‘Woman is, if she could only realize it, man’s superior by reason of her maternity – the negation of that is her greatest cowardice’ (George Egerton). What different attitudes to motherhood are represented within 1890s literature?
Among the many ideas around women’s rights that were called into question during the 1890s, those surrounding motherhood were subject to rigorous debate. Many progressive thinkers criticised the societal expectation on women to be mothers, and saw it as oppressive. In this essay, I will explore the work of two female writers who instead of sharing such views, champion motherhood as being a virtuous aspect of femininity. Firstly, I will look at Marie Corelli’s story, ‘My Wonderful Wife’. Here, I will argue that Corelli offers a satirising and critical portrayal of a progressive ‘New Woman’ mother to warn readers about the consequences of women rejecting their traditional motherly roles. Subsequently, I will explore George Egerton’s short story, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’. It will be argued that both the embedded narrator’s dialogue and the frame narrator’s closing remarks depict motherhood as being a desirable and fulfilling choice for women. Both discussions will draw on the authors’ beliefs in eugenics and fears of degeneration. Towards the latter stages of the essay, I will bring both texts into dialogue, where relevant.
In both texts, the authors convey complex and ambivalent views around contemporary debates of women’s maternal roles. Neither author adopts a consistent political position, and whilst some aspects of their respective narratives show progressive feminist views, others indicate more conservative ideology. This essay will seek to unpack some of this complexity.
In Marie Corelli’s ‘My Wonderful Wife’, the descriptions of Honoria (William the narrator’s ‘New Woman’ wife) emphasise her vigour. William notes that ‘health radiated from her,’[1] and that ‘she never tired, never fell faint.’[2] The emphasis on Honoria’s ‘splendid physical condition’[3] relates to Corelli’s adherence to eugenics, a belief in human selective breeding to reproduce desirable characteristics in the population. This belief coincided with Corelli’s support for British Colonialism. She viewed the health of the female population to be crucial for giving birth to strong males, which in turn would strengthen the Empire by ensuring the health of future generations of soldiers. In addition, Corelli was a devout Christian, and viewed motherhood as a divine calling for women.
Corelli alludes to her eugenic beliefs in her article, ‘The Girl Graduate’. She quotes a ‘learned man’ who recalls seeing women studying at Cambridge University colleges. The man is quoted to have said: ‘Such women as I saw there… will never be the mothers of heroes.’[4] This implies that by studying, the women are neglecting their maternal duty, and as a result will become inferior ‘breeding stock’, meaning that they will not give birth to healthy children for future generations of the Empire. Corelli’s own words in the article share this view, such as when she says women are ‘destroying their natural grace’ by trying to become ‘the equals of men.’[5]
These views seem to be contradicted by some aspects of ‘My Wonderful Wife’. Even though Honoria’s vigour adheres to Corelli’s ideals of a healthy mother, Honoria is incompetent at motherhood. Soon after the baby’s birth, she says, ‘I can’t lay a finger on [the baby] without bruising him black and blue.’[6] This implies that Honoria’s physical strength means she lacks the traditional feminine gentleness needed for childcare. This seems to contradict Corelli’s views on the importance of physical strength and health for mothers, as discussed on page 2.
