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Sylvia Plath
Reimagining Motherhood

Public Domain
Public Domain

Brittany Wright explores a much-neglected aspect of the poetry of a
poet whose troubled life, early death and marriage to Ted Hughes have
threatened to drown out everything else.

Jeannette Winterson once described Plath opportunity to live ‘to the fullness of her mere verse and into the realm of true poetry
as a woman born out of time and this ability’ (Hughes, 2004, p.xvi).
characterisation creates the same view of The idea that a presentation of motherhood
Plath that we often meet in literary criticism Marginalised Motherhood and high-quality poetry are incompatible
of her work. From Plath as naïve, highly- seems to have been shared in part by
strung schoolgirl to Plath as married victim The presentation of motherhood in Ted Hughes, who removed two poems
of male misogyny, we view her with the Plath’s work is subject to far less scrutiny focused on motherhood from the original
reverential pity of those who have lived in academic circles than wider themes manuscript of Plath’s posthumously
through a feminist revolution and look back of female oppression and mental illness. published Ariel. Whilst Hughes’ meddling
through history to salvage the dignity of Although most academic attention is with Plath’s last poetic work is often seen
our less fortunate sisters. It is this feminist focused on Plath’s poetry collections and as a final act of male suppression of Plath’s
appropriation of Sylvia Plath, and tendency on her novel The Bell Jar, by 1962 she had essentially female genius, it is interesting
to read her poetry through her life, that even written a playscript for the BBC which that two of the poems he dismissed
potentially marginalises important aspects of explored maternal themes. Three Women: as ‘weaker than their replacements’
her poetry and her identity. It is important A Poem for Three Voices (1962) foregrounds (Hughes, 2004, p.xiii) were ‘Magi’ and
for us to remember that, as well as being the importance of Plath’s role as mother ‘Barren Woman’, both of which explore
a daughter and a wife, Sylvia Plath was both in her personal life and in relation to the maternal role.
a mother and that motherhood features her literary works. Despite Plath’s interest
in her poetry. In the spirit of Plath’s own in the maternal, some critics have been Motherhood as Triumph,
daughter’s view, we will analyse three of unimpressed by these explorations. Dobbs Miscarriage as Defeat
the Ariel poems from the 2004 ‘Restored (1977) went so far as to assert that Plath
Edition’ and explore motherhood in the In ‘Barren Woman’, Plath evokes the aching
light of the idea that it gave Plath the could not deal with maternity or babies in a emptiness of miscarriage. The poem was
positive or hopeful manner and at the same time written on 21st February 1961, in the same
raise the quality of her writing out of the level of

February 2018 emagazine 51

month that she experienced this trauma poem, Plath, perhaps wryly, contrasts the While ‘the abstracts hover like dull angels’,
herself. The poem opens with glory of giving birth to a daughter with the the voice notes with awe that her daughter
birth of ‘several bald-eyed Apollos’. The is only ‘sixth months in the world, and
Empty, I echo to the least footfall ambiguity of Plath’s imagery, often seen in she is able’, foregrounding her surprise at
her treatment of other subjects, is at work the seemingly extraordinary capabilities of
and Plath deliberately evokes the here too. Is she contrasting the imagined her young child. By the end of the poem,
unanticipated silence that she associates birth of a victorious daughter with a clutch the voice has dismissed the goals of ‘these
with the unexpected loss of her unborn of lesser sons? Or, perhaps, instead, she papery godfolk’ and recognised that, despite
child. Despite Hughes’ dismissal of the is alluding to the association between the their inherent levels of goodness and piety,
poem, it seems to me that Plath expertly Greek god Apollo and poetry, in order to they are no better at parenting than she is.
uses structure in order to create a sense of compare the gift of childbirth with what she With a growing confidence in her own role
the speaker’s footsteps echoing through sees at this point as the inferior consolation as mother, Plath questions the ‘dull angels’
the ‘museum without statues’. There is of her own creative process of birth as with a provocative and damning question:
parity of line length and rhythm across represented in the composition of her
the two stanzas, creating a Grecian sense poems. In a much earlier journal entry in what girl ever flourished in such company?
of symmetry which also fits her use of February 1956, Plath described a short story
metaphor throughout the poem. Far from that had been rejected by The New Yorker Arguably, Plath sets out a vision of
motherhood being viewed by Plath as as ‘my baby…a stillborn illegitimate baby’ childhood and motherhood here that rejects
negative in this poem, it is depicted as her (Plath, 2013, p.106), demonstrating that she the limitations usually experienced by
reason for being, and her perceived failure had previously linked the creative process to women in society, asserting the importance
leaves her bitterly imagining what could conception and childbirth and could again of new ways of raising daughters to
have been. The speaker tells us that she be referencing this here in her dismissive help them flourish rather than flounder
imagines herself reference to the ‘bald-eyed Apollos’ that she throughout their lives. It is the voice of the
could one day bring into the world. poem that is presented as the protector or
with a great public, at least the advocate of the child, suggesting
Mother of a white Nike New Confidence as Protector that, through understanding the ‘mistake’
and Advocate of previous forms of parenting, she can
and here is another clue that, for Plath, begin to carve out a new approach in
motherhood is celebratory and should be In contrast with the sadness of miscarriage, which the power of the mother can in turn
revered. The ‘great public’ imagined in the Plath’s poetic treatment of motherhood empower the daughter.
second stanza contrasts with the empty is both reverential and confident in her
loneliness of the first stanza, suggesting that earlier poem ‘Magi’, written in 1960. As Acceptance and ‘Morning
motherhood, far from being lonely, affords with ‘Barren Woman’, Plath plays with Song’
companionship and community. gendered expectations of motherhood by
using theological references, alluding to Whilst he dismissed ‘Barren Woman’ and
Furthermore, Plath’s reference to Nike, the three wise men (or magi) who attend ‘Magi’, Hughes honoured Plath’s choice
Greek goddess of victory, suggests that part the birth of Christ, though the title of the of ‘Morning Song’ as the opening poem
of the pleasure of motherhood is rooted poem. The voice of the poem reflects on the in the Ariel collection, perhaps valuing its
in the legacy that is left behind through contrast between this group of ambiguous, aesthetic accomplishment and its depiction
the success of one’s children. Rather than now ungendered visitors, perhaps other of a crucial moment of change as Plath
a preoccupation with her own future mothers or family members and friends, reflects on becoming a mother for the first
here, she wistfully reflects on her missed and the vitality of the speaker’s daughter. time. Written just two days before ‘Barren
opportunity to bring another being into the Woman’, ‘Morning Song’ suggests mixed
world. Despite the melancholic tone of the

