Arabella is able to control the discourse on love and marriage, through which she challenges patriarchal assumptions and authority and set standards for the men around her.
Throughout The Female Quixote, we see Arabella pressing against societal conventions regarding love and marriage, asserting her own authority in these issues, and applying the lessons learned from her romances to her own love-life. By adhering to the standards set by her romantic heroines, Arabella challenges the patriarchal authority governing her decision to marriage and sets the terms for discourse on this subject.
One example where Arabella mimics her romances, particularly Clelia, in order to challenge cultural assumptions about love and marriage comes near the beginning of the novel.
In Clelia, when Clelius commands that Clelia marry Horace, the heroine brings up several counter-arguments to show the rationality of her points and the inconsistencies of her father’s, and confronts the “patriarchal voice” that society has set up over her (Genieys 61-2). Severine Genieys, in “Picturing Women in Urania by Mary Wroth and Clelie by Madeleine de Scudery,” explains further: “In Clelie, feminine will is not merely conveyed by an act of heroism, but by the language the female protagonists use. Clelie's language sounds subversive, because it springs from the will to ‘resist’ patriarchal tyranny” (Genieys 66). Even though is silenced by her father, the dispute itself puts the issue of the father/daughter relationship, particularly in relation to marriage, in the spotlight. By questioning the rationale of patriarchal dominance, Scudery thus asserts that there is a conversation to be had about the issue (Genieys 49).
Something similar happens in The Female Quixote. For instance, Arabella, like Clelia and several other romance heroines, finds herself under pressure from her father to marry a man that is not of her choosing, her cousin Mr. Glanville. Arabella responds to her father’s pronouncement with indignation:
The Impropriety of receiving a Lover of a Father’s recommending appeared in its strongest Light. What Lady in Romance ever married that Man that was chose for her? In those Cases the Remonstrances of a Parent are called Persecutions….Arabella, strengthening her own Resolutions by those Examples of heroic disobedience, told her Father, with great Solemnity of Accent, that she would always obey him in all just and reasonable Things; and, being persuaded that he would never attempt to lay any Force upon her Inclinations, she would endeavor to make them conformable to his, and receive her Cousin with that Civility and Friendship due to so near a Relation, and a Person whom he honoured with his Esteem. (Lennox 27)
Here Arabella refuses to be forced to marry her cousin against her will, but promises to at least make an effort to be agreeable to Mr. Glanville and to see where circumstances take her. However, Mr. Glanville proves to displease her by his misunderstanding of romance conventions. This causes Arabella to “banish” him, and he does, indeed, leave their estate, which sends Arabella’s father into a state of fury because his patriarchal authority has been usurped. The marquis reprimands Arabella for disobeying him and commands her to try again, “charging” her to write him an apology, which Arabella dutifully does (39).
As Mr. Glanville makes his way back, Arabella appears upset, which causes the Marquis anxiety: “You have never, said he to her, disobeyed me in any one Action of your Life; and I may with reason expect you will conform to my Will in the Choice I have made of a Husband for you, since it is impossible to make any Objection either to his Person or Mind” (41). Arabella, however, sees a hole in his logic:
My first Wish, my Lord, replied Arabella, is to live single, not being desirous of entering into any engagement which may hinder my Solicitude and Cares, and lessen my Attendance, upon the best of Fathers, who, till now, has always most tenderly complied with my Inclinations in every thing: But if it is your absolute Command, that I should marry, give me not to the one who, tho’ he has the Honour to be allied to you, has neither merited your Esteem, or my Favour, by any Action worthy of his Birth, or the passion he pretends to have for me; for, in fine, my Lord, by what Services has he deserved the Distinction with which you honour him? (41-2)
Arabella, though she can be irrational and illogical, makes strong points here. Why should she marry someone based merely on relation? Why does her father think Mr. Glanville is a good match for her? He has not done anything to deserve either her father’s or her esteem, and, she argues, his passion for her is false. These seem like perfectly good and reasonable rebuttals against her father’s design, and perhaps he realizes this, because his immediate response is to silence her, to stop her from speaking. Here, it appears, Lennox is mimicking what she reads in Clelie. Both heroines voice reasonable objections to marriages arranged by their fathers, and both are silenced. Yet the requirements for love are something Arabella will continue to think about throughout the novel as she remains single as "the language of romance enables Arabella to articulate her desire to postpone marriage until she finds a man who proves truly worthy of her love and esteem" (Palo 219).
