ENDURANCE & JOY IN THE EAST END 1971-1987. A review of David Hoffman’s book of photographs, (Exhibition at The Museum of The Home 15th October 2024 to 30th March 2025.)

 

 

The cover photograph taken in Fieldgate Mansions , Whitechapel, in 1978 epitomises the contents of this book.

Five Bengali boys clamber over, sit on and enter a derelict old Fiat 500. White paintwork scratched, dented, paint flaked off revealing rusty patches,  dirty and grimy bodywork, the windows gone, even the splintered remnants sometimes found  when windows are smashed that still remain attached to car window frames gone too. The tyres appear to still be inflated. One boy smirks at the camera, two laugh out loud with gusto another two appear to be imagining driving the car. Cracked tarmac, a stained brick wall with the word ,RUBBISH ,painted roughly in white in large letters. There are curtains still on the windows of the terraced house behind them so, presumably, it is one of their homes. It looks lived in. The boys are living in poverty and dereliction, but they are full of impishness, humour and imagination, “endurance and joy.” We ask, why are these boys enduring these impoverished conditions? What has brought them to this existence? Why are they so joyous? This book with its intimate and sometimes journalistic photographs tells the story of many living in poor circumstances  and gets close to an answer.

In his introduction David Hoffman provides a short autobiography getting us close  to why he wanted to take these photographs in the first place and why he obviously still cares and has curated this exhibition of  photographs at The Museum of The Home.

David begins his introduction with his first experience, at the age of eight, of taking photographs with a little KODAK camera. He then describes attending Tiffin Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames and hating the authoritarian disciplined, oppressive atmosphere he suffered. This revelation brings up the question of what education is for and what it should be. He was, “thrown out,” of Tiffin’s just before his A’ levels. He took his A’ levels later at Kingston College of Further Education, a place that treats its students like adults. A college of further education is very different from a school. He obtained some science A’ levels. The two Universities that he attended were not successful experiences either. He did not complete a degree. Joining The International Socialist Movement and travelling down to London from York University to go on demonstrations against the Vietnam War informed his politics. The rights of ordinary people and creating a home and all that means is one of the vital aspects of life that has deep meanings for everybody. This is one of the underlying themes of this book. His photographs show us people surviving and creating homes from very poor means, against the odds. A fitting theme for The Museum of the Home to display.

In 1973 he studied communication design at the Northeast London Polytechnic. His grant from the government allowed him some financial security for a while. The course wasn’t much good but he picked up many ideas and skills from other famous photographers such as Ansel Adams, Cartier Bresson and Diane Arbus. The Daily Mirror employed him. He got commissions for magazines and began to build up his own stock library. He began to make a  living.

David Hoffman

  

Two things come across about David. Firstly, that he rebelled against what he felt was expected of him as he was growing up. Secondly, that from an early age he found a love of photography which drove him on and inspired the rest of his life. Many of us suffer the same as David Hoffman, feeling that we are pushed into a life that is not what we want at heart. But not many of us find such a purpose in life as David Hoffman did with his photography which has been his driving force. Or perhaps maybe we all have something which ignites a fire within us but it is stifled and extinguished along the way because of the social circumstances we are in. 

Many of these photographs show people with amazing and surprising talents that if only they were nurtured in the right environment would have gone on to conquer the world in their expertise. One of the things that these photographs reveal to me is the appalling waste of talent. It brings me back to how society should be organised and how education, not only in our schools and universities, but also lifelong learning, should be approached. These are some of the vital questions David Hoffmans photographs incite. 

During his early years as a photographer David moved to London and because of the lack of a steady income he moved about from one impoverished area to the next, living in squats. From Notting Hill in 1969 to Whitechapel and Chicksand Street. He moved on to Black Lion yard and eventually Fieldgate Mansions in the East End. All the time recording what he saw and experienced with his camera.

Poverty, oppression, especially by the local police force and the local council appear in his pictures. He got to know the squatting community well. Prostitutes, dope dealers, the homeless, communities making the best of what they have, people hardly surviving amongst squalor, its all there in David’s photographs.

His photographs of Whitechapel attracted the alternative press who published his photographs. He photographed National Front demonstrations and their attempts to get a foothold in the East End which were often blocked and barred by the locals in counter demonstrations.