52 emagazine February 2018

feelings as the speaker crosses the liminal experiences of grieving after a miscarriage. Public Domain
boundary of motherhood. While the first In such a way, we can throw off the
half of the poem focuses on the sounds chains in which feminist literary criticism Public Domain
of the speaker’s newborn baby, from its sometimes imprisons Plath, constricting our
‘bald cry’ to the ‘moth-breath’ of sleep, the view of her. We can reject the image of her emag web archive
speaker’s uncertainty about her new role as tormented Daddy’s girl or scorned wife
is interrupted in the fifth stanza, reflecting and instead celebrate poetry that explores, • Susan Bassnett: A Reply to Sylvia
a sense of immediacy and instinctiveness at least to some degree, the power and Plath – Ted Hughes’ Birthday Letters,
in her depiction of the role of the mother. fulfilment of a woman’s role as a mother. emagazine 49, September 2010
‘One cry,’ the voice tells us, ‘and I stumble This is not to oversimplify Plath’s life and
from bed, cow-heavy and floral’. The work, reinventing her as a formidable and • Eavan Boland: Sylvia Plath – Nature
quick response to the baby’s cry suggests ecstatic matriarch, but rather to reaffirm Poet and Surrealist, emagazine
that the baby’s ‘morning song’ allows the the poetic value of her reflections on 40, April 2008.
speaker to transcend her own uncertainties being a mother in the face of the greater
and doubts by occupying herself with the emphasis that is often placed on her other • Olga Dermott: A Fractured Identity
present moment. The final line of the poem relationships. – Plath’s Search for Self in Ariel,
illustrates the power of the baby’s cries to emagazine 49, September 2010
hold the mother’s attention with the simile Brittany Wright is a Teaching Fellow at the
‘the clear vowels rise like balloons’. There University of Warwick and a postgraduate • Fiona Salt: Sylvia Plath – ‘The
is a clear sense here of the speaker coming student in the School of Education at the Applicant’ and ‘Daddy’, emagplus
to terms with motherhood and recognising University of Nottingham. 57, September 2012
the comfort and value afforded by the
unconditional love of a child. It is tempting References • Rebecca Platt: ‘The Moon is My
to regard this as a poem about Plath’s own Mother’ – Sylvia Plath and the Cycles
experience of motherhood. If so, perhaps Dobbs, J. 1977. ‘‘Viciousness in the of the Moon Goddess, emagazine
this is even more tragic when the timing Kitchen’: Sylvia Plath’s Domestic Poetry’ 62, December 2013
of the poem is considered as, despite this in Modern Language Studies, Vol. 7,
poem’s positive, transformational mood, the No. 2, pp. 11-25 • Nigel Wheale: Text and Biography in
references to the baby as a ‘new statue/in a Poetry – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath,
drafty museum’ hauntingly foreshadow the Greenberg, A. and Klaver, Becca. 2009. emagazine 44, April 2009
setting of the grief-stricken ‘Barren Woman’ ‘Mad Girls’ Love Songs: Two Women
which was written so soon afterwards. Poets – a Professor and Graduate Student
– Discuss Sylvia Plath, Angst, and the
Motherhood as Power Poetics of Female Adolescence’ in College
Literature, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp.179-207
While Plath is often seen as a poet who
appeals to the interests of teenage girls Hughes, F. 2004. ‘Foreword’ in Plath,
and a mistaken idea that they might Sylvia (2004) Ariel: The Restored Edition.
be fascinated by depression and death,
(Greenberg and Klaver, 2009), the Plath, S. 2004. Ariel: The Restored Edition.
representation of motherhood as complex,
confusing, but ultimately rewarding in Ariel Plath, S. 2013. The Journals of Sylvia Plath
allows us to examine Plath as a poet of life
rather than death, and to explore her adult Winterson, J. 2013. ‘Sylvia Plath:
engagement in childbearing and future reflections on her legacy’, the Guardian
generations. Instead of defining Plath by [online, accessed 30 Oct. 2017]
her depression, youthful preoccupations,
and ultimate suicide, we can see how her
poems hold experience up to the light
and illuminate it in very different ways,
from the everyday experience of a mother
watching her children play to the darker

February 2018 emagazine 53

Courtesy of NBC Universal

54 emagazine February 2018

Narrative Voice in
The Murder of Roger

Ackroyd

A QUESTION OF

TRUST

Agatha Christie establishes trust in her narrator in
ways that we might associate more with a writer
like Jane Austen. But is that trust wise? Judy
Simons suggests that far from leaving us in the
safe, comfortable terrain of classic fiction, Christie
draws us into the more murky world of the
modern novel, where part of the pleasure for the
reader is in having that trust betrayed.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, and who navigates us through the complex,
with a comfortable home and happy disposition, multi-layered text.
seemed to unite some of the best blessings of
existence. As with many 19th-century novels, Emma’s
authorial persona directs the reader how
As you read this, please don’t think that to view and also how to judge the fictional
you have wandered into the wrong essay by characters, and it conveys a sense of
mistake. I am just using the opening words moral certainty that may leave scope for
of Jane Austen’s Emma as an example of nuanced debate but not for any doubt
the sort of fiction that underpins Christie’s on issues of moral responsibility. Like a
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and to which kindly and occasionally angry parent, the
the later work is deeply indebted. Despite voice of classic fiction soothes its audience
its irony, Austen’s sentence invites readers with its combination of authority and
to relax in the safe world of the book, and familiarity. It establishes a contract between
to trust the all-seeing narrator, who joins in storyteller and reader, and even in a first
sharing the jokes at the heroine’s expense,

