ESH294-Essay 2 - Grade: 68 PDF

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How did the imagery of the night function in women's writing?...

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Question: How does the imagery of night function in women's writing in this

period? My argument in this essay will proceed by analysing how the imagery of night functions to illustrate the plurality of world’s at night and the complexity not depicted in the daytime. The three pieces of literature I will be analysing are Ann Radcliffe’s ‘The Italian’, selected sonnets by Charlotte Smith and Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s ‘Summer Evening’s Meditation’. All three of these pieces use the night in a similar manner which will be analysed through the essay. Ann Radcliffe’s (1764-1823) imagery of the night in ‘The Italian’ (1797) functions to complement and lift women. This is seen first where one of the main characters, Vivaldi, witnesses Ellena (the other protagonist) perform ‘a midnight hymn to the Virgin, accompanied by a lute’1. Although, the aim of this scene is not to draw attention to religious tradition for the audience to witness a beautiful moment where Vivaldi witnesses Ellena in her essence. All barriers that Ellena had put forth in their first meeting were removed, when Vivaldi first saw Ellena at the church of San Lorenzo at Naples where he was drawn to her by only her voice. In this part, the night has advanced to a stillness that is soothed by the waves at the bay below. There is personification of the scenery where the mountains ‘groan’ and the thunder ‘mutters’ which creates an active atmosphere juxtaposing the stillness that the night-time creates. Although Vivaldi had grown solemn due to there being no light in Ellena’s house, he was still in awe of his surroundings. He was overwhelmed with the nature of the sublime. Sublime is a concept that describes the relationship between man and nature as discussed in Edmund Burke’s significant essay on the sublime (1757), ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’. This is particularly important for the Gothic and protoRomantic tradition. I argue that the night-time creates a perfect environment for one to experience the sublime because there are no distractions. Ellena does capture Vivaldi’s intention instead of his surroundings but she compliments the ambience created not take away from it. From the description of the noises the sky and mountains made, his attention is drawn towards ‘a few choral voices softening in the distance.’ Ellena’s voice could be interpreted as a repetitive symbol throughout the novel that draws Vivaldi’s consciousness to a higher state as it is linked with the sublime here and when he first met her, her voice was her key feature that attracted him. In contrast, the imagery of the night captures a mysterious element not being able to show itself during the day. Again, a religious element is evident as the night Vivaldi walks Ellena and her aunt home he meets a ghostly figure of a Monk, which is later known as Schedoni who is ‘The Italian’ in this novel. The night is also attached to this extremely effective antagonist as the audience is introduced to him at night. The night functions as a time of transformation which allows Schedoni to advance his plots and scheme against Vivaldi and Ellena as he can mask who he truly is. Just as how Ellena is seen to complement the night and captures the beauty of it, Schedoni’s character thrives in its mystery and the audience is focused on his conniving ways. It can be argued that Ellena takes a passive role at night where Schedoni is active. This emphasis on a male’s role highlighted at night is an important fact to consider as it contrasts against the other two poems that will be discussed. Within the theme of religious elements in the novel, the church of San Lorenzo is emblematic of the supernatural which suits the monk role that Schedoni displays. It is known that the building itself radiates in the dark as much as it does in the daytime, this is symbolic as it equalizes the impact of the events that occur during the day and night in the novel. In ‘The Italian’ the church is described to ‘promote the sublime elevation of devotion’2 which arguably, becomes more individualised and personal elevation of devotion if one was to visit it at night. The Church compliments Schedoni’s mysterious role in the novel as the church has this atmosphere and it is the place where Vivaldi sees or rather hears Ellena for the first time. Even the fact that Ellena is veiled and not comfortable to 1 Ann Radcliffe, The Italian, (Oxford World’s Classics, 2017), p. 9 2 Ann Radcliffe, The Italian, (Oxford World’s Classics, 2017), p. 4

