Reading: Shirley (finally)
Goddamn you Charlotte Brontë.
[For those not wanting to be spoiled at all about the last 200 or so stupidly plotted pages of this novel -- you'll want to find something else to read. You can always check out the archives, see if I've written something funny at all in, say, January of 2006.]
So I'll bring you up to speed. For a while, Caroline and Shirley were BFF, but both kind of worked up over the same guy, Robert Moore. Robert Moore owns a mill, is low on cash, and seems to be putting the smooth moves on Shirley (who, PS, is a wealthy heiress/landowner). Sure, when he runs into Caroline, he's all giving her the love-eye. But up to the point where Caroline gets sick (we'll get to that bit of plot mishigas in a minute), he's gunning real hard for Shirley.
In the span of a few pages, Caroline gets sick, Robert's long-lost brother shows up as the tutor of Shirley's uncle's family, and we find out the Shirley's governess is actually Caroline's mom.
Yeah.
I know.
It was at this point in the novel (around page 400 of a 600 page book) that I started getting a little worried about Charlotte and her novel. It had been really interesting up to that point. Brontë was writing clearly and frankly about the plight of women in the 19th century (which, frankly, weren't so great it turns out, what with the subjugation and the having no rights and the "why can't you just sit and knit a spell?" attitude of most of the men at that time). She was able to challenge and explore some of these assumptions through the character of Shirley, who was able to fluidly move between sexes without getting all silly like Virginia Woolf. But, for whatever reason, Brontë decided to shy away from the natural conclusion of where the story was going to take her and decided, last minute, to hire monkeys to throw wrenches at her novel. And while I'm as saddened by the plight of out of work monkeys as the next person -- I don't know that this is the kind of work we want them doing. Plus, when they're not stealing our jobs, they're stealing our women.
Stupid monkeys.
Let's take each plot element and examine it on its own. First, there's Caroline's illness. On it's own, I have no problem with it, and it makes sense. Caroline falls ill partly because of all the late night excitement she's been through (there's a scene where she and Shirley sneak through the woods with guns in the hope of being of service to Robert Moore as he protects his mill from a roving bad of hopped-up-on-anger Luddites); she also falls ill because her heart's broken. She sees the way Robert Moore and Shirley are togehter. She's also heard Robert Moore tell her that he has no interest in marrying her. I mean, Charlotte: We were there, too. We heard him say that to her. So it makes sense that she would take a little ill, and then that illness would be exacerbated by despondency.
Next, let's add the part where Shriley's governess (and now paid companion, since Shirley is of an age where she really doesn't need a governess any more) turns out to be Caroline's long-lost mom. Why? I don't know. Part of what happens is, when Caroline learns that Mrs. Pryor is her mother, she stops being ill and starts getting better. Then, she spends the rest of her scenes with Mrs. Pryor saying things like, "Read me a story, now." Or, "I hate the way you dress; you should change it. Now." Or, "Isn't it great we've found each other? Comb my hair: NOW." Prior to Caroline's illness, Caroline and Mrs. Pryor were on a walk and Mrs. Pryor told Caroline that she was planning on leaving Caroline a small income once Mrs. Pryor you know, died. Not that she was planning on dying any time soon; she was just saying, "When that time comes, I want you to have my fortune." I was really intrigued by this development; I also thought this was Charlotte's way of preparing us for the fact that yeah, Robert Moore is going to choose Shirley. And while my heart went out to Caroline, and I was sad for her, I was okay with that development.
Having Mrs. Pryor turn out to be Caroline's mom, though, weakens that plot piece for me. It's not one woman taking care of another woman simply because she's a woman. It's a mother taking care of her daughter which isn't as interesting. And part of my irritation is totally my own fault; that's not that novel Brontë wrote, so it's silly of me to get worked up about how I'd rather the novel were. My response to that, though, is that I feel like Brontë was heading in one direction with this -- and then the whole illness/"Look, my mom!" thing sort of rushed into the room wearing a lampshade on its head and we all had to pay attention to that.