February 2018 emagazine 55

Courtesy of NBC Universal
Courtesy of NBC Universal

56 emagazine February 2018

person bildungsroman, such as Charlotte ambiguous, so that any re-reading
Brontë’s Jane Eyre or Charles Dickens’ Great immediately suggests alternative
Expectations, where we might question the interpretations. Initially, however, as
protagonist’s motives, that voice continues gullible readers, we are more than ready
to evoke a recognisable social order and a to be seduced by Sheppard’s measured
stable set of values, which frame the human and objective tone and by his insistence
drama. Experience has taught us to accept on fidelity and the inclusion of tiny details
and adopt the narrator’s version of events. – aficionados of crime are after all always
on the lookout for clues. In the absence of
Trusting the Narrative Voice any other guide, Sheppard appropriates the
role of author to introduce all the essential
Many 20th-century novels on the other information – characters, names, locations
hand exploit this tradition to subvert and timings – that is required to enable
readers’ expectations, and The Murder of the reader to solve the mystery. Inevitably
Roger Ackroyd, an early example of this this has the added effect of deflecting
approach, is now considered a milestone attention away from him to the rest of the
in the crime fiction genre. Its fundamental dramatis personae.
premise takes for granted readers’
complicity in a predetermined narrative A Betrayal of Narrative Trust
contract. Detective novels enjoy a special
relationship with their readers, who assume The opening sentences of The Murder of Roger
the role of investigator and consequently Ackroyd offer a perfect illustration of the
become embroiled in the fictional action. betrayal of narrative trust. Do not ignore,
As with all whodunnits, The Murder of Roger incidentally, the significance of the chapter
Ackroyd assembles an intricate puzzle for titles in contributing to the obfuscation.
the reader to solve, but its key trick can ‘Dr Sheppard at the Breakfast Table’, for
only work if we trust the narrative voice. instance, not only gives the reader the
It is Dr Sheppard’s perspective that in necessary facts about who and where but
turn shapes ours. is sufficiently mundane to suggest that
(if ‘murder’ did not appear on the book’s
So, whilst Sheppard’s account is cover) the sentence which follows –
scrupulously accurate, his narrative is
teasingly incomplete. As Hercule Poirot Mrs Ferrars died on the night of 16th – 17th
explains towards the end of the book, September – a Thursday
when he refers to the ‘reticence of
the manuscript’, – could be a routine observation on the
part of a doctor who deals with the dying
‘It was strictly truthful as far as it went – but it did regularly in the course of his professional
not go very far.’ duties. The domestic setting, another typical
feature of Christie’s work, helps to create
the deliberately limited stage for the action,
in which every character is a suspect. How
though does it continue?

I was sent for at eight o’clock on the morning of
Friday 17th. There was nothing to be done. She
had been dead some hours.
It was just a few minutes after nine when I
reached home once more. I opened the front
door with my latchkey, and purposely delayed
a few moments in the hall, hanging up my hat
and the light overcoat that I had deemed a wise
precaution against the chill of an early autumn
morning. To tell the truth, I was considerably
upset and worried. I am not going to pretend that
at that moment I foresaw the events of the next
few weeks. I emphatically did not do so. But my
instinct told me there were stirring times ahead.

It is what Sheppard omits that is so telling, On the face of it, there is nothing to arouse
and the phraseology is intentionally suspicion in this report. It opens with

