Explore the ways in which Oswald and Swift portray femininity in Dart and Waterland

‘Mary itched. And this itch of Mary’s was the itch of curiosity.’

Explore the ways in which Oswald and Swift portray femininity in Dart and Waterland. In the course of your writing show how your ideas have been illuminated by Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and by critical readings of both core texts.

Each of the following three texts were written within twenty years of each other, allowing the authors to explore previous taboo topics such as feminine carnality in depth. Female sexuality is intrinsic in Alice Oswald’s 2002 poem, Dart, which was commissioned to give readers an accessible insight into the lives of those who work and dwell on the river Dart in Devon. It does so by exhibiting and compiling many of the river’s female, if not, feminine, forms and voices, each one, whether the naturalist, the water nymph or even the river itself, telling a very personal experience and perspective of the river. Similar ideas can be seen in Swift’s 1983 Waterland, a novel that tells the tale of Tom Crick’s tumultuous transition from boyhood to adulthood via a first person narrative, in George P. Landow’s words in Waterland: An introduction, ‘in an attempt to explain what went wrong’. Swift often represents his female characters as more empowered than their male counterparts, when informing the reader about the many different chapters of Crick’s life. Furthermore, Angela Carter’s 1979 collection of rewritten fairy-tales, The Bloody Chamber, helps to change gender stereotypes that have become embedded within literature for thousands of years. Carter does this, in her own words, by ‘extracting the latent content from traditional stories’ in order to reveal the hidden truths of debauchery and hedonism that often get left out. Literature written in times of female empowerment, for example between the 1970s and 80s, can appear to campaign for social change to help to alter stereotypes, prejudice and most prevalently within Dart, Waterland and The Bloody Chamber, gender roles and stigmas, particularly attached to women. Perhaps this could be to do with the fact that England saw its first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, in 1979 and so ideas of equality and female empowerment were rife perhaps giving context to these three English writers. However, it is also argued that Thatcher’s era had the opposite effect as the leadership strategies she employed were often masculine in their nature, and reminiscent of her male predecessors.

Elements of female sexuality being emancipated from its virile restraints via depicting female characters as sexually empowered, often over and above their male counterparts, can be seen in all three of these texts. During the 1950s, the period in which Swift sets Crick’s childhood, female sexuality was shunned within society and so the fact that he most sexually dominant and knowledgeable character in Waterland is undoubtedly young Mary Metcalf, is surprising, evoking a sense female empowerment. She teaches her male friends all they know about, in Landow’s words, ‘the unexplainable reproduction and sexuality’, as seen by the lines ‘Mary continued our homage to curiosity by verbal means’ and ‘she spoke of hymens and her monthly bleedings’. Metcalf is a sexually confident young woman, which in itself was a rare find in literature depicting the 1950s, and has a strong, uninhibited curiosity to explore the unknown, seen by the line ‘Mary explored my thing. Indeed, she was the bolder of the two of us’. This is a direct quote from Crick stating how Metcalf’s level of carnal curiosity and desire was far beyond that of Waterland’s male characters of her age. Furthering this idea, Swift portrays her male friends as being fragile and nervous when it comes to sex, with their vulnerable dispositions being evident when compared to typical depictions of domineering and excessively sexually confident men, seen by Crick’s description of his adolescent self as ‘he was timid, he was shy’. The line ‘hesitantly I put the

646 words tip of my finger into the mouth of Mary’s hole’ clearly displays Crick’s boyish anxieties surrounding sex and women. However, conversely, Mary ‘proudly’ takes the virginity of her friends, having sex with Freddie, Tom and unsuccessfully ‘attempting’ with Dick stating ‘it’ was simply ‘too big!’. These lines show, in Ian Brinton’s words, ‘Mary’s ceaseless itch’ in terms of her curiosity when it came to sexual endeavours and how she was the most assertive of Swift’s characters, whilst at the same time being the only female.

