Stephen Donner
Dr. R. Brittenham
English E303
Close Reading Four
February 7, 2006
As the editors of The Victorian Supernatural have interpreted Eve Lynch’s examination of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s ghost stories of the 1860 and 1870s, they remark that, “The world in which apparitions make themselves known is the world below stairs from where servants also function as ghostly presences in the respectable Victorian home” (14). Although in Rhoda Broughton’s “The Truth ... and Nothing but the Truth” the location is upstairs rather than downstairs (this “world below stairs” being likely more figurative than an absolute location,) this being the “respectable Victorian home,” it is then naturally the housemaid who is the first witness to the manifestation of some ghostly apparition in that upstairs room, and whose credibility is severely doubted.
Bessy’s missive to Cecilia dismissing the housemaid’s reaction as a fit or insanity serves as the “enlightened”, upper-class British response. Although not believing in ghosts herself, she claims, her rhetorical question of ghosts’ existence to Cecilia speaks volumes, “is it likely that there should be anything to be seen so horribly fear-inspiring, as to send a perfectly sane person in one instant raving mad” (80). Although Bessy never makes a directly class-based remark, I feel Broughton utilizes her character type to ultimately represent stereotypically British sentiments towards the mental/emotional stability of servants, as the ending’s framing appears to denote. Furthermore, although Cecilia’s letter only mentions the housemaid entering the room to prepare for Adela’s arrival, Bessy responds with flawed logic by insinuating instead that if there were a malevolent force in the house, “your whole household ought, by this time, to be stark, staring mad” (80). It seems, then, that Bessy relies on that flawed logic and trite phrases rather than intuition.
Ralph Gordon’s death I feel speaks to the fulfillment of Broughton’s possible intention. Specifically, servants are the objects upon which to displace undesirable supernatural superstitions under the umbrella of their fits or worse, claims of their insanity. The death of Ralph—the logical, debunking, foolhardy Victorian—portends an ominous warning to those who might be quick to discount the valid experiences of even “the world below the stairs,” as it were. As Cecilia herself realizes and concedes, “Yes, dead. Not in a swoon or in a fit, but dead” (82). The finality of Ralph’s death means that he cannot act as an intermediary; the gateway between the British logical and the supernatural is closed. Furthermore, none who witness his death would be able to merely shrug off its supernatural implications any longer, as Bessy had previously done. Instead, now affecting an upper-class, logical, British male, it moves from the superstitious, unreasonable madness into a malevolent force which cannot be effectively debunked and explained by rational, enlightened thought.
Posted by stephend at February 7, 2006 6:56 PM