examples of twentieth-century genders. We share her experiences in

public and private spheres, but the novel concerns itself mainly with

observations made in the public sphere, finalising with internal reflections

that reveal issues with said observations.

As we journey out into Westminster the reader is shown an

optimistic first impression of modern day Great Britain. The narration

points towards motorcars, sandwich men and singing of an overhead

aeroplane (Woolf, 6). These signifiers clarify context I have introduced with

regards to society shifting into the modern era. However, Woolf doesn’t

falter here, and presents us with brief but relevant comments towards the

government’s current public image. Clarissa’s point of view is problematic

in that it is positive, but as a middle-aged woman she has experienced the

latter half of Queen Victoria’s reign, when the Long Depression occurred.

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The sandwich men Clarissa refers to can be generalised as a post-

depression glance at society:

… she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they

love life. In people’s eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the

bellow and the up-roar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans,

sandwich men shuffling and swinging… was what she loved;

London; this moment of June (Woolf, 6).

In the late nineteenth century the Long Depression saw the economy

destabilise as the stock market collapsed in Vienna, spreading throughout

Europe (Glasner, 43). The home Clarissa sees in this quotation is a post-

Depression society that prematurely celebrates its economic boom, which

is identified here. Industry and the economy are reflected in the motor

cars, sandwich men and the positive outlook towards them which Clarissa

mentions. As a member of the public Clarissa’s positivity shows she has

shifted with society into the modern age. However, as a woman born in

the late Victorian era, the cultural overlap in her views is inevitable.

Despite this brief, positive first glance the text quickly transitions

into a conflicted internal narrative on Clarissa’s accord, as she

deconstructs early twentieth century genders in front of us. Mrs Dalloway

acknowledges Clarissa’s position as a modern woman when she moves

towards the park. Woolf comments on her clarity and depth of her vision,

showing us that Clarissa has a deeper, differentiated insight in comparison

to most women:

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She would not say of any one in the world now that they were this

or that. She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged.

She sliced like a knife though everything; at the same time was

outside, looking on (Woolf, 10).

This insight is one of age, experience and fatigue. Clarissa’s fatigued

insight shows when she observes genders and their movements around

her. Her admiration for Lady Bexborough has many similar connotations to

Mina Harker’s modern capabilities that were recognised by men, which in

turn helped her transcend her contextual gender script.

Lady Bexborough shifts outside of the Victorian Angel in the House

persona and moves into more masculine territory, as she is portrayed as

an opposite to Clarissa, despite cultural overlaps identifying them as

domesticated women in the public sphere. Lady Bexborough’s large,

physical appearance and interest in politics “like a man” are the two

dominant images that construct her butch female identity (Woolf, 13).

Clarissa yearns for this identity, as she views Bexborough as a celebrated

feminist figure (Henke, 125). Praised figures such as Lady Bexborough

attempt to subvert the traditional patriarchal code of society that is

identified in late Victorian literature, which crossed over into the early

twentieth century (Jackson, 103 – 104). Mrs Dalloway presents boundary-

breaking women throughout the text, in order to assert new gendered

social code demonstrated by Lady Bexborough:

Oh if she could have had her life over again… She would have been

like Lady Bexborough, slow and stately; rather large; interested in

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politics like a man; with a country house; very dignified, very

sincere. Instead of which she had a narrow pea-stick figure; a

ridiculous face, beaked like a bird’s… this body with all its

capacities, seemed nothing—nothing at all (Woolf, 13).

The admiration for this new female model comes across intuitively, yet

problematic. This extract claims a masculine frame to be more socially

acceptable. However, Clarissa’s appearance could be deemed perfectly

acceptable from a male gaze. Here readers are sent conflicting messages

about women, society and their relationships. As readers we are asked to

question our own images of men and women, and whether they are

correct from a moral standpoint. Clarissa aspires to be Lady Bexborough,

indicating she is a superior woman. By admiring Bexborough’s subverted

female model Clarissa breaks traditional gender scripts in front of us,

leading to questions regarding the social position of early twentieth

century women.