Likewise, in Dart the naturalist takes on the role of an empowered woman, confident in her own sexuality through often speaking about nature and the river in a highly erotic manner. This can be seen by Oswald’s usage of yonic language in the lines ‘I get excited by its wetness’ which has erotic connotations, that she admits herself she is aroused by. Her carnal utterances continue with her discussion of ‘butterflies breeding’ stating ‘going through holes, I love that’, in a line which you’d be forgiven for mistakenly thinking came from Waterland. She confidently tells the reader about her venereal thoughts, in a highly ambiguous manner, often disguised as simple observations of nature, so much so that some readers may not even pick up on her subtleties. Again, Oswald’s writing exudes female empowerment, showing that it is perfectly normal and acceptable for women to express their sexuality and that they don’t require any validation from men in this. This vividly shows the age of her poem as, as little as fifty years previously, in the 1950s, a passage like this, exploring a woman’s carnality, would have been frowned upon. Carter’s The Bloody Chamber shares many qualities with the above and can be described as a feminist rewriting of traditional fairy tales in the way that it consistently challenges female stereotypes, whilst still, in her own words, retaining an ‘air of tradition and convention’. One of the short stories that particularly engages with this idea is The Lady of the House of Love, which is a female version of Dracula. The ‘beautiful queen of the vampires’ is described as being sexually appealing with her ‘full, prominent, purplish- crimson lips’ and her ‘all-consuming beauty’, however, at the same time she is very much in a state of empowerment, contrary to the normal objectification of beautiful women in literature, and the media in general. This accompanied with the victimisation of men, with the Countess using them merely for her own pleasure, reverses the gender roles that arise in Dracula, this time with women being depicted as the more dominant sex and taking advantage of men.

Similarly, Swift represents Mary, as a youth, as the archetypal powerful woman, seemingly with a hint of manipulative qualities, seen so clearly when she delights in causing a hubbub around the identity of her baby’s father, after ‘trysts’ with each of the boys. This leaves the reader guessing and creates much suspense in the novel, seen by the line ‘there’d been no misreading the signs’, so much so that the writing, even if subconsciously, seems to quicken to the extent of us suspending our disposition believing that, if only for a moment, we too are involved in this tumult. Swift abruptly brings our guessing to a halt in the line ‘for Mary – if you haven’t already figured – was pregnant’ using parenthesis to prolong our wondering for as long as possible. Mary bears a striking resemblance with the powerful female character in Carter’s The Erl King who decides her own fate instead of the archaic, yet, usual plot of it being down to a man. This can be seen by the way the heroine knew ‘from the very first moment she saw the Erl King’ that he would do her ‘grievous harm’ and so took it upon herself to ‘strangle him’ with ‘two huge handfuls of his rustling hair’. Carter doesn’t allow her protagonist to play the archetypal damsel in distress role and helplessly die an agonising death at the hands of a man; instead she challenges gender stereotypes and paints the female as the powerful, proactive character of the story instead.

1335 words Throughout Dart’s course we meet multiple narrative voices, some feminine and some masculine, brought to the river for leisure or occupation. Although feminism may not have been Oswald’s primary concern, due to the fact that at the time of her writing Dart in the 2000s, notions of equality and female empowerment were already so prevalent that focussing on social change wasn’t at the top of her agenda, it is still clearly present within her poem. In including sexually empowered females like the water nymph and naturalist in a representation of England in the 2000s, Oswald subtly made the progression of feminism clear, without it being the central pillar of her poetry. Due to this, amongst other factors, it was important for Oswald to make sure that her poetry was accessible to readers from all levels of academia and social backgrounds so that all who are mentioned could read and understand it too, as David Wheatley states that ‘Oswald show that poetry need not choose between Hughesian deep myth and Larkinesque social realism’. She needed to write both lyrically and colloquially, in order to include verbose individuals as well as those, perhaps, stereotypically, like the construction workers, who may shun poetry and not read it themselves with the impression that it’s pretentious in its embellishments. If her poem was not accessible to the masses, her expressions of feminine carnality and authority, may not have reached such a wide audience. Wheatley also noted that ‘she produced a remarkable homage to it [the river] and them [its voices]’ when discussing how Oswald got this polyphonic balance right. Each character embodies the river in a different way bringing its thoughts and feelings to life in unique ways for example the tin-extractor who ‘works upriver looking for tin-stones’ to the walker who has ‘done all the walks’ around the river in ‘fifty years’.

