Introduction

88
Vanessa Mangione
This [blindness] is partly, because he is, as a man, presumed to be inherently
incapable of fathoming the mysteries of the domestic sphere, and
partly because he is frequently absent from it and habitually preoccupied
with the concerns of the masculine world of work. In other words, Carlyle
demonstrates a structural masculine incomprehension of the domestic: the
novel implies that men’s position within the family simply does not equip
them to read the signs of the domestic sphere … . In this respect he is seen
as, to some extent, responsible (through ignorance and inefficacy) for Isabel’s
dilemma. (120)
Pykett concludes: “The well-intentioned, but ignorant and hence unsympathetic
husband, is in part responsible for a difficult domestic situation for which his wife
pays the price of banishment and exile” (120).
McCusky comments that East Lynne warns of the dangers of the separate
spheres, as Carlyle’s strict separation of the public and domestic sphere eventually
results in the destruction of his family. This destruction is brought upon through
the privacy that is thus gained, as it produces “secrecy, silence, and reserve” that
“too often upset the personal relations upon which the community itself depends
on” (372). His professional reserve estranges him from his wife. Although his
secret meetings with Barbara are innocent, Mangham notes, “his resolution to
keep his private and professional lives separated (by not telling Isabel) leads his
wife to suspect he is having an affair” (134) which results in her running off with
Levison. He hardly ever expresses his emotion a fact that makes Isabel insecure of
his love to her. She tries to confront him:
“What is it that she wants with you so much, that Barbara Hare?”
“It is a private business, Isabel. She has to bring me messages from her
mother.”
“Must this business be kept from me?”
He was silent for a moment, considering whether he might tell her. (258)
He eventually decides against it and thus gives Isabel ground for questioning his
faithfulness:
She did not put faith in a word of the reply. She believed he could not tell
her because her feelings, as his wife, would be outraged by the confession:
and it goaded her anger into recklessness. Mr Carlyle, on his part, never
gave a thought to the supposition that she might be jealous: he had believed
that nonsense at an end years ago. He was perfectly honourable and true,
giving her no shadow of cause or reason to be jealous of him: and, being a
practical, matter-of-fact man, it did not occur to him that she could be so.
(258)
Wood obviously questions the strict division of the spheres and the resulting lack
of complicity between men and women. She points to its dangers, as misunder-