Gender Distinctions in The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker
The epistolary form serves Smollett as a structuring device, similarly as chapters and books do in traditional novels. It is also a device for stylistic diversification of the narrative. In Smollett’s version it is also a chance to experience the character within as well as without, i.e. in the letters written by the other characters. Smollett’s narrative method is based on contrast of different points-of-view. Gender differences also play a significant role in the novel. They are reflected in the style as well as in the content of the letters. This paper will discuss in what ways gender is manifested in The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker.
It will be noted that it is not possible to analyze the gender disctinctions on one single level, as the social stratification is a dominant factor determining the values and prototypical features of males and females of that period. There is no single, unified idea of a man or a woman, not to speak of a unified idea of a human being. What may be discussed is for example the idea of a gentleman and a gentlewoman, of a male servant and a female servant etc., because every human being is still defined through his or her social role as well as gender. Society is viewed as a system and an individual is defined in relation to this system. The figure of Humphrey Clinker is – exactly by means of his hardly definable, and for the great part of the novel changing, place within the system – challenging such a definition of the individual. Although he belongs to a certain literary tradition of dutiful, loyal servants, already his introduction into the novel is problematic. He appears as a bare, desolate human being, literally naked and helpless, having no property to be defined by, no origin to speak of, no shelter, nothing but his own humanity.
In his critical essay “Smollett’s Humphrey Clinker”, Michael Rosenblum refers to a group of critics who understand culture as a set of rules describing the movements in space. These rules are applicable for all the members of a certain society. It is exactly these rules that distinguish different classes, or more generally, different groups of people in that culture. Rosenblum claims that “to know a culture is to know its repertoire of essential movements”. (Rosenblum, 184) This is especially relevant to The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker as it deals with a travel, a movement in space, although clearly the “movements” do not happen only on the literal level. This kind of critical prisma will be useful for the discussion of the the gender issues as well since it is a convenient way to describe the space of the feminine and the masculine and to examine in what ways these entities are able to shift and “move”.
To go back to Humphrey Clinker, his social position at the beginning of the novel contrasted to that of Matthew Bramble is well described by Rosenblum: “Where patrician itineraries tend to be voluntary, pleasure-oriented, and circular (there is always the estate and the “big house” to return to), plebeian movements tend to be involuntary, necessary, and open-ended.” (Rosenblum, 184) However, in the progress of the narrative, these two kinds of movement merge when Bramble allows Clinker to become part of their company. Even though Bramble and Clinker become closer by this arrangement, clearly it is not possible to discuss masculinity with regard to both of them at once.
Let us, therefore, begin with the analysis of the idea of masculinity in the upperclass later eighteenth century Britain. Two main sources will be used for this purpose, namely the letters of Matthew Bramble and a younger gentleman, Bramble’s nephew Jeremy Melford. The latter writes in plain, clear style, sometimes in very long, elaborate sentences. His letters display no constraint on subjects which vary from social comment, including some gossiping about higher society and providing the reader with a gallery of portraits of contemporary celebrities, to thoughts about filth in the cities and venereal diseases. His Oxford education is revealed in his letters through similes indicating the knowledge of classical as well as English literature, as when he describes satire “penetrating as the arrows of Teucer” (Smollett, 28) referring to the Illiad, or when he talks about Dr.Lewis as “fidus Achates of my uncle” (ibid., 61), using a proverbial saying from the Aeneid, or when he enumerates all the groups of people to be met in Bath and uses a phrase adapted from Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel “chemists, fiddlers and buffoons”. (ibid., 49) By the last mentioned allusion he is giving honour to the satirical tradition in English literature.
Another characteristic feature of Melford’s style is the use of what one might call “physical similes” inasmuch as these show a kind of thinking drawing analogies between the world of humans and the physical world of nature. This is illustrated by the following examples when Jeremy describes his relationship to his uncle: “his disposition and mine, which, like oil and vinegar, repelled one another, have now begun to mix“ (Smollett, 17) or when he writes that “our aunt, Tabitha, acts upon him [Bramble] as a perpetual grind-stone” (ibid., 28) or yet in another of his letters he compares his aunt’s inclinations to a loadstone (ibid., 236).
