reflecting the sign of the times. This novel was written in 1860, during the Victorian age.
I grew up 100 years later with I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970 television series) - - - - with the subservient Barbara Eden ("yes master") as Jeannie and Larry Hagman as the astronaut;
contrast that 25 years later with my daughter's experience, growing up with Xena: Warrior Princess
(1995-2001 television series) a woman of power, Lucy Lawless as a Warrior Princess. Thank
goodness for Victorian female readers to have a character like the intelligent, bold Marian
Halcombe.
The following quotes from The Woman in White regarding women struck me while reading
the book. I share them here:
- "Women can't draw - their minds are too flighty, & their eyes too inattentive."
- "Don't shrink under it like a woman - trample it underfoot like a man."
- "I answered him more because my tongue is a womans and I must answer, than because I had anything convincing to say."
- "Men! They are the enemies of our innocence and our peace - they drag us away from our parents love & our sisters friendship -- they take us body & soul to themselves, & fasten our helpless lives to theirs as they chain up a dog to his kennel."
- "He flatters my vanity by talking to me as seemingly & sensibly as if I was a man."
- "This cannot be if my wife signs as well as myself, because we have one opinion between us, & that opinion is mine."
- "My courage was only a woman's courage."
- "It holds with animals, it holds with children, & it holds with women who are nothing but children grown up." (Count Fosco)
Our Morning Book Discussion Group resumes this Thursday, October 5th at the CIDLibrary in
the community meeting room. Come join the discussion at 10 AM.