This differentiation can be seen clearly by the way the different characters change the poem’s form when they speak, for example when Oswald wants to portray the feminine properties of the river, the language tends to sound more lyrical and even mimics the river in the way that it metaphorically sways to and fro between verse and prose, much like the river physically ebbs and flows. Those who love spending time along the river and, more often than not, are there by choice, truly engage with the river’s feminine qualities as categorised by delicacy and prettiness. An example of this is seen in the lines ‘trills in the stones/ glides in the trills/ eels in the glides’ when the walker uses a double chiasmus to describe the river and its wildlife. Furthering this, the water nymph utters short stanzas including sophisticated terms and poetic constructs such as ‘knocking the long shadows down’, which is a metaphor for the trees that woodmen cut down along the river. Contrarily, the river’s workers such as the bailiff and the tin extractor, tend to exhibit the river’s more virile qualities, often using sloppy, careless and even sometimes crude language like ‘some tosser’ and ‘leg it downriver’. The ferryman is another example of one of the Dart’s masculine voices represented by the way he speaks in solid prose utilising matter-of-fact language such as ‘down a cup of tea’ and ‘we’re down the Checkers every Friday’. Carter also uses gender in her short story The Company of Wolves, a tale which ties multiple smaller stories together giving the reader crucial back knowledge in order to gain a better understanding of the main text, for example at the beginning when the scene is set with a stern warning of the ‘beast’ who ‘howls in the woods by night’. In the wolf’s excessively masculine description as ‘a carnivore incarnate’, ‘ferocious’ and equally ‘cunning’, Carter uses satirical foreshadowing to hint that something ominous is imminently about to happen. These minutiae are purely factual as opposed to being the starting point of the tale, however they are just as essential as they set the tone ready for the introduction of the ‘young woman’ and her ‘granny’ in a feminist twist on Little Red Riding Hood.

2022 words The contrast in representation of femininity and masculinity in Oswald’s Dart, summed up by Wheatley who states ‘rivers can be many things simultaneously’, aids the reader in distinguishing between who is speaking, in what could otherwise be viewed as a piece that is hard to follow, as seen by the uncertainty experienced in the opening pages as to whether it is the river or the ‘old man’ talking. As well as this, in including so many diverse kinds of people and influences upon the river, Oswald’s poetry becomes truly representative, in its documentation, of all who live and dwell on the Dart so much so that it acts as an impressive piece of research and historical documentation. Some poets, and authors alike, tend to home in on a specific group within society to focus their work on and so with Oswald addressing so many, it allows hers to become much more than simply just another forgotten poem, but instead one possessing the potential to be remembered and referenced well into the future.

Mary’s grisly abortion, along with her change of name from ‘Metcalf’ to ‘Crick’, act as turning points for her character as she moves from being a liberated young woman and, in Landow’s words, a ‘sexual explorer interested in life and love’ to an insipid, lonely, old woman. Upon her realisation that ‘Dick killed Freddie’ due to believing he was the father of Mary’s unborn child and that ‘it’s our [Mary and Tom’s] fault too’, it would seem that she becomes aware for the first time of the true harm that her ‘childish’ meddling and promiscuity can cause. Swift uses this as a transitional point for Mary, portraying the extent of her remorse, as due to the tragedies she suffers, and unwittingly orchestrates, Tom states ‘her curiosity’s gone’, and reminiscent of the ‘blow to the head’ that causes Sarah Atkinson to become ‘dumb’ and bedridden for the rest of her life, her fun loving, uplifting demeanour never returns. In Tom’s own words he states that ‘she’s become a hard featured woman with a past’ and it is at this point that we can truly appreciate the ‘medieval ruthlessness’ that was carried out by the witch during Mary’s depraved abortion seen by ‘Tom rushing to be sick’. Within this passage, Swift gives the reader an insight into exactly how abortion would have been carried out in the 1950s – non-medically and with no anaesthetic, as they were administered unprofessionally due to not being legal until 1967. The fact that Mary can no longer have children consequently of her crude abortion leads her to suffer from what Tom describes as ‘a condition called schizophrenia’ categorised by the constant voices she hears in her head, one of which, we find our, tells her to ‘steal a baby’. This section of Waterland highlights the way in which some women feel it is a lifelong, overwhelming necessity to have children and that without them they are incomplete. The line ’when curiosity is exhausted, the world will come to an end’ is a metaphor for Mary’s life, now that she can’t have children there is no further curiosity to discover in her life leading her to lose the very qualities that made her Mary, resulting in her life metaphorically ending with the deterioration of her mental health.