He shows the racism that could occur. A Bengali family put into a house by the council on Clerk Street suffered terrible racial abuse.

In April 1981 he photographed the Brixton uprising (riots) which taught him a new type of photography. He learned the ability to photograph in an extremely violent fluid situation.

Among the photographs that took my attention, and many of the photographs in this book I found spoke to me in so many ways and from which I learned a lot, is the photograph of Jane and Percy , two old age pensioners. David recorded the interview he had with Jane in September 1978.

The photograph shows two old people. Percy is in the foreground and in focus and Jane is slightly blurred in the background. They appear to be in a church crypt, perhaps. A sloping brick arch curves towards them from behind. Percy is playing a mouth organ and has his eyes closed as he becomes lost in his tunes. Jane sits scarfed and overcoated looking at a piece of paper in her two hands, perhaps a form she must fill in. She tells us that the shoes she is wearing she found in a skip and the clothes she has on were donated by members of her family.

“Percy helps me, shares his money.”

I’ve only got one blanket and I let Percy have that, I put all the coats over me, but that eight pound, they shouldn’t have done that really…God will punish them.”

It’s a bedsitter. I wouldn’t mind a better flat or else I’ll have to go int a hostel. It’s going to be damp in the wintertime. I wouldn’t like it but I haven’t got much stuff.”

The interview extract appears to be the answers Jane gave to David, to his questions. It is a little disjointed but you certainly get a sense of Jane’s poverty but she never gives you the sense that life is completely hopeless. She is hanging on through the pain and the difficulties of her life. I was left feeling anger for the local council of Tower Hamlets for not being humane. I felt heartbroken for Jane and her friend Percy. 

Many of the photographs show scenes of fun and joy. So many festivals were organised by local people. They dressed up, played games, danced and had fun. The ability to plan and organise these festivals I am sure is complex and requires an ability to plan and bring a diverse number of people, organisations and various entities together. One of my daughters worked in events management at one time. She was paid well, and her company made a fortune planning events all over Europe for high profile events. Those people who organised the various festivals in Whitechapel and surrounding East End streets were just as able it seems to me. The events included The Bigland Green Festival, Limehouse Fields Summer Project for children, Bethnal Green Pigeon Club, Teviot Festival in Langdon Park Poplar, youth clubs, boxing clubs, old peoples exercise sessions and a Christmas party at St Hilda’s Community Centre, Club Row.

A telling set of photographs are of the THAP ( Tower Hamlets  Art Project) who celebrated their work at The Whitechapel Gallery. Nicholas Serota, the director of the gallery at the time and nowadays a museum gallery leader, nationally and internationally, a top academic, disapproved and really didn’t like what they were doing. It seems he didn’t have a choice but to let THAP use his gallery but this demonstrates what the art world thinks of as appropriate and acceptable and  who they consider should be classed as an artist. The establishment didn’t approve. Why not?

Another photograph that caught my attention was of two young men and a dog. The photograph catches them in full flight, in fluid motion, one after the other, moving like fleet footed athletes scaling a brick wall. They are repossessing a house after the council had evicted them as squatters. There aim was to have a roof over their heads that night. A space that, even for a short period of time, they could make home.  It reminds of a picture I have seen in The Guardian newspaper , the sports pages, of athletes scaling barriers during an Olympic Final steeplechase. The athletes became renowned throughout the world, appeared on TV for millions to watch, were awarded Olympic medals and had fulfilling careers in athletics. 

The police do not come out of David’s pictures in a good light. They are brutal and intimidating. There are photographs of the police in numbers aiding the eviction of squatters. There are pictures of the police breaking up legitimate protest marches and wrestling protestors to the ground. The two page picture of the police lined up outside of Stoke Newington Police Station in 1983, creating a show of arrogant force infront of demonstrators passing by protesting about the fatal shooting of Colin Roach inside that very police station shows a police force that is certainly not for the people . Police break up marches protesting about the treatment of the Newham Seven, break up demonstrations by legitimate strikers over the actions of the News International.  The force of law fulfilling what local and national government and big business want of them does not account for the desires and needs of local people who just want housing, who just want to feel free of racist and fascist intimidation, who want to live normal safe lives in a diverse community and have a job and a home. The photographs do not show a police force on the side of ordinary people. There must be a better more creative and productive approach to the poor people of this country. 

