ENG 463 Marie Corelli

From WolfWikis

ENG 463: The Victorian Period

Megan Hotchkiss

Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Topics 2 Class, Tradition and Money 3 Working Life 4 Science, and the Urban World 5 Government and the Law 6 House, Food, and Clothes 7 Family and Social Rituals 8 Education 9 Health and Medicine 10 Holidays, Sports and Recreation 11 Religion and Reform 12 Victorian Morality 13 England and Empire

Introduction

Victorian Web Introduction to Marie Corelli

Wikipedia

Topics

Class, Tradition and Money

Marie Corelli was a somewhat typical Upper Class Victorian. Corelli associated with well known influential people of her day and her works were read by royalty around the globe, such as Winston Churchill and Queen Victoria. Corelli seemed to distance herself from her Upper Class upbringing by denouncing the morality of some of her peers. In her book entitled, Free Opinions, Freely Given on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct[7]she points out the ridiculous behaviors of some in her own class. In her essay entitled the "The Vulgarity of Wealth" Her social criticisms brought her much attention, both positive and negative. This critique on society depicts the upper class as corrupt and vulgar with other deplorable traits that Corelli more than happily points out. There were some intellectual elite that found her works deplorabe. In an article in Harper's Weekly from 1907, the writer states that uneducated women are more prone to enjoy novels written by Marie Corelli: "The uneducated are apt to drop to the level of Marie Corelli." [8]

Working Life

Corelli was not considered part of the laboring class, she did not perform the menial tasks associated with factory work or sewing, instead she made her living as a writer. Regardless of her working class experience, Corelli felt very strongly about the working classes. To toil was a blessing according to her essay "The Glory of Work". [9] She held a very protestant belief that industrious individuals were closer to God.

To be unemployed is to be miserable. To find nothing to do,--to be of no use to ourselves or to our fellow-creatures is to be more or less set aside and cast out from the ever-working Divine scheme of labour and fruition, ambition and accomplishment. Among all the blessings which the Creator showers so liberally upon us, there is none greater than WORK.:: (Corelli, 310) [10]

Corelli praises the working class while the rest of the upper class pay them little regard. Corelli asks her peers,

Why do you bow your hypocritical heads on Sunday to the name of "Jesus", who (so far as visible worldly position admitted) was merely the son of a carpenter, and followed the carpenter's trade, while on week-days you make no secret of your scorn of, or indifference to the "working-man", and more often than not spurn the beggar from your gates!

The Christian doctrine that many of her peers follow stands juxtaposed to the discrimination of the Upper Class. Marie Corelli believes that if you truly are a Christian you need to believe in the "virtue of poverty, the dignity of labour, and the excellence of simplicity". Corelli saw oppulance amongst all of her friends and felt their own self importance negated their pioty. Her sense of compassion for others less fortunate may stem from her birth to a servant mother. She has a strong connection to the women of the working class.

Science, and the Urban World

Corelli felt that religion and science should not stand in juxtaposition, instead they compliment each other, unlike others during her time period. When discoveries such as Darwinism came about, people were afraid that it would destroy their religious beliefs. Corelli tries to justify the co-existance of religion and science.

to the devout and deeply studios mind, the marvels of science are the truths of religion made manifest. But this is what the clergy seem to miss persistently out of all their teaching and preaching.(Corelli, 236)

Science does not have to deny the existence of an Intelligent Force, instead it should display how amazing nature can be such as the night sky or the changing seasons. Science should make you appreciate God and the wonders he has created. The important part of scientific discoveries was spreading the news. Corelli felt that the press had the responsiblity to publish the great technological accomplishments of her day. In her essay, "The Responsibility of the Press", Corelli states, "so little is done to popularize science in the columns of the daily Press". (Corelli, 27) [11] She speaks of the public's lack of knowledge regarding geography and during an age of an expanding Empire, the public should be able to locate their brand new colonies. (Corelli, 28) Corelli suggested that the Press should use their columns to talk about science and leave religion to the church. Corelli states,

...the Press is a greater educational force than the Pulpit. In its hands it has the social moulding of a people, and the dignity of a nation as represented to other nations. (Corelli, 28)

By using the Press to proliferate news of England's scientific advancements it shows the world how great their Empire has become. From the most basic technology such as the bicycle to the more advanced technology such as the subway train, the Victorian Era is marked by very important inventions that are still being used today. (Mitchell, 71)

Government and the Law

The people must make sure that their government reflects their morals. According to Corelli, there seems to be a lack of morals in the House of Commons. (Corelli, 59) [12]

It is the Parliament, teh House of Commons, that we must convert, or at least strive to retain within the influence of Christianity. (Corelli, 59)

She goes on to say that the citizens need to work towards their own salvation by working on their government. Corelli wants to make sure that Roman Catholics are not elected to the House of Commons, for just one law can turn into many more and thus ruining the Christian's influence on the Government.

