Category Archives: ENGL 367 F19 Connections

How the “Other” Half(?) Lives

I swear, it’s almost as if there is some psychic connection linking the two syllabuses of these classes together, because today in my European Revolutions we talked about Antisemitism in the latter part of the 19th century — fitting considering how deeply entrenched in middle-class Jewish values Reuben Sachs seems to be. There has been much made in the works of the day about the seemingly great threat that Judaism posed to Western values. Meanwhile, the novel itself is disappointingly mundane; what is this intimate introspection on families and relationships of the Jewish community in the heart of Victorian London? As progressive as Dickens was in many aspects, Great Expectations is still rife with racially charged language and stereotypes of the Jewish population. Having done a bit of background research on the author of Reuben Sachs, Amy Levy, it is quite telling to compare the two representations of Jews in England, especially when one of them is an Old White Guy and the other an actual member of the community. While I don’t personally care about the plot of the novel, as I find it banal and quite unexciting compared to some of the other things we’ve read, it isn’t trying to set the world on fire. As a portrayal of a way of life, particularly for a marginalized and much oppressed community, its existence is valuable in and of itself.

Romance and society?

I can now truly see why “Victorian Connections” is such a fitting title when we want to group together all of the things that we are reading this semester. Sometimes when reading and doing research, you almost get a sense of deja-vu in the context that situations and themes are repeating themselves across many texts. We seem to see a strong and very consistent connection between relationships and social status. There is a specific social status that comes with race and other aspects for each character. This is a connection that we see across many of our texts. We are often doing further research to see the specifics of society when these pieces of literature were written. There seems to be a consistency when it comes to romance as well. We have seen multiple times in Reuben Sachs, Wuthering Heights, and Great Expectations, there always seems to be an obstacle in the way of “love”. Every time this obstacle falls in the category of social class. During this time there was not a lot of people that were mixing social classes at all. We can see this depicted throughout all of the novels, how they describe certain kinds of people makes it evident what their position in society was. This was the reason why all of the romantic connections in the novels were classified in this matter. A light was being shed on the separation between all of the social classes. Your position in society played a major role in how you were portrayed in literature and what rights you had. This is why we frequently see the idea of one side of the romance from an upper level of society and the other side from a lower level of society. The idea of what the role of woman in society also comes up quite frequently as well. They were expected to uphold a certain way of carrying themselves in society and we see this carry out in all the novels written during this time.

Levy and Wilde: oppression leads to great art

After reading the Levy novel Ruben Sachs I could not help but look into the life and inspiration of the author. It is clear she is writing her work from a feminist perspective and commenting on the patriarchal nature of the jewish family structure and community. We watch her character Judith live and deal with these circumstance which reminded me of Pip’s journey to become a gentlemen only Pip did not have to face the discrimination based on religion and gender. Because of this I did not want to make the coming of age comparison, but thought of the inspiration of Wilde’s work. When he writes it is with such passion to be understood and I feel the same sense in Levy’s work as well. The two knew each other and Wilde published Levy’s poems and short stories in his publication Women’s World. I find their relation intriguing and picture the two spending days talking about what it is like to be hated and outcast from society because of something fundamental about their existence. It is interesting to me that during the same time two people who face such different form of oppression knew each other and were helping the other create.I wonder if great art has to come from a lace of pain and outsiderness, or is it this lonely feeling that allows writers to reflect on the world around them?

Incestuous love: The case of the forbidden love

In Wuthering Heights, we are introduced to Heathcliff who is adopted into the Earnshaw family. Although Catherine Earnshaw was not fond of his presence in the beginning, she did begin to have a hold on Heathcliff and their love for each other became more than sisterly love. Heathcliff is tormented of the life he could have had with Catherine and he destroys anything good or might seem happy in his path in retaliation to how his life turned out after being taken in by a wealthy caucasian family. In Reuben Sachs, we are introduced to Reuben’s familial line. Reuben is a part of a prominent Jewish family in a mainly Jewish community. His uncle by marriage, Israel Leuniger, adopted a girl by the name of Judith Quixano who is Israel’s sister’s daughter. Reuben returns from a six-month journey and visits the Leuniger household and can not keep his eyes off of Judith. This relates back to Wuthering Heights as it displays a courtship between two young lovers and their love for one another despite their familial ties.

