Introduction

46
Vanessa Mangione
to keep her innocent in all imaginable ways, she has to suffer the most from conventional
and traditional rules. Accordingly, the most apparent demonstration of
how unguided liberation causes tragedy and of how repressed desires function in
the body is demonstrated through her:
But for the deep flushes which now and then overspread St. Clara’s cheeks,
and the fire which at times animated her bright dark eyes, some might have
fancied her a being of a purer nature than our own – one incapable of feeling
any of the fierce passions that disturb mankind; but her voice was such
as to shake every fibre of the heart, and might soon have betrayed to an experienced
observer the empassioned violence of her real character. (61)
Again, Glenarvon senses the violence of the oppressed semiotic in her nature and
is eager to release it, but only in order to gratify his own (sexual) desire. However,
he could not have guessed the indomitable power he set free in Elinor. Presenting
himself as a liberator of oppressive structures for the Irish as well as for women,
he soon loses all control over the now emancipated former nun and is horrified
and disgusted by that which he cannot control. With astonishing speed, which can
only be explained by the immense amount of previously repressed passion, Elinor
transgresses from an innocent, virtuous girl into a wild, masculine Amazon. The
first meeting between Calantha and the the new Elinor is described as following:
Elinor came near: she raised her full black eye, and gazed with fearless effrontery
upon Calantha.
It was the same face she had seen a few years back at the convent; but
alas, how changed; – the rich and vivid crimson of her cheek, the deep dark
brown of the wild ringlets which waved above her brown, the bold masculine
manners and dress she had assumed, contrasting with the slender
beauty of her upright form. She was dressed in uniform … Elinor appeared
desperate and utterly hardened: her presence inspired Calantha with a
mixed feeling of horror and commiseration … (114)
The extreme change of Elinor even unsettles her creator Glenarvon “Oh Elinor, I
tremble at the sight of so much cold depravity – so young and so abandoned.
How changed from the hour I first met you at Glenna!” (255).
Unlike Calantha, who has scruples about surrendering herself to Glenarvon,
Elinor openly becomes his mistress and loves him with an incommensurable,
burning passion. Where Calantha could still feel social restrains and even tried to
live a life according to these, although she has already surrendered herself to Glenarvon,
Elinor is different. She frees herself irrevocably from all feminine restrictions
and even dresses like a boy, as Lamb herself did. 29 She pursues a more radi-
29 Lamb claimed that she had written Glenarvon at night within the space of one month, dressed in
page attire. It is also known that she visited Byron during their affair dressed as a page. A friend
of Byron, Robert Charles Dallas, mentions one of those meetings in disguise: “While I was with