The representation of femininity is also challenged in Dart, when Oswald documents the many different features and aspects of the river that would not habitually be categorised as being quintessential of the countryside. Often dwellers of big cities such as London tend to have romantically warped ideologies of what rural counties, such as Devon, are actually like. With rivers normally being personified as female in their qualities and demeanour, like the term ‘mother nature’ itself, it is not surprising that people habitually describe them, and

2660 words their surrounding areas, as being consistently, without fail, therapeutic, tranquil places of refuge; however Oswald challenges how people outside of Devon, or rural areas in general, perceive the countryside. In places, Oswald recalls discovering the darker side of the Devonshire river’s genius loci with the water’s more primitive female, siren-esque qualities being exhibited. This is most notable when the river takes on the voice of the kayaker wishing to ‘lure men to their deaths’. Oswald says herself that ‘all voices should be read as the river’s mutterings’ and so, with this in mind, it’s vicious qualities are clearly uncovered in the lines ‘come falleth in my push-you where it hurts / and let me rough you under’ where the Dart’s feminine voice threatens the river, stating it would ‘be a laugh’ to see the individual suffer. This tone continues with the river ‘menacingly’ gibing ‘I can outcanoevre you’, a play on words of ‘canoe’ and ‘out manoeuvre’, further emphasising the river’s capricious and equally calculating ways. This disputes stereotypical descriptions of nature showing that despite being personified as female, the Dart can be extremely aggressive and, equally, volatile when it needs to be, such as in the case of passers-by questioning its power. Furthermore, this time within one of the river’s industrial sectors, the sewage worker even goes as far as saying ‘if there’s too much, I waste it off down the storm flow, it’s not my problem’ when discussing how he tackles excess sewage. This line shockingly shows the complete lack of love and consideration some workers have for the river, or even the countryside in general, which evinces a new perception of the river’s feminine, yet archetypally masculine, nature. In a slightly different way, in Carter’s short story Courtship of Mr Lyon we see Beauty, the ‘lovely, young’ female protagonist, exhibit qualities that are normally associated with men, but this time for positive reasons unlike the violence of the Dart. As seen by the line ‘Oh Beast, I have come home’, Beauty returns to the castle to save the dying Beast in a feminist twist on the traditional tale of Beauty and the Beast. Unlike the majority of fairy-tales where the male character saves the helpless female, Beauty takes it upon herself to act as the heroine taking on a typically masculine role. In altering the traditional tale in this way, Carter shows that women are just as capable of ‘saving the day’ as men are, promoting equality.

To conclude, Oswald, Swift and Carter each use femininity within their writing in order to convey similar ideas for example Swift challenges common misconceptions regarding women and their sexuality in his representation of Mary, exhibiting the seemingly, all-consuming desire for women to have children to feel fulfilled in the 1950s. Oswald, despite not being her primary concern or the reason she wrote Dart, also represented carnality in women being present and accepted in a typical 2000s England documenting the progression of the feminist movement, and Carter’s short stories actively campaign for social change as well as emancipating the latent content of femininity that literature, particularly in this case, fairy tales, has left out.

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Endnotes:

1. David Wheatley: ‘This is Proteus, whoever that is’, 2002, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jul/13/featuresreviews.guardianreview13
2. Marta Cobb: Enclosed Mysticism and Madness in Waterland, 1996, http://www.victorianweb.org/neovictorian/gswift/wl/cobbspace3.html
3. James Crowden: Book review: Dart by Alice Oswald, 2009, http://www.james-crowden.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=30
4. Rob Packer: Voices of a river: Dart by Alice Oswald, 2008, https://robpacker.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/voices-of-a-river/
5. The Poetry Society: Alice Oswald creates a River Dart community poem for the Millennium, 2004, http://www.poetrysoc.com/content/archives/places/dart/
6. David Briggs: Alice Oswald: Rewriting the Iliad, 2008, Bristol
7. Ian Brinton: The Novels of Graham Swift, English Association and Ian Brinton 1999 and 2007
8. George P. Landow: Waterland: An introduction, 1997, Brown University,
9. Maureen Cleave: Going with the flow, 2003, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3588888/Going-with-the-flow.html