Class and Love (also through faces?)

One thing, that I didn’t connect to anything lol, in particular that stuck out to me in reading Reuben Sach is the tremendous detail in this novel. The details make the novel so interesting and conveys a sense of realism in the piece to the reader.

On to my connection, throughout Victorian literature, we see how different societal constructs are present. We see themes of race, gender, and romance very frequently. Reuben Sachs portrays race and romance difficulties coupled with societal standards. For instance, the portrayal of class is seen by,  “By his side stood a small, dark, gnomelike creature, apparently entirely overpowered by the rich, untidy garments she was wearing” (Levy 19). In comparison to class in other books we’ve read, we see in Wuthering Heights Heathcliff’s portrayal, “He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman, that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire.” Societal divide is not only seen at the surface level, but at all levels in this time.

In addition, romance is an overarching theme, and coming to rise here. In Ruben Sachs, “He heard and saw nothing but the sound of Leo’s violin, and the face of Judith” (Levy 31). The mere focus on Judiths face, indicates his fascination (romance). This reminds me of particularly the focus on the face in other pieces. I remember a few instances in Wuthering Heights where there was a particular focus on faces. For instance, “a dim reflection from her own enchanting face,” and Heathcliff says, “I meditated this plan—just to have one glimpse of your face, a stare of surprise, perhaps, and pretended pleasure; afterwards settle my score with Hindley; and then prevent the law by doing execution on myself.” Further the attention to detail on the face, “Her pretty face was wan and listless; her hair uncurled: some locks hanging lankly down, and some carelessly twisted round her head” (Bronte 98). The overall fascination and detail of the face is very interesting.
I’m not sure if this is a stretch, but the idea of the focus on faces kind of struck out to me. It will definitely be something I will continue to look out for now that I have made this connection.

Physical Appearances in Great Expectations & Reuben Sachs

When reading Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy for this week, a description that jumped out at me within the first few pages was the physical description of Adelaide and her mother. “She was richly and very fashionably dressed in an unbecoming gown of green shot silk,” Levy writes, “and wore big diamond solitaires in her ears. She and her mother were indeed never seen without such jewels…” Immediately in the book, this shows the keen eye given to women’s physical appearance at the time. This can be seen in other texts that we’ve read, such as with Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. Appearing in an old wedding dress throughout the book, Miss Havisham shows the significance both of appearance and its use in fiction to communicate a deeper meaning (in this case, it’s how her life is defined by the tragedy of her wedding day). As Reuben Sachs moves forward, it becomes more evident the importance of Levy’s physical descriptions in painting visions of her characters. From the detailed showcase of the complexion and air of a Jewish man to the unfolding of Aunt Ada’s appearance just before she is introduced.

Catherine, Judith, and Gender Norms

Though women are still burdened by many different paradoxical and unfair standards today, my knowledge of Victorian literature seems to indicate that intensely contradictory and unrealistic norms have always been imposed upon women. Within the works of Victorian literature that I have read, the female-identifying characters appear to either submit to these harsh expectations or defy them in any way that they can.

In one text I read this semester, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the heroine, Catherine, represents an atypical representation of women insofar as that she aims to improve the social situation of a man, Heathcliff, and also figures as the dominant force within her household and within her marriage to Edgar Linton. Furthermore, Catherine is portrayed as an extremely passionate individual who is free-spirited; who longs to roam the moors “hardy and free.” However, Catherine’s behavior is marked as decidedly unconventional for a young Victorian woman and she is therefore often criticized by her servant and childhood friend, Nelly. Catherine is emotional but fierce and is best characterized by her gripping intensity, especially when she is discussing her love for Heathcliff and for the environment in which she grew up. Overall, Catherine’s passionate persona is perceived as defying traditional gender norms and expectations, particularly through her free-spirited nature and desire to exercise her own agency in order to accomplish her own goals.

