Across the broad continent of a woman's life falls the shadow of a sword. On one side, all is correct, definite, orderly; the paths are strait, the trees regular, the sun shaded; escorted by gentlemen, protected by policemen, wedded and buried by clergymen, she has only to walk demurely from cradle to grave and no one will touch a hair of her head. But on the other side all is confusion. Nothing follows a regular course. The paths wind between bogs and precipices. The trees roar and rock and fall in ruin. There, too, what strange company is to be met---in what bewildering variety!
Virginia Woolf, “Harriette Wilson”
This time, it’s not the vulgar prima donna, Harriette Wilson, that will be discussed. Instead, it’s Christabel LaMotte, the female protagonist in the movie, Possession, that steps across the borderline.
Adapted from the 1990 bestselling novel by A.S. Byatt, Possession explores romantic love in the Victorian and modern eras. For ages, romantic love has always been a recurrent theme in literature all over the world. And most of the acclaimed works, Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, The Ballad of the Sad Café, to name just a few, dramatize it as a plague instead of a blessing. A quote from Freud in the movie highlights this truth: “On the other side of attraction lies repulsion!” Accompanying romantic love are jealousy and obsession, both of which are equivalents of repulsion. In this movie, the Victorian couple is possessed by their illicit love and its consequent repulsion.
The undaunted poetess, Christabel LaMotte, is a lesbian who discards the traditional female role. She chooses an unorthodox life, where the paths wind, trees roar and company unapproved. She is not wedded properly by a clergyman, for she lives with a female lover, Blanche, has an affair with a poet later, and gives birth to an illegitimate child. She takes on the dominant role of a passionate bisexual instead of the submissive female characterized by passionlessness, caring and obedience. Living a life of solitude and seclusion, she is certainly not the angel in the house as celebrated in the Victorian society.
In careful inspection, her life resembles that of Emily Dickens, which can be shown through the wit and insight in her talk and poetry. When Ash inquires about the possibility of a formal visit, she refuses tactfully with a witty tone: “I live circumscribed and self-communing. It is best so. Not like a princess in a thicket. More like a spider in her web. Inclined to snap at visitors or trespassers, not perceiving the distinction until too late. Thus it is unwise to call.” Her sparkling wit finds another expression in their first encounter at a party where the literary figures gather. Despite Ash’s literary achievement, Christabel hints ironically at his misogynist inclination:
Christabel LaMotte: Judging from your work, I'm surprised you acknowledge my existence...or any woman's, since you show us such small regard on the page.
Randolph Ash: You cut me, Madam.
Christabel LaMotte: I'm sorry. I only meant to scratch.
Besides the wit, Christabel’s tranquil lifestyle echoes Emily Dickens’. The joy of a serene life is conveyed fully in Dickens’ lines: “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church---/ I keep it, staying at Home---/ With a Bobolink for a Chorister---/ And an Orchard, for a Dome---“ The magnificent Nature enriches their inner resources, enabling them to relish domestic felicity as a divine blessing. Correspondence with a soul mate is another source of satisfaction. For Dickens, “A letter is a joy of Earth---/ It is denied the Gods—“ For Christabel, letters, however badly written, are better than “exquisitely fine cut” cucumber sandwiches:
Christabel LaMotte: Would you [Ash] rather not have a letter, however imperfect ... than a plate of cucumber sandwiches, however exquisitely fine cut? You know you would, and so would I.
Rambling in nature and writing letters are not the privilege of the two 19th century poetesses. They have predecessors with the same domestic joy in Jane Austen’s world. Fanny in Mansfield Park once exclaims the healing power of a tranquil night:
Here’s repose! Here’s what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe! Here’s what may tranquillise every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene. (Chapter 11)
Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice also cherishes the hours of solitary walk: “Reflection must be reserved for solitary hours; whenever she [Lizzy] was alone, she gave way to it as the greatest relief; and not a day went by without a solitary walk, in which she might indulge in all the delight of unpleasant recollections.” (Chapter 37)
Christabel has Austen heroines’ inclination to solitude. But unlike them, she is a bisexual falling in love first with a woman, then a married man instead of a single one inheriting a large fortune! Though rejecting Ash’s visit in the beginning of his courtship, she yields to his irresistible charm in the end. The love letter she writes to Ash conveys her infatuation with him.
Christabel: I shan't forget the first glimpse of your form. Illuminated as it was by flashes of sunlight. I have dreamt nightly of your face … and walked the landscape of my life with the rhythms of your writing ... ringing in my ears. I shall never forget our shining progress towards one another. Never have I felt such a concentration of my entire being. I cannot let you burn me up. Nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.
She adores him as a sun, confessing her struggle between love and morality.The moment she discards social norms and lets passion consume her, she crosses the borderline of Tradition , treading the difficult paths with Remorse and Darkness lurking behind. The hiding of an illicit love and illegal daughter, together with the guilt of her female lover’s suicide must drive her into a dark corner of life. Yet, the tormenting secret keeps her love immortal. In A Lover’s Discourse, Roland Barthes indicates that amorous sentiment keeps going on while nothing works out. In contrast, reasonable sentiment makes everything work out, but nothing last (140). When the couple has consummated their love, they are reduced to a state of amorous fatigue, a kind of endurance wherein they “suffer without adjustment,”"persist without intensity” (141). After the rendezvous in Yorkshire, Ash and Christabel separate, each going back to their former life. Ash has to retain the reputation of a perfect husband and Christabel gives birth to a child, concealing her identity so that she won’t be taken away from her. For Ash, this love affair never ends. He will always remember the days he spends with her. The mere memory of love is a persisting hunger. For Christabel, this illicit love leaves a permanent legacy---her daughter. The child represents the consummation of her love. Yet, she is also the wound, the eternal reminder of her betrayal of Blanche. For the rest of their life, Ash and Christabel must experience the agony of unrequited love. Christabel is the unrequited love for Ash, as she forbears any contact with him for the rest of her life. Christabel is also the unrequited love for Blanche. She leaves Blanche because she conceals Ash's letters. It's jealousy and obsession that drive Blanche to suicide. There must be many sleepless nights when the wound gnaws on Christabel, reminding her of murdering Blanche. The same agony torments Ash. The following poem expresses his everlasting love to Christabel. In Ash’s eyes, Christabel is his Muse, the eternal source of his inspiration. She is like the river, forever changing yet forever powerful. Though she chooses to leave him, she alsways lives in his heart.
They say that women change.'Tis so.
But you are ever constant in your changefulness
Like that still thread of falling rive
One from source to last embrace
In the still pool
Ever-renewed and ever-moving on
From first to last
A myriad of water drops
And you, I love you for it
Are the force that moves
And holds the form
The secret letters keep their love going on. The love letters serve as the “affective space,” where sound fails to circulate (Barthes 165). Every time they read the letters, they renew their love again. The beloved is forever absent, incapable of any response, thus infusing the affective space with solitude and nostalgia. Christabel challenges the traditional female role by consuming herself in a doomed love. Immortal though their love is, it haunts their minds till the end of their life:
Christabel : What are they, who haunt our dreams / And weaken our desires / And turn us from a solid face / And in the depth of wintry night / They slumber open-eyed and bright / Dolly keeps a secret / Safer than a friend / Dolly's silent sympathy / Lasts without end/ No rush of action/ This is our doom/ To live a long life out / In a dark room
So, is it worthwhile to step across the line of tradition and explore the land where Darkness, Remorse, Solitude and Nostalgia await?
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