Excerpt from Book III Chapter 28:

‘[T]here was the stifling oppression of that gentlewoman’s world, where everything was done for her and none asked for her aid ... Marriage, which was to bring guidance into worthy and imperative occupation, had not yet freed her from the gentlewoman’s oppressive liberty: it had not even filled her leisure with the ruminant joy of unchecked tenderness. Her blooming full-pulsed youth stood there in a moral imprisonment which made itself one with the chill, colorless, narrowed landscape, with the shrunken furniture, the never-read books, and the ghostly stag in a pale fantastic world that seemed to be vanishing from the daylight.’ (274)

Question: 

What does this passage suggest about Dorothea’s pre-marital expectations and subsequent disillusionment with her marriage, and how are such ideas expressed?

Answer:

At the start of this chapter, Mr. Casaubon and Dorothea, now Mrs. Casaubon, have just returned from their honeymoon to Lowick Manor. As Dorothea enters and looks around the house, the furniture suddenly seems lifeless and fake to her. They look the opposite of how they used to before. This transformation in how she perceives the house she shares with her new husband is suggestive of a disillusionment with domestic life. Before her marriage, she believed that as Mr. Casaubon’s wife, she would be able to ‘bring guidance into worthy and imperative occupation’ through assisting the scholar with his book (274). Moreover, she anticipates expanding her own worldview. Soon after getting married, though, she finds herself in a ‘colorless, narrowed landscape’ (274). This alludes to the fact that she is usually confined to her and other social peers’ houses, as well as her restricted choice of occupying herself: she may play music, sew, receive and pay calls, and the like. Her status as an upper-class married woman puts her in ‘that gentlewoman’s world, where everything was done for her and none asked for her aid’ (274). This can be seen by how her help is unneeded by the farmers and cottage people at Lowick, an example that again serves to shatter her expectations for her married self. Therefore, the free time afforded to her by the servants’ work effectively results in ‘the gentlewoman’s oppressive liberty’ that she experiences (274).

The term ‘gentlewoman’ is telling, too. Appearing twice in the passage, the word should also be noted for its association with concepts like gentility and gentleness. The latter word, in particular, is evocative of a resistance to force and to overreaching. In the context of Dorothea’s self-improvement, ‘gentleness’ would seem to be the antithesis to ‘stretching’ the mind, mental ‘exertion’ and ‘strenuous’ mental efforts. It equally appears to go against ‘putting strains’ on the brain through ‘pushing’ oneself academically, which may occur were she to assist Mr. Casaubon as envisioned. The sense of lethargy from ‘gentleness’ further ties into the stag from the quotation. Often depicted as a magnificent and swift animal pursued by superior predators, its ‘ghostly’ image in the passage predicts an early death for Dorothea’s own pursuit, albeit of knowledge rather than prey (274). The above analyses reveal an incompatibility between her original aspirations and her new identity that likely leads to her despairing disillusionment with married life.

That said, the quoted text carries a small feeling of hope that Dorothea may attain her desired married life. In ‘Marriage, which was to bring guidance into worthy and imperative occupation, had not yet freed her from the gentlewoman’s oppressive liberty,’ she is said to be currently trapped (274). Nonetheless, the word ‘yet’ suggests that Dorothea’s present state is liable to change, that it may only be a matter of time before marriage frees her. When she is no longer oppressed, she can exercise her mental faculties to the full when carrying out her wifely yet intellectually-demanding duties. Thus, she can achieve the productive married life she seeks. Readers may detect an uncertainty to the durability of her current mentally-unstimulating and thus personally unfulfilling way of living. Similarly, it may not be true that her earlier imaginings about her life after marriage are at odds with reality. The end of the chosen quotation mentions how the ‘pale fantastic world’ containing ‘the shrunken furniture, the never-read books, and the ghostly stag’ appears ‘to be vanishing from the daylight’ (274). The overall implication may be that her previous notions about a wife’s world are like nightly, insubstantial dreams from which she is to awaken at day, when she learns illuminating truths that reflect reality. Such may include her limited role and choice of activities as an upper-class wife. However, the word ‘seemed’ puts into question whether the described vanishment is real or imagined, especially when the same sentence imagines her personified youth as standing ‘in a moral imprisonment’ (274). As the novel progresses, we may learn whether her fantasies are ultimately realised or continue to move further and further away from the real world.

(705 words)