Reflections of Imperialism: Haunting as a Mirror for the British Empire
Editorial Team:
Delaney DeVack, Doria Guadagnoli, Mary Katherine Kirkwood, Sadie McClain, Amelia Ruzzi
Additional editorial support by Dr. Heidi L. Pennington
In “Herself” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, the main character, Lota, inherits Orange Grove Manor, an Italian estate purchased by her late grandfather. The narrative is told through the first-person narration of Helen and follows the experiences of the main character, her best friend Lota, as she moves to Orange Grove. When Helen arrives at Orange Grove two months into Lota’s stay, she notices a stark deterioration in Lota’s health. Helen begs the other members of the household to see Lota’s evident decline and take action to remove her from the Orange Grove, but her concerns are continuously dismissed. Lota’s struggle parallels her grandfather’s final month at the Orange Grove as written in his journal, which Lota discovers and reads. The story culminates in Lota’s death after she views her own reflection in the mirror of her grandfather’s study; her image, a skeletal ghost of the woman she has become, and the inevitability of her demise that the image in the mirror seems to promise, haunts her—to death. Haunting as a metaphor for invasion is a major theme of the Victorian ghost story genre; Lota’s own invading imperialism is also blatant throughout the story. She stereotypes, exoticizes, and belittles the culture she is attempting to supplant in Italy; she disregards local knowledge in favor of English empiricism and imposes modern technologies on the Orange Grove. Lota’s refusal to leave the Orange Grove, despite it killing her, parallels the Victorian imperialist mindset that otherness is to be conquered, as she becomes haunted by “Herself.”
Braddon’s haunted Victorian narrative, “Herself,” first published on November 17, 1894, in the Christmas Number of The Weekly Telegraph, is imbued with imperialist sentiments deriving from the desire to stimulate the economy through trade and spread the rapidly-developing cultural and technological advances emerging in Britain during the Victorian era. Imperialism resulted in the dispersion of English and British agents across the globe, who aimed to extend their country’s influence on countries like India and Australia (Broadview Press LIII). As this phenomenon progressed, Victorian narratives of haunting began to reflect both the imperialist mindset, and the impacts of imperialism. Simon Hay argues that ghost stories written during the “golden age” of imperialism “…come to engage in the project of representing empire much more explicitly, and in ways that share this new set of valences” (130). Braddon’s narrative falls into two of the three types of imperial ghost stories Hay outlines. First, it falls into the category of imperial ghost stories in which “native superstition is contrasted with white rationalism” as well as stories in which “native ghosts cause problems that white imperialists resolve” (131)—although there is no resolution in Lota’s case. Braddon reflects Hay’s framework through Lota’s stay at the Orange Grove, as she refuses to leave the villa despite her declining health and warnings from Taggia locals. Instead, she imposes novel Victorian technologies to modernize and “fix” the house. When her changes to the villa do not improve her health, she becomes haunted by her own refusal to leave.
Helen and Lota’s contrasting attitudes to Lota’s move to Taggia exhibit two sides of the same coin: both disparage and exoticize the culture she is subjecting herself to. This is a result of British imperialist beliefs in Britain’s intrinsic superiority over all other peoples and cultures, a belief which helped to justify the expansion of British rule over several continents. As the imperialist mindset spreads through conquering and invasions, the British superiority complex increases. Helen asks, “could anything be better than Brighton?” as they are in conversation with the lawyer over the Orange Grove estate (Braddon ch. I). Helen, at least, is under the impression that their British towns, culture, and customs are superior compared to the rest of the world, as this was a popular cultural sentiment. This imperialist mindset influences the way both Lota and Helen view and exploit the Orange Grove through their modern advancements as well as their imperialist and racist commentary. Helen, upon hearing the name Taggia, replies with disdain to Lota’s pronunciation of it by saying “I haven’t the faintest idea what you mean by Tag-gi-a…It sounds like an African word,” (Braddon ch. I). In this way, Helen denigrates the Italian place name by incorrectly associating it with Africa, signaling an even deeper devaluing of African cultures and languages. Carolyn Betensky explains that “imperialist practices tend to be premised on racism,” which explains the abundance of casual racist comments in Victorian-era literature, such as this one (726). Along with this, Lota’s ignorance of local knowledge leads her to dismiss the idea that the Orange Grove will do anything but improve her health; her preconceived notion of haunting as impossible and mere superstition encourages her to advance the technology within the home. Lota’s imperialist mindset here is to ignore the past and the important stories the local people hold, to focus on the future, aesthetics, and modernity of the place.