Clarissa’s heretical thoughts against British gender ideologies

continue in succession as we are presented with the dilemma that is Miss

Kilman. Her surname is indicative of her purpose, as she acts as another

symbol that breaks down stable ideas of gender in England. The functional

family was promoted during and after the First World War with a head

patriarch and domestic matriarch. Women also helped to spread patriotic

morale during wartime, which led to women earning more political rights

(Taylor, 94). This and the war itself abruptly ended Edwardian ideologies

regarding gender and social class. Miss Kilman is introduced as her name

suggests, to metaphorically eliminate men by shifting into a masculine

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frame. As with Lady Bexborough we become transfixed upon Miss Kilman,

because she is a threat to both male and female ideologies:

Clarissa’s relationship with her daughter Elizabeth is overly

hovering and anxious. She is inordinately fearful lest her last

daughter be dominated by her history tutor… She hated Miss

Kilman’s sense of vicitimization, embitteredness, incessant

preoccupation with issues of superiority and inferiority (Panken,

124).

References to domination here can be interpreted in a few ways. In post-

war contexts Woolf makes a bold move introducing a German character

into Mrs Dalloway. Clarissa’s distaste for Miss Kilman works in an almost

nationalist capacity, describing her as a “brutal monster” (Woolf, 15). This

can be based off the fact that Kilman has a history with Britain, as she lost

her previous job during the war under anti-German prejudice. By inserting

her into the novel Woolf is telling us that she should be accepted as a

British woman, and against models such as Lady Bexborough this isn’t

impossible. Both have masculine traits that go against typical associations

to women, as well as having the ability to catch Clarissa’s attention.

Whereas Bexborough gains Clarissa’s admiration, it becomes quickly

apparent that we are not meant to like Doris Kilman.

Despite mentions of Clarissa’s husband Richard Dalloway in the

narrative, it is also possible to interpret Miss Kilman as a surrogate father

figure for Elizabeth at times. This relates back to Clarissa’s nationlist

attitude towards Doris, who shares a close relationship with Elizabeth,

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Clarissa’s daughter. As her tutor Miss Kilman controls Elizabeth through

teaching her history, and as a result spends a great deal of time with her.

This links Woolf’s preoccupation with death and loss in Mrs Dalloway and

how Clarissa deals with it (Spilka, 15). As Richard Dalloway takes a

backseat in the earlier parts of the novel we see no patriarchal force

between Clarissa and Elizabeth. Miss Kilman acts as a replacement

patriarch in Richard’s absence. Clarissa’s views of Miss Kilman expressed

above show how she finds it hard to come to terms with loss, even

temporary loss.

The rise in masculine female figures such as Miss Kilman and Lady

Bexborough didn’t just affect women’s social positions. Woolf’s thematic

concern with loss also surrounds Septimus Warren Smith. Whereas women

manned the home front during the war, men manned the frontlines where

the Edwardian image of men was reinforced. Due to Mrs Dalloway being

written in indirect discourse we see no authoritative or omniscient

narrator. As a result characters such as Septimus have more control over

their parts of the narrative. This subjective control allows characters to

move from interior to exterior worlds of though more smoothly (Minow-

Pinkney, 55). Septimus is the fallen war veteran in the text with severe

shell shock. Due to the nature of his character, he sits between his own

internal monologue and external influences. He compliments Clarissa’s

parts of the text by acting as contrasting image. Clarissa deals with middle

to upper class issues of womanhood, whereas Septimus struggles with the

loss of his masculinity, which aligns itself with Woolf’s thematic concerns.

21


Mrs Dalloway presents Septimus to us as a problematic man. In a

post-war environment he has lost his purpose, place and sanity, which he

is constantly reminded of through his internal observations and

hallucinations. His social position relates to Britain’s view of shell-shocked

veterans at the time. The government attempted to cut off mentally ill

servicemen in 1921 by cutting their pensions, but faced opposition from

the press. The novel echoes this original intention through William

Bradshaw, as he claims Septimus’ insanity to be down to “a lack of good

blood” which is represented by his “unsocial impulses”. Due to this

Bradshaw claims this in order to make “England prosper, seclude her

lunatics, forbade childbirth” (Woolf, 113).

