there's nothing left here to remind me
THE ESSAY WASN'T DUE TODAY!!!!!!!???
AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
i stayed up til 6 : l
i changed it completely, though, at 2 am.
streetcar just wasn't working for me.
i guess i have it done at least.
AND i got the prof to read the first paragraph which she said was good so "WOOHOO" right?
so:
An accusatory eye has been cast on the power of woman and their sexuality since fabled Eden. In H. Rider Haggard’s She, the author feminizes a dangerous Africa in order to comment on the dangers of feminine power and the decadence of gender boundaries in Victorian England in the face of the New Woman’s Movement. Surely, Victorian England was no Eden, but many were content with the state of affairs and had no desire to acquiesce to this new group of heretical feminist forerunners. Haggard and others of his time grew more concerned with the nearing fin-de-siècle and were not about to have the angels in their houses turn to fallen women; to be tossed out of their Victorian paradise into a new century bereft of even the most basic of social proprieties, once more on account of Eve’s penchant for disturbance. By employing the wilds of Africa, the Amahagger women and their terrible empress, Ayesha to his cause, Haggard paints a vivid picture of the dangers inherent in the feminine.
Haggard was writing in a time of great uncertainty for those comfortable in the heteronormative state of Victorian England. Nearing the end of the century, or the fin-de-siècle, this time was characterized by a fear of impending doom and a lament for a time which had yet to pass (Knechtel, 09/28/05). Society was being reduced to mere rubble: the once strong foundation of religious adherence, gender roles and boundaries of sexuality were being questioned and thusly destroyed. This heteronormative society meant that it was assumed, unless externally signified by an unnatural or abnormal action, that everyone was heterosexual (Knechtel, 10/07/05); homosexuality had only very recently been defined. One of the leaders in the progression away from this assumed normalcy was the New Woman’s Movement. For those involved, society has assumed male superiority for long enough and a change was in order.
As most movements do, the New Woman’s Movement took to the streets. Female supporters began engaging in such unacceptable behaviour as public protest marches, riding bicycles and even wearing pants (Knechtel, 10/03/05). Previous to this, the perfect ideal of traditional Victorian femininity was that of the beloved “angel in the house”. This domestic deity was everything a Victorian woman should be; Passive, unassuming and asexual, she was the perfect daughter until she became the perfect wife. Her every ambition was as confined to the domestic sphere as she was, her every action to uphold the righteous morals of Victorianism. She did not even enjoy the act of sexual intercourse but endured it for reasons of procreation alone in order to ensure the continuance of the Victorian belief system and the might of England (Knechtel, 09/21/05). These ‘new women’ threatened everything Victorian society knew to be true and if such societal truth as male primacy and feminine submission were being undermined than, it was thought, any natural law could fall victim next. It was feared that the world would be thrown into chaos; women may even stop giving birth to children, the empire will fall (Knechtel, 09/21/05)!
However contradictory to the real lives of Victorians, many people, including Haggard, held fast to this increasingly undermined ideal. It was this slipping grip on previously accepted normalcy that prompted Haggard to write She in the manner that he did.
The heteronormative society that Haggard was so fond of is apparent in his depiction of Cambridge University. Cambridge is the utmost of homosocial settings. That is, it is almost completely saturated with members of one sex, males in this case, and the friendship and bonding between them (Knechtel, 10/03/05). Cambridge was a safe haven of logic and reason for the novel’s protagonists: Leo, Holly and Job. This secure, orderly and decidedly masculine institution of learning and brotherhood is in stark contrast to the untamed wilds of Africa. As soon as they near her shores they are bombarded by a squall, originally presumed to pass them by, with all the force only unbridled nature can muster. During the eye of the storm, Holly looks out “across the torn bosom of the ocean” (Haggard, 61) to the moon, the controller of tides and entity responsible for the squall, and notes “the ragged arrows of her light” (Haggard, 61) scattered across the waves of the ocean. When finally the squall had released them “[t]he moon went slowly down in chastened loveliness, she departed like some sweet bride into her chamber” (Haggard, 64) and “yet more quiet grew the sea, quiet as the soft mist that brooded on her bosom, and covered up her troubling” (Haggard, 64). Here Haggard is suggesting the horrible fatality that is innate to feminine power; that a woman, especially an unchaste or fallen woman, is capable of terrible things if she is allowed the power to realize them. When the moon is calm and sweet, she is like a bride: veiled and willing to be dominated and owned by her husband. This is much the same as how the ocean is depicted: troubled until the mist covers her up and causes her to be quiet. Haggard is stating that a woman’s power lies in her sexuality and it should not be unveiled and let loose upon the world for fear of suffering dire consequences.
