Arabella's Power in The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox

Arabella’s reading of Romances has given her a sense of power. She believes she can control situations just by commanding. When Arabella hears of Mr. Hervey being sick in bed, she insists that her letter to him will help him recover. She says, “he will recover, if I command him to do so” (16). Arabella really believes she has the power to stop death if she only commands. She derives this power from reading romances. For example, she gives an account of Mazares and Mandana, and Oroondates and Statira, where the heroines command their lovers to live (47, 48). Arabella tells Lucy that in Romances, the heroine’s lover does not die if she insists he lives (16).  

In another encounter, Arabella tells Mr. Hervey “you are now wholly in my Power” and “I’ll give you Freedom” only if he obeys her commands. Because of her romantic notions, Arabella assumes authority over situations, believing it is her right to do so. She also has power over people. She even convinced the servants to hold Mr. Hervey back even though he offered no sign of threat and no pistol was in sight.

Arabella also controls Lucy. As ridiculous as Arabella sounds, Lucy is easily convinced by her and does as Arabella commands. Lucy does not simply obey Arabella because of her rank, but admits to even agreeing with her. Early on in the novel, Arabella convinces Lucy that the gardener is a man of higher degree in disguise to pursue Arabella. Lucy says she thought him to be a simple gardener but instantly changes her mind when Arabella asks her a series of questions. Lucy then says to her, “now you open my Eyes” (24). Lucy is continually fooled by Arabella’s ridiculousness and believes in her imaginations (for example, Arabella fools Lucy into thinking a man is there to steal her away, 93).

Throughout the novel, Arabella asserts herself one way or another, and even makes commands. She speaks freely to the men she encounters (which are of course based off of her reading of romances), and even to her own father. She openly confronts Sir Charles about his intentions towards her! Arabella, using her knowledge from reading romances, even corrects and embarrasses Mr. Selvin during his discussion of ancient history (265). She is verbally expressive. It is also a sort of empowerment for a woman to correct a man’s knowledge when it is generally believed that men are the more knowledgeable sex.

In another earlier occasion, Arabella tells Mr. Glanville “I am rather to accuse the Slowness of your Understanding, for your persisting in treating me thus freely” (36). As ridiculous as her notions are, she nonetheless voices her opinions and thoughts freely. The narrator states, “strange as her Notions of life appeared, yet they were supported with so much Wit and Delicacy” (45). The narrator notes on several occasions how Mr. Glanville finds Arabella’s behavior strange and yet “smiles” at her. Arabella asserts a strange power over those around her and Mr. Glanville is “in the Possession of a Woman” (118).

A scene that I found to be very strange was in the conversation between Arabella and her father. It is common for heroines in distress to take their own life in 18^th century literature. Arabella is aware of this and desires to “imitate” these women of “Courage” to avoid marrying Mr. Glanville. Arabella finds power in taking her own life, claiming that she is just as “capable” in doing so as the romantic heroines she reads (54). When her father threatens to burn her books, Arabella laments the fate of the heroines who “were going to be cast into the merciless Flames” (55). Arabella’s imagination is so strong that she believes the characters in her books to be real and suffer a true fate caused by events outside the books themselves. The fact that Arabella sees power in deciding to take her own life away, and laments the powerlessness of her heroines (or “innocent Victims” 57) who will suffer at the hands of someone else, is a fascinating and strange part of the novel.

An interesting addition to this is Arabella’s imaginative thought that the men who cross her path will commit suicide upon her rejecting them. She makes sure to tell her father if Mr. Glanville has taken his life, she did not “desire” for him to do so (38, 39). She actually believes she has the power to push men into suicide over their supposed grief, just as I observed earlier that she believes in her power to command men to live (for example, she commands Sir George, who plays along with Arabella’s fancy, to live too).

In the end, Arabella is reformed and is no longer disillusioned. Thus, she has lost her power. Is Lennox indicating that female power is unrealistic? Is female power unacceptable and made ridiculous by society? Though her heroine loses power, has Lennox gained her own sense of power by writing in a male-dominated form to explore a female realm?

I have been interested in RED every since Professor Maruca introduced us to it. I decided to search "The Female Quixote" in the UK RED and came across Jane Austen's reading experience and how it helped shape her Northanger Abbey. I always read Northanger Abbey in response to Ann Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest, so I am definitely looking forward to keeping Lennox and the issue of education in mind as we end the semester with Austen. 

Here's a link to Austen's reading experience: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=132