Social seclusion continues throughout the novel, as Septimus is

isolated from others due to being branded insane. Signs of recovery are

ignored in the text, such as when he becomes aware of his senses and

place in the world as he watches Reiza trim a straw hat (Woolf, 157). This

moment is short-lived as shortly after Septimus attempts suicide and falls

from a window (Woolf, 164). His suicidal tendency confirms his social

status as insane. The last of his sanity here saves him from internment

under Bradshaw’s watchful eyes.

Modern society brands Septimus as insane, impure and obstructive

to the development of Great Britain. Despite the fact he represents an

entire generation of Edwardian and Victorian masculinity, he is discarded.

This is not an issue for Septimus, as he chooses death over living in a

post-war world where he is labelled as irrelevant (Knox-Shaw, 101). His

attempts to recover are denied by the context of Mrs Dalloway and its

22


modern characters such as Miss Kilman and Lady Bexborough, who

overshadow him with their neo-masculinity.

To conclude this chapter, it is evident that Mrs Dalloway uses its

modernist narrative to present us as readers with new ideas to consider on

gender and its limitations to sex. Virginia Woolf takes Victorian gender

scripts and subverts them, by experimenting with masculine women in the

public and domestic spheres. Clarissa Dalloway is used as a medium to

explore and think about these examples, and is exemplified as a

stereotyped early twentieth century woman herself. Through interior

monologues and Woolf’s free indirect speech Clarissa is able to interact

with her modern surroundings. As a woman who is living through a cultural

overlap from the Victorian era, Clarissa is able to provide us with

knowledgeable, subjective insight into how new women operate in modern

Britain. Septimus acts as a contrasting image to Clarissa, as he is on the

receiving end of modernity’s changes to gender roles. Both of these

characters reveal issues regarding movements between personal and

private spheres, as there is only so much change they can take before it

invades their personal space. This is evident when Clarissa becomes

extremely uncomfortable with Miss Kilman, which has been explored

above. As Septimus clearly resembles the contextual treatment of post-

war men, Woolf forces us to sympathise with losses of masculinity, and

develop a concern for the course of modern Britain.

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Chapter 3

Restraint and Restoration in Nineteen Eighty-Four

For the final chapter of this dissertation I will be exploring the extremities

of thoughts displayed in both previous chapters, through George Orwell’s

Nineteen Eighty-Four. This chapter will explore how the novel is an

embodiment of anxieties expressed in Dracula and Mrs Dalloway

surrounding gender and social culture. Focus will be directed towards the

texts stylistic differences, which have a drastic effect upon the

presentation of genders. Whereas Stoker and Woolf’s texts have

presented us with contextual images, I will be explaining how Orwell

creates a new the identity of Oceania to validate the existence of Nineteen

Eighty-Four’s gynocentricism. By exploring the gynocentric nature of the

earlier parts of the novel I will reveal how Nineteen Eighty-Four starts off

with regressed genders due to anxieties of movement such as those in

Dracula and Mrs Dalloway, and then through Winston and Julia’s sexual

encounters we see a temporary restoration of both men and women, in

forms we recognise.

Nineteen Eighty-Four bears contextual similarities to Mrs Dalloway

as a post-war text, but its dystopian style provides different

interpretations of society. The novel’s allegorical infrastructure is outlined

from the start as we are presented with Minitrue, Minipax, Minilux and

Miniplenty in quick succession (Orwell, 6). Through these four ministries

Air Strip One is presented to us as an entirely new social setting, whereas

Stoker and Woolf give us more contextually accurate settings we can

associate with. Instead of relating to historical and contextual factors

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Orwell communicates the anxieties of gender subversion by creating

entirely new social structures that exemplify them. It is hard to distinguish

between contextual references and subjective interpretations due to

Orwell’s choice of writing a political allegory. However, I wish to argue that

Nineteen Eighty-Four acts as an interpretation of World War Two’s

aftermath, which falls in line with John Brannigan’s view that:

… England is continuous, and is [also] immediately in danger of

disappearing. Orwell’s writings straddle the political time of his

immediate social and cultural contexts and the prophetic time of a

future unknown, yet dangerously close (Brannigan, 3).

By “future unknown” I believe that Brannigan refers to the restoration of

gender we become aware of at times in the novel, which I will later

explore. The future of Oceania is unknown to us in the text, as Winston

and Julia present us with a hope that Big Brother’s regime can fought

against, although their personal battle together is lost.