Every photograph in this book tells a story of creativity, survival, joy and endurance amongst the most dire circumstances. They are worth looking at and engaging with. The questions that they inspire should create discussion. Although they are about our society in the 1970s and 1980s they should also inspire discussion about the here and now. Some things have changed but there are so many similarities and many new problems to deal with.There are food banks I many parts of the east End. The Museum of The Home runs a food bank. The number of people living on the street is increasing. The price of a home, a flat or a house are beyond a large part of our population. It’s 2024 not 1987. The question still is asked. What can we do?

Endurance & Joy in the East End: The Photography of David Hoffman, is on at The Museum of the Home. It is curated by The Gentle Author and designed by Friederike Huber.

David Hoffman’s book is published by Spitalfields Life Books October 2024 

to coincide with the exhibition at The Museum of The Home.

THE GENTLE AUTHOR links:

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2020/06/21/the-gentle-authors-coronavirus-diary/

https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/write-a-blog-the-gentle-author

BUY THE BOOK AT: Spitalfields Life Books

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/09/15/endurance-joy-in-the-east-end-1971-1987/

BUY THE BOOK AT: The Museum of The Home online : https://shop.museumofthehome.org.uk/

Friederike Huber link.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2014/12/18/friederike-huber-book-designer/

Museum of The Home.

https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/

A review of THE TOUR OF DR SYNTAX In Search Of The Picturesque by William Combe, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson Edited by Dr Ben Wiebracht and sixteen of his Stanford online High School Students.

The title page of ,"Doctor Syntax in search of The Picturesque."

This is the second volume of a series of  18th century books edited by Ben Wiebracht and his students. Ben’s idea is that his  pre university students, are as capable of serious  research as an undergraduate or post graduate student. In the process Ben has taught his students how to research, reading original documents to support their ideas,provide information and illustrate their viewpoints. Negotiating a university library and being able to find the texts you need for your research, reading the texts and making notes and then turning them into clearly explained text and presenting their ideas are valuable skills preparing his students for academic research when they do attend a university in the future. His approach to teaching and providing problems and  purposeful tasks is a brilliant way of engaging his students which can only enthuse  and make their studies meaningful.

The first volume in this series Ben and his students edited was, “Bath: An Adumbration In Rhyme by John Matthews.” That piece of research started life as an article written by Ben and his students published in Vic Sandborn’s blog, Jane Austen’s World. The idea for this second volume came from an article, again in Jane Austen’s World,written by Brenda Cox about, Dr Syntax and Jane Austen. Brenda has written a book about the clergy in Jane Austen’s time entitled,”Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. Fashionable Goodness.” Her knowledge of the 18th century clergy has informed Ben and his student’s research. 

This new edition has two essays that provide in depth analysis , firstly a ,”Biographical Essay:William Combe (1742-1823),” and secondly a contextual essay explaining,”The Picturesque,”in the 18th century, primarily described by William Gilpin. The article also explains how the narrow and sometimes inhuman view of The Picturesque that Gilpin promoted in his writing was sometimes mocked  by Combe. Jane Austen had a more nuanced  viewpoint about the picturesque  that included the lower class aspects of the countryside. Both adapt Gilpin.

William Combe 1742-1823.

William Combe was a bit of an oddball. He was the son of a tradesman, an ironmonger.  He himself wanted to be a leisured gentleman which he tried to portray to the world.He made people think that he  wrote occasionally and went to great lengths to portray a leisured  image to the world. To earn enough money he actually wrote an enormous amount. He didn’t put his name to most of his writing so that he wouldn’t be found out.  Journalism , stories and this long poem about the adventures of Dr Syntax, which because of its  popularity, made him a lot of money. He was very successful. 

It seems to me a shame that he denigrated his background. His father being an ironmonger, must have been a member of the Ironmongers Guild , one of the great livery companies of the City of London. It  was the  tradesmen who created the wealth of the nation. The aristocracy , with their individual wealth could not support the modernising and development of Britain. Attitudes trailed behind the reality. There was a double standard.  It was still esteemed to be a nobleman , a member of the gentry, or a gentleman as Combe felt and believed he wanted to be. Jane Austen, although her novels deal with  the lower levels of the gentry and aristocracy she  shows her  admiration for those in trade. There is a sub plot in  most of Jane Austen’s novels where those in trade are shown their importance. 