This was not the last time Africa would contradict the masculine superiority of the protagonists. It seemed that the entire continent was at war with them and itself. Nature has long been observed as having feminine qualities, bringing about such phrases as ‘mother earth’ and establishing them into the collective social psyche. After attempting to assert their dominance over nature by shooting a waterbuck dead, the protagonists are faced not only with the onslaught of clouds of bloodthirsty mosquitoes but also by two lions. Under the cover of night, a lioness leads her male counterpart in attack on the protagonists’ boat. They manage to shoot and kill her but the lion falls prey to a different fate. A crocodile had been lying in wait and attacked the lion, a ferocious battle following. This lion, a symbol of pride, masculinity and England, was under attack by an under-evolved, vicious creature. As it happened, both the lion and the crocodile die in battle further exhibiting the fatality possible in trying to defeat nature.
As they continue on their journey they come across more instances of a state of internal turmoil; beautiful flowers being devoured by hideous maggots, ancient and eroded canals choked with weeds and a sickly fog that hovered over the reeking stagnant pools of water. As nature continues to assert herself over the heroes they get progressively worse for the wear, Leo even succumbing to a potentially fatal sickness.
The Caves of Kor also present a warning of the dangers of the feminine. Cavernous and labyrinthine, the Caves of Kor depict both the misunderstood female mind and also the equally misunderstood female sexual organs. Gaping and immeasurable, the caves were pocked with rooms upon rooms, secret passages and vast sepulchres, rooms of death holding several to several thousand long-dead corpses. As a metaphor for femininity, the caves do not paint a very amicable picture. They are places of danger, mystery and death.
Another abnormality the men are forced to deal with is that of the tribe of the Amahagger. In stark contrast to the society they are accustomed to, the masculine primacy of England and Cambridge, the women of the Amahagger seemed to be able to do whatever the pleased, if not be in total control. They were “not only upon terms of perfect equality among men, but are not held to them by any binding ties” (Haggard, 87). While at first this is regarded as possibly being beneficial to the society, the Amahagger are later found to be quite corrupt, brutish and ruthless. Led by a woman scorned, the most dangerous of all, the Amahagger set out to kill and eat Mohammed, the guide of the protagonists. After having their plan foiled by Holly mercilessly shooting Mohammed before the tribe had the chance to place a white-hot pot on his head, the Amahagger are sent into a murderous frenzy and attack the men.
Haggard was using this as an example of how women, incapable of making logical and rational choices, can send an entire society into chaos. The woman responsible for the attempted torture and cannibalism based her actions on her emotion, something a Victorian man would not dream of.
The most severe depiction of what evils a powerful woman is capable of is Ayesha, the overlord of the Amahagger. She rules over her subjects with an unflinching, if slender, iron fist. Hardened by centuries of loneliness and unbridled power over a submissive culture, obsessed with finding the love she once lost, Ayesha is much like the crocodile in the swamp, lying in wait to strike with all the power she deems necessary. With control over the forces of nature, she has the power to give and take life. Not only does she control nature, though, she is also in complete control over her own sexuality. She remains veiled for most of the time, if she so chose to reveal her “perfect and imperial shape”, (Haggard, 158) that was “surpassingly beautiful” (Haggard, 159) in order to attain what she wished, she would and unapologetically so. Even after striking Ustane dead, Ayesha was able to seduce Leo completely, even though he loved Ustane. She caused him to forget his fear and anger and recede into her arms.
