Women Alone: The Alienated Protagonist
in Ella Hepworth Dixon's The Story of a Modern Woman
and
Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out
M.A. Thesis
Literary Studies: Literature and Culture
By:
Courtney Yao
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2
Chapter 1: Gender Relations: Love and the Marriage Question ........................................... 10
Chapter 2 : Financial, Intellectual, and Artistic Independence: The Fundamental Role of Female
Relationships ........................................................................................................................... 24
Chapter 3 : Physical Spaces: Mary and Rachel's Selfhood, Artistic Development, and Separation
From Society, Represented By Their Creative Spaces ............................................................... 39
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 46
Works Cited ................................................................................................................................. 49
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INTRODUCTION
The alienated protagonist is often readily labelled as being a defining feature of literary
Modernism. Susan Stanford Friedman claims Modernism to be “the embrace of chaos. It is the crisis
of representation, fragmentation, alienation.” (Friedman, 2001, p. 494). This paper argues that the New
Woman novel of fin de siecle Victorian literature creates a characterization of the female that the
Modernist author Virginia Woolf uses as a mold in the depiction of the alienated female in her 1915
debut novel The Voyage Out. Woolf's novel centres around a young woman who experiences emotional
pain and marginalization, combined with a lack of personal agency, as a result of her reluctance to
conform to the traditional gender roles of mainstream society. The rejection of the gender norms of
mainstream society is the cause of Rachel's alienation from the rest of the world. In an attempt to
engage with society outside of herself to quell her loneliness and achieve a sense of fulfilment through
connection to others, Rachel embarks on a journey of self discovery that ends in tragedy. Ella
Hepworth Dixon's portrayal of Mary Erle in her novel The Story of a Modern Woman (1894)
anticipates Woolf's characterization of protagonist Rachel Vinrace in the novel The Voyage Out (1915),
the depiction of a woman's coming of age that points to the development and persistence of the female
voice in Modernism.
Woolf's portrayal of Rachel illustrates the continuation and progression of the discussion of
female engagement with, and struggle against, the changing concerns for women against a cultural
backdrop of social change. The bourgeoning awareness of the feminist consciousness introduced by
Dixon's text exists in Woolf's work, as evidenced by the fact that throughout the novel, Rachel is
engaged in an ongoing struggle to discover who she is as an artist and as a person, without giving much
consideration to gender expectations. Both novels have female agency and alienation as central
themes, and the protagonist in each of the works experiences intense emotional turmoil and loneliness
as a result of being confronted with the reality of the results of attempting to live an independent life.
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There exist a few prominent themes one finds within the New Woman novel that contribute to
the protagonist's alienation that are echoed in Woolf's text that figure greatly in creating commonalities
in the characterizations of Mary and Rachel as alienated protagonists who struggle for agency. Both
Mary and Rachel attempt to circumvent conventional routes to marriage and maternity, though each
desires a love relationship. The suitors of each women, and indeed virtually all of the men with whom
Mary and Rachel come into contact, attempt, with varying levels of success, to assume an instructive
and authoritative role in their lives. Likewise, the other females with whom the two central characters
form relationships both encourage and impede the protagonists' freedom of thought and action by
exerting control or at least undue influence over them, by attempting to teach them the correct way to
be the kind of woman of which others can approve. Mary and Rachel are each inclined towards a
certain kind of independence of thought and personal freedom, but as a result of being thrust into
situations not of their own choosing, and under the weight of the pressures of social convention, both
women experience the stress and ill effects of trying to realize a life for themselves which is at odds
with the dictates of prescribed gender roles for women within the mainstream Victorian tradition. The
strain put upon Mary and Rachel as a result of this alienation leads each woman to experience
emotional discomfort.loneliness and distress, and to ultimately be unable to live their lives according to
their own plans. The themes of female alienation and agency feature prominently in Dixon's The Story
of a Modern Woman. Alienation and agency and the social factors that contribute to each are also
explored and vividly illustrated in The Voyage Out. The characterization Rachel Vinrace, the
protagonist of Woolf's novel struggles against the same patriarchal and social forces as does Dixon's
protagonist Mary Erle before her, and both women suffer the pain of alienation from a society of which
they do not feel a part. Dixon's work, and her depiction of protagonist Mary Erle, illustrates how the
New Woman novel serves as connector between Victorianism and Modernism with particular respect to
its representation of the alienated female protagonist. In the desire for periodization of texts in the
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literary canon, the connection between the two literary eras seems to me to be often overlooked, but in
my examination of Dixon and Woolf's novels, I found there to be a strong continuity between the lateVictorian New Woman text and the Modernist work. I found the linkages between the novels to be
most prominently visible when comparing the female characters of each text, both central and
peripheral. Among the protagonists particularly, there exist many marked similarities in their feelings,
experiences and life circumstances. Mary and Rachel in many ways live parallel existences marred by
alienation and a lack of personal agency that result in confusion and pain.
Dixon's New Woman novel of the end of the nineteenth century is distinct from much earlier
literature of the Victorian period, due to its focus on the female who suffers from living under the
pressure of the confines of Victorian traditionalism and expectations surrounding the role of women,
but who lives in such a way as to subvert these conventions by attempting to obtain autonomy in as
many areas of her life as possible. The New Woman novel responds to the “marriage plot” novels,
(such as the works of Jane Austen, which are referenced in Woolf's novel and hated by protagonist
Rachel) by featuring a more independent female protagonist who does not rely on a man for financial
security, intellectual guidance, or romantic connection, but often at the expense of emotional
fulfillment. The women of these novels “ certainly perceive that they are on the brink of a coming “new
order.” Yet they know that solidarity between women and the refusal of “intercourse with me, while
promising professional freedoms, too often results in personal isolation.” (Williams, 2002, p. 272). The
New Woman is a female who is exerting her freedom to discover her own mind and tries to live
according to her own design.
Dixon's Mary embodies this New Woman in every respect but for her original motivation for
becoming a New Woman. The death of her father places Mary in the position of having to inhabit the
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role of the New Woman by necessity. Over the course of the novel, as Mary matures into an
independent being with a respect and appreciation for the ideology behind the New Woman label, she is
able to take up her new identity proudly and to strongly represent the tenets of independence, female
solidarity, and commitment to one's artistry. Woolf's early Modernist novel addresses some of the
themes around gender relations that are present in Dixon's text, and it functions similarly to its
predecessor as a bildugsroman of a young woman attempting to steer her own course in life. Though
not yet displaying the Modernist innovations such as stream of consciousness, the emphasis on the
psychological aspect of the protagonist and leaning toward a realist depiction of the difficulties that
Rachel faces as a woman who exists in a world in which she does not quite fit, are indicators that
identify The Voyage Out as a modernist text. It is quite worth noting that New Woman writing was
indeed the literature of Virginia Woolf's coming of age. Perhaps this exposure to the previous tradition
of New Woman writing exerted some influence over Woolf's own writing and contributions to the
continuation of New Woman ideology, and thematic concerns with alienation and personal agency
within the framework of Modernism. Scholarly publications such as Jane Eldridge Miller's Rebel
Women and several texts by Ann Ardis, most notably her work New Women, New Novels support the
notion that a strong link exists between the late-Victorian and the Modernist period that is marked by
the New Woman novel. Literature by Ann Heilmann also highlights the relationship between New
Womanism and the female presence in the early Modernist Literature, and it is these three critics whose
work lays the foundation for the examination of the connections between the characterization of the
protagonists in Dixon and Woolf's novels. I will engage with these critics in my discussion of the
female characters within the two novels, and illustrate the links that are present with regard to the
struggles and concerns of the alienated women at the centre of each work. Each Miller, Ardis, and
Heilmann, among others, explore the ways in which literary modernism arises from the concerns of
New Woman fiction. Such criticism uncovers the linkages between the two literary periods, and
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highlights the ways in which there exists a continuity of themes regarding marriage and motherhood,
financial and intellectual independence and loneliness and separation from others as a result of failing
to conform to societal expectations. The critical texts that trace the link between writings of the two
periods provide insight into the major concerns of New Woman writing and the influence of the social
and cultural context of the time, and how the feminist perspective and focus on the concepts of
alienation and discontent helped to shape the Modernist texts that continue the fin de siecle tradition.
As the intellectualism and desire for independence from the confines of Victorian traditionalism
embodied by the New Woman began to find a voice, and challenges to many conventional ideas of
femininity began to emerge, the over-arching Victorian ideal of femininity came under pressure. Fin
de siecle literature such as Dixon's Story of a Modern Woman illuminates the divide between the New
Woman of the Victorian era who embodies the desire for increased freedoms and women's potential for
progress in the professional arena, and the limits placed on the New Woman by those who wished to
see traditional gender roles maintained in a male-dominated society. Dixon's novel reads like a reaction
to the imminent social changes that were perceived by traditionalists to be affronts to masculinity rather
than as steps on the way to women's liberation. The novel seems to be pushing back against those who
lamented the intellectual, social, and physical freedoms opening up for the females of the time. The
proliferation of the New Woman representation of modern women in the intellectual sphere with
aspirations of independence and agency in all areas of their lives, suggests that the concept and
depiction of a New Woman ideal were celebrated by supporters of social change. The New Woman
figure of the female rallying against the traditional views of “good” women during the late-nineteenth
century, as depicted by Hepworth Dixon in protagonist Mary Erle, thus becomes an illustration that
reflects the contemporary debate on gender politics. The image of the New Woman is a commentary
on Victorian society's reaction to the threat of the impact of social progress for women on Victorian
traditions, and the result of the ways in which society was able to marginalize women who did not
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conform to a conventional image of femininity. Woolf's Rachel Vinrace likewise deals with the societal
pressure to adhere to the ascribed gender norms of mainstream society, and though Woolf paints the
protagonist's struggle against tradition and her resulting feelings of alienation in tones that are more
subtle than is Hepworth Dixon's rendering of Mary, the conflicts they face as women are markedly
similar.
