Thriving Female Characters and Deteriorating Male Characters: A Different Reality for Victorian Women in Dickens’ Hard Times and Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge
During the Victorian Age, the main role of women in society was to serve their husbands. They went to school to learn skills on how to be the best housewife and got married at an early age to have children and take care of them, all while the husband went to work and provided an income. However, several novels from this period, more specifically Hard Times and The Mayor of Casterbridge, present a very different reality; one in which women are not put in the background, but are key characters to the plot and other characters’ storylines. In these two novels, the women develop themselves either on a personal or educational level and undergo a major change. Interestingly, in both of these novels, it seems that the older, wiser father figure ends up being the most miserable: the roles are reversed. Thus, in this essay, I will give an account of the status of women in Hard Times and The Mayor of Casterbridge by looking at the novels’ main female characters, and I will compare those findings to the status of women in Victorian society.
Before exploring the status of the main female characters in Hard Times and The Mayor of Casterbridge, it is necessary to establish the status of women in Victorian England. According to Professor Kathryn Hughes, ‘during the Victorian period, men and women’s roles became more sharply defined than at any time in history’ (Hughes). Whereas men took their place on the work floor, women were expected to take care of the household and raise the children. As for education, girls only went to school to learn certain skills, ‘accomplishments’, that would help with their domestic abilities, such as tone of voice, manner of speaking, and knowledge of instruments, music, and modern languages (Hughes; Picard). All of this would prepare them to be the perfect wife and caretaker of the house and children. As for women’s rights, they were quite limited during the Victorian Age. Once women got married, they ‘lost the ownership of their wages, of all their property (except land), and of any other cash they generated’ (Bradbury 137). Instead of owning property, women were seen as their husband’s property: ‘men were given the right to all that those bodies produced, including domestic labour, sex, and children’ (Bradbury 137). All in all, women had very few rights and their societal position was established at a young age. Due to their lack of rights and ownership over their bodies, women’s role in society was very much a background role. They were not supposed to take part in society themselves, they were supposed to help their husbands thrive in society.
However, two Victorian novels, Hard Times and The Mayor of Casterbridge, each present a female character who is the most thriving character of their respective novels. Both Louisa and Elizabeth-Jane develop themselves, either in a personal (Louisa) or educational (Elizabeth-Jane) manner. And, in both novels, it is the older male character that realises his way of living is faulty and should be adapted to their (step)daughter’s renewed way of living. First, I want to look at Hard Times. The beginning of the novel introduces Mr. Gradgrind’s philosophy of Facts and already suggests that there is some friction between Gradgrind and his daughter, Louisa. At the start of Hard Times, Gradgrind is speaking and says the following: ‘Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else and root out everything else’ (Dickens 7). These few sentences describe Gradgrind’s entire way of thinking. He believes that everything in life should be reasoned from facts, not feelings or thoughts. Imagination and wonder are strictly forbidden. He does not only teach his own children this philosophy but the other children in Coketown as well, by means of the school he built exactly for that purpose: ‘[Mr. Gradgrind] intended every child in it to be a model – just as the young Gradgrinds were all models’ (Dickens 14). There is no way around it: Gradgrind has the life for his children and the other children in Coketown cut out for them. Everything in life would be considered from a rational perspective, and normal children’s books and music are prohibited. This manner in which he raised his children did not come without its consequences, though. Already at the start of the novel, Louisa expresses that she has been feeling ‘tired of everything’, for ‘a long time’ (Dickens 17-18). She says this after her father catches her and her brother, Tom, at the circus. The circus is the epitome of imagination and represents everything that Gradgrind detests, and the children are not allowed to visit it. Louisa mentioning that she is tired of ‘everything’ shows that she is unhappy with her current lifestyle. Thus, at the start of the novel, Gradgrind has shaped Louisa into a rationalist human being, and he has complete authority over her: she is a product of her father’s belief system, and this has caused some friction between them.