Ayesha was a woman completely aware of the power she held just in her form and sexuality alone, that her “wonderful and awful loveliness” (Haggard, 162) was strong enough to turn even the most rational man into a mindless being. Though she is quite potent while robed, it is when she disengages for her gauzy adornments to reveal the sexual woman underneath that she is at her most fearsome. Even with all the powers of nature at her disposal, the power to give and take life, it is her potent sexuality which she saves as a last resort; her raw sexual power trumps even the ability to strike a foe dead without touching them.
Having not been able to get Ayesha out of his head, Holly gives to us one of the messages which Haggard is intent on conveying: “Curses on the fatal curiosity that is ever prompting man to draw the veil from woman” (Haggard, 163). We must keep our women covered and controlled, Haggard infers. Any power given to them will be misused because they are inherently dangerous and far too emotional to make proper decisions. For Haggard, a woman with too much power is as unflinching and ever-changing as the moon herself which is why, in She, prompted by the New Woman’s Movement of late 18th Century Victorian England, he warns the reader of the feminine.
Works Cited
Haggard, H. Rider. She; A History of Adventure. London: Penguin, 2004.
Knechtel, Ruth. False Ideals and the Victorian Period. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, September 21, 2005.
Knechtel, Ruth. Terms and Definitions Relevant to “She”. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, September 28, 2005.
Knechtel, Ruth. The New Woman’s Movement and “She”. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, October 3, 2005.
Knechtel, Ruth. Shelagh Delaney and “A Taste of Honey”. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, October 7, 2005.
it ain't my best work, but at least i have tomorrow evening to edit!
ANTOHER essay that is going to receive editing!
that's like... TWO THIS SEMESTER?
what an academic, i am.
this song is so lamely good.
i guess i better get started on that content analysis........................ gross.
COMING SOON: MY IWANTIT LIST!
AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
i stayed up til 6 : l
i changed it completely, though, at 2 am.
streetcar just wasn't working for me.
i guess i have it done at least.
AND i got the prof to read the first paragraph which she said was good so "WOOHOO" right?
so:
An accusatory eye has been cast on the power of woman and their sexuality since fabled Eden. In H. Rider Haggard’s She, the author feminizes a dangerous Africa in order to comment on the dangers of feminine power and the decadence of gender boundaries in Victorian England in the face of the New Woman’s Movement. Surely, Victorian England was no Eden, but many were content with the state of affairs and had no desire to acquiesce to this new group of heretical feminist forerunners. Haggard and others of his time grew more concerned with the nearing fin-de-siècle and were not about to have the angels in their houses turn to fallen women; to be tossed out of their Victorian paradise into a new century bereft of even the most basic of social proprieties, once more on account of Eve’s penchant for disturbance. By employing the wilds of Africa, the Amahagger women and their terrible empress, Ayesha to his cause, Haggard paints a vivid picture of the dangers inherent in the feminine.
Haggard was writing in a time of great uncertainty for those comfortable in the heteronormative state of Victorian England. Nearing the end of the century, or the fin-de-siècle, this time was characterized by a fear of impending doom and a lament for a time which had yet to pass (Knechtel, 09/28/05). Society was being reduced to mere rubble: the once strong foundation of religious adherence, gender roles and boundaries of sexuality were being questioned and thusly destroyed. This heteronormative society meant that it was assumed, unless externally signified by an unnatural or abnormal action, that everyone was heterosexual (Knechtel, 10/07/05); homosexuality had only very recently been defined. One of the leaders in the progression away from this assumed normalcy was the New Woman’s Movement. For those involved, society has assumed male superiority for long enough and a change was in order.
