Freedom from the Womb

The Pregnant Woman Statue, a Tribute to Oscar Wilde

 Marion Square, Dublin, Ireland

                 I'm guessing that most of the class will be writing about The Monk by Matthew Lewis. Instead, I am going to use this post to further discuss the subject of the womb in A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe. 

             After my presentation last week, Dr. T brought up the idea that the caves in the story could be a representation of the womb. This idea really interested me & I'd like to take this post to explore what this representation means to the story, & also in reference to the concept that the book is a commentary on the freedom and liberty of women. 

            Viewing the book as if much of the landscape were a representation of a part of women’s bodies leads to some interesting discoveries.  Throughout the story, it was the men who were lost in the caves and the women who felt secure, were trapped, or escaped.  For example, while Ferdinand is helping Julia and Hippolitus attempt to elope, they get lost in the underground tunnels. In this case, men, Ferdinand and Hippolitus, are leading the way, with Julia blindly, and worriedly, following them. The underground tunnels and caverns are a mysterious labyrinth to the men and, even though it sounds as if they are right behind the trio, when they reach a dead end, the soldiers pursuing them also get lost, as if the sound of the eloper’s running wasn’t enough for them to follow in the dark, mysterious world underneath the castle.  However, later in the novel Julia escapes to caves, finding refuge from attack. Without knowing she is near her father’s castle, she wanders far into the caves and runs into her mother. Where, earlier in the novel, men had gotten lost in the caves, she happens upon the greatest discovery and safest refuge that she will probably experience in her life in the same caves.

            Another example of the differing experiences that the men and women characters have in caves is when Julia and Ferdinand are imprisoned in the dungeon. In this instance, Julia escapes, whereas Ferdinand is kept prisoner until his father frees him.

            Julia and Emilia’s mother is also imprisoned within the caves. However, viewing her story is much different than the ones above. The difference is that she sort of accepts that she can’t leave the caves and will simply live there until she dies. While she has limited means of escape, she also had fifteen years to plan one. I mean, Julia just walked into the caves where her mother was kept, no big deal. Yeah, there was a door, but with fifteen years and nothing else to do…you would think she would have worked something out with the hinges or something. Instead, she accepts her fate to sit in a cave for the rest of her existence.

            This says a lot about what Radcliffe was trying to convey to her readers, and also brings me to my next major point: The concept that, because a womb is a part of a woman’s body, and caves are often used a repressive landscapes in this story, they are also a further commentary on the repression of women. If a cave is representative of a womb, then the women’s own bodies are viewed as repressive factors to their existences, as well as terrifying landscapes, much like the sublime depictions of ruins or the picturesque scenery throughout the novel. The characters of this story are constantly escaping to or being confined within the walls of caves or cave-like cells, as if their existence, their life within the confines of their deficient bodies, had to be translated into a second, larger and all-encompassing, confinement. The story doesn’t just show the inability for women of the time to freely interact with their lives, but the terrifying realization that it was their bodies which ultimately confined their minds.

     When Julia escapes from the dungeon with the help of her maid, while Ferdinand remains in his cell, it is almost saying that to be free of the limitations that a woman’s body creates necessitates freedom from the help of men. While Ferdinand remains in his cell he is frightened almost nightly by the recurring moaning and yelling heard in his cell. This represents the sounds of a womb, but also the fear of a woman’s body and its mysteries that men often hold. That his father owns the cell and effectively owns Ferdinand when he is imprisoned implies that man owns the womb and what comes out of it. Further, the cells of the dungeon and the caves where the Marquis keeps his first wife are under the castle, representing man’s power over women.

            Now that I have successfully hated on men, I’d like to comment on one more aspect of the story, one that might, hopefully, be less man-hating. The banditti, which I noted during my presentation, are outside of the law. This not only allows them to take refuge anywhere they please (because who’s going to mess with them? Banditti?), but because they are outside of the law, they are outside of the socialized repression of women. Therefore, they can go into the caves without the fear of them. Again, this is, in the story, because they are banditti and banditti don’t go nothin’ to be scared of, but this represents the social aspect of what Radcliffe is trying to say. To escape the repression of their lives, women have to lead lives outside of society.