Unbridling the Tongues of Women - The University of Adelaide

Unbridling the tongues of women
Whether from ignorance, or self-preservatory femininity, Spence’s heroes lack the
distinctiveness of her heroines, and of many of her minor characters. Even Kenneth
Oswald, the central character of Gathered In, the novel in which, Spence believed, ‘I
had at last achieved my ambition to create characters that stood out distinctly and
real’, 66 is a sadly unrealistic assemblage of virtues. He might be, as Elaine Showalter
has suggested recently of other heroes, Spence’s idea of how she would be if she were
a man with the greater freedom and range that masculinity confers, 67 even when
limited by the stigma of Oswald’s illegitimate birth. But in that case, we can only be
thankful that she was a woman.
Her female characters are a different matter. Every one of her heroines is a rebel,
in one way or another. Miles Franklin thought Clara Morison would still be a
rebel a century later, for she ‘hated crochet and despised worsted work’. 68 Cast as a
conventional romantic heroine, encountering situations which, in different hands,
would reduce such a figure to illness, destitution or moral ruin, Clara finds work,
makes friends and defends herself competently against lechery. Indeed, she does
more: through her darkest hours she sustains herself not only by reading and keeping
a journal, but also by composing uplifting sermons. The tremendous presumption of
such a practice, even when kept secret, may be difficult for the secular 20 th century
to recognise. In the 1850s, responsibility for presenting and interpreting sacred doctrine
was a privilege reserved to a caste held to be spiritually superior to other beings.
And it was a caste composed entirely of men. Clara’s sermons represent a secret appropriation
to a servant girl of the most powerful discourse available in the Paradise
of Dissent. In writing them she is very like the far more overtly rebellious Margaret
Elliot. Perhaps H. M. Green was right when he discerned something of Spence in
both characters. 69
Mary Lancaster (Tender and True), Amy Staunton (The Author’s Daughter), and
Edith Gray (Gathered In) are more conventional romantic heroines: beautiful, tender-hearted,
charming, sometimes gracious, sometimes pliable. But even Mary Lancaster,
described as ‘a clinging vine’, is capable of revolt against the deterioration of
her marriage. Amy Staunton does a midnight flit to escape the unwelcome and morally
compromising attentions of her noble suitor. Edith Gray not only manages her
father’s household, but spends some time combating her love for Kenneth Oswald
because she wants him to re-instate his mother’s purity with the world by claiming
what she mistakenly believes to be his legitimate birthright.
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