How are we to interpret Corelli’s seemingly contradictory views? I argue that Corelli portrays Honoria as being endowed with strength to imply that she is a ‘masculinised’ woman who has ‘lost’ her traditional femininity. Corelli does this to imply that her ‘New Woman’ behaviour, and pursuit of traditional masculine activities, has led her to be unsuitable for motherhood. This can be read as a ‘warning’ to readers about the consequences of women abandoning their traditional femininity, and becoming ‘New Women’. This coincides with Corelli’s dislike of the ‘New Woman’, who, as Ransom points out, was a figure Corelli ‘disapproved of.’[7] Honoria’s ‘masculinised’ appearance and behaviour is demonstrated, for example, when William describes her as his ‘boyish-looking wife,’[8] or says, ‘she had appetite enough for two ordinary men… she ate a mixture of things no ordinary man could possibly eat without future spasms.’[9]
In terms of Corelli’s beliefs in the importance of motherhood for the Empire, Porter argues that such views ‘aided [women] by raising the profile and therefore the status of ‘women’s work,’’ and that ‘this could be a way of getting society to value women more.’[10] In light of this, I argue that rather than being empowering, Corelli’s views on women’s roles as mothers can be seen as reducing them to just their biological function, or what Crozier-De Rosa describes as being seen ‘simply as reproducers or ‘wombs.’’[11]
Honoria’s unsuitability to maternal duties is also shown when she recalls blowing a whistle ‘as loud as [she] could’ [12] in an unsuccessful effort to amuse the baby. The expression of humour in the situation, as she says, ‘isn’t it funny?’,[13] implies that she does not take her maternal role seriously. Furthermore, she says, ‘He screams if I touch him… Nurse says I hold him wrong – it seems to me impossible to hold him right.’[14] This implies that she lacks an innate ability to develop a motherly bond with her baby. This lack of maternal love is also expressed when she describes him as ‘a savage little brute.’[15] She also conveys a total rejection of her maternal duty, saying, ‘He doesn’t want me, and I don’t want him — we’re better apart, really.’[16] Furthermore, she leaves much of the parental duties to nurses, rather than doing them herself. We read: ‘They understand him – I don’t. He’s a perfect mystery to me.’[17]
William acts as a literary ‘ventriloquist’ for Corelli to express her own views through the narration. This is argued by Galligani Casey, who describes William as ‘a thin fictional mask for Corelli.’[18] In response to this, whilst Corelli’s traditional views on motherhood are expressed in William’s narration, I argue that William’s exaggerated and hysterical tone also seems partly to be done to mock him. This can be read as Corelli offering a ‘warning’ to contemporary readers to show how men could change if women become dominant.
Georgie (Honoria’s sister) is depicted as an exemplar of idealised motherhood, with William describing her as ‘a womanly wife who knows how to make her husband perfectly happy.’[19] Georgie is described as being physically weaker than Honoria. For instance, William calls her ‘little Georgie,’[20] and ‘a timid little morsel of a woman.’[21] This adds further complexity to Corelli’s eugenic views on the importance of strength for motherhood. This is because despite being portrayed as weaker, she is more suited to motherhood. Given Corelli’s beliefs in the importance of physical strength for mothers, it would be expected that Honoria would be better suited to motherhood. This is one of the many ambivalent elements of the story.
A further example of this ambiguity is that Corelli’s views on the importance on mothers’ health align with some of those within the ‘New Woman’ movement. Crozier-De Rosa argues that ‘the fictional New Woman placed emphasis on finding the most suitable partner, physically and mentally, for reproductive purposes.’[22] This view is shared by Corelli (though Corelli held these views due to her support for the British Empire, as discussed). Ironically, whilst Corelli is disparaging of the ‘New Woman’ in ‘My Wonderful Wife’, her viewpoints on the importance of female health for motherhood were shared by some of those she is satirising.
My next text of focus is George Egerton’s ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, which shares similar ideas around the suitability of different women to motherhood. The initial narrator describes the English woman she meets (hereafter referred to as the ‘embedded narrator’) as being studious, a characteristic more typically associated with men by contemporary audiences. We read that she is ‘a very learned lady,’[23] who has been ‘looking up referats in the University Bibliothek.’[24] The embedded narrator reveals that she is infertile, or ‘one of the barren ones.’[25] Given Egerton’s views on Degeneration (as will be explored), a link between the woman’s intellectual pursuits and her infertility is implied. This engages in contemporary anxieties around the impact of intellectual study on female reproductive health. Some late-Victorian science writers, such as Grant Allen, believed that excessive intellectual activity for women could damage their reproductive success. The embedded narrator also says that ‘the barren ones’ are ‘less rare than they used to be,’[26] implying that infertility is increasing. This engages in contemporary fears that increases in female intellectual activity would lead to increases in infertility.
The embedded narrator’s infertility is also implied to be due to her ‘manlike’ appearance.[27] She is described as being ‘tall’ and having ‘very square shoulders.’[28] She also wears traditionally intellectual masculine clothing, such as a ‘tie,’[29] and ‘gold-rimmed spectacles.’[30] Furthermore, we read that her short hair ‘has not a cut look,’ but ‘seems to grow short naturally.’[31] These descriptions, especially the idea of hair growing short naturally, engage in ideas of ‘Degeneration’. This refers to late-Victorians fears that the health of the population was regressing to a more primitive state. Drawing on this, the embedded narrator’s infertility is implied to be due to her being ‘degenerate’ (as implied by the naturally short hair).