Matthew Bramble’s views should be juxtaposed in this essays as they are in the novel as well. This character is the voice of an eighteenth century rationalist, a man of sensibility and a gentleman observer of the world. Certain aspects of his letters are strikingly similar to Jeremy’s. Again, what could be called „physical similes“ is symptomatic for Bramble’s, and more generally for masculine, thinking. Bramble describes Lydia as “soft as butter, and as easily melted” (ibid., 11) and when he speaks about himself and his moody temper he says “my opinion of mankind, like mercury in the thermometer, rises and falls according to the variations of weather.“ (ibid., 77)
As regards the genre, satire seems to be the most prominent, he even cites from Horace at one point and he often laments about the nature of humankind: “We are all a pack of venal and corrupted rascals; so lost to all sense of honesty and all tenderness of character, that, in a little time, I am fully persuaded, nothing will be infamous but virtue and public-spirit.“ (ibid., 77) Bramble’s view of the English society, heightened by the fact that he himself is not an Englishman, but a Welshman and therefore a foreigner to some extent, is closer to the Juvenalian satire, whereas his more optimistic and less radical nephew would write rather in the tradition of Horatian satire. As a satirist, Bramble, has a stock of imagery of disease, which serves him well for the desciption of the degradation and corruption that is conspicuous in his vision of the world.
Another crucial feature of Bramble’s letters is irony and even self-irony which require a certain amount of distance of the observer from the observed which is something distinctly masculine in the novel. This kind of reasonable detachment goes hand in hand with rationality which is denied to women. Lydia, due to her inexperience and naivety, is all the time absorbed into „the observed“. Tabitha is so keen on the activity of husband-hunting, that she is never able to look at her prospects while keeping some kind of distance. Whilst for men the world is an entity to be discussed and criticized, for women it seems to be an entity in which it is easy to get lost and which is more or less incomprehensible, an entity whose laws are hidden somewhere beyond it.
Moreover, women are seen as a potential threat to the order of the world if they are allowed to move into the space of men. Bramble loves order and hates every kind of disorder, be it in society, health or in architecture. The association of women with vanity and luxury is suggested already in the letters from Bath and is developed later in the novel. Bramble explains in one of his letters: “All these absurdities [in Bath] arise from the general tide of luxury, which hath overspread the nation, and swept away all, even the very dregs of people“ (ibid., 36) Bramble’s outburst of passionate indignation makes him use more powerful language, much richer in metaphors, than is typical for his writing: “Even the wives and daughters of low tradesmen, who, like shovel-nosed sharks, prey upon the blubber of those uncouth whales of fortunes, are infected with the same rage of displaying their importance…“ (ibid., 36) The animal imagery presents the society as wilderness where harsh laws of greediness and voracity are dominant.
Matthew Bramble, as a gentleman landowner has the power to be a guardian of the social order. Rosenblum comments on his relation towards order: “The gentleman-tourist sorts out the stranded and assigns them their proper place: the widow is relieved; Clinker and Lismahago become part of the estate; while Mr. Martin is dispatched to the wars of empire.“ (Rosenblum, 187)
This theme is developed when Matthew visits the mansion of his college friend, Mr. Baynard, whose wife has managed to lead him to banruptcy by her vanity and excessive desire for luxury. This story appears towards the end of the novel, which is more heavily loaded with essayistic material, and is presented as an exemplary story of women’s use of power, which is the same as to say the abuse of power, which turns out to be literally destructive in women’s hands. The first glimpse of the destruction which the reader encounters is the view of the garden, deprived of the majestic oaks which supplied the garden with a blissful shade and generally the garden does not offer any more refuge for contemplation. The image of femininity is represented by shallowness, dryness, and overall dullness. „Nothing appears but a naked circus of loose sand, with a dry bason and a leaden triton in the middle“. (idib., 286) The looseness stands in opposition to the masculine firmness and solidity. It is exactly such looseness of principles that Mr. Baynard is brought to by his wife, that proves to be his greatest fault. This makes him less masculine and indeed effeminate.
When Bramble proceeds in his letter in giving the character of Mrs. Baynard, we realise that the main problem with this woman is that she was not able to manage the space that was opened to her by the social conventions, i.e. the domestic sphere. Bramble writes „she was so ill qualified to do the honours of the house, that when she sat at the head of the table, one was always looking for the mistress of the family in some other place“. (Smollett, 286) While trying to appropriate a different sphere, outside the domestic space, Mrs. Baynard went totally astray. She could manage neither aesthetically nor morally, not to speak of economy which proved really fatal. And since Mr. Baynard does not enforce the declaration of his wife „Yes, sir … it is your prerogative to command, and my duty to obey“ (Smollett, 288), an echo of Tabitha’s submissive proclamation (which however was fulfilled due to Bramble’s resoluteness and authority), his wife drags him down into the „vortex of extravagance and dissipation“. (ibid., 288) The danger of women is their strange, unfathomable charm by which they can gain control over the reasonable men. Mrs. Baynard is almost a witch that enchanted poor Mr.Baynard and brought him to ruin. Thus the image of a fashionable city life, full of excessive extravagance and corruption is presented as largely feminine. The contrast to this mode of living is the quiet, sombre, solid country life associated with the traditional gentleman landowner.