Arabella also draws on Cassandra and Pharamond in order to dictate the terms of her marriage. Arabella holds La Calprenède's Melisintha (of Pharamond) up as a model woman, one worth of great admiration for her courage in refusing an unwanted marriage. Melisintha sets her apartment on fire in order to avoid marriage to an unworthy man. As Chrstine Roulston explains, "As an ideological tool, the code of courtly love, in turn, allows the female subject to possess political agency through sexual power." More than that, this code "offers an account of the world whereby love can redefine the economic model of circulation and exchange" (29). Arabella uses a model of courtly love to subvert the cultural assumption of her exchange in marriage.
Arabella goes as far to even forbid conversations about marriage. Throughout the text, Arabella refuses any profession of love or discussion of marriage from any of her suitors and is incensed when they do not obey this command and banishes the men from her sight until they have proved their repentance. Early in the text, Arabella relies on the example of Statira and Parisatis as well as Clelia and Mandana, who refuse to here discussions of love from unworthy or unproven suitors to discourage Glanville from talking to her about his feelings for her or about her future marriage (Lennox 45). In fact, Arabella banishes from her presence for continuing these unwanted advances. La Calprenède's Pharamond is filled with examples of women who punish or banish men for being to forward with their feelings and men who are afraid of angering the women they love by sharing their feelings too early. While she seems over-zealous in her refusal to discuss marriage, in this way she also delays a future that she is not ready for and in forbidding the conversation, shifts the balance of power. Near the end of the text, too, Arabella banishes Mr. Selvin from her presence because he lets his feelings for her be known, explaining to her uncle that,
Mr. Selvin's Offence can admit of no other Reparation than that which I requir'd of him, which was a voluntary Banishment from my Presence: And in this, pursu'd she, I am guilty of no more Severity to you, than the Princess Udosia was to the unfortunate Thrasimedes. For the Passion of this Prince having come to her Knowledge, notwithstanding the Pains he took to conceal it, this fair and wise Princess thought it not enough to forbid his speaking to her, but also banish'd him from her Presence; laying a peremptory Command upon him, never to appear before her again till he was perfectly cur'd of that unhappy Love he had entertain'd for her—Imitate therefore the meritorious Obedience of this poor Prince, and if that Passion you profess for me—(312).
Roulston sees this battle for discursive power as central to the idea of female agency in the novel, explaining that “the language of the romance therefore allows the possibility of an alternative 'reality,' one which reveals that the struggle for agency is a struggle for language, and for who can control the way actions are to be read and interpreted” (34). Arabella seeks to control the discourse of her marriage through her adoption of ideals of courtly love as well as the language of the historical romance.
One example where Arabella mimics her romances, particularly Clelia, in order to challenge cultural assumptions about love and marriage comes near the beginning of the novel.
In Clelia, when Clelius commands that Clelia marry Horace, the heroine brings up several counter-arguments to show the rationality of her points and the inconsistencies of her father’s, and confronts the “patriarchal voice” that society has set up over her (Genieys 61-2). Severine Genieys, in “Picturing Women in Urania by Mary Wroth and Clelie by Madeleine de Scudery,” explains further: “In Clelie, feminine will is not merely conveyed by an act of heroism, but by the language the female protagonists use. Clelie's language sounds subversive, because it springs from the will to ‘resist’ patriarchal tyranny” (Genieys 66). Even though is silenced by her father, the dispute itself puts the issue of the father/daughter relationship, particularly in relation to marriage, in the spotlight. By questioning the rationale of patriarchal dominance, Scudery thus asserts that there is a conversation to be had about the issue (Genieys 49).
Something similar happens in The Female Quixote. For instance, Arabella, like Clelia and several other romance heroines, finds herself under pressure from her father to marry a man that is not of her choosing, her cousin Mr. Glanville. Arabella responds to her father’s pronouncement with indignation:
The Impropriety of receiving a Lover of a Father’s recommending appeared in its strongest Light. What Lady in Romance ever married that Man that was chose for her? In those Cases the Remonstrances of a Parent are called Persecutions….Arabella, strengthening her own Resolutions by those Examples of heroic disobedience, told her Father, with great Solemnity of Accent, that she would always obey him in all just and reasonable Things; and, being persuaded that he would never attempt to lay any Force upon her Inclinations, she would endeavor to make them conformable to his, and receive her Cousin with that Civility and Friendship due to so near a Relation, and a Person whom he honoured with his Esteem. (Lennox 27)
Here Arabella refuses to be forced to marry her cousin against her will, but promises to at least make an effort to be agreeable to Mr. Glanville and to see where circumstances take her. However, Mr. Glanville proves to displease her by his misunderstanding of romance conventions. This causes Arabella to “banish” him, and he does, indeed, leave their estate, which sends Arabella’s father into a state of fury because his patriarchal authority has been usurped. The marquis reprimands Arabella for disobeying him and commands her to try again, “charging” her to write him an apology, which Arabella dutifully does (39).