The third part is Louis. Louis is Robert's brother. Up until around page 400, we hadn't really heard about Robert's brother. He wasn't that important. No one seemed to be pining away for him. In none of the preceding 399 pages had Brontë set up any reason for him to show up (and, now that I think of it, likewise for the Mrs. Pryor-as-Caroline's-mom business, either). Except, Brontë needs him to show up because she wants to have a happy ending for both of her female characters -- so she needs two brothers to do that. Shirley will end the novel married to Louis (who, apparently, has been pining for her ever since he was her tutor -- a fact that she keeps secret from both Caroline and the reader for too long. And Caroline tries to call her on that, only she does it sort of half-assedly since she's too busy bossing her new mom around and at several points throughout the novel after that, I wanted to offer Mrs. Pryor a safe house to get away from the abuses of out-of-control Caroline) and Caroline gets Robert. Even though Robert has already proposed to Shirley. (Brontë gets herself out of that jamb by having Shirley say no because she feels Robert's only asking her because she's loaded -- but that's something that Brontë never shows us as readers. Every time we've seen Robert and Shirley together, he wasn't all macking on her wallet; he truly seemed interested in and in love with Shirley.)
Anyway. I don't feel the novel earned its ending at all. And I think that Brontë sort of realized that she wasn't happy with the direction her novel was taking. But rather than redo everything, she just thought, "I'll do this," with no thought as to how it all fits together.
I'm glad to be done. And, that craptastic ending not withstanding, I'm glad to have read it. Brontë's insight into the position of women at the time is very enlightening and illuminating. It's heartening to realize that people did no better, even if they weren't able to affect any change. The novel still holds its place as #2 on my list of favorite Brontë novels. We'll see if The Professor knocks it down at all.
[For those not wanting to be spoiled at all about the last 200 or so stupidly plotted pages of this novel -- you'll want to find something else to read. You can always check out the archives, see if I've written something funny at all in, say, January of 2006.]
In the span of a few pages, Caroline gets sick, Robert's long-lost brother shows up as the tutor of Shirley's uncle's family, and we find out the Shirley's governess is actually Caroline's mom.
Yeah.
I know.
It was at this point in the novel (around page 400 of a 600 page book) that I started getting a little worried about Charlotte and her novel. It had been really interesting up to that point. Brontë was writing clearly and frankly about the plight of women in the 19th century (which, frankly, weren't so great it turns out, what with the subjugation and the having no rights and the "why can't you just sit and knit a spell?" attitude of most of the men at that time). She was able to challenge and explore some of these assumptions through the character of Shirley, who was able to fluidly move between sexes without getting all silly like Virginia Woolf. But, for whatever reason, Brontë decided to shy away from the natural conclusion of where the story was going to take her and decided, last minute, to hire monkeys to throw wrenches at her novel. And while I'm as saddened by the plight of out of work monkeys as the next person -- I don't know that this is the kind of work we want them doing. Plus, when they're not stealing our jobs, they're stealing our women.
Stupid monkeys.
Let's take each plot element and examine it on its own. First, there's Caroline's illness. On it's own, I have no problem with it, and it makes sense. Caroline falls ill partly because of all the late night excitement she's been through (there's a scene where she and Shirley sneak through the woods with guns in the hope of being of service to Robert Moore as he protects his mill from a roving bad of hopped-up-on-anger Luddites); she also falls ill because her heart's broken. She sees the way Robert Moore and Shirley are togehter. She's also heard Robert Moore tell her that he has no interest in marrying her. I mean, Charlotte: We were there, too. We heard him say that to her. So it makes sense that she would take a little ill, and then that illness would be exacerbated by despondency.