Lota’s death seemingly could have been avoided had she listened to the local wisdom. She goes through the story with the conviction that the English way is the right way: “people are not happy [at the Orange Grove] … and sometimes they fade and die,” the Italian physician warned, but Lota “would rather make a martyr of herself” than acknowledge that there was an unempirical horror within the villa and herself (Braddon ch. III). Her insistence that she is fine, because logic states she must be, is echoed by other English people around her. “From the moment the sanitary engineer–a really scientific man–certified this house as a healthy house, the last word was said as to its suitableness for [Lota],” the English physician in Taggia tells Helen to assuage her fears despite Lota wasting away in front of their eyes (Braddon ch. III). Lota’s insistence on staying can be attributed not to any madness of her haunting, but to her imperialist reasoning: “‘I should hate myself if I were weak enough to run away from this place,’” (Braddon ch. III).
Throughout the course of the narrative, Lota displays her imperialist mindset by imposing modern technologies on Orange Grove Manor. Upon her arrival to Orange Grove, Lota concerns herself with updating various amenities to ensure nothing will deter her health. Lota is constrained by the limits of empiricism, or the belief that reality is shaped through perceptual and observable features. Entwined with her imperialist mindset, Lota aims to form truth based upon scientific facts and reasoning. She, as well as the professionals around her, believe that the cause of her maladies stems from some measurable malfunction or oversight within the house. Therefore, her modification of technologies such as drainage and electricity reflects the modernizing imperialist belief that her health is a product of her material surroundings. The most explicit example of this is through recurring conversation about the drainage. In the Victorian era, drainage refers to sewage systems and poor drainage was a prominent cause of bacterial infections and diseases such as cholera and typhoid (Oxford English Dictionary). Bodies of water used for the purpose of public drinking water could become filled with sewage from antiquated piping systems and cesspools, breeding disease and creating a constant feedback loop of illness and recontamination (Victorianweb.org). Because Lota ensured the drainage is up to standard, she believes there is no reason she should be ill. Her aunt, Miss Elderson, reinforces this in saying, “There is nothing the matter with the house, […] The sanitary engineer from Cannes has examined everything. The drainage is simply perfect––––” (Braddon ch. II). Miss Elderson's fixation on the drainage reflects her belief that there must be a scientifically provable cause to Lota’s health problems, which can be solved through the use of modern technologies. Due to the advances made to the drainage, Lota and her aunt struggle to believe she could be at a significant risk. Despite this, Lota’s condition continues to decline. Lota refuses to leave Orange Grove on the notion that, because it is modernized, there is nothing wrong with the place, and her impositions upon it. Her imperial mindset leads directly to her own suffering. The liminal space where an effect is observed yet the cause cannot be traced demonstrates the tension present in the wake of imperialism. When Imperialism fails to provide reasoning for observable truth, fear is induced in the inexplicable and unknown.
Lota’s refusal to leave the Orange Grove, despite it killing her, parallels the Victorian imperialist mindset. Lota’s exoticizing, stereotyping, and belittling of Italian culture is reinforced by the imperialist Victorian notion of cultural “others” as a fascinating spectacle rather than as established and functioning societies. Although this is a culture she is attempting to supersede, she does so flippantly, with little regard for local knowledge. This can be attributed to the common British attitude Simon Hay describes as “...demonstrating either the foolishness of the native, for believing such nonsense, or the foolishness of the white settler, for imagining rationalism can account for like outside European urban centers” (Hay, 131). During her stay, new modernizing technologies including electricity are installed, serving as material representations of Lota’s imperialist maneuvering. Lota's haunting of herself can be understood as the culmination of her imperialist behavior and failure to acknowledge the imperfections in her own belief system.
Our exhibition includes textual annotations that provide both historical context and close reading analysis of important passages that reflect themes of imperialism. Each annotation is tagged as either analysis or context to aid the readers’ understanding of the text. We also have included a map which locates every specific place mentioned in “Herself.” Each location cites the passage in which it is mentioned and includes a brief description of its importance. Our image gallery includes seven images from the original publication, The Weekly Telegraph, in 1894. Each image has the quote it is associated with in the original text in the description. Through this diverse range of elements in this exhibition we explore the varied manifestations of British imperialist beliefs and practices critiqued in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s “Herself.” Each of these multimedia elements aim to paint a clearer picture of Braddon’s story and the many layers of imperialism, empiricism, and cultural commentary that can be interpreted within it. These elements reflect the potential consequences of imperialism in the British Victorian era that are illuminated by Braddon’s “Herself”.
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