William Gilpin 1724-1804.

The second essay discusses ,”The Picturesque.”

William Gilpin  describes ,”The Picturesque,” as scenes of rugged beauty, often with ruined castles, cottages and abbeys within the scene. He shows no sympathy for the human cost of suffering that might have been connected to those places. He suggests  the artist , if those types of ruins were not in his view, adding them creatively and imaginatively to get the desired affect. Gilpin   advocates leaving any sign of the workers in the fields, for instance, and their abodes out of the picture.Combe ridicules this doctrinaire approach within his book but mostly agrees with the principles Gilpin advocates about the picturesque. Jane Austen on the other hand, who incudes picturesque scenes within her novels, has a more revolutionary approach to the picturesque. In one scene from Emma, that Ben mentions in his essay,  Austen describes the picturesque scene from Donwell Abbey and  includes the sight of Abbey Mill Farm in the distance. The lower class Mr Martin  farms there. She  wants to combine within the picturesque Gilpin’s rugged and well formed scene with the reality of the working people. In essence she is saying its all part of the whole. 

So we come to Dr Syntax our comic curate who we can empathise with and enter into his travails as well as his travels. He too was in search of ,”The Picturesque,” an innocent, an idealist in search of Gilpinesqueness. Combe based his story on a series of drawings that Thomas Rowlnadson had sold to the publisher, Rudolph Ackerman.

Thomas Rowlandson 1757- 1827.

Syntax is a poor curate who teaches pupils alongside the duties of his parish. He is often berated by his wife who seems to bully him. The cause of this familial aggression is the dear Doctors lack of wealth. This story is a journey in search of The Picturesque and using  drawings and writing the dear Doctor wants to publish  a book about The Picturesque. He intends to make his fortune.

Doctor Syntax by Rowlandson, lost on his journey in search of The Picturesque.

I started reading the text of the poem and I almost immediately was hit by a warm emotion of recognition.  The gentle rhythm of rhyming couplets took me back to my childhood and reading such childrens stories as Rupet Bear, also written in. rhymng couplets. Rhyming couplets are a simple technique that have a lightness about them. They carry the reader along on a gentle wave.  The connection between Doctor Syntax and Rupert are that both are adventurous, take chances, befall mishaps and are generally loveable. The rhyming couplets and themes are extraordinarily similar in both. 

Doctor Syntax being rescued by some fair maids after being held up and tied to a tree by highway robbers.

The pages of this edition of Dr Syntax text are  laid out with the original text of the story on the left hand page with annotations on the right hand page. The annotations often come in two columns. The first column provides extensive detailed definitions for archaic words and phrases in the text. There is often  more detailed information about a historical place or institution included too where it is necessary. A second column makes  connections with moments, and characters in Jane Austen’s novels. This format makes understanding and making connections easy to follow. Many academic texts put foot notes either at the bottom of a page or in a glossary at the end of a book. Finding the notes to a particular reference can then sometimes be laborious. 

The notes are impressive and show the thorough detailed research Ben’s students have done. An example of the annotations include, in canto IX 

rick:Stack of hay or corn. 

The definition is next to the line with the word in it. This makes for more fluent reading of the text. Also found in Canto IX an explanation of the text is also given for the following phrase,

A castle, and a ruin too: Castles and other architectural ruins were common destinations in picturesque tours.

The phrase itself can be understood easily enough but its deeper meaning connected to the theme of this poem, The Picturesque, might be lost without the further explanation. There is , in this case a further column on the right which makes the connection to Jane Austen’s writings  about abbeys and ruins. Ben and his students here make the link to Jane Austen’s juvenile History of England where she mentions the dissolution of the monasteries but there is also of course Catherine Morland’s expectations of Northanger Abbey.

These are  two examples of the research carried out that deepens our understanding of the text.

The Tour of Doctor Syntax, has connections with other literature. Within the story of this journey there are references made to Don Quixote , his horse and Sancho Panza which was written by Cervantes, first published in 1605. Reading the ,”Tour,”I also thought about John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress, a journey of a ,”Christian,” through the hardships of the world. Later on in the 19th century there was of course Charles Dickens ,"Pickwick Papers," a humorous account of a group of friends travelling around Southern England and all the mishaps  and joys and pains they encountered along the way. Dickens took the genre to another level. He in essence invented situation comedy.