On the other hand, Reuben Sachs presents us with another female character who also expresses herself outside of the expectations Victorian society forced upon women: Judith Quixano. Though Judith differs vastly from Catherine, Judith still is not described as being accepted by Victorian society. Indeed, Judith is not entirely accepted within her own family circle, being that she lives with her cousins, whose fortune is far greater than hers. Moreover, Judith, due to her lack of family fortune, is unable to fully pursue her love interest, Reuben Sachs, and is not regarded as a true potential match by Reuben himself. Furthermore, Judith is not regarded by Reuben as a typical woman. Rather, Reuben lauds Judith’s lack of sentimentality and often praises her composed, apparently unfeeling demeanor. In order to cement this praise, Reuben compares Judith to the other women within the story, like Esther and Rose, who “fall in love several times a season” and “bewail” themselves throughout their “affairs de coeurs.” On the other hand, Reuben claims that Judith is “utterly free from such sentimental aberrations.”

Though Reuben praises Judith by pitting her against women, a move that demonstrates the inherent sexism of the era, he also chastises Judith for being so cold and unfeeling, especially towards him. Thus, Judith is constantly under scrutiny for failing to meet Victorian expectations for women. In the eyes of Reuben, Judith is at once better than her female counterparts and therefore atypically female through her rejection of sentimentality. However, Reuben also sees Judith as unwomanly in her lack of sensitivity, particularly towards Reuben himself. In this way, Judith’s character and the way in which Reuben views her demonstrate the paradoxical and unfair norms and expectations that Victorian society forced upon women.

Furthermore, when Catherine and Judith are considered simultaneously, the impossible and contradictory nature of Victorian society’s expectations becomes even clearer, as, though Catherine and Judith bear incredibly different, perhaps even opposite characterizations, both are viewed by society as agents that act and exist outside of the prescribed gender norms of the time. While Catherine and Judith certainly act outside of Victorian gender norms, they, in tandem, nevertheless provide an accurate depiction of all that a woman can be. Indeed, women can be as fierce and passionate as Catherine; however, they can also be as demure and unsentimental as Judith. Both Catherine and Judith prove, even in the face of harsh gender roles, that there is no one way to be a woman.

Spaces in Victorian England: Wuthering Heights and Reuben Sachs

I’ve touched on the concept of space in Victorian England before, but the fact that it keeps coming up is quite interesting. In this case, Wuthering Heights and Reuben Sachs are both books that are emblematic of fairly different spaces in Victorian England, especially in contrast to the era’s focus on the urban center of London. In saying the usual focus is on London, I mean that the focus is on a certain strand of London, which is a London read through pure class delineation. Wuthering Heights is not in London, but it is a book that goes further than the pure class analysis that seemed so popular in Victorian England. Where Wuthering Heights separates itself is in the racial ambiguity of Heathcliff, which is not a minor factor, but a visual note that consistently pops up within the characters. I won’t go so far as to say the book takes an intersectional lens on Victorian class structures, but it does make the reader aware that class is experienced or viewed differently when race and ethnicity are brought into the mix. Likewise, Reuben Sachs is a book that talks about the Jewish population in London at the time. I think the book does deal with class as a question, but it is clear that the book is also asking what it means to be Jewish in Victorian England, and more than that, what it means to be separate from the gentile hierarchy in Victorian England. Yet the analysis the book is undertaking is far more complex, for while all the characters are Jewish, all of the characters are distinct. This is better read to in light of the fact that Amy Levy is writing against George Eliot’s depiction of Jewish people in Daniel Deronda. In contextualizing with that, Levy is clearly writing a book that is attempting to create a Jewish literary space that is accurate, reflective, and not created from an outside perspective. All in all then, each of these two books attempts to creating a sort of space for their characters to operate earnestly and accurately.

