The Feminine Helen and the Feminist Sue

崔悦

Both Helen Huntingdon in The Tenant of Wildefell Hall and Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscureare considered to be the characters with strong feminist touch. Through the analysis of their different attitudes towards sex， this paper designs to uncover their respective attitudes towards the conventions of the Victorian society and find their inner connections and differences in the development of Feminist movement.

sexfemininefeministmarriageBoth Helen's and Sue's attitudes towards sex undergo drastic changes. The turning point of their changes comes with their "marriage"Based on the analysis of these two characters and Elaine Showalter's theory， this paper points out Helen is still in the feminine stage while Sue is in the feminist stage.

To some extent， Helen is sexual and she is not embarrassed by her sexual feelings. She treats them as healthy and natural desires. She thirsts for man's love and is determined to get it. From the first sight， Helen is attracted by the physical beauty of Huntingdon. She accepts his bodily contacts each time they meet. The charm of his look， tone and gesture hold irresistible magic to Helen and cast a halo over his positive nonsense and meaningless deeds. When she is embraced by Huntingdon and smothered with his kisses in the half-lit library， unlike the standard Victorian lady ， Helen does not faint or run away， screaming. She just relishes peacefully. After her aunt's discovery， Helen bursts into tears. Yet these tears are not caused by remorse and shame but by overwhelming happiness and satisfaction. After so many sufferings and suspicions， Helen at last gets what she longs for——Huntingdon's love and his promise of marriage.

Though Jude calls her sexless， a disembodied creature， incorporeal as a spirit， Sue is not without sexual desires. In a letter to Gosse， Hardy explains that Sue's sexual drive is healthy as far as it goes but weak and fastidious. To the great horror of her mistress， she purchases the naked foreign Gods of Venus and Apollo， which symbolize manly beauty and love. To her， the Song of Solomon represents the ecstatic， natural， human love rather than the humbug of ecclesiastical abstraction. Even when Sue is clipped and pruned by the severe discipline at the Melchester School， an under-brightness still shines from the depth， which according to Kathleen Blake is sexual in nature（Blake 88）. Yet Sue conceals this natural desire carefully in order to evade the obligations of womanhood. From childhood， Sue has realized that she is different from boys. While in the future the boys will enter into the university and get acquainted with the outside world， she is doomed to marry and be confined into the domestic sphere with the suffocating burdens of wife and mother. Consequently， Sue treats her sexuality as something leading to the bondage of marriage and childrearing and something threatening to destroy her individuality. Accordingly she represses her sexuality intentionally for the sake of her freedom and individuality.endprint

Strangely after marriage， Helen's attitudes towards sex transforms from reception to repression. "The angel"is what Helen desires to become. Her determination to reform her husband is just the reflection of her aspiration. Since without the subduing of her sexual desire， she won't be able to repel her husband's halo of physical beauty enveloping the weakness of his character. She will stay at his level of physical desires and can't reach the height required by her role as "the angel in the house."When Huntingdon first leaves her at home， Helen does not miss him but complains of the lost opportunity to "elevate his mind， and refine his taste to a due appreciation of the salutary and pure delights of nature， and peace and holy love."（Bronte 89） Though at last Helen fails to reform Huntingdon and puts him to the right path set by God， it is not her fault. Helen has done what the Victorian society requires her to do. Just as Mr. Hargrave comments at last： Helen， you are an angel.

In order to guard her liberty and get access to the outside world through her contact with man， Sue attempts to rid herself of sex. Yet she ends with the determination to live according to her nature. To comprehend Sue's change of her attitude toward sex， it's necessary to know her contradictory feelings toward man---she hates the bondage brought by man while she can not live without them. Suppressing her sexual desires， Sue needs other feelings to keep her live force alive. Thus， Sue tortures men to provoke in herself the feelings of pity and pain. She uses these feelings to make up the void left by her repression of her natural desires. Thus she tries to keep a balance between these two extremes. But man has sexual desires which must be satisfied and he keeps reminding her of the injury she causes "in leaving him unsatisfied."（Blake 98） Sue feels guilt of it. "She feels herself a kind of stand-out to the life force which she values and needs in him， even though she knows it would also sweep her away from her individuality and her freedom."（Blake 98） That's why Sue feels guilty that she does not accept the undergraduate's love. She needs Jude there to keep her in touch with the life force. Yet Jude always has his desires and insists that these desires be satisfied. When Arabella reappears， Jude seizes this opportunity to press Sue to sleep with him. Sue gives in and this balance is upset. "The little bird is caught at last."（Hardy 281） And the turning point comes after her sleeping with Jude. From then on she is determined to live according to her nature. Yet this does not mean that Sue has made a compromise with the social conventions concerning marriage. She hates the marriage ceremony and likens it to a business contract， which means responsibilities and enslavement to her.endprint

According to Elaine Showalter the development of the self-consciousness of women is divided into three major phases. In the first phase， though women's self-consciousness has been aroused， they are still under the spell of the Victorian Myth——"the angel in the house". Home is still the realm of their life. While in the second phase the Victorian Myth has lost its hold on women. Women has risen to protest against the patriarchal society and demanded for autonomy. But in the last phase having grown out of opposition， women has turned inward to search for their own identity. These phases are called feminine， feminist， and female respectively.

Yet according to Showalter's theory and their different understandings and treatments of sex——the taboo of that time， it can be concluded that Helen is still in the feminine phase yet Sue comes to the feminist phase.

Helen's self-awareness is only partial. Her views towards sex are still strongly colored by the Victorian society. While she boldly asserts her sexuality， Helen understands that marriage is still the only end for a girl. After marriage， in order to turn into her husband's guiding angel， she transcends her sexuality. She is still under the spell of the Victorian society. The notion that women should have the same rights as men has not entered her mind.

But Sue's self-assertiveness is complete. No matter Sue suppresses her natural desire or releases it， her chief concern is to ensure that her self-consciousness is not infringed by the society. In order to defend it， Sue dares to defy the whole society. At first she represses her sexuality in order to avoid the bondage of marriage and the consuming childrearing. Even after her living with Jude， she reclines to obtain the marriage certificate， for she desires to love according to her own free will.

Thus it can concluded that Helen is still in the feminine stage， when she is still under the influence of the Victorian society， while Sue has entered the feminist stage， when she fights against the Victorian society to assert her own rights.

参考文献：

[1]Blake，Kathleen.“Sue Bridehead，‘The Woman of the Feminist Movement.”Studies in English Literature ，1978.703-726.

[2]Bronte， Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Chester： Cameron House， 2008.

[3]Hardy， Thomas. Preface.Jude the Obscure. London： Macmillan and Co.， Limited， 1912.

[4]Showalter， Elaine. A Literature of Their Own. New Jersey： Princeton University Press， 1977.endprint