Soon after the start of the novel, Sissy Jupe is introduced, who guides Louisa towards a more imaginative lifestyle throughout the novel. Sissy’s father works as a clown for Mr. Sleary’s circus. Sissy is a poor child but had has a very loving youth because she grew up in an environment where she could read what she wanted, learn about what she wanted, and was simultaneously surrounded by animals and clowns. As Philip Rogers puts it, ‘in contrast to the starved imaginations of Gradgrind’s children, [Sissy’s] fancy has been developed by reading to her father (a circus clown) about ‘fairies and genies’ (406). In other words, Sissy and the circus serve as a complete contrast to Louisa and her upbringing: Sissy is a compassionate young woman full of emotions, which is what Louisa has always been taught to suppress. Gradgrind takes Sissy in after her father disappears, and through the connection between Louisa and Sissy, Louisa learns about imagination, wonder, and the power of emotion. After the first meeting between Louisa and Sissy, Louisa begins to question her father’s philosophy, and this sentiment increases throughout the novel. One way in which the novel shows how Louisa changes throughout the novel is through her marriage to Mr. Bounderby. Bounderby proposes to Louisa, and Gradgrind says she should look at it through facts: he is rich and will provide for her to be the perfect housewife for the rest of her life. Louisa agrees to marry him, but Sissy disapproves: ‘When Mr. Gradgrind had introduced Mrs. Bounderby, Sissy had suddenly turned her head, and looked, in wonder, in pity, in sorrow, in doubt, in a multitude of emotions, towards Louisa’ (Dickens 99). This shows that Sissy already knew that marrying someone for practicality will not make you happy. As the novel continues, Louisa starts to realise this as well, and knows she has made a mistake. Instead, she comes into contact with James Harthouse, whom she does develop feelings for. She blames her father for never having let her feel her emotions when she was younger because she was always taught to suppress them: ‘Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, O father, with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here?’ (Dickens 201). Then the climax comes, and Louisa explains that it was Sissy who taught her about emotions and imagination: ‘What I have learned has left me doubting, misbelieving, despising, regretting, what I have not learned (…) I shall die if you [Gradgrind] hold me! Let me fall upon the ground!’ (Dickens 202/204). At this moment, Louisa tells her father that he has wasted her life up until that point and that she is much happier when she ignores the facts and considers emotions instead. In other words, Louisa undergoes a major development throughout the novel, guided by Sissy, and completely breaks free of her father.
Towards the end of the novel, Mr. Gradgrind realises the mistake he made in keeping his children from books, music, and all imaginative things. After the climax scene, Gradgrind states: ‘“In the course of a few hours, my dear Bounderby,” Mr. Gradgrind proceeded, “I appear to myself to have become better informed as to Louisa’s character, than in previous years. The enlightenment has been painfully forced upon me and the discovery is not mine’ (Dickens 223). With ‘forced upon me,’ Gradgrind means the climax scene where Louisa so painfully told him in his face that her upbringing has been worthless, and with ‘the discovery is not mine’ he means that he did not find out himself, but that she had to tell him. Gradgrind goes on to say that ‘I fear there is at present a general incompatibility between Louisa, and – and – and almost all the relations in which I have placed her’ (Dickens 224). Gradgrind finally realises how damaging his philosophy is, and he no longer actively supports it. Gradgrind even acknowledges that it was Sissy who helped Louisa develop herself, when he says: ‘you (Bounderby) should allow Louisa to remain here on a visit, and be attended by Sissy, who understands her, and in whom she trusts’ (Dickens 224). At the end of the novel, Louisa and Sissy are best off out of all characters. One critic mentioned that ‘the happy and fruitful marriage forecast for Sissy at the end of the book shows the ultimate might of the values that she represents’ (Sonstroem 526). Louisa, although she is not married, is happy as well, and loved by Sissy’s children. In conclusion, at the end of the novel, Gradgrind realises his mistakes, and it truly is the female character of Louisa who is the most thriving character of the novel. Despite her father, mother and brother who frowned upon her exploring her imaginative side, she pushed through and did what she believed would be best for her.
Elizabeth-Jane’s story in The Mayor of Casterbridge shows a striking resemblance to Louisa’s story in Hard Times. At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Henchard does not want anything to do with his wife and daughter. The novel starts with the Henchard family walking into a fair in Weydon-Priors. They eat some porridge in a furmity tent to strengthen up, and Mr. Henchard sees the chef spiking bowls of porridge with rum. Henchard asks her to spike his bowl as well, and after several bowls of spiked porridge, he is drunk. The group in the furmity tent starts to talk and the subject of marriage comes up. Henchard is quick to say that he ‘married at eighteen, like the fool that I was; and this is the consequence o’t’ (Hardy 7). Clearly, Henchard is unhappy with his marital status. Outside of the tent, a horse auctioneer is heard selling the last horse of the day, and Henchard says: ‘For my part I don’t see why men who have got wives and don’t want ‘em shouldn’t get rid of ‘em as these gipsy fellows do their old horses (…) Why, begad, I’d sell mine this minute if anybody would buy her!’ (Hardy 8). And so, he does. He sells his wife to a sailor, and when the sailor proposes to bring baby Elizabeth-Jane as well, Henchard puts in no effort to stop it. In other words, at the start of the novel Henchard feels no connection to his wife and daughter at all, and was not afraid to let everyone know either.
Eighteen years later, Elizabeth-Jane and her mother Susan arrive in Casterbridge, looking for Mr. Henchard. Growing up in the countryside, Elizabeth-Jane is a simple, uneducated girl. Surrounded by well-educated people in Casterbridge, Elizabeth-Jane decides to educate herself, because she no longer wants to be seen as only pretty and she is ashamed of her lack of education. As Bowlby puts it: ‘Part of her own life’s aim at this point is, at all costs, to make herself knowledgeable’ (205). Elizabeth-Jane exclaims,
If only they knew what an unfinished girl I am – that I can’t talk Italian, or use globes, or show any of the accomplishments they learn at boarding-schools, how they would despise me! Better sell all this finery and buy myself grammar-books and dictionaries and a history of all the philosophies! (Hardy 110).