The future setting of the year 1984 is different to our own timeline,

but Orwell creates the text’s 1984 in such a way that it is concrete. It can

be argued that Air Strip One is a third order simulacrum. This means that

it is originally a copy of something, our society in this instance. The social

code within Nineteen Eighty-Four has been rewritten to an extent it no

longer resembles its original self, our London and our timeline. The effect

of this is that we believe Orwell’s 1984 is an original, authentic reality,

which is a copy but believes itself to be the original (Baudrillard, 12).

25


The third order simulacrum affects everything down to characterisation,

including social structures characters are placed under. Although a Marxist

society is indefinitely in place indicated by the “proles”, the structure from

the Outer Party and above can be argued to be gynocentric. However, as

previously discussed in chapter two contextual wartime society is

relatively androcentric as men played the main roles on the frontline,

whilst women manned the home front. Orwell’s allegorical infrastructure is

key to creating a gynocentric culture in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The main method of creating convincing social codes in the novel to

achieve this culture is through the four ministries. The buildings

themselves are iconoclastic, as they stand similar to God-like structures,

as demonstrated by the Ministry of Truth and its pyramidal structure

(Orwell, 5). The iconoclastic nature of the novel is encased into the four

ministries, as they are central to its message. The Ministry of Truth is also

central to the text and my discussion for the following reason:

… Nineteen Eighty-Four is very difficult to approach without

preconceptions, even without prejudice… it has been

institutionalized, featuring the school and university syllabus, and

therefore, it might be argued, tamed (Calder, 38).

The Ministry of Truth attacks readers preconceptions, and is they

key ministry in creating Orwell’s 1984 and its gendered culture. However,

Minitrue mainly concerns itself with historical and political articles.

Winston gives us first hand accounts of this process, as he is a member in

the Party who works in Minitrue. His thoughtcrimes at work show a small

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scale scepticism towards the ministries, which is later expressed on a

slightly larger scale towards the Ministry of Plenty. This occurs when

Miniplenty makes an announcement about chocolate rationing, despite

vowing to freeze it at a thirty-gram limit it reduced it twenty grams

(Orwell, 42). Winston is an example of public attitude towards the party,

as sceptics such as him, O’Brien and Julia often notices these instances

but do not retaliate earlier on in his text. The Party’s control through fear

in situations like this demonstrates its unquestionable authority, which is a

by-product of the social code it has created in the text. After O’Brien has

experienced the horrors of Room 101, the nature of this control is

explained:

When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you

assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell

you… that reality is not external. Whatever the Party holds to be

truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking

through the eyes of the Party (Orwell, 261).

By doing this Orwell’s fictional world is set in concrete under a single

subjective consciousness. The Ministry of Truth and Junior Anti-Sex League

play the most active parts in spreading the Party’s totalitarian

consciousness, as they both play significant parts in how the novel

constructs gender.

Nineteen Eighty-Four’s presentation of men and women is

regressed, as it shows both sexes as inactive and almost genderless in

function. The novel restricts typical functions of men and women to be one

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of the same inside the Party. Through Winston’s eyes we see both men

and women participate in administrative functions at the Ministry of Truth.

Julia is the prime example of this, as she is not representative of

traditional female images we are used to. The breadwinner and

domesticated carer images of Dracula and Mrs Dalloway are only

established around Victory Square where the proles reside (Hester, 256).

An example of this would be when Winston notices girls with lip stick

running in the streets, and he comments upon how they will soon be

swollen like their waddling mothers from pregnancy (Orwell, 86).

Otherwise, men and women are presented to us equally in terms of

functionality. Instead of seeing this equality admirable as Helsing does

with Mina in Dracula, Winston fears Julia’s capabilities as an empowered

woman.

Julia is consistently highlighted as a significant threat to Winston in

the earlier parts of the novel, when she is referred to as the woman with

dark hair. Our first encounter with Julia leads us to believe she is possible

affiliated with the Thought Police, as well as the Junior Anti-Sex League.

These affiliations instantly empower Julia, and she overshadows Winston,

indicated by his fear. The power Winston acknowledges and the fear he

shows tells us we are dealing with subverted genders from a reader

perspective. In terms of the novel being a third order simulacrum, it is

likely that women do hold these positions of power, legitimising Winston’s

fear. Another factor that legitimises this is that there are other

empowered, masculine women in the text before Julia’s main entrance.