Amy Levy: A “Jewish Jane Austen”

When I was studying abroad in London this past Spring, I frequently visited the small bookstore Persephone Books, an independent bookseller known for reprinting texts written by neglected women writers of the late nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century. On one of my escapades, I stumbled across Amy Levy’s Reuben Sachs, and remember reading an inscription next to the text that Amy Levy could be best be described as a “Jewish Jane Austen,” (which was among one of the many factors which prompted me to purchase the novel). In my attempt to re-read Levy’s novel in an academic setting, I am again astounded by the way in which she describes the positions of women in Victorian society, and her social commentary on women’s status compares quite nicely to Dickens’ in his development of the women present in his novel. While Dickens is critical of the ways in which the upper and lower classes interact with one another, Levy (so far) seems to be critical of the ways in which women are limited by their circumstances, and I find this most prevalent in her description of Israel Leuniger’s sister: 

“She was disappointed in her life, but she made the best of it; loving her husband, though unable to sympathize with him; planning, working unremittingly for her six children; extracting the utmost benefit from the narrowest of means; a capable person who did her duty according to her own lights” (Levy 74). 

This description, among many others of Levy’s exposes the rudimentary experiences that many women of this period endure: lacklustre marriages and burdensome children. Funnily enough, when I first read this description, I immediately thought of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Ramsay, but now as I think about Levy in comparison to Dickens, I’m almost willing to consider that this may have been the shortcomings of Mrs. Joe. While she loved her husband, Mrs. Joe was most certainly not sympathetic of his position as a blacksmith and is evidently resentful of the maternal chore that she is tasked with when raising Pip as one of her own, or as Dickens might call it, raising Pip by hand. 

Thoughts on the Descriptions of London in Reuben Sachs

After reading the first half of Reuben Sachs, I was drawn to the descriptions of London as it brought me back to the discussion we had in class a few weeks ago while reading Great Expectations and Pip’s view on London as a human space.

In Reuben Sachs, the novel opens with Reuben’s sense of exhilaration to be back in London. The narrator says, “He was back again; back to the old, full, strenuous life which was so dear to him; to the din and rush and struggle of the London which he loved with a passion that had something of poetry in it” (Levy 10). Here we see that Reuben loves London.

This can be contrasted with his cousin Leo’s view on London. His view is described with, “Leo hated London almost as vehemently as his cousin loved it. It was the place, he said, which had succeeded better than any other in reducing life to a huge competitive examination. Its busy, characteristic streets, which Reuben regarded with an interest both passionate and affectionate, filled him with a dreary sensation of disgust and depression” (Levy 136).

I think that Pip’s view of London can most closely be aligned with Leo’s. Prior to arriving to London, Pip had great expectations for London in that he would become an affluent gentleman, but when he arrived he saw how dirty and crowded it was causing him to become disappointed. In addition, Leo’s view is also related to Pip in that Pip’s life was based on comparing himself to others which caused him to be disgusted in himself and his surroundings. 

Further, London was also described by the narrator in relation to the family with, “Born and bred in the very heart of nineteenth century London, belonging to an age of a city which has seen the throwing down of so many barriers, the leveling of so many distinctions of class, of caste, of race, of opinion, they had managed to retain the tribal characteristics, to live within the tribal pale to an extent which spoke worlds for the national conservatism” (Levy 102). They then describe how they went to Jewish schools, ate Jewish food and were raised with Jewish traditions and prejudice, only making friends within their race as having friends outside of their “tribal barrier” was discouraged by authorities in their community. It seems as though the Jewish community has isolated themself from the rest of London, only associating with one another.

Is Leo’s hatred for London attributed to this and his rejection of Jewish traditions that he seems to be demonstrating thus far in the novel?