As Mr. Glanville makes his way back, Arabella appears upset, which causes the Marquis anxiety: “You have never, said he to her, disobeyed me in any one Action of your Life; and I may with reason expect you will conform to my Will in the Choice I have made of a Husband for you, since it is impossible to make any Objection either to his Person or Mind” (41). Arabella, however, sees a hole in his logic:
My first Wish, my Lord, replied Arabella, is to live single, not being desirous of entering into any engagement which may hinder my Solicitude and Cares, and lessen my Attendance, upon the best of Fathers, who, till now, has always most tenderly complied with my Inclinations in every thing: But if it is your absolute Command, that I should marry, give me not to the one who, tho’ he has the Honour to be allied to you, has neither merited your Esteem, or my Favour, by any Action worthy of his Birth, or the passion he pretends to have for me; for, in fine, my Lord, by what Services has he deserved the Distinction with which you honour him? (41-2)
Arabella, though she can be irrational and illogical, makes strong points here. Why should she marry someone based merely on relation? Why does her father think Mr. Glanville is a good match for her? He has not done anything to deserve either her father’s or her esteem, and, she argues, his passion for her is false. These seem like perfectly good and reasonable rebuttals against her father’s design, and perhaps he realizes this, because his immediate response is to silence her, to stop her from speaking. Here, it appears, Lennox is mimicking what she reads in Clelie. Both heroines voice reasonable objections to marriages arranged by their fathers, and both are silenced. Yet the requirements for love are something Arabella will continue to think about throughout the novel as she remains single as "the language of romance enables Arabella to articulate her desire to postpone marriage until she finds a man who proves truly worthy of her love and esteem" (Palo 219).
Arabella also draws on Cassandra and Pharamond in order to dictate the terms of her marriage. Arabella holds La Calprenède's Melisintha (of Pharamond) up as a model woman, one worth of great admiration for her courage in refusing an unwanted marriage. Melisintha sets her apartment on fire in order to avoid marriage to an unworthy man. As Chrstine Roulston explains, "As an ideological tool, the code of courtly love, in turn, allows the female subject to possess political agency through sexual power." More than that, this code "offers an account of the world whereby love can redefine the economic model of circulation and exchange" (29). Arabella uses a model of courtly love to subvert the cultural assumption of her exchange in marriage.
Arabella goes as far to even forbid conversations about marriage. Throughout the text, Arabella refuses any profession of love or discussion of marriage from any of her suitors and is incensed when they do not obey this command and banishes the men from her sight until they have proved their repentance. Early in the text, Arabella relies on the example of Statira and Parisatis as well as Clelia and Mandana, who refuse to here discussions of love from unworthy or unproven suitors to discourage Glanville from talking to her about his feelings for her or about her future marriage (Lennox 45). In fact, Arabella banishes from her presence for continuing these unwanted advances. La Calprenède's Pharamond is filled with examples of women who punish or banish men for being to forward with their feelings and men who are afraid of angering the women they love by sharing their feelings too early. While she seems over-zealous in her refusal to discuss marriage, in this way she also delays a future that she is not ready for and in forbidding the conversation, shifts the balance of power. Near the end of the text, too, Arabella banishes Mr. Selvin from her presence because he lets his feelings for her be known, explaining to her uncle that,
Mr. Selvin's Offence can admit of no other Reparation than that which I requir'd of him, which was a voluntary Banishment from my Presence: And in this, pursu'd she, I am guilty of no more Severity to you, than the Princess Udosia was to the unfortunate Thrasimedes. For the Passion of this Prince having come to her Knowledge, notwithstanding the Pains he took to conceal it, this fair and wise Princess thought it not enough to forbid his speaking to her, but also banish'd him from her Presence; laying a peremptory Command upon him, never to appear before her again till he was perfectly cur'd of that unhappy Love he had entertain'd for her—Imitate therefore the meritorious Obedience of this poor Prince, and if that Passion you profess for me—(312).
Roulston sees this battle for discursive power as central to the idea of female agency in the novel, explaining that “the language of the romance therefore allows the possibility of an alternative 'reality,' one which reveals that the struggle for agency is a struggle for language, and for who can control the way actions are to be read and interpreted” (34). Arabella seeks to control the discourse of her marriage through her adoption of ideals of courtly love as well as the language of the historical romance.