The woman in question here is the instructress on the telescreen who

instructs The Physical Jerks. She is described as both masculine and

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feminine, scrawny yet muscular (Orwell, 34). The pain she inflicts upon

Winston shows his distaste for the instructress, and his subconscious not

wanting to acknowledge her dominance over him. Winston and the

instructress are also finally addressed to us as equals at the end of the

chapter, as she compares them both to men on the frontline against

Eurasia (Orwell, 39).

As stated by Hester earlier, Nineteen Eighty-Four does present us

with positive images of women, but women such as Julia and the

instructress break our personal ideologies, forcing us to take in Orwell’s

gender subversions (Williams, 56). The process of breaking personal

subjectivity like this starts in the canteen, when Julia looks at Winston with

curious intensity (Orwell, 64). When suspicions of dominance and authority

grow in this instance, we see the novel’s tense narrative peak, where

genders start to shift:

The dramatic tension of 1984 is not whether Winston will be able to

revolt successfully against the party… The tensions of the novel

concern how long he can stay alive and whether it is possible for

Winston to die without mentally betraying his rebellion (Greenblatt,

115).

Dramatic tension is reinforced as we are introduced to facecrime, as we

become aware that Julia could jeopardise the rebellion. The anxiety of this

is so great the Winston labels Julia as an agent over any other man in the

room. The only reason he does this is because he is looking at her first,

and although her body is not described to us at this point. It is when

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Winston acknowledges Julia’s physicality that we see her in a different

light, and the regressed genders of the text and its gynocentric centre

begin to shift.

It takes time for Winston to pay attention to Julia’s appearance, past

her dark hair. The more we confront Julia, the less Winston suspects her,

and the more Winston notices her physical form. As this occurs we see a

restoration the mutual function of sex between men and women, which in

turn temporarily restores each gender role:

Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him,

indeed he barely looked at it. What overwhelmed him in that instant

was admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown her

clothes aside (Orwell, 33).

In this particular instance Winston’s prophetic dream foresees the start of

his sexual encounters with Julia. Orwell’s reference to the gesture is

central to how the dream acts as a starting point for Winston’s restoration.

This is because in previous examples Winston recognises and reacts to

Julia’s gestures differently. Her gestures either instigate troubled thoughts

within Winston, or subconsciously fulfil forbidden dreams (Elsbree, 140).

The closer we become to fulfilling his desire, the less fearful we become of

Julia’s subverted masculine female dominance.

This idea comes to fruition when the couple take refuge above Mr

Charrington’s shop. Winston indicates during Hate Week that he wishes to

be with Julia in a more romantic capacity, and move outside of the casual

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basis as it had become problematic. Winston has two brief thoughts that

encapsulate his full restoration as a man, in comparison to his regressed,

genderless self from earlier on in the text:

She must’ve slipped into some shop in the proletarian quarters and

bought herself a complete set of make-up… Her lips were deeply

reddened, her cheeks rouged, her nose powdered… The

improvement in her appearance was startling… she had become

not only very much prettier, but, above all, far more feminine

(Orwell, 149).

Julia’s application of make-up here transforms her into an unfamiliar figure

within the text. She becomes comparable to Clarissa Dalloway and Mina

Harker. By alluding to female images such as these Orwell shows us a

progressive restoration of self, by transforming Julia into an image we

recognise above. As a result we also see a restoration of a male self in

Winston. His attraction to Julia climaxes, and his previously clouded

judgement of hate and disgust because of the party ceases to exist. This is

evident as he climbs into bed with Julia, fully stripping for the first time

without a second thought (Orwell, 149).

To summarise, Nineteen Eighty-Four effectively explores familiar

and unfamiliar images of gender, but ultimately focuses on women.