Comparisons can be drawn between the embedded narrator’s appearance and that of Honoria in ‘My Wonderful Wife’. Honoria also has ‘quite short’ hair,[32] and in both texts, short hair acts as a motif to symbolise a deviation from traditional femininity. For more reactionary writers such as Corelli and Egerton, short hair appears to be a marker of ‘degeneracy’ femininity. This ‘degenerate’ femininity leads to either neglectful motherhood (as shown ‘My Wonderful Wife’) or infertility (seen in ‘The Spell of the White Elf’). Further comparison can be made between the ‘manlike’ appearance and ‘very square shoulders’[33] of the embedded narrator in ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, with Honoria’s ‘plump shoulders’[34] and other allusions to a masculine appearance, as explored on page 3.
The embedded narrator’s ‘degeneracy’ in ‘The Spell of the White Elf’ is also implied by the description of the ‘elf’ baby. The embedded narrator describes the baby as ‘a wretched, frail little being, with a startling likeness to me.’[35] The fact that she describes the baby’s appearance negatively, yet acknowledges that it looks similar to her, implies that she has a ‘degenerate’ or abnormal appearance. As discussed, this engages in contemporary anxieties that the reproduction of ‘inferior breeding stock’ would lead to degenerate offspring. This idea, however, is made even more complex by the fact that the ‘elf’ is not biologically related to the embedded narrator. The similar appearance of the embedded narrator and the elf, however, lends itself to the fantasy elements of the story.
As well as the embedded narrator’s ‘masculinised’ appearance, her relationship with her husband, George, evokes ideas of ‘gender inversion’, a growing idea in the 1890s. This concept refers to a reversal of gender characteristics between men and women. The embedded narrator says, ‘my husband stays at home… and I go out and win the bread and butter.’[36] She also claims to have ‘more brains’ and ‘more intellectuality’ than him.[37] This concept of inverted gender roles is also expressed when George knows that the baby’s bath water is ‘too hot,’ and the correct way to test it is ‘to put one’s elbow in.’[38] The embedded narrator then says, ‘how did [George] acquire such a stock of baby lore? I hadn’t any…’[39] The juxtaposition between George’s seemingly innate childcare ability with the embedded narrator’s lack of such knowledge is an example of this implied gender inversion.
Sigley argues that Egerton ‘is shown to celebrate characters who lack the so-called ‘maternal instinct’ and to validate the motherhood of women who are not biological mothers.’[40] Building on this, I argue that by showing the husband’s parental ability, Egerton seems to suggest that the maternal role is not fixed or inherent to one gender. This contradicts some of Egerton’s other views. As Parker points out, ‘Egerton’s feminism was essentialist,’[41] meaning that Egerton viewed women as being fundamentally different to men, and that each gender had fixed roles. If we read the husband’s role in the story to show a non-essentialist attitude to motherhood (that maternal roles are not inherently fixed to women), then further complexity to Egerton’s stance is added, as it seems to contradict her previously stated essentialist views on motherhood.
The husband’s ability to care for the elf contrasts starkly to William’s reluctance to involve himself in childcare in ‘My Wonderful Wife’. However, in both stories, the husband figure is depicted as lacking traditional notions of masculinity. In ‘My Wonderful Wife’, William describes himself as a ‘frail and trembling soul,’[42] and a ‘small, mild, rather nervous man.’[43] Similarly, the husband in Egerton’s story ‘grows good things to eat and pretty things to look at,’[44] a lifestyle contemporary audiences would typically associate with femininity.
Whilst the husband in ‘The Spell of the White Elf’ is committed to his parental role, William is reluctant to care for his baby. When Georgie asks if he will see the baby before leaving, we read that William ‘hesitated,’ before deciding to see his baby ‘briefly.’[45] William’s apathy and reluctance to see his child perhaps signifies contemporary ideas around traditional masculinity, where men were expected to be less emotional, and parental care was seen as the mother’s duty. This also shows a double-standard between the parental expectations of each parent, as William gives far less importance on his own role of being a father than Honoria’s role as a mother. On the contrary, William does allude to an innate parental instinct, saying, ‘there was a certain parental tugging at my heart-strings’[46] when deciding whether to see his baby.
