By Asif Abbas
The novel narrates the story of a young girl named Arabella who
lives in his father's home in the secluded countryside spending most of her
time reading romantic fiction and immersing herself in the stories of
courageous men and grand women. Indulging so much in the romantic world, makes
her believe that it is true, and she incorporates the inflexible rules of
womanhood in her personality. She sees the real world from the lens of romantic
fiction. When she enters into the real society, everyone is impressed by her
intellect but everyone deplores her behavior which is modeled after the
fictitious heroines. She treats her lover, Mr. Glanville, with contempt because
she believes she has not proposed to her according to the rules set in the
romances. After going through various adventures, she falls sick and the doctor
who attends to her decides to shatter her misconceptions using enlightenment
principles of reason and logic.
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The
character of Arabella represents the opposite of what was expected of women in
that society. Arabella is an independent, strong, and courageous girl in
possession of a unique agency that makes her assert her desires and choices,
behave nobly and act courageously. Her intellect forces her to think beyond
material reality. She has a philosophical and intellectual mind which has been
shaped by her reading habits. She considers herself as a part of the community
of great heroines like Cleopatra, Mandana, and others. Therefore, she acts,
talks, commands and behaves like them. She cites them lavishly in her
conversations. Oblivious to the plight of women in 19th-century English
society, Arabella does not see herself as the only one around possessing these
capabilities. She expects other women to be also in possession of the
independent agency. She imagines all women to have the same power as her
fictitious heroines have. She believes that other women are as intellectual and
refined as she is, behave as she does and have the same courage as she
possesses. Her expectations are broken one by one as the novel progresses
because reality dawns on her as she steps out of the romantic world into the
real world.
Arabella always faces difficulties in finding a friend or companion of
her sex who shares her worldview. Because education was not common for women in
that society, very few women possessed intellectual capabilities. But Arabella
has no idea of the outside real world as she lives in the world of romance and
fiction. She befriends Miss Groves, but she does not find qualities in her that
she desires. Their relationship is unstable as evident from the novel Miss.
Groves is "so little qualified
for partaking a conversation so refined as Arabella’s, that her discourse
appeared quite tedious to her since it was neither upon fashions, assemblies,
cards, or scandal”. Miss. Groves
represents the intellectual capabilities of women of 19th century English
society. Women had no access to education, science, or philosophy since women
were regarded to be too intellectually bankrupt to partake in conversations
related to the said subjects. Female conversations in that society lacked
intellectual depth as reflected in the conversations of Miss. Groves and Miss
Glanville. Arabella is disgusted by the intellectual bankruptcy of these women.
Though at the end of the
novel she finds a woman who shares her worldview in Cynecia she turns out to be
a hoax, sent by Mr. George to break the relationship between Arabella and Mr.
Glanville. Thus, the difference between the world Arabella has created in her
mind in which everyone is thought to be acting and behaving according to the
rules in romantic fiction, and real-world dominated by superficiality,
shallowness, and materialism becomes more and more obvious towards the end of
the novel. Arabella becomes disillusioned with the world as it does not satisfy
her expectations.
Through the character of
Arabella, Lennox has highlighted the faults of English society. She is the
opposite of the traditional woman of that society as exemplified by Miss Groves
and Miss Glanville. This is because she has lived far away from society in a
secluded estate in the countryside and has spent most of her life while reading
romances.
The novel highlights the patriarchal constraints imposed on educated women that render them unable to express their intellectual and creative skills and powers. This is evident from Miss Glanville's interest in watching Arabella fail in social contexts instead of having informed discussions with her. Instead of succeeding in forming a community of intellectual ladies, society forces her to submit to traditionalism.