George Orwell acknowledges the contexts of his novel, but takes a

dystopian slant on them. He makes the stylistic choice of creating Oceania

and Air Strip One as a third order simulacrum, which reinforces the novel’s

interior definitions such as social and gendered operations. Men and

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women institutionalised, regressed and restrained into the Party and its

ministries. In doing this Orwell creates a single subconscious in the text

that belongs to the Party, which is expressed through Winston and Julia’s

anxieties and desires respectively. The Party’s control over the text’s

social code is emphasized by Winston’s paranoia. The more pressure the

Party exerts over Winston, the more he attempts to find an outlet for his

heretic thoughts of masculinity and sex. Julia becomes his single outlet,

and in turn we her as a tomboyish woman transform into a women we

recognise, who can be associated with the likes of Mina Harker and

Clarissa Dalloway. The process in which this is done is through casual

sexual encounters, which require the two characters to deviate from the

text’s social norms, just as Mina and Clarissa deviate from their text’s

respective social norms as modern women. This restoration shows an

acknowledgement of not only Nineteen Eighty-Four’s contexts, but also

the likes of Mrs Dalloway and Dracula, and the social movements they

shed light on. The text presents us with these restored images

temporarily, and as Winston and Julia fight within their confines, we see

mirror images of the struggles of Mina and Jonathan Harker and Clarissa

Dalloway. Inevitably the novel’s nature as a third order simulacrum forces

men and women into corners, forcing them into a regressed state. Even

when we see Marxist overthrows such as Winston and Julia’s rebellion,

Nineteen Eighty-Four ultimately shows us that society’s natural order and

dominant social code prevails over small-scale movements with gender.

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Conclusion

Through chronological analysis of shifting genders in the late Victorian

period through to post-World War One and World War Two society, I

believe I can draw my exploration to a close. In Dracula, Mrs Dalloway and

Nineteen Eighty-Four there are evident connections in terms of social

anxiety towards gender shifts in public spheres. A combination of

contextual, modernist and dystopian narratives used in the three texts

have challenged the androcentric order of society, and shown us the

potential of modern women in the world of men.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula signalled the end of prescribed gender

scripts in the Victorian period, where men were breadwinners and women

were domestic carers. His novel introduces us to modern genders that are

experimented with in Woolf and Orwell’s works. Both Jonathan and Mina

Harker act as contrasting sexes, each of which Stoker subverts so that

Mina has masculine traits, whilst Jonathan regresses and loses his

masculinity. Each of them are portrayed as equally educated, as individual

results of the 1870 Elementary Education Act. Initially his profession as an

educated solicitor establishes Jonathan’s masculinity, and his modern

traits stand out in comparison to Romania’s dated socio-cultural scenery.

From the first chapter of the novel Stoker begins to break down Jonathan’s

façade of masculinity, by pulling him from his modern, industrial

homeland. He is presented as an unknown against the locals of Bistritz,

oblivious to the cultural concerns surrounding the Count. The locals

appearances, mannerisms and dependence on religious symbols for

defence against Dracula we see Jonathan question his sense of self, and

his purpose in Romania. It is in the Count’s castle Harker confronts

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Dracula as an alpha male who claims ownership over him, overriding his

sense of reason that he has inherited from his modern education. He is

also overwhelmed by the brides, whose sexual dominance overwhelm

Jonathan’s perception of reality where he was previously an alpha male

with control over his parts in the narrative.

Mina Harker is set against this harsh, subversive narrative as a

beacon for modernity, and the potential its reformed sexes carry.

Throughout the novel Mina’s new educated skillset is established, and

although her typewriting and stenographic skills are useful, it is her brain

that is admired most by Van Helsing and the others (Stoker, 250). In

saying this Stoker acknowledges that women such as Mina had progressed

up the social ladder closer to men. However, her independence is still

lacking as she works under Van Helsing and Jonathan for a majority of the

novel, still fulfilling her duty as a domestic aid to men, which we can

associate with the text’s Victorian context.