The comparison of the female characters, principally Mary Erle and Rachel Vinrace, in the texts
by Dixon and Woolf, and recognition of the major thematic linkage around the subject of alienation,
and the examination of the inner life of the female protagonists is keenly relevant to the discussion of
the emergence and development of a new kind of female voice in Literature; a new way of portraying
women outside of the confines of the traditional ideal that persisted into the late-Victorian literary
period, and representing them as thinking beings of independent spirit and a desire to control their own
fate and find a place in the world that she can call her own. The call to attention to the progressive
change in the characterization of the female is thus inextricably intertwined with an invitation to
examine the overlooked connection between the Victorian and the Modernist periods. The enduring
themes of female agency and alienation that found expression in New Woman writing such as Dixon's
depiction of Mary Erle had profound and manifest influence on the Modernist portrayal of Woolf's
Rachel Vinrace, a character who is born out of the late-Victorian tradition rather than the autonomous
imagination of the Modern period. The characterization of Dixon's Mary that inspires Woolf's Rachel
shows the progression of the life of the New Woman along a continuum that continues to inform
discourse on the portrayal of women in Literature, and its enduring impact on society, culture, and a
greater understanding of the feminine consciousness. Both novels, however, expose a bleak view of
the results of the protagonists' respective realizations of independence. Mary's ultimate disappointment
in her situation by the end of The Story of a Modern Woman and Rachel's untimely death that concludes
The Voyage Out signal the idea that a woman attempting to gain freedom and independence in the face
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of societal convention yields dire consequences, rather than inciting a celebration of change and
progress. Though the results of each protagonist's attempt at autonomy and individualism ends in
failure, Both The Story of a Modern Woman and The Voyage Out conduct an examination of the inner
life of the protagonist in an attempt at revealing the sources of her alienation from the world in which
she lives. The emphasis in both of the novels is on the inner lives of Rachel and Mary, the actions they
take, and the relationships they each develop with men, women, their space, and themselves as they
attempt to establish themselves as independent women. The artistic and personal development of the
female protagonists, and the contributing factors to the alienation and agency of each are the major
considerations in the understanding of the literary representation of the female character in both
Victorian and Modernist Literature.
Over the three chapters of this paper, I will draw and discuss the parallels between New Woman
protagonist Mary and Modernist protagonist Rachel, largely within the framework of New Woman
criticism, and noting how the commentary both directly applies to Dixon's work and how the concepts
likewise extend to a discussion of Woolf's novel. Chapter one will be an examination of Mary and
Rachel's views on love and marriage, their relationships with the men in their lives and the shift in the
approach to these topics from the late-Victorian to the early-Modern literary era. In chapter two I will
discuss the various relationships that Mary and Rachel have with the women in their lives, how these
associations parallel each other, and the benefit of female support on the personal agency and
development of the protagonists. Finally, chapter three will introduce and examine the concept of
space, and how the areas in which Mary and Rachel live and work serve as both a representation of
themselves and their artistry, as well as the separation of the women from the mainstream society that
fails to understand them. The main goal of my research is to show the ways in which Ella Hepworth
Dixon's New Woman novel The Story of a Modern Woman started help to start a new discussion of
femininity and portrayals of women outside of mainstream Victorian convention, which paved the way
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for Virginia Woolf to continue the conversation about women, their alienation and their agency, in her
Modernist novel The Voyage Out.
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CHAPTER 1: GENDER RELATIONS: Love and the Marriage Question
The discussion of gender relations figures prominently in of both Dixon and Woolf's novels,
and Mary and Rachel's relationships with the various men with whom they come into contact are at the
forefront of each of the narratives. Mary and Rachel's romantic entanglements with Vincent Hemming
and Terence Hewet, respectively, and the women's feelings and actions within the development of these
relationships, illustrate the ways in which each of the protagonists operates outside the realm of
Victorian tradition with regard to expectations of feminine thought and behaviour towards the prospect
of love and marriage. Both Mary and Rachel come to desire the love of a man, but also live under the
realization that marriage will impinge on their sense of personal freedom and further reduce their
agency as women who have artistic interests that extend beyond the confines of the conventional roles
of marriage and motherhood.
Dixon's The Story of a Modern Woman and Woolf's The Voyage Out each use the
characterization of protagonists Mary and Rachel to explore the implications of the lifestyle choice to
remain as an unmarried woman and how the subversion, in the case of Rachel, or utter rejection, in
Mary's narrative, of the traditional path to love and marriage sets each of the women apart from the
norm in the Victorian perspective. In each of the novels, the respective protagonists, Mary and Rachel,
are thrust into situations not of the their own choosing, but owing to patriarchal nature of the society in
which they live, and the ensuing circumstances result in each female's coming of age into the role of an
alienated woman who largely lacks agency over many aspects of her life. In Mary's case, the death of
her father propels her toward a path of independence, while Rachel's father makes the decision to allow
Rachel's aunt, Helen, to undertake his daughter's education into womanhood and worldliness, as he
feels that Rachel has begun to develop into a woman of modern sensibilities that do not fall in line with
his traditional view of what a woman should be, owing to her comfort in solitude and her artistic
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aspirations. While both of these developments at first seem to be positive steps towards both Mary and
Rachel's evolution into independent women, it is later proven that the trajectory of their lives as
determined by their fathers, in a reflection of the patriarchal control of Victorian society, leads each of
the women to difficulty, loneliness, and tragedy as they rebel against the expectations, not only of
male-dominated society, but of the men in their lives who take it upon themselves to assume an
instructive and superior role over the women. Neither Mary nor Rachel are active feminists in the strict
sense of declaring their political leanings or engaging in overt activism, but are each representative of
the major aspect of the New Woman ideology that espouses independence of spirt that manifests in all
areas of the autonomous woman's life, the impact of which perhaps most notably affects decisions on
love and marriage.
Dixon's New Woman Mary embodies female independence and tackles the issues
of sexuality and marriage within the feminist consciousness more radically and with greater vigour than
does Woolf's Rachel, but the alienation and emotional conflict and confusion that each protagonist
experiences as a result of her preference for independence is evident within the narrative of both central
characters, whose happiness is presented as reward that hinges on a choice between conforming to the
role of what a woman should be under the instruction of the men in their lives, or forgoing sexual and
emotional fulfillment in favour of following a non-traditional path towards living life on their own
terms.
After the death of her father, Mary Erle's sheltered life as a comfortable, middle-class girl ends:
“when the servant went up to call him, the professor had been dead some hours...the child who had
played, the girl who had danced, died too” (Dixon, p. 69). Mary is then faced with the task of building
a life of security on her own as a single woman in her early-twenties. When her long time family
friend Vincent Hemming professes his love for her and proposes marriage, Mary is offered a way out
from a life of financial instability and spinsterhood, but she immediately also comes to realize that a
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marriage to Hemming comes at the expense of all the freedoms that are in place before her as a woman
with no familial burdens or matrimonial responsibilities: “For good, for evil, the girl knew that she was
giving herself up to this man...All the tragic potentialities of a woman's life, the uncertainties and
sorrows of her who gives her happiness to another's keeping, flashed before her.” (Dixon, p. 81-82).
Mary's hesitation towards embracing the possibility of a married life with a man she loves is
illustrative of how the “marriage question” that was central to earlier Victorian literature and a topic of
feminist discussion at the end of the nineteenth century, began to morph into the “marriage problem”
within the New Woman novel. According to Jane Eldridge Miller, “the Marriage Question was the
central issue in 1890s feminism, and as a result, marriage retained its traditional centrality in the New
Woman novel, even while novelists were striving to challenge it” (Miller, p. 19). Mary's conflict over
the proposed marriage to Hemming indeed serves as a challenge to the convention of the marriage plot
of Victorian literature, wherein the female characters achieve a happy ending to their stories by
securing a husband who will love and care for them.
Mary's attitude toward marriage and her visceral reaction of shock and disappointment in to
Hemming's proposal present a major source of emotional and psychological conflict between her
feelings of love for the man and the expectations about her potential new role as a wife, and her desire
to maintain a sense of autonomy and control over her own life: “ It was so different now. She belonged
to this man...Why had he spoken? Could it not be as it was?... During that embrace she thought of
nothing except that she was sure that she had always cared for him...to her surprise, she was conscious
that two large, salt tears were coursing their way down her dusty cheeks.” (Dixon, p. 83). Hemming
later spurns Mary in favour of marrying for political gain rather than love. When he returns to her five
years into an unhappy marriage, and begs her to run away with him and be his mistress, Mary once
again is torn between her desire to be with him, and the knowledge that she must make a choice
between her independence and belonging to Hemming romantically. Owing to her decision to continue
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her independent life in London rather than move to Paris with Hemming to be his mistress, Mary
solidifies her exclusion from the realm of traditional womanhood that centres around love and
marriage. Mary believes she must choose between being true to herself and loyal to her feminine
sisters, (who include her would-be lover's wife; Mary refuses to betray the woman by becoming
Hemming's mistress), and so Mary is ultimately left to live a life devoid of romantic love once she
decides to forgo Hemming's offer. In Galia Ofek's view, “Dixon's fiction tends to present princes as
eminently eligible, if disappointing and unreliable. Love is possible and socially sanctioned, but
presented as an unattractive option.” (Ofek, p. 27). While I largely agree with Ofek's estimation of the
characterization of the male here, particularly as it applies to Vincent Hemming, who, in casting Mary
aside to marry the daughter of his professional superior so that he may climb the political ladder,
proves himself to be perfidious and opportunistic; wholly unlike the “prince” that proposed to rescue
Mary from a life of solitude and discomfort. I would argue that it is marriage, and not love, that is seen
as the undesirable element. Perry Jackson, Mary's artist friend and a supporter of her art, offers her a
life of security and affection, and though to accept him would allow for a respite from her solitary
existence and an ease of her burdens, Mary will not commit herself to a man she does not love, even
though he is honourable, and solid of character, because even in her heartache, she still believes herself
to be in love with Hemming, though she is disenchanted with him as a man:
“He was weak, vacillating; his phrases were absurd. His ambitions, after all, were but vulgar
ones, and he had not the will-power to carry out even his most cherished plans. He was all that,
and yet he was the only man in the world that she loved. The only man in the world, now, who
desired her as a woman. And yet she must walk on, get as far away from him as possible.”
