THE DUCHESS AND THE JEWELLER- BY VIRGINIA WOOLF

Submitted By:Mohit Rana BTBM/13/213Zikra Zahid Akhtar BTBM/13/240Sukriti Singh BTBM/13/242

Virginia was an English novelist, essayist, biographer, and feminist. Woolf was a prolific writer, whose modernist style changed with each new novel. Her letters and memoirs reveal glimpses of Woolf at the center of English literary culture during the Bloomsbury era. Woolf represents a historical moment when art was integrated into society, as T.S. Eliot describes in his obituary for Virginia. “Without Virginia Woolf at the center of it, it would have remained formless or marginal…With the death of Virginia Woolf, a whole pattern of culture is broken.

Virginia Adeline Stephen was the third child of Leslie Stephen, a Victorian man of letters, and Julia Duckworth.. Virginia was educated by private tutors and copiously read from her father’s vast library of literary classics. She later resented the degradation of women in a patriarchal society, rebuking her own father for automatically sending her brothers to schools and university, while she was never offered a formal education. Woolf’s Victorian upbringing would later influence her decision to participate in the Bloomsbury circle, noted for their original ideas and unorthodox relationships. As biographer Hermione Lee argues “Woolf was a ‘modern’. But she was also a late Victorian. The Victorian family past filled her fiction, shaped her political analyses of society and underlay the behavior of her social group.”

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

1.The Duchess

2.Oliver Bacon – The Jeweller

1. The DuchessThe Duchess is more of a stock figure, entering Bacon's office with "the aroma, the prestige, the arrogance, the pomp" of any of her kind, explicitly represented as "all the Dukes and Duchesses swollen in one wave.”

2. Oliver Bacon – The JewellerOliver Bacon is this story's protagonist. Once a poor boy in the streets of London, he has become the richest jeweler in England. As a young man, he sold stolen dogs to wealthy women and marketed cheap watches at a higher price. On a wall in his private room hangs a picture of his late mother. He frequently talks to her and reminisces, once chuckling at his past endeavors.

The story “The Duchess and the Jeweler” is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator.Once Oliver Bacon was very poor and lived in a filthy, little alley. He worked very hard and used fairand unfair means to become the richest jeweler of the England. He enjoys his present position. Heis suffering from inferiority complex. There is a great difference between his present and pastcondition. He has become so important that each day he receives invitation cards from thearistocracy of the city. He has become very rich, but he is so greedy that he wants more and morewealth.

One day the Duchess of Lambourne comes to sell some fake pearls. She induces him into buyingthose fake pearls very cleverly. She uses her daughter Diana as bait. She also invites him to theparty where all the aristocracy will be present.

Oliver Bacon buys the fake pearls because he wants to attend the party and spend the weekendwith Diana. He loves Diana very much. Besides, he wants to move among aristocratic circles.He signs the check for twenty thousand pounds. The Duchess takes the check and leaves. Later, heasks pardon of the picture of his mother.

Ben Wilson explained further about decadence in his book entitled The Making of Victorian Values:Decency and Dissent in Britain: 1789-1837 that “the term decadence was initially used to describe writersof the mid-19th century in France, especially Baudelaire and Gautier. By the century’s end, decadence wasin use as an aesthetic term across Europe. The word literally means a process of ‘falling away’ or decline. Inrelation to art and literature, it signaled a set of interlinked qualities. These included the notion of intenserefinement; the valuing of artificiality over nature; a position of ennui or boredom rather than of moralearnestness or the valuing of hard work; an interest in perversity and paradox, and in transgressive modesof sexuality.”

In short, the act or process of falling into an inferior condition is called decadence. It was a period whenthose who argued that a British empire would be a disaster for liberty were eventually squashed byimperialists, just as those who railed against mindless materialism were in the end rolled over byindustrialists and the promoters of luxury goods. It was an era when people were obsessed with the needto appear authentic, and yet forever had doubts about who was and who wasn't-concerns familiar to the"me" age we know so well.

The story The Duchess and the Jeweler written in 1938 by Virginia Woolf clearly reflects thedecadence of moral values of the English aristocracy after the Victorian Era. Gambling,stealing, cheating, greediness and insolence were the prevailing vices among the elite class.There are two main characters in the story: Oliver Bacon and a Duchess. These charactersfully reflect the moral decadence of the English aristocracy.