display herself is shrouded with mystery and speculation. Thus, the night-time is significant as the same boundaries held in the day is let loose at night. Why would a monk be roaming by himself at night and happen to warn Vivaldi? Why would the monk wait to come to him at night rather than telling him at the Church? The night-time heightens the urgency of events to take place and because of the lack of people that are awake during this time, it again provides privacy and comfortability for Schedoni to advance his plot. ‘The Italian’ not only illustrates a male perspective of the sublime but also a female perspective. Ellena’s experience is rooted in the obscure as she says, “The sun is already set. I tremble at what may be the perils of this place at such an obscure hour….” (1968:266). Ellena is fearful of the lateness of the hour while Vivaldi was not, however she finds comfort after the sunset because it gave her a break “from all the ceremonial restraints of the society” and where “her very thoughts seemed more at liberty” (1968:369). Likewise, instead of the darkness inciting fear in her, Ellena, now admiringly “watches the rays retiring and the fading imagery of the lower scene, till, the sun having sunk into the waves” (1986:369). It is important to know the sun sinks into the waves and disappears whereas, in the later literary pieces that will be discussed, the moon gives life to the waves and the sea. The sun and moon are subtly awarded two polarizing attributes in this scene and collectively in the novel. Barbauld’s ‘Summer Evening’s Meditation’3 (1773) is like ‘The Italian’ as the imagery of the night is also closely linked to religion and spirituality of some sort. The aim of the poem calls the audience towards God coinciding with Anna Letitia Barbauld’s (1743-1825) controversial rational dissenter beliefs. The audience is taken on a transcendental experience with Barbauld’s use of literary devices, notably personification, and poetic stylization. The poem illustrates the narrator’s reflections and philosophizing thoughts of the summer evening’s sky. The planets and stars are personified as Barbauld communicates the speaker’s sublime feeling of a celestial connection to nature. This correlates to what Vivaldi felt discussed in the first paragraph, except instead of a third-person perspective, we see a first-person narrative. The poem presents the night to enable women’s independent thought whereas the day is the realm of men. Barbauld’s begins with the description of the sun as an oppressive figure like the Greek Mythological God, Apollo, that stifles the night sky which ‘Diana’s moon’ pushes out alluding that the night is a positive time. The sun is characterised as a ‘sultry tyrant’ that lives in ‘his short-liv’d rage’ (line 1). For the speaker to say without the sun, the skies don’t repel it indicates the sun is an anomaly in the sky whereas the moon compliments the night and unifies the other elements (the planets and the stars) found in the night sky. This imagery could be likened to a comforting maternal figure that takes care of all her children. The moon is never considered to be a dominant figure in Romantic tradition. It could be seen to be undermined and demonized by the British Romantic (patriarchal) culture, notably ‘Dejection: An Ode’ by Samuel Coleridge where the speaker sees the new moon as a bad omen. However, it is given power and respect as a figure while the sun is condemned. The moon’s strength can be seen by its ability to push out the tyrannical sun, almost by force. There are gendered terms throughout the poem as qualities are rendered masculine and feminine focus on the different planets which could be seen clearer among the dark surroundings that the night brings, although not seen by the naked eye. ‘The dazzled sight, but with mild maiden beams’ (line 3) even in this maiden is associated with females but in this case, it represents the stars. Women are attributed to the features of the night sky but positively. The ending of this poems embodies a calling towards God, and as Barbauld was a rational dissenter it calls towards a new perspective on religion or even a wholesome perspective in general. Also, the

3 Anna Letitia Barbauld, A Summer Evening’s Meditation, (The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, 9th ed., D, W.W. Norton, 2012) pp. 43-45

poem links to Radcliffe’s novel as the religious imagery of marriage, convents, churches and religious figures are rooted in the novel and kidnapping and death occur in the night. Charlotte Turner Smith (1749-1806) was allied with English Romanticism, who was a notable figure to revive the English sonnet. According to Paula Backscheider, the sonnet is one of the notable forms that women have made ‘major contributions’4 to at the end of the eighteenth-century. Smith’s sonnet ‘To Night’ and ‘Written in the Church Yard at Middleton in Sussex’ 5 revives the sublime atmosphere of nature through the peace of darkness which ‘The Italian’ and ‘Summer Evening’s Meditation’ also illustrate. Her overt admiration of the night-time becomes a metaphor for regaining autonomy within a male-dominated society especially as a mother with a hectic lifestyle. Overall, an elegiac tone expresses this concept through profound phraseology and personification of the moon. The first vital point to mention is that the moon is depicted as a woman, like Barbauld’s poem. The poet uses adjectives such as ‘pale’ (line 3), ‘uncertain’ (line 3) and ‘enfeebled mind[ed]’ (line 5), but the moon is also captivating yet tired. These first adjectives could be used to describe the stereotype of a Victorian woman with sensibility. Feeble and uncertain to allow men to dominate and overtake and concerning the poem, for the sun to shine bright in contrast. The juxtaposed phrasing has a jarring effect which successfully engages the speaker’s audience. The sorrowful role that the moon plays as she pleads for her freedom from her ‘deep depression’ (line 5), which compliments the ‘mournful’ (line 1) atmosphere of the night. Unambiguously, the speaker retains a sense of appreciation for the ‘sober-suited night’ (line 1) because of the moon. The moon takes on a form as a companion, a friend and a mirror of the narrator. Through the similarities shared between these two figures, the “cheerless[ness]” (line 10) and “quiet gloom” (line 11) becomes far more endurable because of their companionship. In contrast, the poem has a sombre ending as the sorrows of a woman are “lost on earth” (line 14) but the narrator still yearns for her griefs to “reach…the ear of Heaven” (line 14). The sonnet ends depressingly as it depicts the speaker to feel overpowered due to her incapability to change the patriarchal society’s status quo and ease her suffering. The only answer is for death to free her distresses. One could argue like the moon which has a repetitive life of providing light at night and being trapped in that pattern, the woman feels imprisoned by her simple, monotonous life. Therefore, she prays to heaven to improve her circumstances. It is noteworthy to mention that the night providing relief from the day’s distresses (including society’s restraints on women) is similar to Ellena’s obscure experience of the sublime mentioned earlier. In various ways, this sonnet is also reflective of ‘Summer Evening’s Meditation’ as it contains religious elements and a sign to either get closer to God and to seek solace through him. Also, both depict the figure of the moon as a woman but give autonomy to it and write of it in a favourable, sympathetic manner. The poet masterfully explores the problematic repercussions of gender roles imposed on women in the late British Romantic society through an impactful yet simple concept. By metaphorizing the bond of sorority through the personification of the moon which allows her to assert the freedom and truest identity of many women through this sonnet. That they are not able to achieve when they are being oppressed through socially constructed gender role that men only benefit from. In this way, ‘To Night’ provides strength and sorority through the imagery of night for women. Similarly, ‘Written in the Church Yard at Middleton in Sussex’ gives strength to the moon instead of allowing it to be a dominant figure. The poem discusses the turbulent, chaotic nature of the sea, which breaks free from its boundaries to flood the seaside churchyard and disturb the dead bodies

