The representation of high society in 18th century England is that of two groups in Charlotte Smith's "Desmond". The first group represented is that of the overly worried by appearances and material things as many of the relatives and acquaintances of those writing the letters are. On the other hand, Smith paints the seemingly enlightened and almost removed members of the society who believe in notions such as love and equality. These people tend to be the actual letter writers, specifically Desmond, Geraldine, Bethel, and Fanny. Another feature of these characters in their sorrow in being stuck in their societal expectations, such as Desmond's dread of marrying someone he does not love or Geraldine's obligation to do what her husband and mother want despite wanting the opposite. This stark difference between types of people is meant to paint a jarring picture that brings pity to the writers and a dislike of those they are forced to spend their time with. It also builds a repertoire for these characters by showing the writers as able to comment on important matter while their counterparts are vapid and worried only by things that affect their honour.
One of these examples in the third volume is that of Mrs. Waverly's gossip in contrast with Desmond's musings on the French Revolution. The audience is made to be frustrated by Miss Elford's story of Geraldine and Desmond being together as mistress and master. It is horrific to Mrs. Waverly's that her daughter should be unfaithful to her husband and deceitful to her family not due to concern for the girl or her grandchildren, but due to her actions "destroy (ing) the honour of my family" (353). Not surprisingly, Fanny is worried about how it may affect the emotions of her sister. Again the audience sees the stark contrast between the material mother and her sensible daughter.
This is also a comment on the problems with aristocracy as a group if people worried only by trivial matters. The issue with this us that it is also the group of people in charge of the affairs of regular men. These are the lords and ladies of the land who have a majority of the money while doing little labor. It is a satirization of an entire class of people as being unfit to rule. This is, of course, with the exemption of the few enlightened persons who pave the way forward through things like the French Revolution. In fact, it could be argued that Smith is commenting on the need to get rid of the aristocracy and is celebrating the French for doing just that. This is actually discussed in the first volume between Desmond and Miss Fairfax where Desmond sees the fall as a good thing (73). Overall, the contrast is definitely meant to show the folly of the material upper class while also raising the esteem of the writers.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Desmond Volume III
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
When you wrote that "this is also a comment on the problems with aristocracy as a group of people worried worried only about trivial matters," it reminded me of the cartoon we discussed during class that portrayed the robust, angry, wealthy Englishman in contrast to the thin, content, poor French woman. Even though I understand that the cartoon is a direct reference to the consequences that the French Revolution will bring-- and that's no trivial thing-- your comment and analysis nevertheless brings that image to my mind because it seems that the aristocracy is swept up by trivial things like you said, and that the people outside of that strata are the ones that are the actual active forces in this novel. I feel like in retrospect, looking back at the previous parts of the novel, we have those sentiments peeking through as well through the use of satire and humor.
ReplyDelete