No doubt, the writer of the story “The Duchess and the Jeweler” reflects the English societyof her time. It was an age of transition. Woolf introduces characters – the Duchess and thejeweler. The Duchess represents the high-ups. The jeweler represents the commoners. Hisname is Oliver Bacon. At the start of the story, the writer talks about commoners throughOliver Bacon, the jeweler. She tells the reader how the commoners took lead. Oliver Baconwas a commoner, used to live in a filthy, little alley but later he became the richest jeweler ofEngland. Then slowly he took lead and became one of the high-ups of the English society.Now he lived at Piccadilly. It was the most fashionable and expensive place in London. Hehad become so important that each day he received invitation cards from the aristocracy ofthe English society. Even the Duchess of Lambourne waited for his pleasure outside hisprivate office.

The jeweler kept the Duchess of Lambourne waiting because of his inferiority complex. He wantedto enjoy his present position of the richest jeweler of England. When we read the story, we will findthat Oliver Bacon used to live in a filthy, little alley. At that time, his greatest ambition was to sellstolen dogs to fashionable women and he did sell. Then he became salesperson and sold cheapwatches. Then he did some other jobs to become rich. Therefore, he was a commoner. He did notanything common with the aristocratic class of that time. Now by working hard, he was the richestjeweler of England. There was a great difference between his past and present life but he has notforgotten his past. Therefore, when the Duchess of Lambourne came to see him, he kept herwaiting just to enjoy his present position of the richest jeweler of England. It was a great honor for aboy of a filthy, little alley. Woolf comments, “The Duchess of Lambourne, the daughter of a hundredEarls. She would wait for ten minutes on a chair at the counter. She would wait his pleasure. Shewould wait till he was ready to see her.” It was as if he was enjoying a very big and desirous feast.The jeweler who was once a commoner was now keeping a Duchess waiting. What a greatachievement that was.

His character amply reveals the moral decadence of the contemporary upper class. He is a verygreedy man. Even though he has become the richest jeweler in England, yet he is not satisfied.Moreover, he is a philanderer. He has deceived Mademoiselle who used to stick roses in his buttonhole. Now he buys fake pearls from the Duchess in exchange of passing a weekend with herdaughter Diana, his new beloved.

Then the writer talks about the high-ups. On the other hand, the Duchess represents inheritedaristocracy. The duchess was the member of the aristocracy by birth. There was a great classdifference between the two. These two classes could never be friends. However, the duchesswas forced to call him an ‘old friend’ because of her moral decadence and financial problems.That was how they were friends; yet enemies.

The entrance of the Duchess sets up a major contrast between the social positions of the twocharacters. The physical description of the Duchess as she enters Bacon’s office illustrates heroverbearing public persona: “Then she loomed up, filling the door, filling the room with thearoma, the prestige, the arrogance, the pomp, the pride of all the Dukes and Duchessesswollen in one wave”. She drapes herself in bright colors as her overweight body is held incheck by pink taffeta. The sense of volume that the Duchess creates is typical of the display ofaristocratic clothing. Attire can be a palpable and powerful expression of a social relationship.

Then Woolf adds “He was master, she was mistress.” When we read the story carefully, wefind that Oliver became the richest jeweler of England by using fair and unfair means.Therefore, he was a master in the sense that he a great cheat. On the other hand, the Duchesswas a mistress. She was a cheat too. She induced the jeweler into buying the fake pearls socleverly that she appears to be a mistress in this sense.

“Each cheated other the other, each needed the other, and each feared the other.” Whenwe read the story, we find that each cheated the other. The Duchess cheated the jewelerand sold the fake pearls. The jeweler cheated the duchess in a sense that he kept herwaiting without any proper reason. Similarly, both needed each other. She needed him formoney and he needed her to go the party and to the woods with her daughter. In spite ofthat, both feared each other because each knew the secrets of the other.

Her character also highlights the lax ethics of the nobility of that time. She is a thief. Inorder to get money for gambling, she steal the pearls of her husband. She has no respectfor her husband. She calls him villain, sharper and bad'un. She is so bankrupt morally thuswas always in financial difficulties because of her moral decadence. She gambled. To gether desired twenty-thousand, the Duchess had forgotten all her nobility. To arrange forthe money she sold fake pearls to Oliver twice but this was not all. She stakes the honourof her daughter for money. She offers her daughter Diana for amour to Oliver Bacon in herown house. She had so much moral decadence that she used Diana, her daughter, toentrap Oliver Bacon.

The story is interesting as the reader becomes aware of just how vulnerable or insecure Oliver may be. Inthe end, he realized that he has been swindled (again) by the Duchess he looks at the portrait of hismother in his office and asks her to forgive him, Woolf telling the reader that Oliver felt again like ‘he was alittle boy in the alley where they sold dogs on Sunday.’ This line may be important as it suggests that eventhough Oliver knows that he has been swindled by the Duchess he is still unable to control his vanity andhis desire to be part of upper class society.

https://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Virginia_Woolf

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