Doctor Syntax having trouble with The Picturesque.

This Doctor Syntax tale, that Ben and his students bring to our notice,  covers  a large part of 18th century England,  and covers  the whole gamut of 18th century life. Syntax goes horse racing in York. He attends art galleries and the theater in London, where Syntax encounters a critic. Combe and Syntax give critics short shrift. Highway robbers and landladies in inns, quack doctors and lords and squires are all encountered.He meets mad bulls in fields and gravediggers in graveyards, ruined castles and attends military reviews. He visits Castle Howard, an example of the aristocracy, in Yorkshire and most pleasantly for Syntax, The Lakes in Cumberland. Auspiciously he makes friends with Squire Worthy while in The Lakes. Ben and his students are bringing an important text that shows us  life in the 18th century back to  prominence for modern readers in an easily accessible way.

Doctor Syntax loses money on the races at York.

Loosely connecting Doctor Syntax to the area around Chawton where Jame Austen lived  in Hampshire for the last eight years of her life ,  the Reverend Gilbert White, also a curate like our dear Doctor Syntax, lived in a village called Selborne.He of course is famous as a naturalist who wrote the Natural History of Selborne. In connection with them both being curates it is interesting to point out that it was curates and local country vicars who were often the historians, writers of journeys and the innovative scientists of the 18th century. Doctor Syntax was in good company.

The part of the story I found most engaging is the  surreal, Battle of The Books,  Canto XXV.Doctor Syntax has a dream or it could be described as an hallucination. The London Iinstitute, where  the books of learning and philosophy are destined  to be housed, is close to the financial heart of the city in Coleman Street. The heart of learning set within the heart of trade.This is not lost on Ben and his erudite students. The London Institute today has become The London University of The Arts set over six campuses around London and one of the foremost Art colleges in the world.

Syntax dreaming The battle of The Books.

The book about The Picturesque he has been writing on his long journey has been sold for £300 (£24000 in todays money  using the National Archive currency calculator). He is rich. 

In a kind of not so hidden subtext this tale is about marriage which of course makes the link with Austen that Ben and his students are making throughout. At the beginning of the tale Syntax is a poor clergyman who does some teaching to make extra money and is beaten by his wife. The relationship with his wife does not appear to be good at times. 

Syntax arrived back at home to his sensorious wife.

But by the end of the story money has made all the difference. You wonder if William Combe is saying that a husbands income makes for a happy marriage? When you look at the marriages at the end of a Jane Austen novel all the happy couples are well off. Some more than others but all are  in a good financial situation. Only George Wickham and Lydia are in straightened circumstances and that is mainly because of Wickhams profligacy. So Jane Austen is probably saying the same thing. A happy marriage is a marriage based on good finances.  

The map showing the route through The City of London where, The Battle of The Books, took place.

There are two maps that two of Ben's students created included in the text. One shows the journey around England Doctor Syntax makes showing a circuitous route from Syntax's home near Bath on to Oxford, then northwards to York and across to Cumberland and The Lakes then south to Liverpool and onwards to London before returning home. The other,  a map of London, possibly Ben's students have used the 1806 Wallis map of London, shows the route the books in The Battle of the Books take.Today you or I can follow that same London route along the same roads and streets using the map in this edition. It is a part of London that  covers at least two thousand years of history and events. But to keep it to the time of William Combe and Doctor Syntax  we can explore those places they knew.  Doctor Johnson, William Blake, Lord Byron , Jane  Austen and a little more recently Charles Dickens are all connected to this same part of London. I can’t leave out mentioning Dickens because The City , the Inns of Court such as the Inner temple,  are integral to so many of Dickens novels. This map of the  Battle of The Books, would make a great walk in London today. There is so much to discover, streets and alleyways to explore, hidden courtyards, all mentioned in Doctor Syntax.

This book is an informative and very entertaining read helped immensely by Ben and his students. We can laugh and cry  along with Doctor Syntax. Although on the surface it appears to be a comedy, like all comedy it has pathos,  and makes deep observations about life.

