Feminist Philosophy and Fiction

“Desmond” and “The Vindication of the Rights of Women” map the foundation of modern feminism.  Though each work had a different rhetorical function and added to their current rhetoric in different ways, they get at the same points.  Charlotte Smith’s novel engages in philosophical debate in very subtle ways that add layers onto the story and her feminist logic at the same time.  She is able to place characters in different places in society and channel a perspective that resonates with the actual beliefs of the time period.  She plays a very complex game with progressive and conservative characters and builds a plotline that observes the main character, Geraldine, from different realistic perspectives.

Among all the personal feelings that the characters express, there are meaningful little discussions and one liners that are sprinkled throughout the text. Smith writes gems like “Those who are well situated desire not to move.”(179) These type of statements can be copied and pasted into any philosophical writing about gender or aristocratic privilege of the time period and hit home.

As Charlotte Smith is known for thinly veiling the characters of her books as people in real life, she speaks from different perspectives in a realistic manner but each character is speaking to the same topic and layering the conversation for the reader to observe.  One attribute of the novel that I must talk about is the epistolary form and how it adds to the reader’s experience of feminist rhetoric.  The epistolary letter gives Smith the opportunity to let each characters voice their opinions and concerns all intertwined with the activity going on in France and in their own lives.  The epistolary form is very useful in expressing the molecular influence that a historical event like the French Revolution had.  Because people watched events like the French Revolution unfold, and talked about those events and what they meant to society from a political and moral standpoint, she is able to effectively write from different angles to portray a full spectrum of ideas. 

The first person we get praising Geraldine is Desmond.  He talked her up as much as possible and he was letting her situation tear him up even though he had know real stake in what she was going through.  Desmond is a very progressive thinker and the way he talks about Geraldine could come off as biased because he is in love with her or because society does not influence his thinking. The recipient of all Desmonds letters, Bethel stands as his rational friend and tethers him to reality.  So when Bethel visits and sees Geraldine and her situation he automatically jumps on the Geraldine bandwagon it signifies Geraldine's transcendence beyond the limits of women.

Bethel is the perfect springboard for Geraldine’s story.  Because he believes in tradition and honors the way of living during the time, his evolution comes full circle for the reader to understand.  Him being skeptical of his own friends feelings for Geraldine by writing things like “If your attachment to Geraldine is as pure and disinterested as you have often called it, if you were her sisters husband and such an alliance would put you at much more power than it could ever be otherwise.” (177) Writing Desmond, who has been falling head over heels for Geraldine for a hundred pages, a with statements like that brings a contrasting element of rational reality to Desmond’s emotional.  Then in the next volume, after listening to Desmond rave about Geraldine and her morals and chastity.

“She never considered any kind of happiness other than want of money.  Nor did it occur to her that in giving Geraldine away to somebody with fortune and family, she overlooked circumstances in the character of Verney.” (229) The fact that he understands that Mrs. Waverly, Geraldine’s mother, gave her away to a rich man with status who did not deserve his position in society n the first place says something about the sick society in which they live. It gets at Wollstonecraft’s idea about women’s limitations and how there are societal issues where good women can be abused.

Where are the effects of a broader societal gender problem in the way that the characters see Geraldine’s situation?

How does Smith get at double standards in the way women are perceived?

If Geraldine is perfect, beauty, brains, and morals what does it say that she’s locked in the most unsatisfying circumstance?

I picked up things from Wikipedia and Britannica