House, Food, and Clothes

"The reckless extravagence of women's dress today is little short of criminal insanity". [13] It seems that during her time, Corelli saw women trying to constantly out do each other in the extravagence of their dress.

Every educated self-respecting woman is bound to clothe her person as neatly , as tastefully and becomingly as she can. But just as virtue when carried to excess develops into a vice, so the art of dressing well, when allowed to overstep its legitimate uses and expenditure, easily runs into folly and madness.(Corelli, 195)[14]

She claims that every "educated self-respecting woman" dresses neatly, however, how self-respecting is a woman who dresses in huge dresses and painful corsets which actually caused skeletal deformaties? She continues on by saying that husbands cannot complain about their wife's expensive habits for they actually are the instigators.

For they openly show their admiration for women's clothes more so than the women clothed,--that is to say, they are more easily captured by art than by nature. No group of male flatterers is ever seen round a woman whose dress is un-stylish or otherwise "out-of-date". She may have the sweetest face in the world, the purest nature and the truest hart, but the "dressed" woman, the dyed, the artistically "faked" woman will nearly always score a triumph over her so far as masculine appreciation and attention are concerned.(Corelli, 196)[15]

In a sense, Corelli seems to show women's dresses downplays their true character and merely creates an image of beauty while discounting their intellect. These "works of arts" are then proliferated throughout the media and the current journals, creating an unfair representation of women as objects.

Fashion has become so important during the Victorian Era that it has permeated into every aspect of culture, including literature. Corelli is concerned by recent theatre reviews that seem to showcase the casts wardrobe rather than the actual play. (Corelli, 197) Fashion designers are praised as great creators of fine art like poets and writers.

Family and Social Rituals

The female concept was changing during the Victorian Period. Corelli addresses the transformation from the woman as an "angel" to that of a more sturdier creature. In her essay, "The Modern Marriage Market" she claims that the result of changing social roles means more marriages based on "what we have, and not for what we are." (Corelli, 17) Women join clubs, and play rough sports like football, and ride bicycles. They no longer fit that "angel" mold any longer but Victorian men seem reluctant to change their perceptions. Therefore marriages are based on hypocracy. Corelli herself was never married and perhaps it is because of this negative view that she remained single.

Education

Marie Corelli felt that religion played a very important role in the education of children, as her dedication page from The Mighty Atom vehemently states.[16] In her essay entitled "A Question of Faith", she asks the public to make sure English citizens keep the Parliament Christian in order to properly educate the youth of England in religion. If the public makes Parliament uphold Christian values then they are more likely to ensure religion plays a major role in the education process. (Corelli, 59) [17] Corelli wanted to make sure that French athesim would not take hold in her own country and she wanted to make sure it would not take hold with the younger generations too.

Corelli continues to criticize education for the upper classes. According to Corelli, the educational system in place during her time creates an ignorant upper class. Typically thought to be the better educated members of society, the upper classes have the money to send their children to boarding schools, however, Corelli points out that does not mean they actually learn anything of much importance. In Corelli's book, Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct,

"When it is said that they cannot read, that statement is not intended to convey the idea that if a book or newspaper be given to them they do not understand the letters of the print in which the reading matter is presented to their eyes. They do. But Such letters and such print impress no meaning upon their minds."[18]

Corelli goes on to say that the upper class do not concern them with important worldly news but rather the affairs of their peers, whether it be divorces or other bits of gossip. (3)

When the people never learn how to truly read, the finer literary arts are in danger, which is upmost importance to Corelli. Reading should not be something to simply do while you have a bit of free time, instead it should be regarded as a type of sport in and of itself. Corelli tells the reader that to effectively read, the reader must "sit down quietly and enjoy a book in its every line and expression". (Corelli, 8)[19]The author intended their novel or poem to take the reader out of their own little world and experience a different world.