February 2018 emagazine 57

statements of fact that are incontrovertible. establishes a comfortable and familiar to retrace their footsteps, and I defy anyone
Yet how many of those statements are literary scene, which contributes to the who has been immersed in the story, trying
equivocal? ‘There was nothing to be done’, façade of veracity. This is compounded by to outwit Poirot, not to go back and look
says Sheppard. Does he mean that on Sheppard’s professional status. The label again at earlier sections to see what clues
medical grounds he cannot save the patient, of doctor (only his sister calls him James), have been missed. Christie, never one to
or that as a blackmailer and murderer, he coupled with his narrative authority, signals be overly modest about her work, switches
realises he is now in the hands of fate? And his personal integrity, and the book’s other the focus from plot and action to the craft
why does he delay ‘purposely? Why is he characters trust him implicitly with the of writing itself. In this way the narrative
‘upset and worried’? The surface rationale result that their confidence consequently technique becomes not just a vehicle for
is that, as a doctor, he may have misgivings boosts the reader’s. In particular, Christie relating events but the very heart of the
about the circumstances of Mrs Ferrars’ draws on the prototype of Dr Watson, the book’s achievement.
death. The other explanation is that his side-kick of the then most famous medical
behaviour and feelings are those of a guilty man in crime fiction, Sherlock Holmes John Judy Simons is Emeritus Professor of English at De
man, who knows that this episode puts him Watson, honest, straightforward, logical Montfort University.
in danger. Similarly, the economy of style and faithful, is both the narrator of and
and the simple sentence constructions could participant in Conan Doyle’s mystery tales, emag web archive
be thought a reflection of Sheppard’s lack and a perfect foil for the dazzlingly intuitive
of literary sophistication. Yet with hindsight Holmes. Secure in the fore-knowledge • Danuta Reah: Gender, Language
they emerge as a deliberate ploy. As Hercule that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd will be a and Crime Fiction, emagazine
Poirot drily points out, showcase for the talents of its star detective, 18, December 2002
Hercule Poirot, the reader is predisposed
Dr Sheppard has been a model of discretion. to slot Sheppard into the Watson mould of • Melissa Wolfe: The Woman in
reliable but dim witness. White – Crime Fiction, emagazine
The impression of candour is further 34, December 2006
strengthened by a series of direct An Ingenious Metafictional
admissions. ‘To tell the truth’ and ‘I am not Surprise • Pete Bunten: Agatha Christie – More
going to pretend’, says the villain winningly, Than Just a Guilty Pleasure? emagazine
phrases which instil confidence, and, It is only at the very end of the novel that 73, September 2016
which, while genuine, are central to his the reader is made aware that The Murder
technique of evasion. of Roger Ackroyd is a metafictional narrative, • Ray Cluley: Charles Dickens, Serial-
whereby Sheppard’s account of events is thriller – The Structure and Genres
A Façade of Veracity for the itself a fictive artefact to be scrutinised. of Great Expectations, emagplus for
‘Common Reader’ Suddenly the text changes direction and emagazine 71, February 2016
turns from a boast into a confession. In
In playing with the conventions of classic the final Apologia, Agatha Christie points • Ray Cluley: Reading the Detective
fiction, Christie was also responding to the out the ingenuity of her own authorial Genre from Poe to Chandler,
literary trends of her age. The detective technique. ‘I am rather pleased with myself emagazine 52, April 2011
novel was enjoying a golden moment in as a writer’, says Sheppard.
the years between the two world wars. And • Daniel Stanley: Stasis and Blindness
whilst the avant-garde writing of James ‘What could be neater, for instance, than the in Brighton Rock – A Marxist Reading,
Joyce and Virginia Woolf might attract a following: emagazine 60, April 2013
highbrow audience, the ‘common reader’ The letters were brought in at twenty minutes
to use Woolf’s term, was lapping up realist to nine. It was just on ten minutes to nine when • Dr Andrew Green: Brighton Rock
fiction that depicted a recognisable social I left him, the letter still unread. I hesitated – More Than Just Entertainment,
order with which middlebrow readers could with my hand on the door handle, looking back emagazine 74, December 2016
identify. The determinedly traditional, and wondering if there was anything I had left
bourgeois landscape of Christie’s novels undone. • Jack Palmer: Brighton Rock – A
All true, you see. But suppose I had put a row of Sinister Symbol, emagazine
stars after the first sentence! Would somebody 77, September 2017
then have wondered what exactly happened in
that blank ten minutes?’ • Mark Innes: The Birth of the Detective
– The Murders in the Rue Morgue,
This is an open invitation to readers, naively emagazine 76, April 2017
thinking that there is no more to unravel,

58 emagazine February 2018

Referring
with Respect

The Way We Talk about
Gender Identity

Margaret Coupe combination of Miss and Sir) and Ind That said, I have a feeling that words like
explores the ways in (short for individual). The customer’s ‘history’ being replaced by ‘herstory’ and
which second-wave chosen title will then be used by staff ‘women’ being substituted by ‘wimmin’ to
feminism, ideas about when speaking to them on the phone or eradicate the morpheme ‘men’ may have
political correctness and in a branch, as well as printed on bank been dreamt up by reactionary figures to
an increasing awareness statements and cards. discredit the movement.
of the experience of
people of trans and 4. The initialism LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi- Until the mid-20th century, the traditional
non-binary gender have sexual and Transgender) has now added terms of address for men were ‘Master’
brought significant another letter ‘Q’ to indicate ‘Gender (probably now obsolete) for a boy or young
language change. Questioning’. Some have argued that an man and ‘Mr’ for an adult male. Women
additional initial ‘I’ should be added to were ‘Miss’ until they married, when they
Let’s start with four fairly recent examples: incorporate intersex individuals (those became ‘Mrs’ and took their husband’s
born with biological characteristics name. At the risk of sounding like David
1. In Series 4 of the police thriller Line of of both sexes). Attenborough, I could say that perhaps the
Duty the somewhat unreconstructed term ‘Mrs’ was a way of warding off other
male superintendent Ted Hastings, is These four examples could suggest that males and showing that a woman was no
taken to task by Chief Inspector Roz the language we use to address gender in longer available. As a woman was ‘given
Huntley for failing to use language the 21st century has become a positive away’ in church by her father, this was seen
which is ‘gender-neutral’. He had minefield or that increasing linguistic as a way of passing on property. Feminists
called her ‘darling’. sensitivity to the way in which individuals baulked at this and the term ‘Ms’, which
conceive of their gender is being shown. gave no indication of marital status, was
2. The 2017 MTV Awards had a non- introduced. This was often used on official
gendered category for ‘Best Actor’. Looking Back – First-wave forms – and still is – but some people have
Emma Watson, the winner of the award, Feminism found the word hard to say, even though
was pictured in the satirical magazine there was a magazine set up in 1985 called
Private Eye holding it and saying: ‘I’d like First-wave feminism was a period of by the phonetic spelling Mizz. (It folded in
to thank my parent and my parent.’ feminism from the 1830s to the early 20th- 2013.) Some cynics have argued that whilst
century. Its main focus was on gaining the Ms may be a neutral term as far as marital
3. Since 2016 transgender customers with right for women to vote. Second-wave status is concerned, it could clearly indicate
HSBC bank have been able to choose feminism started in the USA in the 1960s that one is a feminist.
from 10 gender-neutral titles. Those and really took hold in the UK in the 1970s.
who do not identify as a Mr, Mrs, Miss It broadened the debate to sexuality, to Many women now keep their birth name
or Ms will be able to choose from a contraception and abortion, to family, to on marriage. This was once referred to as
range of options. These include Mre the workplace, and to legal inequalities. ‘maiden’ name, with its connotations of
(an abbreviation of mystery), Msr (a Challenges to what was seen as a patriarchal virginity. In the 1980s I was teaching in
society resulted in the interrogation of an area that could not be called affluent.
language. Redressing the balance included I noticed a lot of ‘double-barrelled’ names
the introduction of gender-neutral terms, on my registers. I had always associated
for example ‘police officer’ for ‘policeman’ these names with the upper class, such as
and ‘head teacher’ for ‘headmaster’. ‘Ponsonby-Smythe’ or Jeeves and Wooster