(Dixon, p. 185-186).
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Ofek's assertion that “ New Woman fiction is generally not preoccupied with transgressive or forbidden
desires as much as with the failure of conventional romance” (Ofek, p. 27) does, however, ring true in
the narrative of Mary Erle. Mary eschews a life with the man she loves in favour of maintaining her
identity as a principled, independent woman and professional writer, at the expense of her personal
happiness, and willfully proceeds towards toward a life lived in a continued state of alienation from the
traditional mainstream of Victorian society. The result of Mary's choice to live and work as a single
woman is an existence marred by loneliness and isolation from the world inhabited by those who have
chosen to follow the traditional path of living within the confines of a married life.
In her examination of the “Bachelor Girl” figure under the broader umbrella definition of the
New Woman, with respect to her singleness and its relationship to both her sexuality and sense of
belonging, Emma Liggins discusses the implications of the New Woman's choice to remain unmarried.
In many ways, Mary fits into this category, in following with Liggins' assertion that “the labelling of
bachelor girls...indicated the new associations of singleness with Bohemianism, professional work,
access to higher education, ladies' clubs and new living spaces for women in the city.” (Liggins, p.99).
In the following chapters I will discuss some ideas about the ways in which the seemingly positive
aspects of the life of the Bachelor Girl apply to New Woman Mary, and her Modernist counterpart
Rachel, with specific attention to how work, education (and other artistic pursuits), and space
contribute to the characterization of each as an alienated figure. While I do agree with Liggins that
Mary most aptly fills the criteria of the label of “Bachelor Girl”, as she maintains about herself many
aspects of the bachelor girl persona, the way in which she does not neatly fit into the mold is with
respect to the way in which she expresses herself as a sexual being; or rather, how she is unable to
realize herself in this role. Liggins maintains that “to recast the old maid as a fun-loving bachelor girl
was to bestow an alternative more transgressive identity to the spinster, thought the public persona of
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the bachelor girl was also negatively associated with extra-marital sexuality and unsexing...Bachelor
girls were threatening for being both unloveable and overly sexual.” (Liggins, p. 102-103). Mary's
morality and commitment to the New Woman concept of being part of a protective sisterhood of
women, compels her to shy away from expressing her sexual desire towards Hemming, and thus
precludes the application of this component of Liggins' definition.
In response to Hemming's offer of eloping together to Paris, Mary refuses him, citing her
aversion to causing harm to another woman, even at the expense of her chance at romantic fulfilment: “
It isn't that I don't love you. I have always loved you---but it's the other woman—your wife. I can't, I
won't, injure another woman.” (Dixon, p. 184). Mary's rejection of Hemming on account of her loyalty
to his wife as a fellow female, however, serves to further estrange her from the possibility of love and
connection, and her conviction to New Woman ideology thus prevents her from obtaining happiness
with the object of her affection. I will return to the concept of female loyalty in Chapter 2, which will
examine the relationships between the women in both novels by Dixon and Woof. The associations
between the female characters in each of the novels exist as largely parallel elements of the two texts.
The portrayal of the relationships each protagonist has with the females in her life emphasizes the
theme of sisterhood as introduced by the New Woman ideology, a motif illustrated most strongly in the
narrative of Mary Erle.
Adrienne Gavin and Carolyn de la L. Oulton's critique on Liggins' assessment of the Bachelor
Girl is quite accurate in its claim that while the the positive aspects of the single lifestyle of the New
Woman are highlighted by such a characterization, “at the same time, Liggins' shows, this independent
single life for women was sometimes linked with disillusionment, financial strain, or declining health.”
(Gavin & de la L. Oulton, p. 9). Dixon's Mary Erle represents both sides of the Bachelor Girl figure,
but particular attention is brought the negative aspects of her life as a single woman insofar as the
disenchantment with her situation causes her to eventually become completely alienated from the
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mainstream of traditional Victorian “pure” womanhood. By at first reluctantly, but later willingly,
stepping away from the norms of the society in which she has been raised, in order to maintain an
independent life that is likewise true to her ideals, Mary becomes separated from love and resigns
herself to a life virtually devoid of connection.
The theme of interpersonal connection through love and marriage is likewise present as
principal element of Virginia Woolf's narrative about Rachel Vinrace. Rachel's opposition to the threat
against her autonomy, however, is much less emphatic than is Mary's, as Woolf's protagonist believes,
though rather in error, that she may have love without sacrificing her independence of thought, and the
possibilities of learning and artistic exploration. The extension of the idea of the morphing of the
“marriage question” into the “marriage problem” is evident in the progression of the approach to the
idea of marriage from the New Woman on to the Modernist novel. Dixon's narrative addresses the idea
of the marriage question and the necessity of making a choice between marriage and personal agency
and freedom, while Woolf deals with the idea that marriage is not the only solution to happiness
through the story of the artistically minded Rachel, who seems almost less free in her thinking than
does New Woman Mary, but who likewise attempts to emancipate herself from the confines of
traditional womanhood, as, like Mary, she is compelled to follow a path towards fulfilling her artistic
ambition and aspirations outside marriage. Rachel attempts to achieve happiness with the man she
loves, and though she nearly succeeds in obtaining a life that includes marriage without sacrificing the
commitment to her art and independence of thought that make up her person, this ultimately proves
impossible, as Rachel dies in the pursuit of this elusive ideal.
Rachel Vinrace's alienation, like Mary's, stems from the ways in which her character does not
conform to the mold of what a woman should be within the scope of the idealized Victorian tradition.
Rachel's resistance to, and rebellion against, conventionality is conveyed in substantially quieter and in
somewhat more abstract terms than is Mary's, though the protagonist of the Modernist novel shares
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many marked similarities to the New Woman figure of Mary, particularly with respect to her staunch
independence and aversion to relinquishing her personal freedom in exchange for the satisfaction of the
security of marriage, though she later comes to desire the love of a man who sees her as is equal. Like
Mary, Rachel is not in control of her destiny at the beginning of The Voyage Out, as her father makes
the determination that his daughter is indeed in need of guidance from her aunt, Helen, who offers to
instruct her in the ways of a proper woman in the tradition of the expectations of Victorian society. In
accepting Helen's offer to educate Rachel about womanhood, Willougby Vinrace responds with a
thinly-veiled critique of his daughter's independent nature, while simultaneously revealing the benefit it
would have to his political aspirations if Rachel were to act in accordance with the traditional feminine
role:
“ “I want to bring her up as her mother would have wished. I don't hold with these modern
views—any more than you do, eh? She's a nice quiet girl, devoted to her music—a little less of
that would do no harm ... I should want Rachel to take more part in things...I'm beginning to
realise ... that all this is tending to Parliament, Helen...In that case, of course, I should want
Rachel to be able to take more part in things. A certain amount of entertaining would be
necessary ... In all these ways, Rachel could be of great help to me. So ... I should be very
glad ... if you could see your way to helping my girl, bringing her out—she's a little shy now-making a woman of her, the kind of woman her mother would have liked her to be” ”
(Woolf, 1915, p. 214).
Another similarity to Mary Erle's story, the fact that Mary's father's death is the catalyst for her growth
into a New Woman, it is Rachel's father who is the determining force by which Rachel is thrust into
self-discovery. As Rachel develops into a more mature version of herself, however, she clings less
furiously to her autonomy than does her New Woman predecessor. The issues surrounding her desire
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for, and attempt to attain, independence on her own terms--even within the borders of marriage--are
much the same as the ones Mary faces, and Rachel ultimately reaches an even more tragic conclusion
than does Mary. For Rachel, it is an ending that is perhaps symbolic of the consequences of rebelling
against the force of societal expectation for women as determined by late-Victorian society (that
extended into the Edwardian era of the very early Modernist novel by Woolf), and more likely a
representation of the loss of Rachel's selfhood as she exchanges her art for a married life.
Rachel is viewed as an oddly naive young woman, particularly through the eyes of her mentor
in feminine propriety, her aunt Helen. Rachel's extreme naivete is owed to her lack of formal
education, and she presents herself in the absence of mannerly polish or awareness of social
convention, most notably in her relations with and reactions to men, particularly Richard Dalloway
(Woolf, 1915, p. 194-199). The fact that she seems to exist within a self-contained sphere where she is
satisfied to read at her leisure and to pursue her love of playing the piano serves to amplify the
portrayal of Rachel as a strange, unconventional creature. Prior to falling in love with Terence Hewet,
it simply does not occur to Rachel that marriage is the avenue by which she will find satisfaction in her
life. In a conversation with Clarissa Dalloway (Woolf, p.191-192), Rachel is quite direct in her
declaration that she does not intend to marry, and that she does not understand why people choose to do
so, though the young woman does acknowledge that she is lonely and unsure of what it is she is
looking for to assuage the feeling. The opinion Rachel holds of marriage early on in The Voyage Out
could be seen ostensibly as owing to the sheltered life lived by the protagonist up to that point, and the
naivete she possesses as a result of her lack of exposure to life outside of her father's ship, it also serves
as a commentary on and continuation of the Marriage Question that The Story of a Modern Woman
addresses in its characterization of Mary, who must choose between either marriage or autonomy, and
subsequently is framed by Woolf in The Voyage Out as the Marriage Problem in the representation of
Rachel,who comes to believe she can have marriage and personal agency.
Yao 19
The link between the concerns of the subject of marriage in Dixon's New Woman novel and
Woolf's early Modernist work signals a pivotal linkage and continuation of themes between the two
literary traditions. Jane Eldridge Miller remarks that “What had initially been designated the Marriage
Question in the 1890s , came to be perceived during the Edwardian era as the Marriage Problem. The
majority of Edwardian women did expect and desire to marry, but they were doing so later in life and
with more personal volition than women in the nineteenth century...for many, the marriage problem
was that marriage could no longer be viewed as a paradigm of harmony and happiness, or even as a
necessary component of a fulfilled life.” (Miller, p. 40-41). I find this assessment particularly
applicable to the comparison of The Story of a Modern Woman and The Voyage Out. It is important to
note that Woolf's novel was written on the cusp of the Edwardian literary era and that of early
Modernism, but I believe The Voyage Out out to be classified as a Modernist text, due in large part to
the focus on the inner life and perspective of protagonist Rachel (which is much more clearly evident
towards the end of the text), though the work is clearly influenced by the concerns of Edwardian
literature that also owes much consideration to the Victorian period.