Health and Medicine

Holidays, Sports and Recreation

Religion and Reform

The official religion of Victorian England was the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church. Approximately 47% of Victorian England were Anglican, 49% were considered Non-Conformists (religious groups such as Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Quakers) while only 4% were Roman Catholic. Marie Corelli was a very outspoken Christian that exposed the lack of Victorian Morality. She would be comparable to a modern day evangelist, such as Pat Robertson. Corelli criticized the Roman Catholic Church in her novel, The Master-Christian. Corelli felt the Roman Catholics' institutional approach towards religion hindered the personal relationship the individual should have with God. In her novel she has an English character, Mr. Leigh, who refers to himself as "Protestant" and claims that while in church he never finds

"any touch of the true Spirit of Christ there...a church is a building more or less beautiful or ugly as the case may be, and in the building there is generally a man who reads prayers in a sing-song tone, and perhaps another man who preaches without eloquence on some text which he utterly fails to see the true symbolic meaning of."

Rather than attend church Mr. Leigh says,

I would rather sit quietly in fields and hear the gentle leaves whispering their joys and thanksgivings above my head, than listen to a human creature who has not even the education to comprehend the simpliest teachings of nature, daring to assert himself as a teacher of the Divine.(Corelli,133)[20](133)

Corelli felt that the Catholic Church created such an artificial type of spirituality that created worshipers out of habit rather than faith. In the opening passage of the The Master-Christian, Corelli describes the inhabitants of Rouen dropping their daily tasks once the Church bells ring. A bargemen "lifted his cap mechanically, and muttered more from habit than reflection--'Sainte Marie, Mére de Dieu, priez pour nous'"(Corelli, 1) [21] The use of terms such as "mechanical" and "habit" are Corelli's way of saying the Catholic Church does not create believers, instead it creates worshipping machines. If one is left to sit and contemplate in the comfort of their own home or an open field, they can reflect on God's gifts that are all around them.

Victorian Morality

There are many references to the decay of Victorian morality throughout Corelli's essays and novels, however, on passage stands out in particular. Her introduction to her essay, "The Modern Marriage Market", sums up her feelings very precisely.

Amoung the many ages or periods in this world's existence,--ages and periods which have been separated and classified, according to the fancy of historians, as the "Dark, the "Mythical", the "Classical," or the "Medieval,"--it is doubtful whether there has ever been one which has so richly merited the pre-eminent and prominent label of "Sham" writ across it as this, our own blessed and enlightened time.(Corelli 9-10) [22]

Corelli feels as if she is surrounded by crowds of people in a "civil masquerade" (Corelli,10) that get through their days with "polite lying" (Corelli, 10)in order to maintain a sense of gentility in the public eye.

England and Empire

Corelli was proud of the British Empire to a certain degree. In Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct, she refers to the Empire as "the proudest and greatest Empire at present under the sun" (Corelli, 98). However, like other scholars of her day she saw a limit to England's power. Corelli's concern for Victorian morality was growing and she feared it would soon lead the the downfall of the great Empire. In the chapter entitled, "The Soul of the Nation" she talks about the expanding British Empire as a "Christian Empire". (Corelli, 340) [23] However, during this crucial period of Christianity, England seems to be doubting it's own faith as a country.

To talk of the "conversion" of India, China or Japan, while a leading British newspaper openly invites the notoriety-hunting section of the British public to air their opinions of the Christian Faith in its columns, just as if the Faith itself were on public trial in a Christian country, is only one example of the many forms of utter Humbug in which we are nowadays so unfortunately prone to indulge:: (Corelli, 341) [24]

Whether or not the British Empire's first goal was to spread Christianity, it was definetely seen as an important aspect for Corelli. For such a Christian woman she does take into account the natives customs and traditions, and actually pays homage to the Japanese. Corelli says that the English should value the "Spirits of the Dead" (Corelli, 342) like the Japanese. If the English valued the "Spirits of the Dead" then perhaps they would be more Christian nation, because "the spirits of our gallant forefathers who fought for the pure Faith of England and sealed it with their blood" would want it that way. (Corelli, 342)