Bramble’s strong conviction to lead the life of a bachelor is his answer to the question what he does he think about women. Obviously he prefers male friendship over the relationship of man and woman. It seems to be a deep-rooted belief and not a mere pretence. After Mrs. Baynard dies, he helps his friend by substituting himself for his lost wife, he even stays in his bedroom with him. To Bramble, the affection of his friend to his wife is quite incomprehensible and it is something that is to be overcome as soon as possible.
Women and money is a theme exploited also on the character of Bramble’s sister, Tabitha. This grotesque character, created by exaggeration for comic effect has also a problematic relationship to money. Unlike Mrs. Baynard, she is excessively thrifty and mean. In contrast with her brother, she is trying to save on her servants and thus accumulate her own property and thus increase her chances of selling herself on the market of marriageable women. Even Bramble sees her in this position when he writes to Dr.Lewis “Can’t you find some poor gentleman of Wales, to take this precious commodity [Tabitha] off the hands of yours M.Bramble“. (Smollett, 78) Tabitha is thus presented as a hardly sellable commodity which, of course, implies rather a thing than an independent human being and Tabitha is aware of her dependency on her brother and his provision, so that when there is a conflict, she gives up quickly and acts humbly and resumes the space that is marked out for her as a woman, where it is her “duty to obey“.
Tabitha’s letters display a great deal of comicality. This is partly due to her problems with spelling and the consequent use of malapropisms, but also due to the juxtaposition of disconnected ideas and themes. She is jumping from place to place, from one acquiantance of hers to another, from worries about food supplies to worries about God, from worries about Dr.Lewis to her acquiantance Moll who “has had another litter of pigs” (Smollett, 156) The tone of her writing shifts very quickly from that of lamenting to that of warning and even threatening, and turns again to be very pragmatic. It is this sense of restlessness and fidgetiness that is prevailing in her correspondence. This would of course stand in opposition to the monolithic tone of Matthew Bramble’s letters or those of Jeremy Melford, but even those of his sister Ldyia which enables the writers to linger on one thought for a longer period of time and thus reflect on a certain subject .
Lydia represents the conventional idea of femininity at its best, constructed by chastity, meekness, modesty, frailty. Lydia guards her chastity and her reputation, as well as the reputation of the whole family, very strictly. This is indicated by her refusal to lead any correspondence with the man of her heart, Wilson. This reflects the historical fact that a correspondence between a man and a woman was understood as the beginning of a relationship that would end up in a love affair.
Lydia’s readiness for self-sacrifice and resignation is assessed positively in the novel and it adds to her being a ‘virtuous maiden’. Even though she is right, unlike her brother and uncle, in her assessment of Wilson, she could never have the authority to prevail upon her relations and enforce her own opinion. This is such a strange idea that Lydia never once thinks about this possibility. If the right notion of masculinity is the proper and just exercise of authority, then the right notion of femininity is the subordination to this authority in Smollett’s novel.
