Greetings from the Editor

Abstract

6 Victorians Journal Greetings from the Editor Victorians Journal of Culture and Literature, Fall 2014, #126 features new work on some old and some more recent literary favorites. “Sacred Kisses and Profane Thimbles: Dual Female Identity in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan" considers the children’s classic in terms of Victorian Madonna-harlot sexual ideology. According to author Theresa FitzPatrick, “the proper Wendy and the vulgar Tink are held in contrast, yet both harbor romantic, complicated, and impossible feelings for Peter.” This in turn reveals “a troublesome and contradictory view of womanhood as they attempt to reconcile these feelings within the gendered restrictions of the time.” For Peter, the eternal child, females are interchangeable: it is the “maternal behaviors” that he seeks, but Wendy must confront “the conflicting urge to both nurture him and kiss him.” Central to this discussion is the quaint practice of “thimbling,” while the character Tiger Lily is situated somewhere within the dichotomous continuum represented by motherly Wendy and the distinctly brazen Tinkerbell. “History in the Sickroom: Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley’' by Kate Lawson studies the static condition of two primary characters against the backdrop of economic stasis engendered by the Peninsular Wars. Individually and thus, as a potential couple, Caroline Helstone and Robert Moore are “trapped in this painfully static and seemingly interminable historical moment,” and can find no relief personally or relationally. As a result, these two “isolated and estranged characters” negotiate “obstruction and stagnation” until each is forced to confront life-threatening illness. It is the experience of invalidism and sick-room confinement, “with its enforced stasis and isolation,” that compels the resolution of stasis into progressive movement. Here, however, the marriage plot resolution concludes in a smoky, industrialized landscape that hints at something darker than a seamless happily-ever-after. More graphically, Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is notable for its portrayal of married life, not only beyond the vague happily-ever-after fate generally presented in domestic novels but in Victorians Journal 7 terms of severe marital discord. Ay$egtil Kuglin’s ‘“the most attractive to the worst kinds ofmen:’ Self-importance and Romantic Relationships in The Tenant of Wildfell Hair investigates Helen Huntingdon’s “disastrous marriage to a dissolute alcoholic,” a man whose “depravity and alcoholism” destroys the marital bond and extends to a broader social circle involving seduced women and ruined men. Having defied warnings against this union, Helen— who believes she can redeem her husband’s nefarious ways— develops a “zeal to reform him” that proves to be “quite as catastrophic” as his anti-social behaviors. Analyzed through Karen Homey’s psychoanalytical framework, both characters are seen to contribute to the problem and its inevitable resolution. Through her depictions of alternative relationships, Bronte presents models of harmonious couples who are able to achieve mutual satisfaction in their relationships. “Ecofeminism in Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’” by Kathleen Anderson and Hannah Thullbery offers an impressive overview of the wide range of scholarly approaches to this deeply evocative poem, with its “interplay of biblical, mercantile, and sexual themes.” One perspective that has not been developed, the authors argue, concerns ecofeminism, which in this reading is highlighted by Rossetti’s “portrayal of a pervasive bond between nature and the feminine soul.” As an early example of ecofeminist literature, “Goblin Market” raises “critical and still-relevant questions about the co-inherent roles ofwomen and the environment in a precarious industrialized world.” Michael J. Sobiech’s “Martineau’s Dissent: Advancing the Dissenters’ Cause in Deerbrook" considers Harriet Martineau’s role in the history of the Victorian novel. Martineau first earned fame with Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-34), a series of novellas published before Victoria’s ascension and read by the young Princess. A literary hybrid, the Illustrations helped shape Victorians’ synthesis of entertainment with moral utility, anticipating developments in the genre subsequently associated with Dickens, Gaskell, and Eliot. Sobiech’s analysis explores 8 Victorians Journal Martineau’s influence by examining selected Illustrations tales through the lens ofreligious issues and attitudes, an emphasis which in turn shifts to a consideration of the role of religious Dissent in novel development, specifically through Martineau’s Deerbrook. Whereas in the Illustrations Martineau...