Thus, Elizabeth-Jane takes matters into her own hands and makes sure she is perceived as smart, as well as beautiful. Soon after their arrival in Casterbridge Susan dies, and Henchard shows no interest in Elizabeth-Jane anymore. He spends most nights dining ‘with the farmers at the market-room in one of the two chief hotels, leaving [Elizabeth-Jane] in utter solitude’ (Hardy 152). Henchard is not concerned with Elizabeth-Jane’s whereabouts at all:
Henchard showed a positive distaste for the presence of this girl not her own, whenever he encountered her. (…) Could he have seen how she made use of those silent hours he might have found reason to reverse his judgement on her quality. She read and took notes incessantly, mastering facts with painful laboriousness, but never flinching from her self-imposed task (Hardy 152).
So, while Henchard is spending his time not with his stepdaughter, Elizabeth-Jane is developing herself immeasurably.
However, slowly but surely, Mr. Henchard realises what Elizabeth is doing, and starts to grow affection for her. Henchard’s attitude towards Elizabeth-Jane changes entirely, for he is suddenly obsessed with her: ‘In truth, a great change had come over him with regard to her, and he was developing the dream of a future lit by her filial presence, as though that way alone could happiness lie’ (Hardy 335). The following passage explains how important Elizabeth-Jane has become to Henchard:
In the midst of his gloom [Elizabeth-Jane] seemed to him as a point of light. He had liked the look of her face as she answered him from the stairs. There had been affection in it, and above all things what he desired now was affection from anything that was good and pure. She was not his own; yet, for the first time, he had a faint dream that he might get to like her as his own (Hardy 331).
Then, when Elizabeth-Jane and Donald Farfrae come together, Henchard cannot stand it: ‘Instead of thinking that a union between his cherished stepdaughter and the energetic thriving Donald was a thing to be desired for her good and his own, he hated the very possibility’ (Hardy 369). In other words, Henchard has realised his mistake in staying away from her and creating space between them. Towards the end of the novel, Henchard is a bitter man: ‘The whole land ahead of him was as darkness itself; there was nothing to come, nothing to wait for’ (Hardy 341). Henchard dies at the end of the novel, and his will states that ‘no man remember me’ (Hardy 384). So, at the end of the novel, Mr. Henchard dies a bitter man, and Elizabeth-Jane is a beautiful, happy, well-educated, and married young woman.
As has become clear from the above analysis, Hard Times and The Mayor of Casterbridge have strikingly similar plots. Both novels present a female character who, despite their disadvantageous surroundings – including parents and siblings who do not stand behind them, as is the case for Louisa Gradgrind, and the loss of a mother and an absent father-figure, as is the case for Elizabeth-Jane Newson – turn to themselves to develop their personality or skills and come out a better person. Besides this first similarity, both female characters have a father-figure who does not support them. Mr. Gradgrind completely ignores his daughter’s concerns about her emotions and her youth, and Mr. Henchard is completely indifferent to how Elizabeth-Jane spends her time. Ironically, these male characters are the ones who end up the most bitter in the end, regretting their life’s choices and wishing they had paid attention to their daughters earlier.
In conclusion, both Hard Times and The Mayor of Casterbridge put a female character in the foreground of the novel. The women turn to themselves, decide that something is missing in their lives, and develop themselves to achieve their goals. And both do it successfully. Arguably, Louisa and Elizabeth-Jane are the most thriving characters of their respective novels. Compared to the status of women in Victorian England, then, we can see a vast difference between the status of women in society and the status of women in these novels. While Louisa marries Mr. Bounderby at first to become the perfect housewife, she quickly realises that she should not be married to him only because he has money and would make her a wealthy woman. She knows that love is more important than wealth and breaks free from Mr. Bounderby when she develops feelings for Mr. Harthouse. While Elizabeth-Jane grew up an uneducated, simple, countryside girl, she decided for herself that she wanted to be well-educated and made sure to achieve this goal. Both female characters changed drastically in these novels. So, compared to the role of women in Victorian England, Hard Times and The Mayor of Casterbridge present a reality that is much more accepting of women’s struggles and development.
Works Cited
Bowlby, Rachel. A Child of One’s Own: Parental Stories. 1st ed., Oxford University Press, 2013.
Bradbury, Bettina. Colonial Comparisons: Rethinking Marriage, Civilization and Nation in the Nineteenth-century White Settler Societies. Rediscovering the British World, ed. Buckner, Philip, and Francis, R. Douglas, editors, Calgary University press, 2005.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Oxford University Press, New York, 1989.
Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.
Hughes, Kathryn. ‘Gender Roles in the 19th Century,’ The British Library, 15 May 2014. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century
Picard, Liza. ‘Education in Victorian Britain,’ The British Library, 14 Oct 2009. https://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/education-in-victorian-britain
Rogers, Philips. Dystopian Intertexts: Dickens’ ‘Hard Times’ and Zamiatin’s ‘We’. Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 35, No. 4. Penn State University Press, 1998. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40247165
Sonstroem, David. Fettered Fancy in Hard Times. Modern Language Association, Vol. 84, No 3, pp. 520-529. 1969. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1261140
Iris Elske 