The language of Lydia‘s letters is poignantly described by Robert Giddings in his book The Tradition of Smollett:
Lydia is romantic and highly imaginative; she decribes Bath through imaginative terms (palaces represented in pictures – Bath as an “earthly paradise”) whereas Bramble sees things in more concrete and material terms (he describes Bath as a lunatic asylum and to him the new buildings appear to be “the wreck of Streets and Squares disjointed by an earthquake, which hath broken the ground into a variety of holes and hillocks...”). Young Melford’s view is much more balanced than either of these two; he admires the beauties and mocks at the follies of Bath, and thus avoids both extremes of excitement. (Giddings, 146)
It would be a subject for discussion whether Lydia is highly imaginative but it is clear that Lydia would be a character more in the mode of the romance or sentimental literary tradition which was flourishing towards the end of the eighteenth century. When Lydia writes about nature she gives a highly romantic and almost poetic description of nature: “…hedges already clothed with their vernal livery“ (Smollett, 27) Her description of water evokes the image of a mirror when she says that „the water is clear, so pure, so mild, so charmingly maukish“ as indeed such is the nature of Lydia, cherishing only virtuous thoughts, being meek and compliant and at that moment having a little „sickly flavour“ caused by her love affliction. In that short excerpt we should notice a typical trope that appears in her language and that is personification. Lydia makes use of this trope also when she writes about her sentiments: “Fortune takes pleasure in persecuting your poor friend“ or when she describes how she managed to find out the identity of the disguised Wilson “which would have been impossible … if my heart had not assisted in the discovery“. (ibid., 26)
Lydia’s affectation and involvement (as opposed to the masculine distancing) is displayed in one of her letters distinguished by the superfluous use of positively qualifying adjectives. All the adjectives in the following list have been found in one letter by Lydia, describing London, Ranelagh and Vauxhall : grand, majestic, magnificient, superb, stupendous, exquisite, charming, agreeable, picturesque, delightful, wonderful, blissful, excellent. Her depictions are very often of a visual nature, we scarcely get reconstructed dialogues as we often do Bramble’s or Jery’s letters. All these imply a certain lack of depth in her understanding.
Smollett is consistent in displaying what might be called femininity in Lydia’s letters. The similes she uses in her letters, are a good example of this as they very often refer to love “she looked like the ghost of some pale maiden, who had drowned herself for love“ (ibid., 40), or display a fairy-tale dimension: “we looked like so many fairies sailing in a nutshell“. (ibid., 92)
As regards certain restraints in the choice of topics in her correspondence, Lydia herself is conscious as to what topics are suitable for a young girl and without hesitation accepts the conversational space delimited for her, as she admits in “young girls are not admitted, inasmuch as the conversation turns upon politics, scandal, philosophy and other subjects above our capacity“ (ibid., 40) and it is to be noted that these topics are carefully avoided in Lydia’s letters and as they appear neither in Tabitha’s letter, one may conclude that these topics are reserved for the masculine world.
It has been mentioned that satire, as a literary genre, is considered masculine in The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. Yet we find satirical elements in the letters written by Lydia as well, only it works differently. It works through the (possibly) unconscious irony as in the description of a ball at Bath: “The place was so hot, and the smell so differentfrom what we are used to in the country, that I was quite feverish when we came away. Aunt says it is the effect of a vulgar constitution, reared among woods and mountains; and that I become accustomed to genteel company, it will wear off.“ (ibid., 41) The question here, obviously, is what our definition of vulgarity and gentility is. Lydia’s naivety and meekness provides space for such a kind of irony.
What is harshly criticized by Matthew Bramble, what is looked at with a mildly ironic smile by Jeremy Melford, is uncritically admired by Lydia. For her the world is a fairy tale, as enchanting and as mysterious. She is amazed when she first comes to London and describes her impressions in this way: “
Smollett’s treatment of women is not exceptional for his time. Donald Bruce gives a short, yet characteristic overview of the views of women of some of Smollett’s contemporaries:
Addison calls woman “a beautiful romantic animal”, to be admired and embellished but never to be taken seriously. An engaging and tongue-wagging trifler, she uses bokks only to keep patches in... Steele writes of ladies “attending their work dilligently” at the looking glass, and mentions a girl’s “secret satisfaction in herself and scorn of others” because she is wearing a new pair of striped garters. Chesterfield advises his son not to allow women (“children of a larger growth”) to meddle in business. Swift grumbles that women “employ more application to be fools than would serve to make them wise and useful”. (Bruce, 74)
One more point is to be made about the relationship of the two sexes in the novel, or more precisely, about the gap between them. It has been mentioned that both Matthew Bramble and Jery Melford think of Tabitha sometimes as an animal, e.g. a wild-cat. On the other hand, we find examples in the text where Tabitha is described as laying a snare for men, which although a conventional metaphor, refers to men as to animals which it is desireable to catch. Jeremy writes in one of his letters from Scotland: „Mrs. Tabitha displayed her attractions as usual, and actually believed she had entangled one Mr. Maclellan, a rich inklemanufacturer, in her snares“. In another Jeremy’s letter we read that “The Irish baronet is an old hound, that, finding her [Tabitha] a carrion, has quitted the scent“ (Smollett, 60)
The gap between men and women is overcome at the end of the novel which provides the necessary traditional happy end where reconciliation appears in the form of double marriage. However, the reconciliation is not idealised in any way by Matthew Bramble (as indeed it would sound insincere after his frequent comments on his lucky position that he is not in the state of matrimony, or as Winifred Jenkins would have it “matter-money“) (ibid., 352), as he writes to Dr. Lewis: “I have great hopes that he [Lismahago] and Tabby will be as happily paired as any two draught animals in the kingdom.“ (ibid., 339) This very crude way of expressing his feeling is consistent with Bramble’s thinking.