4 From her book, Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and Their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre, (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 317.

5 Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets (Ulan Press, 2012), pp. 1-4. All references to Smith's poetry are from this volume.

buried in the churchyard. The force of the wind was so great since it was under pressure from the moon, whose gravitational force caused the tides in the first place. The female narrator shares that she envies the dead, despite their fragmented positions washed up around the churchyard because they cannot be troubled by this turbulent storm. It does not matter that their bones are torn up by the wild wind and transported to the shore because the souls of those who once inhabited these remains are at rest. These lucky souls do not have to bear ‘life’s long storm’ which is currently tyrannizing her. The real-life storm in the poem becomes a microcosm to the speaker’s life. ‘To Night’ shares, a similar depressing tone where death is seen as a release and life is seen as a prison. This Shakespearean (or English) sonnet contains three quatrains and a concluding couplet, a similar structure for all her other sonnets. However, Smith utilizes this structure to reinforce the narrator’s sense of isolation and confinement. Firstly, she employs an enclosed rhyme in the quatrains (abbacddc) instead of the usual alternate rhymes found in a sonnet (ababcdc) And secondly, she repeats rhymes: the c rhyme (‘cave’ and ‘grave’) and the f rhyme (‘wave’ and ‘rave’). The sea and wind may physically be able to break barriers – like rising the bodies up swiftly to the shore - but the woman is ‘oppressed’ by merely existing. The first quatrain slyly illustrates this nature of feeling trapped through the long i assonance that the a and b rhymes express themselves. For example, the words ‘tides’, ‘combines’, ‘confines’ (are close to their partners, the two latter words are within their own sound-prison), whereas ‘rides’ all keep themselves intimately together as the words ‘wild’ and ‘rising’ maintain the long i sounds patterns all the way into the second quatrain. Thus, the structure of the poem reinforces the speaker’s sense of entrapment collectively as their placement and uses mirror her feelings. In addition, the nature of the storm is a pathetic fallacy since the weather mimics how she feels, the storm has brewed her own rage and anger towards her own life. Just as how the powerful winds disrupt the bodies and her surroundings, they trigger feelings in her that remind her of her position in life. In addition, the word ‘sublimely’ is a particularly loaded word as discussed earlier but the mention of it reinforces this poem to be a part of Gothic-Romantic tradition. In contrast, to ‘The Italian’ where Vivaldi witness Ellena’s singing a midnight hymn, the moon soothes the waves but here the force of the moon created such havoc. Although both depict the moon as strong figures, their uses and energies are illustrated differently. The moon possesses the power to both create harmony and tumult. To conclude, the function of the imagery illustrated for the night in these literary pieces provide liberty and sorority for women. This is an overarching similarity; differences occur individually in these texts. ‘The Italian’ liberates both men and women to experience the sublime in the night, it also takes on stereotypical features of the night found in other novels where it allows the plot to advance and become engaging for the audience – although, at the expense of the protagonists. Summer Evening’s Meditation combines Christianity and Greek mythology to portray the transcending experience that only the night can bring and categorises the night to be a comfort and peace through these elements. ‘To Night’ and ‘Written in the Church Yard at Middleton in Sussex’ use a key feature of the night, the moon, to liberate the narrator and create a wonderful scenic atmosphere. All pieces collectively encompass the Romantic tradition of the sublime to emphasise mundane emotions like profoundness, sadness and happiness in a deeper way.

Bibliography Barbauld, Anna Letitia. A Summer Evening’s Meditation, (The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, 9th ed., D, W.W. Norton, 2012) pp. 43-45

Backsheider, Paula. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and Their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre, (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 317. Radcliffe, Ann. The Italian, (Oxford World’s Classics, 2017) Smith, Charlotte. Elegiac Sonnets (Ulan Press, 2012), pp. 1-4. All references to Smith's poetry are from this volume....