As most movements do, the New Woman’s Movement took to the streets. Female supporters began engaging in such unacceptable behaviour as public protest marches, riding bicycles and even wearing pants (Knechtel, 10/03/05). Previous to this, the perfect ideal of traditional Victorian femininity was that of the beloved “angel in the house”. This domestic deity was everything a Victorian woman should be; Passive, unassuming and asexual, she was the perfect daughter until she became the perfect wife. Her every ambition was as confined to the domestic sphere as she was, her every action to uphold the righteous morals of Victorianism. She did not even enjoy the act of sexual intercourse but endured it for reasons of procreation alone in order to ensure the continuance of the Victorian belief system and the might of England (Knechtel, 09/21/05). These ‘new women’ threatened everything Victorian society knew to be true and if such societal truth as male primacy and feminine submission were being undermined than, it was thought, any natural law could fall victim next. It was feared that the world would be thrown into chaos; women may even stop giving birth to children, the empire will fall (Knechtel, 09/21/05)!
However contradictory to the real lives of Victorians, many people, including Haggard, held fast to this increasingly undermined ideal. It was this slipping grip on previously accepted normalcy that prompted Haggard to write She in the manner that he did.
The heteronormative society that Haggard was so fond of is apparent in his depiction of Cambridge University. Cambridge is the utmost of homosocial settings. That is, it is almost completely saturated with members of one sex, males in this case, and the friendship and bonding between them (Knechtel, 10/03/05). Cambridge was a safe haven of logic and reason for the novel’s protagonists: Leo, Holly and Job. This secure, orderly and decidedly masculine institution of learning and brotherhood is in stark contrast to the untamed wilds of Africa. As soon as they near her shores they are bombarded by a squall, originally presumed to pass them by, with all the force only unbridled nature can muster. During the eye of the storm, Holly looks out “across the torn bosom of the ocean” (Haggard, 61) to the moon, the controller of tides and entity responsible for the squall, and notes “the ragged arrows of her light” (Haggard, 61) scattered across the waves of the ocean. When finally the squall had released them “[t]he moon went slowly down in chastened loveliness, she departed like some sweet bride into her chamber” (Haggard, 64) and “yet more quiet grew the sea, quiet as the soft mist that brooded on her bosom, and covered up her troubling” (Haggard, 64). Here Haggard is suggesting the horrible fatality that is innate to feminine power; that a woman, especially an unchaste or fallen woman, is capable of terrible things if she is allowed the power to realize them. When the moon is calm and sweet, she is like a bride: veiled and willing to be dominated and owned by her husband. This is much the same as how the ocean is depicted: troubled until the mist covers her up and causes her to be quiet. Haggard is stating that a woman’s power lies in her sexuality and it should not be unveiled and let loose upon the world for fear of suffering dire consequences.
This was not the last time Africa would contradict the masculine superiority of the protagonists. It seemed that the entire continent was at war with them and itself. Nature has long been observed as having feminine qualities, bringing about such phrases as ‘mother earth’ and establishing them into the collective social psyche. After attempting to assert their dominance over nature by shooting a waterbuck dead, the protagonists are faced not only with the onslaught of clouds of bloodthirsty mosquitoes but also by two lions. Under the cover of night, a lioness leads her male counterpart in attack on the protagonists’ boat. They manage to shoot and kill her but the lion falls prey to a different fate. A crocodile had been lying in wait and attacked the lion, a ferocious battle following. This lion, a symbol of pride, masculinity and England, was under attack by an under-evolved, vicious creature. As it happened, both the lion and the crocodile die in battle further exhibiting the fatality possible in trying to defeat nature.
As they continue on their journey they come across more instances of a state of internal turmoil; beautiful flowers being devoured by hideous maggots, ancient and eroded canals choked with weeds and a sickly fog that hovered over the reeking stagnant pools of water. As nature continues to assert herself over the heroes they get progressively worse for the wear, Leo even succumbing to a potentially fatal sickness.
