Isabella Baxter was a new woman. She was a human being that needed to learn how to speak, how to write, how to read. All of this things, Godwin offered to Isabella and in return he expected nothing. Now, the man worshiped the woman and he did everything he could to empower her, to enlighten her mind in order for her to be happy. He takes Bella around the world to discover herself and to be able to construct, to build her own personality, deprived of any England social rules with respect to behaviour principles. Even if she was a man made and man-brought up woman, her attitude was nothing as an Angel in House, but rather more of a fallen woman. She has a free education, and learns from every experience she encounters. Baxter pays a woman to
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Meanwhile, Bella has different sorts of experiences, in which men show her the world and prepare her for distinct areas from life. She is very proud of her because she gained her own money working…as a prostitute in a brothel in Paris. ‘I am no longer a parasite. For three days I have earned a wage by doing a job as well and fast as possible, not for pleasure but cash like most people do. (180, Gray). Now, Alasdair Gray discusses a problem regarding the fact that men were superior: ‘Contagious Diseases Act’. This act asked that prostitutes to be checked for Great Pox, while men were the ones that transmitted it, as they slept around with many women, and even if she her brain had only five years old, she herself acknowledged it ‘It is the clients who should be medically examined before we let them into us.’ After their journey was over, Wedderburn was physically exhausted and, in a letter to Godwin Baxter he declared: ‘The Jews called her Eve and Delilah; the Greeks, Helen of Troy; the Romans, Cleopatra; the Christians, Salome. She is the White Daemon who destroys the honour and manhood of the noblest and most virile men in every age. She came to me in the guise of Bella Baxter’ (Gray, 92). Bella was for him a demon who sucked all the life from him, a mad woman who was …show more content…
As all the new women of the period she was first seen as a fallen woman. She is regarded by society as a lost cause, because she had premarital sex with a French lieutenant, who had to return to his country and now she waits for him in vain to come back. She invents herself a new identity, a new story that will make the reader believe that she cannot be understood, that she is incomprehensible. Why would she not confront people’s rumours regarding her relationship with the lieutenant? And why would she lie to Charles? She herself gives an answer to this question towards the end of the novel ‘It is not your fault. You are very kind. But I am not to be understood… I can’t tell you why, but I believe my happiness depends on my not understanding” (p.431).
In a period in which every unorthodox action was seen as an ultimate sin, Sarah does not relieve her truth to anybody, converting herself into a great ambiguous character, a character that amaze and confuse the reader altogether. Her will of freedom and the desire not to get married even if she has a child are traits that consolidate her status as a new woman. She is a model for Rossetti and it is her own choice to be so, as she confessed to Charles “I cannot wish my life other than it is at the moment”
Meanwhile, Bella has different sorts of experiences, in which men show her the world and prepare her for distinct areas from life. She is very proud of her because she gained her own money working…as a prostitute in a brothel in Paris. ‘I am no longer a parasite. For three days I have earned a wage by doing a job as well and fast as possible, not for pleasure but cash like most people do. (180, Gray). Now, Alasdair Gray discusses a problem regarding the fact that men were superior: ‘Contagious Diseases Act’. This act asked that prostitutes to be checked for Great Pox, while men were the ones that transmitted it, as they slept around with many women, and even if she her brain had only five years old, she herself acknowledged it ‘It is the clients who should be medically examined before we let them into us.’ After their journey was over, Wedderburn was physically exhausted and, in a letter to Godwin Baxter he declared: ‘The Jews called her Eve and Delilah; the Greeks, Helen of Troy; the Romans, Cleopatra; the Christians, Salome. She is the White Daemon who destroys the honour and manhood of the noblest and most virile men in every age. She came to me in the guise of Bella Baxter’ (Gray, 92). Bella was for him a demon who sucked all the life from him, a mad woman who was …show more content…
As all the new women of the period she was first seen as a fallen woman. She is regarded by society as a lost cause, because she had premarital sex with a French lieutenant, who had to return to his country and now she waits for him in vain to come back. She invents herself a new identity, a new story that will make the reader believe that she cannot be understood, that she is incomprehensible. Why would she not confront people’s rumours regarding her relationship with the lieutenant? And why would she lie to Charles? She herself gives an answer to this question towards the end of the novel ‘It is not your fault. You are very kind. But I am not to be understood… I can’t tell you why, but I believe my happiness depends on my not understanding” (p.431).
In a period in which every unorthodox action was seen as an ultimate sin, Sarah does not relieve her truth to anybody, converting herself into a great ambiguous character, a character that amaze and confuse the reader altogether. Her will of freedom and the desire not to get married even if she has a child are traits that consolidate her status as a new woman. She is a model for Rossetti and it is her own choice to be so, as she confessed to Charles “I cannot wish my life other than it is at the moment”