Next, let's add the part where Shriley's governess (and now paid companion, since Shirley is of an age where she really doesn't need a governess any more) turns out to be Caroline's long-lost mom. Why? I don't know. Part of what happens is, when Caroline learns that Mrs. Pryor is her mother, she stops being ill and starts getting better. Then, she spends the rest of her scenes with Mrs. Pryor saying things like, "Read me a story, now." Or, "I hate the way you dress; you should change it. Now." Or, "Isn't it great we've found each other? Comb my hair: NOW." Prior to Caroline's illness, Caroline and Mrs. Pryor were on a walk and Mrs. Pryor told Caroline that she was planning on leaving Caroline a small income once Mrs. Pryor you know, died. Not that she was planning on dying any time soon; she was just saying, "When that time comes, I want you to have my fortune." I was really intrigued by this development; I also thought this was Charlotte's way of preparing us for the fact that yeah, Robert Moore is going to choose Shirley. And while my heart went out to Caroline, and I was sad for her, I was okay with that development.
Having Mrs. Pryor turn out to be Caroline's mom, though, weakens that plot piece for me. It's not one woman taking care of another woman simply because she's a woman. It's a mother taking care of her daughter which isn't as interesting. And part of my irritation is totally my own fault; that's not that novel Brontë wrote, so it's silly of me to get worked up about how I'd rather the novel were. My response to that, though, is that I feel like Brontë was heading in one direction with this -- and then the whole illness/"Look, my mom!" thing sort of rushed into the room wearing a lampshade on its head and we all had to pay attention to that.
The third part is Louis. Louis is Robert's brother. Up until around page 400, we hadn't really heard about Robert's brother. He wasn't that important. No one seemed to be pining away for him. In none of the preceding 399 pages had Brontë set up any reason for him to show up (and, now that I think of it, likewise for the Mrs. Pryor-as-Caroline's-mom business, either). Except, Brontë needs him to show up because she wants to have a happy ending for both of her female characters -- so she needs two brothers to do that. Shirley will end the novel married to Louis (who, apparently, has been pining for her ever since he was her tutor -- a fact that she keeps secret from both Caroline and the reader for too long. And Caroline tries to call her on that, only she does it sort of half-assedly since she's too busy bossing her new mom around and at several points throughout the novel after that, I wanted to offer Mrs. Pryor a safe house to get away from the abuses of out-of-control Caroline) and Caroline gets Robert. Even though Robert has already proposed to Shirley. (Brontë gets herself out of that jamb by having Shirley say no because she feels Robert's only asking her because she's loaded -- but that's something that Brontë never shows us as readers. Every time we've seen Robert and Shirley together, he wasn't all macking on her wallet; he truly seemed interested in and in love with Shirley.)
Anyway. I don't feel the novel earned its ending at all. And I think that Brontë sort of realized that she wasn't happy with the direction her novel was taking. But rather than redo everything, she just thought, "I'll do this," with no thought as to how it all fits together.
I'm glad to be done. And, that craptastic ending not withstanding, I'm glad to have read it. Brontë's insight into the position of women at the time is very enlightening and illuminating. It's heartening to realize that people did no better, even if they weren't able to affect any change. The novel still holds its place as #2 on my list of favorite Brontë novels. We'll see if The Professor knocks it down at all.
posted by Mike at 9:21 AM
2 Comments:
I should reread Shirley. I have quite a blurry memory of some parts. I remember the ending as going on for ages. It's not a bad book when you stop to consider the circumstances in which it was written after all.
Anyway - just felt like pointing out a funny thing you might have overlooked. Mrs Pryor first name is Agnes and her maiden name was Grey. Now does that name ring a bell? :)
Also, Caroline and Agnes Grey (Anne's) are the only Brontë characters to have a mother. Talk about a traumatic experience in their lives :(
Sorry to change the subject, but have you considered publishing essays? I see that you've got a novel simmering, and you cook up lit crit. I'm not knocking either of 'em. But you seem like a born essayist of the Benchley-Thurber- Sullivan-Lardner school.
You may go back to whatever you were doing now.
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