February 2018 emagazine 59

characters like ‘Gussie Fink-Nottle’. I then government should have looked at wage beyond, through, changing thoroughly’.
realised that couples who wanted some equality and the ‘glass ceiling’ rather than In the late 1990s the word ‘cisgender’
measure of equality in their relationship changing language. But words matter appeared in various articles. It denotes
were putting their surnames together. and can change attitudes. ‘Mademoiselle’ someone whose gender identity matches
I have heard of couples blending their literally means ‘my little hen’. It’s unlikely the identity they were assigned at birth
surnames to avoid one partner’s name being that unmarried men would ever have or that they perform a gender role that
dominant. I recently read an article in the wanted to tick a box with ‘Mon Damoiseau’ society considers in keeping with their sex.
Guardian ‘Family’ section about a couple (‘my little bird’) the medieval equivalent of The lexeme ‘cis’ is also of Latin origin and
who had each kept their birth name but had ‘Ma Demoiselle.’ means ‘on this side of’. Why did this word
chosen an entirely independent surname for emerge? Perhaps to suggest that if there
their children based on the place in Zanzibar Transgender, Non-binary or is no word for those whose bodies and
where they met. Genderfluid? brains are aligned, then this privileges and
‘normalises’ them and marginalises those
In 2012, the French government banned Towards the end of the 20th century there of transgender.
the word ‘Mademoiselle’ on the grounds was increasing awareness of the experience
that it was discriminatory, sexist and of those who identified as ‘trans’ gender. A Another expression which has currency is
suggesting virginity and availability. ‘trans’ person is someone whose sense of ‘non-binary’ gender. This refers to gender
Henceforth the name ‘Madame’ was to self and gender does not correspond with identities that are not exclusively masculine
be used for all women and was to be their sex assigned at birth; or, put another or feminine, and which are thus outside
symmetrical with ‘Monsieur’. Apparently way, that their mental and physical sexes of the gender binary. Having a fluctuating
calling a woman ‘Mademoiselle’ was a do not align. The etymology of ‘trans’ is gender identity can be termed ‘genderfluid’.
classic chat up line in France, as it was a from Latin: it is a prefix meaning ‘across,
way of saying a woman didn’t look her
age. Some people argued that the French

60 emagazine February 2018

The singer Miley Cyrus has described or ‘she’ in order to prevent transgender said to prefer the pronouns ‘they, them,
herself thus, as has the cookery writer students feeling offended by incorrect their’. The writer of the piece heard Dillon
and activist Jack Monroe. In an interview pronoun use and to cut down on being ‘misgendered’ multiple times by being
the latter explained that being ‘non- discrimination on campus. Deliberately referred to as ‘she’ and by the outdated
binary transgender’ meant it wasn’t about using the wrong pronoun for a transgender marked term ‘actress’. Perhaps all this
transitioning to male. Jack was transitioning person is an offence under the university’s confusion could be dealt with if the English
to being neither female nor male, or at least behaviour code. Human rights campaigner Language was like Hungarian which does
a bit of both: Peter Tatchell welcomed the leaflet, adding: not have gender-specific pronouns?

I want to be treated as a person, not as a woman This isn’t about being PC. It’s about respecting Respect Reflected in Language
or a man. people’s rights to define themselves as neither
male nor female. Gender identity is embedded in many
Incidentally, Jack’s preferred term people’s self-perception. Language is
of address is Mx. In parenthesis, I would like to add that changing to reflect the notion that gender is
whilst I can see that the Oxford Student a spectrum rather than a strict binary. It is
Personal Pronouns Union is being well-meaning, someone, vital that the words we use show respect for
say, who has transitioned from male to individuals and that we take care with the
Use of personal pronouns is a tricky female would embrace the pronoun ‘she’ way we address people.
linguistic area as far as gender is concerned. as it validates their sense of their own
In the late 20th century, in order to move gender. Offence would be caused by being Margaret Coupe is now retired, having been an
away from an androcentric (male-centred) referred to as ‘he’. In the Royal Exchange Advanced Skills teacher and Head of English.
worldview, the third person female personal Theatre production of Twelfth Night, Feste,
pronoun was used in academia. For the fool, was played by a trans woman; in
example: ‘If the reader traces these themes, the programme notes, she wrote about her
she may find…’ In order to avoid privileging hurt at being referred to by the third person
the male pronoun first as in ‘he or she’, the masculine pronoun.
plural form ‘they’ was often used.

An article in The Independent in December In an article in the Sunday Times Style
2016 headlined with: Magazine, the actor Asia Kate Dillon, who
identifies as neither man nor woman, is
Oxford University students told to use gender-
neutral pronoun ze.

A leaflet distributed by the Student Union
urged students to use ‘ze’ instead of ‘he’

emag web archive

Jack Monroe. Public Domain • Beth Kemp: Ladettes and Slags,
Manwhores and Boyfriends – Gender,
Culture and Language, emagazine
45, September 2009

• Julie Blake: Frogs and Snails and
Puppy Dogs’ Tails – Critiquing
Orthodox Views of Gender, emagazine
33 September 2006

• Professor Deborah Cameron:
Gender Stereotyping in the
Language of Advertising, emagazine
53 September 2011

• Suzanne Williams: Modern
Marking – A Challenge to Gender
Neutral Marking, emagazine
66, December 2014

• Claire Dembry: Sexism in
Spoken Language – Looking
Under the Surface, emagazine
69, September 2015

emagClips

• Professor Deborah Cameron on
Language and Gender

February 2018 emagazine 61

Greg Wise and Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Moviestore collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Women and Mobility

in Sense and Sensibility

Katherine Limmer explores modes of transport and journeys in Austen’s
novel, revealing the vital importance that access to the means of travel has
for the female characters, what it signifies about them, and what effect it
has on their lives.

