Natural Motherhood vs. Unnatural Motherhood:
The Concerns of Lady Delacour’s Poisonous Breast
Maria Edgeworth’s 1801 novel “Belinda” contains a fantastic, disturbing plot line in which Lady Delacour, the liveliest character in the novel, harbors a dark secret: she hides a cancerous breast. The remission period followed by the return of the cancer serves a specific role in the text. An advertisement for “Belinda”, which Edgeworth wrote, emphasizes that it is a “Moral Tale”, not a “Novel” (Weiss 461). This didactic story explores the characteristics of the natural woman and the unnatural woman. Edgeworth used the body, particularly the breast, as a metaphor that reflects her conception of healthy womanhood. The breast also symbolizes the mental distress Lady Delacour tries to …show more content…
The duel is a result of a political disagreement occurring during a parliamentary campaign. Mrs. Luttridge, who is on the opposite side from Lady Delacour and is a crack shot, believes Lady Delacour has insulted her and wished “to be a man, that she might be qualified to take proper notice of” lady Delacour’s conduct (54). Upon receiving this message, Lady Delacour responds that she is ready to settle the dispute in a manly way and sends her friend Harriet Freke as her second to arrange the duel. This duel marks the apex of her “unnaturalness” and the beginning of her breast cancer fear. The participants are four women, in drag, depicted as rejecting natural femininity. The only resulting injury is a bruise to Lady Delacour’s breast that is induced by the recoil of her pistol—a mishap that she claims is due to her ignorance of guns and her discomfort over the masculine role of her opponent. Initially, she does not notice the injury, distracted by the excitement of the duel and the fear of being caught dressed like and behaving as a man. While a pistol’s recoil could easily cause an innocuous lump,
The Concerns of Lady Delacour’s Poisonous Breast
Maria Edgeworth’s 1801 novel “Belinda” contains a fantastic, disturbing plot line in which Lady Delacour, the liveliest character in the novel, harbors a dark secret: she hides a cancerous breast. The remission period followed by the return of the cancer serves a specific role in the text. An advertisement for “Belinda”, which Edgeworth wrote, emphasizes that it is a “Moral Tale”, not a “Novel” (Weiss 461). This didactic story explores the characteristics of the natural woman and the unnatural woman. Edgeworth used the body, particularly the breast, as a metaphor that reflects her conception of healthy womanhood. The breast also symbolizes the mental distress Lady Delacour tries to …show more content…
The duel is a result of a political disagreement occurring during a parliamentary campaign. Mrs. Luttridge, who is on the opposite side from Lady Delacour and is a crack shot, believes Lady Delacour has insulted her and wished “to be a man, that she might be qualified to take proper notice of” lady Delacour’s conduct (54). Upon receiving this message, Lady Delacour responds that she is ready to settle the dispute in a manly way and sends her friend Harriet Freke as her second to arrange the duel. This duel marks the apex of her “unnaturalness” and the beginning of her breast cancer fear. The participants are four women, in drag, depicted as rejecting natural femininity. The only resulting injury is a bruise to Lady Delacour’s breast that is induced by the recoil of her pistol—a mishap that she claims is due to her ignorance of guns and her discomfort over the masculine role of her opponent. Initially, she does not notice the injury, distracted by the excitement of the duel and the fear of being caught dressed like and behaving as a man. While a pistol’s recoil could easily cause an innocuous lump,