The reference to the work of Jane Austen and Mrs. Dalloway’s gift to Rachel Austen's book
Persuasion is symbolic of the Victorian convention of the Marriage Plot; Rachel's aversion to such
ideas and her professed dislike of Austen's work is illustrative of the polarity of the stance of the two
women on the Marriage Plot versus the Marriage Problem. The exchange between Clarissa and Rachel
about Austen further strengthens the representation of Rachel as a kind of modern New Woman. The
protagonist of the Modernist novel is rallying against the same conventions as did her predecessor
Mary, in an attempt to assert her own views, though they may be unpopular, and mark her as an
outsider from the “polite” patriarchal society, still steeped in Victorian traditionalism, that does not
share or endorse her opinion on the value, or lack thereof, of marriage:
Yao 20
“ “Jane Austen? I don't like Jane Austen,” said Rachel.
“You monster!” Clarissa exclaimed. “I can only just forgive you. Tell me why?”
“She's so—so—well, so like a tight plait,” Rachel floundered.
“Ah—I see what you mean. But I don't agree. And you won't when you're older.” ”
( Woolf, p, 190)
The “tight plait” with which Rachel compares Austen seems to be a comment on the restrictiveness of
mainstream Victorian society's mores regarding marriage, with which the artistically minded
protagonist Rachel is uncomfortable. Clarissa is in disbelief at Rachel's rejection of Austen's literature,
which stands as a metonymy for marriage as the ultimate goal of a Victorian woman's happiness. The
older woman's assurance to Rachel that the younger woman will better appreciate Austen's message
when she is older (and likely married), highlights the difference between the antiquated views of
traditional society and that of the modern woman who has much more in common with the radical New
Woman who values independence in all areas of her life. Up until she becomes engaged to Terence He
wet, Rachel, like Mary, is very much a solitary figure in the mold of Dixon's Bachelor Girl Mary. In
conversation with Rachel about marriage and Clarissa assures her that the right man will inspire a
desire in the younger woman to marry, and that such a happy union as the Dalloway’s is the solution to
the younger woman's loneliness, something that Rachel seems to find an impossibly unrealistic
proposition.
Clarissa states to Rachel that the reason that her husband brings her so much happiness as a wife
is because he is “a man and a woman as well...What one wants in the person one lives with is that they
should keep one at one's best” (Woolf, p. 192). Clarissa's description of what she sees as the ideal
husband calls to mind the New Man figure of Dixon's New Woman novel, Perry Jackson, who
functions as a male complement to New Woman Mary; he offers marriage in the spirit of love,
Yao 21
partnership, and support rather than with the expectation of ownership and obedience. Mrs. Dalloway
believes her husband Richard to be such a man, of love and of loyalty, but his untrustworthy nature,
echoing that of Mary' Erle's suitor Hemming, reveals itself in his inappropriate behaviour toward
Rachel, when during a moment alone with her, the married man kisses the young girl. (p. 205). Rachel
later falls in love with fellow traveler Terence Hewet, who, in many aspects, fulfills the role of the New
Man figure. The presence of the parallel figures of Hemming and Dalloway, and Jackson and Hewet in
the representations of the male in the New Woman text and the Modernist novel emphasize the notion
of a continuation of the discussion of gender issues and the limited options of women with respect to
potential partnerships.
When Terence realizes and professes his love for Rachel, she believes that he speaks in the
spirit of the New Man who is sincere in his love and pure in his intention to make her his wife without
asking for her to give up herself in return:
“ “ I'm going to tell you what I ought to have told you before in the first place, I've never been
in love with other women, but I've had other women. Then I've great faults...You've got to
know the worst of me...” “Oh our faults!” she cried. “What do they matter?”... “Oh you're free,
Rachel. To you, time will make no difference, or marriage, or--” ... “And the loneliness!” he
continued. A vision of walking with her through the streets of London came before his eyes.
“We will go for walks together,” he said. The simplicity of this idea relieved them, and for the
first time they laughed.”
(Woolf, p. 379).
The depiction of Rachel's romantic situation is, at the point of Hewet's proposal, a positive
development that signals possibility of her future happiness and a potential end to her loneliness and
perpetual state of alienation from others. The protagonist's option here would seem to demonstrate
Yao 22
progress in light of the idea that Rachel, unlike Mary, has the choice to marry a man that will live as her
partner and not as someone who desires to make her his “little girl” as Hemming does with Mary
(Dixon, p. 183); Rachel does not think she will have to choose between love and her ideals or
aspirations, and she is offered the chance to marry a man who will accept her as she is. In the end,
however, Rachel is revealed to be a “ doomed, melodramatic heroine” who dies before she can achieve
the life of a happily married, artistically minded, unconventional woman. As I will discuss later in
chapter 2, Terence Hewet's character is later exposed as one of traditional Victorian masculinity.
Marriage, and happiness outside of it as a woman of independent thought and artistic pursuit, are thus
still as mutually exclusive concepts for Rachel Vinrace as they are for Mary Erle.
Suzette Henke's critique of Christine Froula's work on Virginia Woolf's novel and the
assessment Henke makes of the relationship between Rachel and Hewet as a commentary on gender
roles and social convention is one I am inclined to agree with strongly in its estimation of how the
strength of social pressures surrounding gender roles and expectations did not substantially diminish as
a concern from the time of the New Woman novel to that of Modernism. Gender conflict contributes to
Rachel's position as an ultimate outsider, who is doomed to meet an untimely end rather than be able to
realize a life that includes both marriage and agency:
“The last Victorian bastion to collapse in The Voyage Out is the institution of marriage. Rachel
Vinrace and Terence Hewet are both fiercely independent spirits, jealous of their privacy and
contemptuous of conventional wedlock. In the jungles of South America they begin to construct
an egalitarian relationship and momentarily forge an amorous affiliation exempt form the
exigencies of the conjugal masquerade. This brief truce in the ongoing battle of the sexes,
however, offers little more than a transient solution to the war between men and women
generated by Edwardian convention. Confronted with the threat of subaltern status dictated by
Yao 23
connubial scripts of dependence and inauthenticity, Woolf's heroine rebels agains the specter
(sic) of traditional wedlock by hysterically enacting the tragic fate of a doomed, melodramatic,
heroine.”
(Henke, p. 402).
The possibility of a life that includes love that does not necessitate abandoning the sense of herself that
she is only just beginning to discover, that which was completely unavailable to Mary, is dangled in
front of Rachel just out of her reach—the protagonist's death then signifies that the dream of the New
Woman continues to prove wholly elusive for the Modernist heroine.
The Story of a Modern Woman and The Voyage Out both reflect on the expectation of marriage
for young women, and the alienation that plagues the protagonist who does not conform to a
conventional version of Victorian femininity. Mary and Rachel each experience some level of societal
ostracism as a result of their view that marriage is either not desirable or necessary. By addressing the
Marriage Question and its subsequent incarnation as the Marriage Problem, Dixon and Woolf each
convey the separateness from societal norms with which each respective protagonist lives. Mary and
Rachel both have a commitment to, and passion for, pursuits apart of marriage and motherhood that
define their characters, and this sets them apart the idealized view of a proper woman, and thus
alienates them from society as defined by Victorian convention. The most important bonds that both
Mary and Rachel develop as a result of their separateness, are not with any male counterpart or
romantic partner, but with the women in their lives. In both stories, the protagonists are met with some
opposition by other women who do not relate to neither Mary nor Rachel's version of womanhood,
however, the women also find support and encouragement from the “sisters” that help and guide them
through womanhood and their personal journey towards the discovery of themselves, and the
realization of their respective artistic endeavours as journalist and musician.
Yao 24
CHAPTER 2: FINANCIAL, INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC INDEPENDENCE: The
Fundamental Role of Female Relationships
Mary and Rachel each maintain an independence of thought through their professional and
artistic endeavours and strive to achieve life satisfaction by way of such pursuits, rather than relying on
the Victorian concept of womanhood with marriage and maternity at the centre of the feminine life.
Such resistance to societal convention was considered unbecoming of the ideal woman, the so-called
“angel in the house” (Miller, p.14), who was expected to live to be a wife and mother whose sole duties
were to be a supporter of her husband's endeavours rather than her own and to manage the domestic
sphere. In attempting to forge a path through life that would allow them personal satisfaction and the
ability to define the trajectory of their own lives, to see the realization of their own enjoyment through
artistic pursuits and professional and financial autonomy, Rachel and Mary are connected as women
who are isolated and judged as a result of their individualism and refusal to relinquish the aspects of
their lives that are at the core of who each woman is, the engagement with writing and music, that
fulfills each Mary and Rachel, and allows them to express themselves artistically as independent spirits.
Dixon and Woolf each highlight the importance of reading, writing, and the engagement with the arts to
the lives of their protagonists. Mary and Rachel both exist outside of the realm of traditional
womanhood by virtue of such interests that comprise a vital component of each woman's being.
The New Man figure of Perry Jackson is unique in his role of a male who supports, rather than
devalues, the efforts and individualism of New Woman Mary. Jackson is the singular male character in
either of the novels who neither tries to take a piece of a female for himself, nor attempts to oversee the
woman's education in the ways of either life or art. The characterization of Hewet for the majority of
the narrative of The Voyage Out lends itself to the image of the New Man type compliment to
Yao 25
artistically inclined Rachel. As I will discuss in greater detail in chapter three, after Hewet and Rachel
become engaged, makes his traditionally masculine character known.