How one travelled was more just than a established route to meeting a wide range and sensible Elinor recognise that they can
practical question in Regency England, it of possible marriage partners. Throughout no longer support this symbol of wealth.
was also a signifier of wealth and gender. Sense and Sensibility Austen draws attention
Not only was an income of at least a to how the absence of both kinds of They will have no carriage, no horses and hardly
thousand pounds (equivalent to around mobility affects her heroines in their any servants
£34,000 today) necessary to maintain a pursuit of happiness.
carriage, gender restrictions meant that is Fanny’s mean-spirited summary of
whilst gentlemen could drive themselves Losing a Carriage – Losing the impoverished lives the Dashwood’s
about in fashionable curricles, ladies Status and Society can now look forward to. She also draws
needed a servant to undertake any driving, attention to the detrimental impact that the
and a chaperone to accompany them if One of the surest signs of the decline lack of a carriage will have on their social
unmarried. This had a significant impact in the Dashwood family fortunes at the lives, ‘they will keep no company’. Mrs
on the lives of the kind of women Austen start of Sense and Sensibility is the sale of Dashwood’s initial reluctance to sell the
made the protagonists of her novels, as their carriage. When the newly bereaved carriage, we learn, is not inspired by any
access to transport facilitated social as well Dashwood family’s income is reduced to five love of show, but her awareness of how
as geographic mobility. Visits to family and hundred pounds a year, both selfish Fanny circumscribed her daughters’ social lives
leisure activities in towns offered a well- will become without the independence and
mobility that it offers. Without their own

62 emagazine February 2018

Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Gemma Jones in Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Moviestore collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

means of transport, Elinor and Marianne is emphasised through episodes in which women; Mrs Jennings is quite happy to
are faced with very serious restrictions on they appear suddenly or leave abruptly. In send her maid on her own to London
their movements. This, in turn, limits the Chapter 13 for example, Colonel Brandon by public carriage, for example. The
variety of society they can encounter and, immediately leaves Barton Park for London barely genteel Steele sisters are keen to
crucially, their chances of meeting suitable on receiving an urgent letter. He is able maintain this distinction of rank and when
young men, where marriage is the only to call for his horse to take him to the Mrs Jennings asks how they travelled
respectable way for them to improve their nearest town, from where he will travel to London, Miss Steele tells her with
economic situation. in a hired carriage to London. Neither cost ‘quick exultation’,
nor social restrictions prevent him from
Once the family are settled at Barton acting independently and decisively. Later, ‘Not in the stage, I assure you […] we came post
Cottage their only means of travel is by Willoughby takes a similarly swift exit from all the way.’
foot. Their company is thus restricted to Barton Cottage when he is dismissed by his
people within walking distance, or those aunt. Even the seemingly passive Edward Travel to London only becomes a possibility
who can travel to visit them. This is further can visit both Elinor and Lucy without his for Elinor and Marianne when invited by
limited however, because, family’s approval or knowledge. It is this Mrs Jennings for, as a wealthy widow,
mobility that allows the male characters she can provide means of travel in her
the independence of Mrs Dashwood’s spirit to pursue their various ‘attachments’, chaise and suitable companionship in
overcame the wish of society for her children; whilst Elinor and Marianne have to her own person.
and she was resolute in declining to visit any wait, immobile, in one location, hoping
family beyond the distance of a walk. for their return. The motivations behind the Dashwood
sisters’ trip to London are subtly teased
To understand her qualms, we must To London out by Austen. Mrs Dashwood is
remember the reciprocal nature of happy to promote their journey on the
hospitality governing regency society. Until Mrs Jennings makes her offer, virtuous grounds of entertainment and
Rather than be embarrassed or beholden the idea of visiting London, where both education, declaring,
through receiving a visit she cannot return, Willoughby and Edward can be expected
Mrs Dashwood chooses to visit only those to be encountered, seems to be beyond ‘I would have every young woman [...]
families within walking distance. This social the Dashwood sisters’ ability. In the acquainted with the manners and amusements
squeamishness is perhaps understandable unlikely event that they were invited to of London.’
in a woman whose social status has fallen visit their brother in London they couldn’t
so dramatically with her widowhood, accept, as Elinor tells Lucy Steele. It is Mrs Jennings’ cheerful vulgarity, however,
but the costs to her daughters’ marital not just the cost that would prevent them is more explicit about the benefits of such a
prospects are drawn attention to by Austen. but also social restrictions. Standards of visit when she promises,
propriety demanded of single ladies meant
The limited mobility of Elinor and they couldn’t travel any distance unless ‘If I don’t get one of you at least married before I
Marianne is also explicitly contrasted with accompanied by a suitable chaperone, and have done with you, it shall not be my fault.’
that of the gentlemen in the novel, who certainly not alone. It’s clear that similar
can both ride and drive themselves about restrictions did not apply to working class Elinor realises, from her eagerness to accept
the country with relative freedom. This the invitation, that Marianne’s motivation
is not so different from Mrs Jennings’;
she sees it as an opportunity to advance

February 2018 emagazine 63

her relationship with Willoughby. Young
ladies were not supposed to be so forward
in pursuing their romantic attachments
and this is the reason why Elinor, ‘could
not approve of’ the visit for Marianne.
Elinor is not unaware that Edward is also
staying in London and she is suspected of
just such an unladylike pursuit herself by
Lucy’s later insinuations. It is not just mean-
spirited comments about their motives that
young lady travellers risked, however. The
cautionary tale of Colonel Brandon’s ward
Eliza shows just how dangerous travel to a
city of pleasure, away from the protection of
their family, could prove for them.