Gender distinctions are revealed in the association of femininity and masculinity with different literary traditions. Satire, an influential mode of writing in the eighteenth century, is typically masculine. Realism typical of the Enlightenment era is also essentially masculine. On the other hand, femininity is associated with sentimentalism. This, however, would be too simplifying. The character of Matthew Bramble is not just a harsh satirist, that is in fact just a kind of defence mechanism. Matthew Bramble is essentialy a man of sensibility. And it is a question of interpretation whether the man of sensibility does not actually win at the end of the novel over the satirist.
Going back to the idea of movement in the space of a particular culture, the masculine movement seems to be almost unlimited, or more exactly, limited only by moral boundaries. However, there is one more threshold that is not to be overstepped – the threshold of the feminine world. If that happens the quality of masculinity is degraded into effeminacy which is highly undesirable. The space of femininity appears to be more confined, yet maybe safer but again women should not leave this space and should not try to enter the space of males as they do not know the laws of the masculine world and therefore their attempt to appropriate that space is doomed to failure. Smollett’s contemporary, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, speaking for her sex, once said: “Folly is reckoned our proper sphere“. (Bruce, 74) The order is maintained by the impermeability of the boundary between the male and the female worlds.
That order is necessarily and appropriately masculine is reinforced by Bramble’s observation on their Highland tour where he sees the social cohesion provided by the patriarchal bond:
The connection between the clans and their chief is, without all doubt patriarchal. It is
founded on hereditary regard and affection, cherished through a long succession of ages.
The clan considers the chief as their father, they bear his name, they believe themselves
descended from his family, and they obey him as their lord, with all the ardour of filial
love and veneration; while he, on his part, exerts a paternal authority, commanding,
chastising, rewarding, protecting, and maintaining them as his own children. (Smollett,
254-5)
This kind of firmly established order is very solid and proves to be resistent to outward forces, as the English very well know.
The character of Humphrey Clinker has long stood outside the discussion of gender in this paper. The reason for this was his ambiguous position in the social order, which, however, changes for the better in development of the novel. After the miraculous revelation of Humphrey’s identity by finding his own father in Matthew Bramble, he gets the necessary stable position. He, as a proper man, will take care of the management of the squire’s mansion and will thus contribute to the masculine space. It is to be expected that he will also have new values to aspire to and soon will fall into the pattern of rationality and good husbandry etc.
It has been demonstrated that certain qualities are treated as gender based in Smollett’s The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. Order, rationality, clarity of expression, good husbandry and effective management belong unambiguously to the masculine space in this novel. As regards language and style, satire and irony are dominantly masculine. On the other hand, femininity is associated with vanity, luxury, irrationality. Femininity is referred to through conventional symbols, like the moon, as e.g. when Matthew Bramble describes the furious Lady Griskinn: “Lady Griskin’s face was like the full moon in a storm of wind, glaring, fiery, and portentuous…” (Smollett, 143) The literary tradition that is evoked in relation to femininity is grotesque on the one hand, and sentimentalism (or romance) on the other.
However, sentimentalism is in the end the uniting element between the feminine and the masculine, that is desirable as it does not produce that hybrid of effeminacy. In addition to that, the binary opposition of the city versus the country could be seen along the lines of the gender opposition as well. Gender identity is inseparable from the social position of the individual and Smollett in his bold attempt to provide a complex and faithful and true-to-life enough, panorama of the Britain of the late eighteenth century, gives the modern reader a rich source for the examination of social and cultural relationships reflecting the reality of Smollett’s contemporary Britain.
Bruce, Donald. Radical Doctor Smollett. Boston: Riverside Press Cambridge. 1965
Daiches, David. “Smollett Reconsidered”, in From Smollett to James / Studies in the Novel, ed. Samuel I.Mintz. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. 1981
Giddings, Robert. The Tradition of Smollett. London: Methuen & Co. 1967
Rosenblum, Michael. “Smollett’s Humphry Clinker“, in The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth Century Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1998
Smollett, Tobias. The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1984