For the most part, Mary and Rachel must rely on the support of the other women in their lives
to help them along in achieving the life they desire for themselves. The portrayal of the other female
characters such as Alison Ives and background figure Lady Blaythewaite in Dixon's text, and Helen
Ambrose and Evelyn Murgatroyd in Woolf's novel, and interactions and associations Mary and Rachel
have with them, are pivotal in furthering the portrayal of the protagonists as women who are looking to
establish a place in the world and maintain an identity that will ease their sense of alienation within a
society that does not appreciate them as thoughtful, artistic, and independent women. Dixon and Woolf
both emphasize through the depiction of these relationships, and the notion of female solidarity and
“sisterhood”, that it is only other women who can truly understand the struggle of what Mary and
Rachel endure in their quiet revolutions against the socially constructed patriarchy that seeks to quash
their autonomy, and the artistic expression that is each woman's form of personal agency that comes at
the cost of a sense of belonging in society. Mary, as a journalist who dreams of life as an artist, and
Rachel, who lacks a rigorous formal education but relishes the world of books and feels most at home
when at her piano, each learn and grow into themselves as a result of the knowledge and support
offered by the women in their lives, and the stereotypes about women that the supporting characters
embody serve to better illuminate the aspects of difference in both Mary and Rachel that result in their
alienation.
In The Story of a Modern Woman, protagonist Mary Erle's relationship with Alison Ives is
crucial to the creation of the portrait of the multi-faceted, artistic and independent New Woman in the
novel. Alison functions both as Mary's closest friend and greatest advocate of Mary's professional
aspirations and artistic dreams, but also as a New Woman figure even more intense in her ideals than is
Mary; under Alison's influence Dixon's protagonist is inspired to maintain her commitment to the
Yao 26
pursuit of a life of independent thinking and action while fostering the growth and protection of other
women who belong to the larger community of females who suffer oppression at the hands of Victorian
patriarchy. Alison is much sought-after by the men of her upper-middle class social circle, yet in
fashion typical of the New Woman, she eschews a life of romance to assume a role of protector and
educator of women less fortunate than herself in terms of social status, financial security, and
education. She volunteers at a hospital ward where she attempts to ease the suffering of the ill and
downtrodden women, and takes on the task of rescuing a young girl, Evelina, from a fate of servitude
that includes sexual exploitation at the hands of the married master of the house. While it could be
seen that the multitude of single woman drawn to each other (and away from men) for support might
imply a sexual component to their close-knit relationships, Ann Heilmann notes that “new woman
writers were not deliberately ambiguous about the female communities they were describing. Rather
than choosing a different outlet for their sexuality, their protagonists fight shy of sex altogether. Only
as spiritually serene, invincible celibates are they able to put all their energies into the all-important
task of improving the fate of women, and thus save humankind.” (Heilmann, p. 158).
Alison lives firm in her commitment to New Womanism and encourages Mary to follow her
example. Upon hearing that Mary's interest lies in the study of art, Alison, though she first playfully
chides her friend for her choice of pursuit, she goes on to encourage her friend in her interest in the
study of art and independent living, before telling Mary of her own endeavour to devote herself to the
disadvantaged, poor women among whom she has chosen to live in her desire to help: “ “Never mind,
my dear girl. You must work at something. Try the British Art School...“I don't see why,” said Alison
thoughtfully, “you shouldn't take a flat in the same building with me. Of course there are little
drawbacks. The ladies use a limited, if somewhat virulent, vocabulary...But one gets accustomed to
that.” (Dixon, p. 73). Her bohemian living conditions are yet another contribution to Alison's
“Bachelor Girl” status, the label that under her friend's influence, Mary later comes to wear proudly,
Yao 27
though she does so as a desolately alienated figure. Alison's actions in the undertaking of Evelina's
development from a girl at the mercy of a man into a woman of sense is indicative of her belief in the
importance of women helping one another into the best situation possible. Dixon's words in Alison's
declaration describing Evelina and the young girl's unfortunate situation serves a two-fold purpose that
makes clear both the view of men as abuse oppressors, and the responsibility of the New Woman in
helping her fellow member of the sisterhood of all females:
“Her master was pleased to make love to her when his wife and the eight children had gone for
the day to Southend; Evelina ran out of the house, leaving her box behind, and never dared to
go back. My dear, these London idyls are not pretty. She is, however, beginning to show a faint
sense of the ridiculous. I believe I shall make a sensible person of Evelina.”
(Dixon, p. 75).
Mary bears witness to all of Alison's deeds, both to the benefit of Evelina and to the women Alison
comforts in the hospital ward. As the story moves on and Mary herself begins to more vividly embody
the New Woman role, the protagonist develops great admiration and respect for her friend's point of
view regarding the protection and support of other women. Toward the end of the novel, as Alison lies
on her deathbed, the sick girl implores Mary to live according to the foundational concept of the New
Woman ideology that views women as sisters. Alison reminds Mary that all women fight together in a
struggle against the patriarchal society in which they live, and as such, women must do all they can to
help one another as Alison has done for all the women she has known, including Mary herself. Alison
begs that Mary, upon the bond of womanhood, must never injure another woman. It is a lesson that
Mary absorbs, and upon the imminent death of her friend and role model, agrees with emphatically:
Yao 28
“Promise me that you will never, never do anything to hurt another woman,” said the sick girl...
“ I don't suppose for an instant you ever would. But there comes a time in our lives when we
can do great deal of good, or an incalculable amount of harm. If women only used their power
the right way! If we were only united we could lead the world. But we're not...”... “ Yes, said
Mary, “our time is dawning—at last. All we modern women are going to help each other, not to
hinder. And there's a great deal to do!”
(Dixon, p. 164).
Mary further proves how truly she takes Alison's lesson to heart when the protagonist affirms her
loyalty to other women, and her devotion to the principle of independence as a New Woman, by
refusing Hemming's offer to run away with him. Though Mary is tempted by Hemming's offer of
becoming his mistress, she rejects him after realizing that she must refuse him in favour of honouring
her commitment to other women who suffer under pressure of the patriarchal society. Mary believes by
this point that women are sisters she must take the responsibility to help, as Alison has taught her by
example. The exclamation Mary makes in response to Hemming, which I briefly discussed in chapter
one, applies here as a crystallization of Mary's full conversion into a New Woman:
“I have always loved you---but it's the other woman---your wife. I can't I won't, injure another
woman. Think how she would suffer! Oh, the torture of women's lives—the helplessness, the
impotence, the emptiness! ...All we modern women mean to help each other now. We have a
bad enough time as it is...surely we needn't make it worse by our own deliberate acts!”
(Dixon, p. 184).
Mary does not leave with Hemming to be his “little girl” for she knows her suitor's offer of running
Yao 29
away with him to “dare to be (her)self” (Dixon, p.183) would rob her of all the agency she has thus far
worked to achieve. Mary thus solidifies her position as an independent woman in the spirit of the New
Woman. The cost of Mary's freedom from male domination, (in favour of maintaining her sense of self
while staying true to her promise to avoid causing injury to any other woman) is her one connection to
love in the world.
The lack of connection is the most prominent feature of Mary's solitary life as a New Woman
with artistic aspirations, but other ramifications of the choice to live independently rather than adhere to
contemporary Victorian conventions of femininity are evident in some of the characterizations of
female stereotypes in Dixon's novel, such as that the ostracism faced by the divorcee Lady
Blaythewaite.
Lady Blaythewaite is a character who is mentioned often but not well-known to Mary; the
former exists in the background of Dixon's novel, but is significant as a representation of the scandal
and derision that women are subjected to once they make the choice to dismiss acceptable Victorian
standards of feminine behaviour and emancipate themselves from the bonds of Victorian traditionalism.
Lady Blaythewaite is a woman of seemingly high social and financial standing who is embroiled in a
divorce scandal and is mercilessly judged for this fact by other members of her circle, however
peripheral (Dixon, p. 138-139). Her story is a reminder to Mary (and to readers of Dixon's novel) of the
issues contributing to discontent and hostility against freedoms for women as represented by the New
Woman, and topics of the debate surrounding feminist issues during the late-Victorian era of New
Woman writing.
Ann Helimann and Valerie Sanders discuss concepts of femininity and the issues that
challenged the feminine ideal as it was presented in the Victorian mainstream. According to Heilmann
and Sanders, “what unites feminist and anti-feminist writing of the Victorian period is its central
concern with questions of femininity” (Heilmann & Sanders, 2006, p.290) while the central issues of
Yao 30
social debate that appeared in the literature of the years between 1850 and 1895 “included opposition to
women's higher education, a relaxing of divorce laws, the opening up of new training and career
opportunities for women, and harder than any of these to chart, a kind of emotional, nostalgic
preference for old-fashioned English domestic values unthreatened by highly-strung discontent”
(Heilmann & Sanders, p. 289-290). This view on the upset to the Victorian mainstream as a response to
the challenge to conventional feminine roles and expectations is reflected in the inclusion of Lady
Blaythewaite's story, as the lady is an incarnation of the negative side of the increase in freedoms for
women, in her case, the emancipation from a man by way of divorce. Lady Blaythewaite's divorce
proceedings that detail the circumstances of her private life inspire societal judgement and are used as a
source of entertainment and fodder for gossip (Dixon, p. 138). That Lady Blaythewaite is to become a
single woman is a topic that stands at the height of scandalous gossip for the society who sees fit to
judge her. Steve Farmer remarks on the treatment of Lady Blaythewaite as a “shadowy character”
supports the notion that the divorcee is vilified and humiliated for daring to engage in behaviour
unbecoming of a proper Victorian woman: “Suffering under the harsh glare of a society eager to tear at
her for any perceived marital indiscretions, she is sentenced by each day's headlines. The messy trial
finally becomes a powerful metaphor for the rottenness of a system that makes public a woman's
private pain” (Farmer, p. 34). The description of Lady Blaythewaite's situation help to make Mary,
and Dixon's readers, keenly aware of the societal pressures, disapproval, and subsequent isolation that
the protagonist stands to face by making the choice to live within the ideology of the New Woman.
Armed with this awareness, Mary nonetheless perseveres along her professional and lifestyle path in
the face of the challenge and judgement by the traditionally patriarchal, and unforgiving, society of the
late-Victorian era.