Travelling Home Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant in Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Moviestore collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
Just as getting to London was a delicate
and expensive undertaking, returning
home proves equally difficult for Elinor and
Marianne, and reinforces how little control
they have over the timings and means
of their travels. Once Marianne’s reason
for accepting Mrs Jennings’ hospitality is
rendered void by Willoughby’s rejection,
she wishes to return home immediately.
Elinor objects that:

civility of the commonest kind must prevent such
a hasty removal as that.

When Edward appears equally irrevocably
lost to Elinor, however, she is just as keen to
leave but, unlike Marianne,

she was conscious of the difficulties of so long a emphasises his credentials as a worthy emag web archive
journey. suitor for Marianne:
• Okey Nzelu: Jane Austen’s Women –
Both cost and propriety hinder their ability not a moment was lost in delay of any kind. Marriage and Money, emagazine 36
to travel how and when they wish, and
they find themselves once again dependent Whilst Colonel Brandon travels to Barton • Rob Worrall: Truths Universally
on the arrangements of characters in order to be of genuine use and comfort Acknowledged – An Approach to
whose wealth allows them to maintain to Marianne, Willoughby, by contrast, Reading Jane Austen, emagazine
independent means of travel. Elinor’s impetuously drives to Cleveland to obtain 47, February 2010
delicate feelings about accepting the offer her death-bed forgiveness. Although we
to travel in the Palmers’ coach, reminds us may be temporarily swept away by his
of her mother’s unwillingness to become romantic gesture, Willoughby’s is a self-
beholden to her wealthier neighbours. She serving mission concerned only with salving
is very sensitive about appearing to impose his own conscience whereas Brandon’s is
on her acquaintances, and it is only when that of a true friend. The last journey of the
the invitation was Dashwood sisters, before their romantic
and economic troubles are successfully
inforced by [...] real politeness by Mr Palmer overcome, is to return home and, in a novel
punctuated by the complications of transport
that Elinor accepts. That her qualms are and journeys, it is perhaps fitting that its
well-founded is evident when her grasping resolution establishes Elinor and Marianne
brother John congratulates Elinor living happily ‘almost within sight of each
other’. Mobility has never been sought for its
on their travelling so far towards Barton without own sake by Austen’s heroines and a happy
any expense. ending is also a stable and settled one.

During Marianne’s illness Colonel Brandon Dr Katherine Limmer is English Literature Course
proves his disinterested love for Marianne Manager at Yeovil College.
through two key journeys: bringing her
mother to visit and taking the recovering
Marianne home in comfort. The way in
which he decisively manages these journeys

64 emagazine February 2018

His dodgy foot

Meter and Identity in Poems of the Decade

Jack Palmer’s account of the use of meter in Turnbull’s ‘Ode’, Burnside’s
‘History’ and Barber’s ‘Material’ explains how meter works in poetry
before applying this understanding to develop a rich reading of its effect in
the three poems.

Meter can often be difficult to write about. and sounds, all of which work alongside way to one of understanding, and perhaps
The counting out of syllables and stresses meter in dynamic and unexpected ways. even admiration. This shift seems to emerge
in the lines of a poem can, in itself, feel Any given poem, then, expresses its own from the allure the speaker finds in the
like a rather ‘pedestrian’ exercise; what’s identity. Many poems in Forward’s Poems rhythmic aspect of racing culture, and the
more, if we do successfully identify a meter, of the Decade anthology are preoccupied strong iambic beats in ‘the throaty turbo
we are then faced with the difficulty of with the nature of identity, and this article roar’, ‘the joyful throb’, and ‘with pulsing
relating this rhythm to the meaning of will analyse how the use of meter in three juice’ make the energy of this scene audible.
the poem. Many Literature students, for poems – Tim Turnbull’s ‘Ode on a Grayson Similarly, though the first stanza of the
instance, will be familiar with one of the Perry Urn’, John Burnside’s ‘History’ and poem maligns the youths ‘on crap estates’
most popular meters in English poetry, Ros Barber’s ‘Material’ – has an important as society’s pariahs, by the final stanza this
iambic pentameter. A line of true iambic role in shaping three unique poetic voices. outcast status gives the ‘children’ a unique
pentameter, we are taught, repeats the form of freedom:
pattern of ‘unstressed syllable, stressed Tim Turnbull’s ‘Ode on a
syllable’ five times over. Here’s an example: Grayson Perry Urn’ will future poets look on you amazed,
‘to race back home, for work next day, to speculate how children might have lived when
bed’ (my italics). Turnbull’s poem both adheres to and you were fired, lives so free and bountiful
challenges the ‘ode’ form that its title
But what is the purpose of this rhythm? claims. Traditionally, an ode addresses The meter is key to the poet’s message here.
Often, when a meter is used in a poem, a person or object that captures the Following the enjambed ‘when’, the word
each line follows the pattern closely; this speaker’s attention; in this poem, it is ‘you’ that begins the next line disrupts
means that, as readers, we are tempted to the contemporary artist Grayson Perry’s the iambic rhythm in which this poem is
make generic comments about the rhythm. 1999 urn, entitled ‘Language of Cars’, written. The emphasis on ‘you’ in ‘you were
These comments tend to follow a similar that is mused on: fired’ changes the first two syllables of the
trend, such as ‘the iambic pentameter links line from ‘unstressed, stressed’ to ‘stressed,
the poem to the beating of the heart’, or [a] kitschy vase […] delineating tales of kids in unstressed’. In metrical terms, this is known
‘the iambic pentameter makes the poem cars. as a trochaic inversion, where a reader
flow’. The problem with both of these expects an iamb, but instead find a trochee
statements is that neither engage with the Odic language is normally elevated and (the name of the ‘stressed, unstressed’
specific effects of meter within the context full of praise. However, at the beginning pattern). By upturning the metre, Turnbull
of a particular poem – they treat meter as of this poem, when the drivers behind suggests that the high-risk existence of these
a one-size-fits-all backing track. Though the wheels of these cars are imagined, ‘free and bountiful’ children gives them the
different poems might use the same meter, the ‘Burberry clad louts’ are treated with power to subvert the monotonous rhythm
no two poems use meter identically. To an acerbic judgement. Odes are typically that most of society is required to live by.
craft meaning, poets can call upon an written in iambic pentameter, too, and
endless range of tones, moods, idioms, this is true of Turnbull’s poem. Though the
boy-racer culture is initially treated with
suspicion, this attitude eventually gives