In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway we are presented with Clarissa

Dalloway. Woolf’s stylistic choice of using free indirect speech portrays

women who have shifted outside of Victorian gender scripts at the turn of

the twentieth century. In terms of progression Mrs Dalloway develops

upon Dracula’s representation of modern women, and deals with social

concerns regarding their movements. The text draws attention to

Clarissa’s observations, and the conclusions she comes to about modern

women she aspires to. Through her Woolf presents us with two masculine

female figures, which in turn brings up to question the validity of

Edwardian masculine figures such as Septimus Smith. As Clarissa

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confronts the likes Lady Bexborough and Miss Kilman we become aware

women have stepped outside of the domestic sphere. Lady Bexborough

specifically raises awareness of her similar social stature to men, in that

she shares similar interests and a masculine physical figure. Through

Clarissa’s internal monologue we become aware that Bexborough differs

from the traditional post-war female model, which Clarissa also

exemplifies. We are inclined to aspire to Lady Bexborough as she is

portrayed as powerful and independent publically, although not physically

attractive (Woolf, 13). The same is also true of Miss Kilman, as Clarissa’s

view of her isn’t positive. Miss Kilman is presented as an “other” to us, just

as Jonathan Harker is in Romania. Mrs Dalloway focuses on her German

heritage and the amount of time she spends with Elizabeth Dalloway, and

as a result she becomes a replacement father figure for her who has to

share Clarissa’s affections. Miss Kilman’s domination threatens Clarissa’s

sense of self, as she herself is caught the cultural overlap of genders from

the nineteenth century.

As Septimus Smith shares the other half of the narrative with

Clarissa, we are made aware he is the contrasting conscious in the novel

in comparison to the observations Clarissa makes. Through Clarissa’s

observations we learn that Septimus has been forced into a regressed

state, due to the death of his social function after the war ended. Also, the

emergence of stronger, masculine women such as Lady Bexborough in the

public sphere replace the need for men like Septimus completely. In

comparison to Dracula’s anxious concerns that are kept under the surface,

we see small-scale manifestations of worry in Mrs Dalloway. The gender

subversions are more obvious to us as readers, and Woolf identifies

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subversions to us as well through Clarissa. It becomes apparent in Mrs

Dalloway that the modern gender scripts we see are going against the

grain of the United Kingdom’s national identity. We see this through the

death of Septimus, as he stands as a final strand of wartime Edwardian

gender scripts that are discarded in Woolf’s modernist narrative.

In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four we see the concerns Woolf

has raised in Mrs Dalloway fully manifest. Anxieties of gender shifts in the

United Kingdom are supressed and restrained, for fear of female figures

moving outside of gender scripts and creating regressed men such as

Jonathan Harker and Septimus Smith. To avoid losing androcentric

ideologies Orwell supresses portrayals of gender in his novel by creating

the world in the text as a third order simulacra. We are convinced that

both men and women have regressed to the point that they are equal. By

neutralising the tensions between masculinity and femininity, Orwell

temporarily prevents modern women from emerging. However, the text

restores a recognisable social order through the rediscovery of the mutual

function of sex. In doing this Julia is prematurely established as a

subverted, dominant woman. As the novel progresses she reverts to a

domesticated woman we can associate with the likes of Clarissa Dalloway

and Mina Harker. Winston rediscovers his masculinity as he goes from

being repulsed by Julia to finding her feminine and attractive. As a result,

Nineteen Eighty-Four acts as a response to the gender shifts in Dracula

and Mrs Dalloway, and acknowledges that movements out of prescribed

gender scripts will happen, but that societal anxiety towards this issue is

also inevitable.

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To conclude, the exploration I have conducted into gender shifts has

provided insight into the development of modern women. Dracula, Mrs

Dalloway and Nineteen Eighty-Four all acknowledge that women have

become more educated, independent, powerful, and in some cases

masculine, but they also capture public concerns. Nevertheless, we see

women in all three novels break preconceptions of prescribed gender roles

inherited from the Victorian period. The effect this has on us is that it

forces us to reconsider preconceptions we approach literature with. This is

vital when considering the presentation of the sexes in modern literature,

as the thematic concerns of more modern texts often challenge readers’

preconceptions.

In this dissertation I have focused upon movements of women in the

twentieth century with a positive outlook. Although informative, there are

also potential research aspects to the suffering of men during this period

as a result of gender shifts in post-war environments, which I have

touched upon. I am also aware that the positivity I have focused upon is

half of the spectrum of women’s plight for equality in the twentieth

century, and know that there is potential to research defeats that women

suffer, such as Julia’s loss in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Partnered together with

this dissertation there would be substance to argue whether women

ultimately win the battle against modernity in the twentieth century.

37


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LIT4016 DISSERTATION

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