Acting the role of romance: text and subtext in the work of Florence Marryat

Abstract

Florence Marryat, prolific Victorian popular novelist, often juggled seemingly contradictory positions both in her real life and in the fictional world she created. Claiming to be very much a Victorian lady, she was an actress, a singer, and a career woman, activities often at odds with the paradigm of Victorian gentility she professed to support. However, Marryat recognized the requirements for success in her chosen field and knew how to manipulate those standards. Through her plots, Marryat supported the Victorian standards of behavior for women, but at the same time she both modified and subverted the very codes she advocated. Her novels, light and amusing on the surface, often hid dissent, frustration, anger, and desire for power. This dissertation examines Marryat's work from a variety of perspectives--mythological, historical, feminist, and psychological--and investigates how she supports, subverts, and modifies the acceptance of the status quo by Victorian women through text and subtext. Chapter One defines the theoretical context for this study, situating Marryat's work within its historical context and within modern theories of popular women's fiction. Chapter Two is a brief biographical sketch of Marryat and includes a discussion of an autobiographical novel. Chapter Three addresses Marryat's position on women's issues including the issues of marriage, divorce, friendship, and motherhood. Marryat's views on men, particularly the ideal hero and the problem of fathers, are the focus of Chapter Four. Chapter Five addresses the author's position on careers for women. Marryat argues for acceptable occupations that allow women financial independence should they fail in the marriage market. Finally, Chapter Six discusses Marryat's women as active participants in the religious life of their world and as the designated moral conscience of their age. A devout Roman Catholic, in her later years Marryat turned to spiritualism, conducting seances and lecturing that there is no death. In her presentation of the woman as moral touchstone, Marryat creates heroines with the power to change their world through the effect they have on the men in their lives.