Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

woman she has an advantage over a man. Despite Marian’s deviation from the angel in the house ideal, she
also demonstrates characteristics that are typical of a traditional Victorian woman.
Marian, like Victoria, is also a paradox: in some ways she is extremely unconventional, but in
others she is a traditional angel in the house. Walter’s first meeting with Marian juxtaposes Marian’s
beautiful body with her unconventional style of dress, for
Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, . . . her waist, perfection
in the eyes of man, for it occupied its natural place, it filled out its natural circle, it was
visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays. (Collins 31)
Walter surprisingly says that the absence of a corset renders Marian’s body “delightfully undeformed” (31).
He praises her for not conforming to conventional Victorian dress, and this demonstrates that while Marian
is unconventional, she does not threaten patriarchy. Walter actually finds her more beautiful than the
traditional corseted woman, but his reaction to Marian’s face demonstrates that she is a paradox because as
Marian turns towards Walter, he thinks to himself, “[t]he lady is ugly!” (31). The unexpectedness of this
statement is horrifyingly sensational: Walter nor the reader expects that a grotesquely masculine face sits
atop a beautifully feminine body. Victoria never would have neglected to wear a corset, but her private
views about motherhood and marriage are just as shocking as Marian's unconventional dress. After seeing
her face, Walter places masculine qualities on Marian’s body, and he says,
Never was the old conventional maxim that Nature cannot err, more flatly contradicted—
never was the fair promise of a lovely figure more strangely and startingly belied by the
face and head that crowned it. . . . She had a large, firm, masculine mouth and jaw; . . . her
expression—bright, frank, and intelligent—appeared, while she was silent, to be
altogether wanting in those feminine attractions. (Collins 32)
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