Facing societal scrutiny and judgement for her independent professional life as Lady
Blaythewaite does in her private one, it is under the protection of the female community, and
Yao 31
encouragement from New Woman Alison, that Mary develops herself as a writer and attains a sense of
empowerment due to the independence it affords her. The satisfaction Mary derives from life, living
as a single woman outside of the bounds of traditional society, is due in large part to the achievement of
becoming financially independent as a result of her work as a journalist: “ This was a beginning! Her
pocket, in which lay the cheque for two pounds two shillings, had suddenly acquired a special
importance. She had acquired that money herself, it was the output of her brain...she could make thirtysix pounds a year. The girl was very proud of those thirty-six pounds. ” (Dixon, p. 112-116).
Mary's professional and creative life provides her with a level of autonomy and a sense of
personal pride, and a burgeoning devotion to the feminine sisterhood. The price of Mary's
independence is self-sufficiency in exchange for a future life lived in a state of loneliness and fuelled
by her creative work. The evidence of this trade-off comes when Mary symbolically burns her photo of
Vincent, along with all the letters he has sent her, and subsequently sets about her writing once the
reminders of him are gone:
“So she gathered up all his letters, even the last one ... and laid them under the photograph. Ah!
Now he burned ... Another match. This time it was for good ... Soon there was only a handful of
blackened paper ... Well, it was like that. ... the love of letters was a blaze, a whiff, a vain,
fleeting thing ... And when the white daylight came creeping in at the window, Mary took up her
pen and began to work.”
(Dixon, p. 190-191).
The positive components that Mary's emancipation from traditional femininity in favour of a New
Woman role, then, come at the cost of interpersonal connectedness and romantic love, but she commits
to this life in the spirit of the example set for her by the independent women around her.
In The Voyage Out, protagonist Rachel is an artist figure who devotes her time to reading and
Yao 32
developing her talent as a pianist. At the outset of the novel, Rachel's sole fulfillment seems to come
from her engagement with books and music, though as she admits to Mrs. Dalloway in the conversation
discussed in the first chapter of this paper, the joy she gains from her solitary involvement in the arts
cannot quell her desire for human connection (Woolf, p. 192). Rachel is a solitary musical artist figure
rather than a woman of society who interacts with others with ease: the difficulty of attempting to
inhabit both roles echoes the negative ramifications of adhering to the tenets of independence and
intellectualism of the New Woman ideology. The isolation and marginalization that Mary experiences
in The Story of a Modern Woman as a result of her commitment to these pursuits similarly affects
Woolf's protagonist Rachel as she struggles to maintain her identity as a woman of music and books
while longing to develop relationships with others.
Rachel's fulfilment though music and books comes at the cost of emotional turmoil and
alienation from those around her, including her own father, who seems to view her as an isolated and
sad figure, as I previously discussed in chapter one of this paper, Rachel's own claim of loneliness, in
the conversation between Woolf's protagonist and Mrs. Dalloway, is a clear illustration of the young
lady's alienation and awareness that she is without connection. Like Dixon's protagonist Mary, Rachel
looks to other females for inspiration on her journey towards personal growth. Rachel wishes to live as
an independent woman who aims to attain a sense of purpose from life as an artist, while still hoping
for relief from her alienation from others. Rachel's relationship with her aunt Helen and Rachel's
interaction with fellow passenger Evelyn M. have the most profound influence on the protagonist's
thinking and development of a sense of self as she strives to discover a life for herself that will allow
her to maintain her commitment to her art while achieving the connectedness that eludes her. In my
view, Helen and Evelyn M. are presented to Rachel as manifestations of the polarizing definitions of
female roles, and opinions about them that Dixon discusses in her New Woman novel, that carried over
from mainstream Victorianism into early Modernism. Helen functions as the closest representation in
Yao 33
Woolf's novel of the predominant feminine ideal of the Victorian era, the “angel in the house”.
Conversely, the character of Evelyn M. stands as the embodiment of the positive side of New
Womanism and its continuation into the era of early Modernism in which Woolf is writing.
After her encounter with Richard Dalloway, during which the married older man kisses her,
Rachel turns to her aunt Helen for guidance on how to deal with the confusion over her feelings about
the man, and what, if anything, his advances toward her meant. (Woolf, 1915, p. 208-210). Helen is
incredulous at the extent of Rachel's naivete about men and other people in general: “Helen was
surprised to see how genuine both shock and problem were, but she could think of no way of easing the
difficulty except by going on talking. She wanted to make her niece talk, and so to understand why this
rather dull, kindly, plausible politician had made so deep an impression on her, for surely at the age of
twenty-four this was not natural.” (Woolf, 1915, p. 210). Helen then decides that she will take it upon
herself to “show her niece, if it were possible, how to live, or as she put it, how to be a reasonable
person.” (Woolf, 1915, p. 211). Undertaking the role of mentor for Rachel during the younger woman's
exposure to polite society outside the confines of the ship upon which Rachel has spent a large portion
of her youth, Helen has seems to have the pure intention of helping Rachel realize a life of her own and
aid her in experiencing what the outside world has to offer. Rachel's enthusiasm at the prospect of selfdiscovery and of a life determined by her independent mind strengthens the image of her character as
being one in the New Woman mould, while Helen's position as her guide echoes the concept found in
Dixon's novel of the importance of a female mentor who encourages the protagonist to attain a sense of
independence and agency:
“ “So now you can go ahead and be a person of your own account” ...
The vision of her own personality, of herself as a real everlasting thing, different from anything
else, unmergeable, like the sea or the wind, flashed into Rachel's mind, and she became
profoundly excited at the thought of living ...“I can be m-m-myself,” she stammered, “In
Yao 34
spite of you, in spite of the Dalloways, and Mr. Pepper, and father, and my aunts, in spite of
these?”
“In spite of them all,” said Helen gravely.”
(Woolf, 1915, p. 212).
Despite the fact that Helen is of a different generation, Rachel feels a kinship with the older
woman, who she comes to view as a friend and confidant, after their conversation about Dalloway, and
their friendship and affection for one another grows over the course of the voyage and landing in Santa
Maria. Rachel and Helen's relationship is less one of an aunt and niece and more a connection based
on the bond of friendship and the appreciation they have for each other as women, as the conclusion to
their first intimate conversation indicates: “ “After all Rachel...it's silly to pretend that because there's
twenty years between us we therefore can't talk to each other like human beings.” “No; because we like
each other,” said Rachel. ... “Yes,” Mrs. Ambrose agreed. That fact, together with other facts, had been
made clear by their twenty minutes talk” (Woolf, 1915, p. 212). Helen serves as a source of support
and encouragement for Rachel as she moves towards a future where happiness that includes both a
husband and her life's passion of the piano is possible. Conversely, Rachel's fiance Terence Hewet,
though he loves her and wishes to make her his wife, does not consider the value of her artistic talent or
encourage her independence of thought, both of which are predominant traits that form Rachel as a
person. To this point, I strongly agree with the assessment that Tone Sundt Urstad makes regarding
Hewet, Helen, and the relationships between the three:
“Although Hewet intends "to allow Rachel to be a fool if she wants to" (292, my italics), he
remains a rather conventional man. To him it is obvious that Rachel and he must go to Mrs.
Thombury's tea party, although she herself resists the idea and is backed up by Helen (she ends
Yao 35
up going [313]). Hewet is certainly well meaning and clearly in love with Rachel, but his plans
for the future are fairly standard: two children (one girl, one boy) etc. (299). He belittles her
piano playing in a selfish way ("I've no objection to nice simple tunes—indeed, I find them very
helpful to my literary composition, but that kind of thing..." [297]). Soon the lovers are
interfering in each other's friendships (Hewet more so; there is already a competition on foot
between him and Helen which will prove fatal once Rachel has fallen ill and Hewet refuses to
recognize how serious this is [316]). Hewet says: "Oh, you're free, Rachel. To you, time will
make no difference, or marriage, or—" (285). But in fact he and the others are slowly drawing a
chalk circle around her to keep her from straying”.
(Urstad, 1998, p.187-188).
Urstad's sentiments regarding Hewet, his attitude toward Rachel, and his opposition to Helen's role in
the protagonist's life support the idea that it is Helen, not Hewet, that is the crucial source of support for
Rachel as she moves forward in life. Much like Alison Ives acts as an inspiration who helps embolden
Mary Erle to live an independent life in Dixon's Story of a Modern Woman, while Mary's suitor
Hemming urges her to live with him as his “little girl” (Dixon, p. 183) Helen Ambrose attempts to
propel Woolf's Rachel Vinrace into a life in which the young protagonist can live as she chooses.
The character of Evelyn Murgatroyd, or “Evelyn M.” (as she is referred to throughout the novel
after her initial introduction), is at first a ridiculous figure who subsequently becomes an representation
for Rachel of the New Woman aspirational ideology that appears before the female protagonist in
Woolf's Modernist novel. Evelyn's role in the development of Rachel's awareness of options available
to women and her function as a of progressive thinker in the vein of Dixon's New Woman, even more
so than Helen in her position of Rachel's mentor and confidant, is a clear parallel of the relationship
between Alison Ives and Mary Erle. Evelyn is not considered by any of the other passengers as a
person to be taken seriously. The view that people have of her is clearly illustrated during the
Yao 36
interaction she has with Hewet in which Evelyn laments that she is looked down upon for her seeming
lack of seriousness, and for having many suitors whose proposals she has refused (Woolf, 1915, p.
300). Evelyn later proves to be an example to Rachel about maintaining conviction in the face of
disapproval, or the dissenting view of a society that may otherwise marginalize those who do not
conform to mainstream standards, as is the case with Rachel herself. Evelyn reveals that part of the
reason that she is not well-regarded by others is that she is an illegitimate child, and as such is
committed to helping other women who encounter a lack of acceptance or support, so they need not
experience ridicule and alienation. Evelyn describes her mission to help less fortunate women (who
may have fallen into prostitution as a result of hard times) thusly: “ “My idea is that men and women
ought to join in these matters. We ought to go into Piccadilly and stop one of these poor wretches and
say: “Now look here, I'm no better than you are...and I won't have you doing beastly things, because
we're all the same under our skins, and if you do a beastly thing it does matter to me.” ” (Woolf, 1915,
p. 352). Speaking of her unmarried parents (who presumably would have been the victims of derision
from polite Victorian society for having a child out of wedlock), who inspire her cause, Evelyn
determines:And it's because of them...that I am going to help the other women. They weren't married,
you see; I'm not anybody in particular. I'm not a bit ashamed of it. They loved each other anyhow, and
that's more than most people can say of their parents.” Evelyn speaks frankly to Rachel about matters
of love, relationships, and alludes to her experience, and that of her family, of being judged by society
for failing to conform to expectations of propriety (though, arguably, she Evelyn herself is judging the
women she vows to help). The interaction between the two women, in combination with Evelyn's role
as a helper of, if not exactly an advocate for, marginalized women recalls the relationship between
Alison Ives and her new woman protege, Mary Erle.