February 2018 emagazine 65

© Linda Combi

66 emagazine February 2018

John Burnside’s ‘History’ Considering the context in which this poem Later on in ‘Material’, however, the
was written, Burnside’s use of meter helps, if tone changes to one of wistfulness, as
The subtitle of John Burnside’s ‘History’ is only for a brief moment, to ‘tether’ both the Barber steadies the poem’s pace with
integral to our understanding of the poem’s speaker and the reader back to the day-to- polysyllabic words:
meaning. It reads as follows: day experience of lived reality.
I miss material handkerchiefs
St Andrews: West Sands; September 2001 Ros Barber’s ‘Material’ their soft and hidden history.

This text was published within three In Ros Barber’s ‘Material’, the symbol of In these lines, the stressed syllables draw
weeks of the attacks on the twin towers, a handkerchief is used to evoke both the attention to the sounds that exist within
and the poem’s speaker, a father who is speaker’s relationship with her mother, words: the repeated aspirate ‘hi’ (‘hidden’
by the sea with his son, is attempting to and the Britain of her childhood. The ‘history’) and the sibilant ‘s’ (‘handkerchiefs’,
locate some kind of coherence in a world meter in which the poem is written, iambic ‘soft’, ‘history’) work together to create the
of ‘muffled dread’. The father’s desire to tetrameter, is essential for re-creating the effect of a tender whisper, quietly yearning
gather something out of the wreckage atmosphere of this era. This rhythm, though for a culture that exists no more. This,
influences the form of the poem (how it is still written in the familiar iambic pattern perhaps, is an example of poetry’s special
laid out) as much its content, with ‘History’ of ‘unstressed, stressed’, is repeated in only power, of which meter is a vital part. A poem
being written in predominantly free verse, four lots per line – here’s an example from exists silently when read on the page, but
which means that there is no regular rhyme the poem: ‘she’d have one, always, up her it also exists physically when read aloud, as
scheme or rhythm: sleeve’ (my italics). When voiced, the rhythm the reader’s voice is guided, almost eerily,
is jolly and jaunty, replicating the cadence by a sequence of stressed and unstressed
I knelt down in the sand of early 20th-century war tunes, many of beats. This poem, entitled ‘Material’, is an
with Lucas which would have been well-known in the attempt to conjure up the physicality of a
speaker’s household. But this meter also taps ‘soft’ handkerchief; for a moment, the poem
gathering shells into our earliest encounters with rhythm does achieve this, as the movement of our
and pebbles during childhood: the nursery rhyme. Parts lips, teeth, and tongue turn language into
of ‘Material’ which describe the mother, for something materially held in the mouth. By
finding evidence of life in all this example, resemble this form: this measure, rhythm does not deaden words
driftwork by fixing them in place, but rather awakens
And sometimes more than one fell out language to a new life.
Here, Burnside’s use of indentation, blank as if she had a farm up there
space, and varied line length make visual where dried-up hankies fell in love Jack Palmer teaches English at Latymer Upper
the speaker’s difficulty in creating order and mated, raising little squares. School, London.
out of the dispersed ‘driftwork’. However,
part-way through the poem, the poetic voice Even when the meter is disrupted, for emag web archive
does becomes momentarily composed and instance in the poem’s fifth stanza, the poet
contemplative, as three lines are arranged in does so in a knowingly playful manner. As • Richard Vardy: Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘The
steady iambic pentameter: the text develops, the handkerchief draws Map Woman’, emagplus for emagazine
out various identities from the speaker’s 73, September 2016
and though we are confined by property memory, such as ‘George’ the ‘greengrocer’:
what tethers us to gravity and light • Richard Vardy: And Finally... Looking
has most to do with distance and the shapes And somehow, with the hanky’s loss, at Last Lines in Poems of the Decade,
we find in water greengrocer George with his dodgy foot. emagazine 71, February 2016

Although Burnside’s ‘History’ is a mediation It is worth noting that, in metrical terms, • Mark Roberts: Gender Wars?
on the condition of America, it is also a a ‘foot’ is a single unit of rhythm – in this Poems of the Decade, emagazine
reflection on the significance of ‘quiet, local case just one lot of ‘unstressed, stressed’. 77, September 2017
forms/of history’ (as he writes elsewhere in Try reading the above lines aloud: the word
the poem). This means individual histories ‘his’ curiously introduces one syllable too emagClips
– in this case a father and son – but also many, making the foot of the line uneven.
the local histories that we as communities This is known as a hypercatalectic line, • Jeremy Noel-Tod on Poetry. Includes
share. The lines Burnside chooses to write one which contains an odd extra syllable readings and discussions of several
in pentameter suggest a fear of a large scale in the final foot. Greengrocer George’s poems from Poems of the Decade.
‘us versus them’ way of thinking, whereby lagging leg, then, is reflected fondly, and
people identify themselves in the first perhaps with an element of the tongue-in-
instance by their nationality, their religion, or cheek, in the clunkiness of the four syllables
the ‘confine[s]’ of the ‘property’ they own. that describe it.
Burnside instead proposes a more grounded
sense of identity, one which would include,
for instance, humanity’s relationship with
landscape – ‘the shapes/we find in water’.

February 2018 emagazine 67