By comparison, the husband’s ‘stock of baby lore’[47] and ability to care for the baby in ‘The Spell of the White Elf’ engages in contemporary ideas of the ‘New Man’. This refers to the figurative counterpart of the ‘New Woman’, representing a male departure from traditional Victorian expectations of masculinity, such as those idealised by William in ‘My Wonderful Wife’. One of the assumed characteristics of the ‘New Man’ was greater involvement in domestic and parental duties. In an 1897 issue of The Westminster Review, author Emma Churchman Hewitt argued that despite the adoption of traditionally masculine activities among ‘New Women’, their ‘New Man’ counterparts were often reluctant to perform traditionally feminine duties, especially parental care. She writes: ‘the New Man seems to feel but little responsibility in household and family matters.’[48] I contend that Egerton’s story challenges this argument, because the ‘New Man’ husband of the embedded narrator does engage in household and family duties, as discussed.
The embedded narrator says, ‘I have known so many… who would give anything in God’s world to have a child of their own.’[49] This idealises motherhood as a being a desirable choice for women. The emotional effect of being an adoptive mother is shown when she says, ‘a lump kept rising in my throat,’[50] when she recalls caring for the baby. Moreover, the initial narrator observes a ‘proud look’[51] on the face of the embedded narrator as she speaks about the adoption, further demonstrating the emotional significance of undertaking a motherly role. These examples further support the assertion that Egerton depicts motherhood as being a desirable pursuit for women.
Despite her eagerness to be a mother, the embedded narrator is portrayed to be unsuited to motherhood. She is told that she holds the baby ‘like a book of notes at a lecture.’[52] This description is significant, as it conflates the studious activities of this ‘New Woman’ character with her inadequacy at motherhood. There is much ambivalence about Egerton’s views on the ‘New Woman’, however this description seems to be critical of her, by suggesting that masculine pursuits (in this case, education) make them unsuitable mothers. The embedded narrator also expresses jealousy at her sister, Belinda, for her perceived better suitability to childcare: ‘Belinda… she can talk to a baby… I was a little jealous…’[53] Her admittance to jealousy is further evidence of her desire to be a mother.
Liggins argues that in the embedded narrator’s story, motherhood ‘is shown to be much more satisfying than the writing and lecturing of the New Woman.’[54] Drawing on this, I argue that Egerton portrays motherhood as being more satisfying than the ‘New Woman’s’ intellectual pursuits. I contend that she does this to convince female readers to conform to traditional motherhood roles, and to resist the ‘New Woman’ movement. These essentialist views on female maternity are shown in a letter to Ernst Foerster, where Egerton said that ‘Woman… is only of value in as far as she is a vessel for the mothering of healthy men and women.’[55]
Before the two narrators depart from each other, the embedded narrator says, ‘I wish you a white elf.’[56] The initial narrator later says that ‘Often since that night I have rounded my arm… and fancied I had a little human elf cuddled to my breast.’[57] Whilst there is much ambiguity to this story, especially given the fantasy element of an elf-child, I contend that the frame narrator’s wish to have a ‘human elf cuddled to [her] breast’ reflects her innate desire to be a mother and have a child of her own. In the text’s opening, she recalls declining a marriage offer from Hans, a former lover. The text ends with her saying, ‘there is Hans Jörgen coming across the street!’[58] The significance of this, I argue, is that through her encounter with the English woman, the frame narrator has developed a newfound desire to be a mother. As a result, the initial narrator may rekindle her relationship with Hans, perhaps to have children of her own. ‘The Spell’ in the story’s title, therefore, represents a maternal desire, one that the initial narrator has ‘caught’ from the English woman she encounters. Jusová draws on this idea to suggest that by reading the story, ‘the reader, as part of the narrative chain, might herself become affected by the spell.’[59] Building on this, the idea of the reader becoming enchanted with the spell, and subsequently desiring to be a mother, conforms to Egerton’s support for motherhood. This means that the story may have a desired effect on her readership, by persuading more female readers to act on their maternal instinct.