The detractors that Evelyn alludes to, members of society who pity, disapprove of, and fail to
accept women who do not conform to the traditional Victorian ideal of femininity, have a clear voice in
Yao 37
Woolf's novel as they do in Dixon's text. The discussion of women by fellow passengers in The Voyage
Out, Mrs. Thornbury and Mrs. Elliot, after landing in Santa Maria and observing one of the women
workers at their accommodation in the South American village, calls to mind the derisive commentary
on divorcee Lady Blaythewaite in Dixon's novel. Mrs. Thornbury is sympathetic and has great
admiration for the single woman who works to support herself, while Mrs. Eliot judges the women
based on her own standards about “what women want”. (Woolf, 1915, p. 238). The conversation about
the woman and feminine roles indicates a slight shift in view on single woman, with Mrs. Thornbury's
comments potentially representative of a relaxation in the strict conception that in order to be accepted,
women must conform to the mainstream Victorian ideal of wife and mother. Mrs. Elliot’s words,
however, recall the disparaging treatment of Lady Blaythewaite in The Story of a Modern Woman, and
highlight the importance of the support network of likeminded females, or at least those who are
willing to recognize the value of other women regardless of their differences.
The concepts of the necessity of support for the improvement of women, and the
encouragement development of their characters and artistic through experience are ideas that permeate
the narratives of The Story of a Modern Woman and are points of focus continued in The Voyage Out.
Virginia Woolf's personal view on these subjects that are of great concern to the life of her protagonist
Rachel Vinrace, were later reflected in the author's musings of 1920: “the fact that women have
improved...shows that they may still improve; for I cannot see why a limit should be set to their
improvement in the nineteenth century rather than in the one hundred and nineteenth. But it is not
education only that is needed. It is that women should have liberty of experience; that they should
differ from men without fear and express their differences openly...that all activity of the mind should
be so encouraged that there will always be in existence a nucleus of women who think, invent, imagine,
and create as freely as men do, and with as little fear of ridicule and condescension.” (Woolf, 1920, p.
71). Together, Rachel, Helen, and Evelyn M. of Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out comprise a sisterhood
Yao 38
of women akin to the one that Ella Hepworth Dixon's New Woman novel espouses, which Dixon
illustrates in the portrayal of the connections between Alison, Mary, Lady Blaythewaite, and the less
fortunate women to whom Alison devotes her life in The Story of a Modern Woman. Each of the
novel's protagonists are not accepted by, and thus alienated from, mainstream society, yet they both
have the encouragement of the women around them that a life lived on their own terms is worth
striving for. The support that Mary and Rachel receive from other females becomes integral to their
personal development and attempts at agency. While the two protagonists may be devalued,
unappreciated, or marginalized in their immediate communities and by the mainstream society who
disagrees with the roles of they choose for themselves, as artists and independent thinkers who wish to
control their own lives, Mary and Rachel gain strength from the words and deeds of other women, and
are propelled forward into self-discovery and growth as a result.
Yao 39
CHAPTER 3: PHYSICAL SPACES: Mary and Rachel's Selfhood, Artistic Development, and
Separation From Society, Represented By Their Creative Spaces
Both Mary and Rachel's identities are strongly tied to their artistic sensibilities, and their
endeavours of writing and playing the piano are vehicles for their independence as well as major
contributing factors in their alienation from the world at large. The private spaces in which both Mary
and Rachel live and create are interior but not “domestic” in the manner of an appropriate place for
women as the term relates to predominant gender norms in Victorian culture of the female as a wife and
mother. Both protagonists retreat to their private spaces to think and engage in their work; the idea of
space, and the distinction between public and private spaces is a representation of the way in which
each Mary and Rachel view and develop themselves as artists, and in doing so gain some sense of
selfhood and personal agency, though separate from engagement, and without approval from
mainstream society.
In a discussion of the establishment in 1889 of a ladies literary dining club that included many
New Woman writers and feminists of the time, Linda Hughes comments that “[W]omen's entry into
public spaces and above all public institutions was still typically controlled, and mediated by men. Any
woman could walk the streets of London if accompanied by a man; walking alone after dark, she risked
being mistaken for a prostitute or lower-class worker denied the agency of an author...the bourgeois
“feminine sphere” was still defined in terms of private spaces” (Hughes, 2007, pp.235-236). The
statement by Hughes speaks to the way that women of the time were relegated to interior, domestic
spaces, and that their physical movement was limited, monitored, and constrained by the expectations
of a dominant patriarchy during the late-Victorian era. That the female literary community in question
is spoken of in terms of “the bourgeois feminine sphere” calls attention to the fact that female
literariness and New Womanism were predominantly concepts of the middle-class, a group that both
Dixon and Woolf's artistically inclined protagonists are a part. The assertion by Hughes that women
Yao 40
writers possessed a greater measure of agency than their lower-class counterparts is reflected in both
The Story of a Modern Woman and The Voyage Out, as both Dixon's and Woolf's protagonists achieve a
level of independence as a result of the fruits of their artistry, and have the option of exploring the
depth of their creativity in a space all their own.
Linda Hughes' remarks in her commentary on the “Literary Ladies” dining club established in
1899 lack of agency for middle-class women during the late-Victorian era during which the New
Woman novel gained its popularity, was due in large part to the force of patriarchal Victorian which
saw itself threatened by increasing intellectual, physical, and social mobility for women. The
perceived danger to the male dominated system sought to relegate the women to interior, traditionally
domestic spaces. The idea of placing limits and controls on women's physical movement, and by
extension, their intellectual and social mobility, to are a reflection of the women's lack of agency and
obstacles to progress by attempts to confine them to spaces men felt comfortable with as feminine
domains. Hughes elucidates this concept by quoting Deborah L. Parsons: “the image of women in the
late nineteenth century ... [w]as shaped by male anxiety and acquired a great deal of anxious attention
from contemporary social commentators, who tended to regard women as being overwhelmingly
present” (Hughes p. 236). The notion of the desire to place limitations on women's presence in public
areas and attempt to decrease their visibility during the Victorian era is extended in Woolf's Modernist
novel as Rachel is relegated to a space below the ship that she transforms into her own artistic sphere.
The spaces that Mary and Rachel cultivate for themselves to for life and work are private areas
in each of their domiciles, but Mary's office within her apartment and Rachel's cabin aboard the ship
are rooms are for them alone to create, read, and think; the women's residences are not used to care for
a man or raise children, as the conventional Victorian usage of “domestic” may imply. Each
protagonist's personal space serves as a kind of reflection of themselves as artistic beings, and reflects
the creativity and individuality that sets them apart from members of mainstream society who more
Yao 41
readily conform to Victorian expectations about gender roles for women.
After her father's death, Mary takes her first steps towards independence by electing to move
into a small place by herself rather than share an apartment with her single friend Alison: “ “I think, on
the whole,” said Mary, smiling, “I'll take some rooms nearby, and furnish them.” ” (Dixon, 1894, p.
73). It is at first a matter of financial necessity that Mary is forced to downsize her living quarters, and
has no other option than to make due with the small space that becomes both the site of her home life
and her working life. Over time, however, the small “make-shift” rooms where Mary first makes the
attempt to “live her own life” (Dixon, 1894, p. 93) become a representation of the protagonist's
personal growth and work as a writer. The previously unfurnished space becomes a home to Mary, and
is the place where Mary is able to morph into a writer and into her own person. The description of
Mary's home and office space reflects gains she has made from the time she moves into the unfurnished
room and the ease with which she conducts an independent life of her own design: “she sat sorting
papers at her desk in the little room, crowded with bookshelves, and with a writing-table littered with
with papers and letters, which she now used as a study, and had been made habitable with books and
sketches during the six years she had lived there. It had been repapered.” (Dixon, 1894, p. 179). Mary
eventually comfortably inhabits her office space, the central feature of which is her writing desk, where
she pursues the professional and artistic endeavours from which she is able to earn her livelihood and
“live her own life”. Six years on from the beginning of her journey into her solitary existence as an
independent, single, professional New Woman, Mary has cultivated a place for herself without the help
or support of her previous suitor Hemming. Upon seeing her again in the environment she has built up
on her own in the style of her life as a New Woman, Hemming is not able to understand or appreciate
the path Mary has chosen for herself, and his reaction to her living space is indicative of this:
“He got up presently, moving restlessly about the little room, examining with curious eyes the
Yao 42
place which was Mary's home. He stopped in front of the old-fashioned writing-table, on which
blotting-paper, foolscap, and worn-out pens were scattered. ...
“And this is where you work?” he muttered, absently sitting down in the swing chair, and
leaning his elbow, with a tired gesture, on the ink-stained desk. “Poor little Mary! Don't you
ever paint now? You used to like it so much.” ”
(Dixon, p. 179-180).
The reference to Mary's painting is a reminder of Hemming's approval of the visual arts as an
appropriate pastime for women: “Painting, especially in watercolours, he considered an eminently
ladylike occupation; it was, indeed, associated in his imagination with certain drawings of Welsh
mountains and torrents, executed by his mother with the prim technique of the forties” (Dixon, 79).
That Hemming sees Mary as worthy of his sympathy on the basis that she writes rather than paints
implies that he sees views her, the professional writer, as a sad figure who is no longer as traditionally
or appropriately feminine to his mind as was the young “lady” he once knew.
