Good Women

[elettaria]

There seems to be a strong trend, particularly in 19th century literature, of portraying disabled women as so saintly that few readers can actually stand them. Sometimes the author seems to be despising the character too, sometimes they seem to be terribly fond of them and not have realised that no one else is. A lot of these characters die.

Comments

[gehayi]

Louisa May Alcott does it in another book, too--this one called Jack and Jill. Chapter 15, which is entitled "Saint Lucy," is especially blatant:

"One day, when the princes were out-ahem! we'll say hunting-they found a little damsel lying on the snow, half dead with cold, they thought. She was the child of a poor woman who lived in the forest-a wild little thing, always dancing and singing about; as hard to catch as a squirrel, and so fearless she would climb the highest trees, leap broad brooks, or jump off the steep rocks to show her courage. The boys carried her home to the palace, and the queen was glad to have her. She had fallen and hurt herself, so she lay in bed week after week, with her mother to take care of her

[elettaria]

ICK. That's the most revolting example of inspiration porn I've seen in my life. It's so explicit about caging wild women, too. Actually, I wonder whether it would make a good example when explaining to people why we really don't like being told we're inspirational?

What's the "ahem, hunting" about? There's the obvious, but snowy forests aren't really where red light districts happen, nor would I expect that in an Alcott story.

It's interesting that the girl in this story is punished for being bad, bad in this case meaning unfeminine, wild and so forth. Same goes for What Katy Did. Clarissa, on the other hand, is punished for doing her best to be good, and ye gods, Richardson puts her through the wringer. The first two get accidents, Clarissa gets mental illness (after various dramatic, and indeed traumatic, events), and in all cases you could blame the victims if you wanted to be particularly nasty, though it would be absolutely unfair to.

Laura Fairlie in The Woman in White is another one roughly along the Clarissa lines,

[gehayi]

What's the "ahem, hunting" about? There's the obvious, but snowy forests aren't really where red light districts happen, nor would I expect that in an Alcott story.

The "ahem, hunting" thing is an attempt to make the story of Jill's accident sound more fairy-tale-ish, because princes who are out hunting in fairy tales often stumble upon maidens in distress. However, the "hunting" bit makes it look like Jack and his older brother Frank were out together and no one else was around. In reality, Frank was one of a large crowd that was out with Jack that day, and thirteen-year-olds Jack Minot and Jill (actually Janey) Pecq were hurt in the same sledding accident, which happened because someone dared Jill to slide down a very steep and rocky hill and Jill asked Jack (who had a sled, whereas she didn't) to take her down the steep hill a couple of times.

"Jack, take me down that coast. Joe said I wouldn't dare to do it, so I must," commanded Jill, as they paused for breath after the long trudge up hill. Jill, of course, was not her real

[dark_phoenix54]

I've seen that same thing in movies from, I think, the 1940s, too. The wife has been in an accident, can no longer walk, and wants to 'free' her husband because she is a burden and 'can no longer be a real wife to him'. WTF? If you use a wheelchair suddenly you're useless and must do the noble thing and die or something so your husband can be happy? Gah.

[lilacsigil]

Katy's injury is from swinging too high on a dangerous swing when she's been specifically told not to, so it's definitely a "taming" story in that part. On the other hand, she is shown to keep her creativity, liveliness and bossiness whether disabled or not, and in a following book (where she is no longer disabled) still manages to get into trouble by being over-enthusiastic and disobedient.

[kankurette]

I HATED the Cousin Helen / School of Pain bits so much. The Chalet School used to pull that shit as well, with one insufferably snobby character getting injured on a mountain and becoming a Nice Disabled Person and a Total Inspiration - not to mention the various sickly kids running around.

[prydera]

As a note, Gone with the Wind was written in 1939 so while it's placed in the Victorian Era, it was written much more recently. I haven't read it so I have no idea if Mitchell was trying to write in the style of the period she was writing about or not.

I actually like Beth in Little Women. Yes, she's a bit too good to be true, but if you take away the dying and the religious bit, her actual personality is the most similar to mine (shy, quiet, etc.). She doesn't actually have a love life, but there is discussion at some point of her having a crush on Laurie.

Another character you might want to add to this list is Clara in Heidi by Johanna Spyri (showing it wasn't just an English language thing). I read her as having something along the lines of ME/CFS and she's another semi-saintly figure for most of the book. I know there are some others I could add to the list because part of a class I took discussed the concept in literature of women who are "too good to live", but I'm blanking on the others