Overall, both texts champion motherhood as being a virtuous lifestyle choice for women. In ‘My Wonderful Wife’, Honoria is portrayed to be a reluctant and neglectful mother. Corelli does this to criticise the ‘New Woman’ by warning readers of the consequences of a breakdown in gender norms. In ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, Egerton depicts motherhood as a desirable and fulfilling lifestyle choice for women, reflecting her views on the importance of maternity. The infertility of the embedded narrator also engages in discourses of both eugenics and gender inversion, perhaps warning readers as to the consequences of Egerton’s perceived threats to traditional femininity. Both texts offer views that are nuanced, and at times, seem to contradict the views of the respective author. However, both share the same idealised vision of motherhood as being the pinnacle of femininity.
Word count: 3189
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[1] Marie Corelli, ‘My Wonderful wife’, in Cameos, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1895), p. 179.
[2] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful wife’, p. 178.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Marie Corelli, ‘The Girl Graduate’, The Theatre, (1883), 246-250 (p. 250). <https://learn.lboro.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/2439125/mod_resource/content/1/The_Girl_Graduate%20Theatre%20Nov%201883%20Corelli..pdf> [accessed 15 May 2023]
[5] Corelli, ‘The Girl Graduate’ (p. 249).
[6] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful wife’, p. 212.
[7] Teresa Ransom, The Mysterious Miss Corelli: Queen of Victorian Bestsellers (Stroud: Sutton, 1999), p. 55.
[8] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 190.
[9] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 178.
[10] Bernard Porter, The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society and Culture in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 288.
[11] Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, ‘Marie Corelli’s British new woman: A threat to empire?’, The History of the Family, 14 (2009), 416-429, (p. 420), <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hisfam.2009.04.003> [accessed 15 May 2023].
[12] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 212.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Janet Galligani Casey, ‘Marie Corelli and Fin de Siècle Feminism’, English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, 35.2 (1992), 163-178, (p. 169). <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/373268> [accessed 13 May 2023].
[19] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 291.
[20] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 289.
[21] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 191.
[22] Crozier-De Rosa, ‘Marie Corelli’s British new woman: A threat to empire?’, (p. 420).
[23] George Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, in Keynotes, (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1893), p. 80.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 86.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 82.
[28] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 80.
[29] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 82.
[30] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 80.
[31] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 82.
[32] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 254.
[33] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 82.
[34] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 177.
[35] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 89.
[36] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 88.
[37] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 95.
[38] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 93.
[39] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 96.
[40] Isobel Sigley, ‘Engendering New Motherhood: Tactile Exchange in George Egerton’s Keynotes (1893) and Flies in Amber (1905)’, Victorian Popular Fictions, 3.1 (2021), 68-82, (p. 76) <https://doi.org/10.46911/QAKG7864> [accessed 16 May 2023].
[41] Sarah Parker, ‘The New Woman and Decadent Gender Politics’, in Decadence: A Literary History, ed. by Alex Murray (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 118-135 (p. 122).
[42] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 177.
[43] Ibid.
[44] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 88.
[45] Corelli, ‘My Wonderful Wife’, p. 244.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 96.
[48] Emma Churchman Hewitt, ‘The “New Woman” In Her Relation To The “New Man”’, Westminster Review, 147.3 (1897) 335-337 (p. 335). <https://www.proquest.com/docview/8039295?fromopenview=true&imgSeq=1&pq-origsite=gscholar> [accessed 20 May 2023].
[49] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 89.
[50] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 91.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 92.
[53] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 93.
[54] Emma Liggins, ‘‘With a Dead Child in Her Lap’: Bad Mothers and Infant Mortality in George Egerton’s Discords’, Literature and History, 9.2 (2000), 17-36, (p. 27). <https://doi.org/10.7227/LH.9.2.2> [accessed 24 May 2023].
[55] George Egerton, in The Woman Question in the Novels of English Contemporary Women Writers, (Marburg: N. G. Elwertian Publisher, 1906) 46-8, (p. 48).
[56] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 98.
[57] Ibid.
[58] Egerton, ‘The Spell of the White Elf’, p. 98.
[59] Iveta Jusová, ‘George Egerton and the Project of British Colonialism’, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 19.1 (2000), 27-55 (p. 40). <https://www.jstor.org/stable/464408> [accessed 12 May 2023].
The Ventriloquist 
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