The Caves of Kor also present a warning of the dangers of the feminine. Cavernous and labyrinthine, the Caves of Kor depict both the misunderstood female mind and also the equally misunderstood female sexual organs. Gaping and immeasurable, the caves were pocked with rooms upon rooms, secret passages and vast sepulchres, rooms of death holding several to several thousand long-dead corpses. As a metaphor for femininity, the caves do not paint a very amicable picture. They are places of danger, mystery and death.
Another abnormality the men are forced to deal with is that of the tribe of the Amahagger. In stark contrast to the society they are accustomed to, the masculine primacy of England and Cambridge, the women of the Amahagger seemed to be able to do whatever the pleased, if not be in total control. They were “not only upon terms of perfect equality among men, but are not held to them by any binding ties” (Haggard, 87). While at first this is regarded as possibly being beneficial to the society, the Amahagger are later found to be quite corrupt, brutish and ruthless. Led by a woman scorned, the most dangerous of all, the Amahagger set out to kill and eat Mohammed, the guide of the protagonists. After having their plan foiled by Holly mercilessly shooting Mohammed before the tribe had the chance to place a white-hot pot on his head, the Amahagger are sent into a murderous frenzy and attack the men.
Haggard was using this as an example of how women, incapable of making logical and rational choices, can send an entire society into chaos. The woman responsible for the attempted torture and cannibalism based her actions on her emotion, something a Victorian man would not dream of.
The most severe depiction of what evils a powerful woman is capable of is Ayesha, the overlord of the Amahagger. She rules over her subjects with an unflinching, if slender, iron fist. Hardened by centuries of loneliness and unbridled power over a submissive culture, obsessed with finding the love she once lost, Ayesha is much like the crocodile in the swamp, lying in wait to strike with all the power she deems necessary. With control over the forces of nature, she has the power to give and take life. Not only does she control nature, though, she is also in complete control over her own sexuality. She remains veiled for most of the time, if she so chose to reveal her “perfect and imperial shape”, (Haggard, 158) that was “surpassingly beautiful” (Haggard, 159) in order to attain what she wished, she would and unapologetically so. Even after striking Ustane dead, Ayesha was able to seduce Leo completely, even though he loved Ustane. She caused him to forget his fear and anger and recede into her arms.
Ayesha was a woman completely aware of the power she held just in her form and sexuality alone, that her “wonderful and awful loveliness” (Haggard, 162) was strong enough to turn even the most rational man into a mindless being. Though she is quite potent while robed, it is when she disengages for her gauzy adornments to reveal the sexual woman underneath that she is at her most fearsome. Even with all the powers of nature at her disposal, the power to give and take life, it is her potent sexuality which she saves as a last resort; her raw sexual power trumps even the ability to strike a foe dead without touching them.
Having not been able to get Ayesha out of his head, Holly gives to us one of the messages which Haggard is intent on conveying: “Curses on the fatal curiosity that is ever prompting man to draw the veil from woman” (Haggard, 163). We must keep our women covered and controlled, Haggard infers. Any power given to them will be misused because they are inherently dangerous and far too emotional to make proper decisions. For Haggard, a woman with too much power is as unflinching and ever-changing as the moon herself which is why, in She, prompted by the New Woman’s Movement of late 18th Century Victorian England, he warns the reader of the feminine.
Works Cited
Haggard, H. Rider. She; A History of Adventure. London: Penguin, 2004.
Knechtel, Ruth. False Ideals and the Victorian Period. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, September 21, 2005.
Knechtel, Ruth. Terms and Definitions Relevant to “She”. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, September 28, 2005.
Knechtel, Ruth. The New Woman’s Movement and “She”. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, October 3, 2005.
Knechtel, Ruth. Shelagh Delaney and “A Taste of Honey”. ENG 610 (021); Language of Love, Sex and Gender. Ryerson University, October 7, 2005.
it ain't my best work, but at least i have tomorrow evening to edit!
ANTOHER essay that is going to receive editing!
that's like... TWO THIS SEMESTER?
what an academic, i am.
this song is so lamely good.
i guess i better get started on that content analysis........................ gross.
COMING SOON: MY IWANTIT LIST!