Rachel Vinrace's fiance, Terence Hewet, much like Hemming does with Mary in Dixon's novel,
does not truly see the value of Rachel's artistry, and the extent to which it makes her who she is. As
T.S. Urstad notes in his commentary as I previously quoted in Chapter Two of this paper, Urstad notes
that Hewet ultimately reveals himself to be a man of conventionality; Hewet thus does not truly realize
the individual nature of Rachel's artistic character that separates her from a traditionally domestic
Victorian woman. Hewet “belittles” Rachel's piano playing by likening it to a simple pastime, rather
than seeing it as her life's passion, as Woolf describes it:
“Rachel, being musical, was allowed to learn nothing but music; she became a fanatic about
music. All the energies that might have gone into languages, science or literature, that might
have made her friends, or shown her the world, poured straight into music. Finding her teachers
inadequate, she had practically taught herself. At the age of twenty-four she knew as much as
Yao 43
people do when they are thirty; and could play as well as nature allowed her to, which, as
became daily more obvious, was a really generous allowance.”
(Woolf, 1915, p. 169).
The description of Rachel in this passage illustrates the protagonist's relationship with music as the
predominant component of her life. Foregoing friendships and other experiences, Rachel, like New
Woman Mary Erle (who does so with financial as well as personal motivation), allows artistic pursuit to
take precedence over the formation of relationships, and this leads to the loneliness about which she
speaks so emphatically with Mrs. Dalloway. A further connection between the protagonist of Woolf's
Modernist novel and the depiction of the New Woman can be made based on Woolf's description of the
Rachel as a something of a piano prodigy. Jane Eldridge Miller explains that, like Rachel, “ [T]he New
Woman is frequently characterized as being exceptional in her intelligence and artistic abilities, even to
the point of having artistic “genius” despite her lack of formal education.” (Miller, p. 15) Rachel's
talent as a pianist is a central element of her character, and her attention to her craft results in her
alienation from the world outside of her art.
As Mary does with her single apartment, Rachel takes ownership of a small interior space
where she spends the majority of her time honing her artistic skill: “By virtue of the piano, and a mess
of books on the floor, Rachel considered it her room, and there she would sit for hours playing very
difficult music” (Woolf, 1915, p. 168). Akin to Mary Erle's living/working space that has her main
artistic tool, her writing desk, as it's central feature, Rachel's cabin on the ship is her personal refuge
from where the piano functions as the nucleus of the space and her primary companion. Laura Marcus
asserts that “Woolf at times also suggests that women are most themselves when they are most
alone...in each of Woolf's novels we see glimpses of a story she never wrote in full, a story of a
woman's life.” (Marcus, p. 11). I find that this statement is fitting to the discussion of the narrative of
Rachel Vinrace, as Woolf's protagonist uses her room as a creative oasis, a refuge from loneliness even
Yao 44
when alone; it is the place where she is best able to express herself by playing music and developing
her talent.
A major source of Rachel's alienation from society lies in her physical separation from other
people, seemingly in part due to her preference for the piano over social engagement, and partly
because of her lack of exposure to society outside of the confines of her father's ship and her aunts'
isolated country house. Laura Marcus comments on space in the context of Rachel and Terence's
inability to communicate about sexuality, saying “ in one sense, this “space” is freedom, a subterranean
depth below the surface of life, in another, it is the “space” of repression, the silence of women.”
(Marcus, p. 14). While this assertion is ostensibly a remark about the limitations placed on women
with respect to expressions of their sexuality, I believe that Marcus' statement also readily applies to the
idea of Rachel as an artist who is only able to reveal her whole true self in her creative space, the
quarters below the ship that she claims for herself. Further, I see Marcus' words here as reflective of the
notion that Rachel, as a women who does not conform to the expectations of society, does not have a
voice, even if she is afforded the opportunity to make music in the “freedom” of her small space.
Terence, by contrast, freely makes his opinions known, and according to Marcus, is a member of the
group of men in the novel who “are made angry and uneasy by the sense that the women with whom
they are “in love” have mental and imaginative “spaces” which they cannot enter.” (Marcus, p. 42).
Rachel's quarters, are a reflection of such a “mental and imaginative” space that Marcus identifies, as is
Mary Erle's apartment in The Story of a Modern Woman. Both protagonists take a physical space and
transform it into a place where they not only live, but also work and create.
In the narratives of both Mary Erle and Rachel Vinrace, the women are unmarried and childless,
and therefore do not use the “domestic” space that they inhabit as an arena in which to engage in
activities in the traditional female roles of wife or mother. Inhabiting areas that do not fit the label of
“domestic” in accordance with the conventional application of the word by members of mainstream
Yao 45
Victorian society, Mary and Rachel each use their domestic spaces for the dual purposes of living and
the creation of art. Both protagonists, as women of art and imagination who exist outside the confines
of conventionality, need private space and solitude to engage in their artistic passions. The idea that “a
woman must have money and a room of her own” (Woolf, 1929, p. 29) is certainly true of the women
in the novels of Dixon and Woolf. Neither Mary (who earns her own money in order to have her a
room of her own), nor Rachel could discover themselves as artistic beings without one.
Yao 46
CONCLUSION
In her 1894 novel The Story of a Modern Woman, Ella Hepworth Dixon creates a narrative of a
young female, Mary Erle, who is alienated from mainstream Victorian society because she lives in
defiance of the predominant gender codes for women. The novel traces Mary's journey into selfhood
and independence as a New Woman during the last years of the nineteenth century. Virginia Woolf's
debut novel The Voyage Out tells the story of another young female protagonist, Rachel Vinrace, who
like her New Woman counterpart Mary, flouts adherence to the expectations of society with regard to
expectations of traditionally proper feminine behaviour. Both women exist in varying states of
marginality as a result of their choice to pursue the artistic endeavours that ultimately take the place of
the conventional feminine roles of wife and mother in both Mary and Rachel's lives.
In her critique of The Voyage Out Laura Marcus contends that Woolf's “reference to New
Woman writing calls attention to Woolf's own ambivalent relationship to this genre and to the novel's
refusal to allow Rachel the fruits of her transformation.” (Marcus, p. 13). While I do agree that
Rachel, like the New Woman protagonist Mary of Dixon's novel is not rewarded the life one might
expect for her after such a dramatic journey of personal growth, I strongly disagree with Marcus'
assertion that Woolf was ambivalent to the New Woman literature of the fin de siecle. In my view, the
parallels between Dixon and Woolf's portrayals of their female protagonists, their experiences and
relationships, suggest a strong linkage between the literature of the two time periods with particular
attention on the alienated existence and self-discovery had by both Dixon's Mary and Woolf's Rachel.
Each of the central female characters are artists who don't fall into an easy categorization of
conventional Victorian femininity. The motifs and characterizations present in Woolf's novel suggest to
me quite and obvious continuation of the discourse on the principle concerns of the New Woman novel
and the alienated female protagonist.
Independence, art, and personal agency are major components of Ella Hepworth Dixon's New
Yao 47
Woman narrative that are clearly present in Virginia Woolf's novel as well. Much of Mary Erle 's
personal struggle as a woman attempting to navigate the world as an independent female who faces the
repression of a male-dominated society is also central to the story of Rachel Vinrace. Over the course
of this paper, I have compared the stories of the two women with regard to their relationships to men
and ideas about marriage, their connections to women and their artistic endeavours, and they ways in
which they relate to physical space, and how their personal spaces serve as manifestations of each of
the protagonist's identities as female artists. Dixon writing in the late-Victorian era, brings these issues
to the fore, and her New Woman novel encourages a reading of Woolf's modernist work in light of the
concerns of the marginalized, artistic woman. If we consider Woolf's novel as a work conceived in the
tradition of the New Woman, keeping in mind the integral themes of the work, it allows for an
understanding of Rachel as an unconventional artistically gifted individual who longs for independence
but lacks practical awareness, rather than read her simply as a naive young woman who is unfamiliar
with the world at large. Using Dixon's novel and the characterization of Mary as a guide, we gain a
better insight into the complexity of Rachel as an alienated female.
The main claim of this paper is that Dixon's New Woman novel provided a template from which
Woolf was able to create her own alienated protagonist. The critical literature by Ann Ardis, Ann
Heilmann, and Jane Eldridge Miller in particular describes the patriarchal, repressive social climate out
of which the New Woman novel emerged. Mary's struggles against the societal patriarchy and her
reliance on the women in her life to help propel her toward a life of artistic freedom and independence
are fairly echoed, if somewhat quietly, in Rachel's experiences. Mary refuses the man she loves in
order to maintain her commitment to the New Woman ideal that all women exist as part of a sisterhood
who must help each other to make strides in a male-dominated society, and is guided on her path to
self-discovery and personal agency by Alison and her strong encouragement and example. Rachel is
ultimately unable to realize a future of marital happiness with the man she loves, but before her death
Yao 48
lives in anticipation of an independent life that Helen assures her she can have. Mary's career as a
writer affords her financial independence, and creative fulfillment, but her unconventional “bachelor
girl” lifestyle that does not conform to mainstream Victorian gender expectations, segregates her
socially. Rachel indulges her musical passions in solitude, and it is not until she is urged on by Helen
that she is afforded a view to a having a life where she is connected to others. In the end, both
protagonists suffer a devastating fate. Mary, having exchanged her love for autonomy and conviction,
walks in despondent by her father's grave, and Rachel dies of a sudden fever short after accepting a
marriage proposal from Hewet, a death symbolic of the notion that in giving up her artistry to assume
the role of wife, she in effect, gives up her life.
My research on the links between Ella Hepworth Dixon's The Story of a Modern Woman and
Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out is evidence that the innovations of Modernism were not entirely fresh
or radical, but emerged from and expanded on the work of a previous literary era. Rachel is not a mirror
reflection of Mary and the New Woman ideology she holds, but is a character constructed in the
tradition of this literature of Woolf's youth. In my examination and discussion of the topics of love and
marriage, artistry and independence, and public and private spaces as the major components that
comprise the characterization of the alienated female protagonist, in Dixon and Woolf's work, I hope to
have shed light on the possible pitfalls of strict literary periodization, and to have highlighted the
existence of a continuity within the larger literary tradition. I believe this research in important in the
continuation of the conversation about the portrayal of the female and the potential impact of
characterizations on future discourse pertaining to the feminist consciousness and representations of
women in literature.
Yao 49
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