You can buy the book in the UK on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tour-Doctor-Syntax-Search-Picturesque/dp/1737033054

JANE AUSTEN and THE ROYAL NAVY

1787 portrait of Admiral Edmund Afflech.

Jane Austen knew a lot about the Royal Navy of her time. Her novel Persuasion, is often referred to as her naval novel because of the three key characters Captain Wentworth, Captain Harville and Captain Benwick. There is also of course Admiral Croft,the husband of Captain Wentworth's sister . The Royal navy pervades the novel. Jane also had personal experience of The Royal Navy,  two of her brothers Francis and Charles, became Post Captains and later in their careers , Admirals

 Jane Austen began writing her novel, Persuasion, in 1815. 

“ Captain Wentworth, after being unseen and unheard of at Uppercross for two whole days, appeared again among them to justify himself by a relation of what had kept him away.

A letter from his friend,Captain Harville, having found him out at last, had brought intelligence of Captain Harville’s being settled with his family at Lyme for the winter.” 

Captain Benwick, also an acquainatance of Captain Wentworth, was  staying with the Harvilles at Lyme.

Our three captains would have been in action during the years previously to Jane writing Persuasion.

The British were in many Naval engagements in 1813. They were blockading the American coast .Foremost amongst the the actions were:

April 3rd battle of Rappahannock River in Virginia.

Battle of York April 27th

Battle of Fort George May25th-27th

Action off James Island may28th

Battle of Sacketts Harbor May28th-29th

The capture of USS Chesapeake off Boston

Action off Charles harbour July 14th 1813.

In 1814 there was the battle of Lake Champlain in the North American war of 1812

“Captain Harville had never been in good health since a severe wound he had received two years before (rendering him lame)  and Captain Wentworth’s anxiety to see him had determined him to go immediately to Lyme.”

We never hear what action Captain Harville was engaged in. Perhaps captains Wentworth and Benwick were also engaged in one or some of those actions listed above? They appear to be a band of brothers and have a very close friendship probably forged in the heat of battles and training and the patronage system. Patrionage was the way Royal Naval promotions worked in the 18th century.

As well as her fictional Royal Naval Officers Jane's  two brothers, Francis and Charles,  were also in the Royal Navy and rose through the ranks. Then  there were the wives.  Captain Harvilles wife was called Mary. By the end of the novel Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth marry and  Captain Benwick marries Louisa Musgrove. The wives of 18th century Royal Naval Officers  have been termed, "Shore Wives."

CAPTAIN WENTWORTH’S WOUND

We can wonder what Captain Wentworth's wound may have been that rendered him lame. 

HMS VICTORY Portsmouth harbour.

When I was a child,  at the age of nine, my Mum and Dad took myself and my brother Michael, nineteen miles along the coast from Southampton where we lived, to Portsmouth to visit  HMS Victory, Nelsons flag ship at the Battle of Trafalgar (21st October 1805.)

We were mesmerized by the sight of The Victory, an 18th century 104 gun first rate ship of the line. There were two things that have aways stayed with me about the Victory from that first visit and I have visited it a number of times since over the years. Firstly the surgeons cabin with  his amputation instruments laid out was quite a shocking place to be. It was both shocking and thrilling to learn how fast an arm or leg could be amputated, how the amputation  was performed and the effects on the patient. The second thing that always has stuck with me was a tour of the gun decks with all their massive cannons lined up with muzzles sticking out of the gun ports. Each cannon is roped down with pulleys and tied to anchor points in the deck. Our guide told us what this gun deck would have been like when in action. Each gun would have had a crew. Each gun crew member would have bandaged their heads and arms and torsos with thick linen bindings. You might wonder why the bindings. When an 18th century cannon is fired at an opposing ship it is rare for a cannon ball, a heavy round lump of iron, to pierce and enter the opposing ship. What it did do, travelling at the speed of sound, yes that fact wowed me too, was to smash into the thick wooden side of a ship. The thick oak planks would splinter and send large pieces of sharp wood exploding  inside of the gun deck. With sometimes forty or fifty of these cannon balls hitting the side of a ship at the same time in a broadside, the whole space inside the gundecks would have been filled with flying shards and splinters. The splinters of wood caused catastrophic injuries to the gun crews. Hence the bandage protection.

Somehow  I cannot imagine Captain Harville being on a gundeck during a battle. The ships captain would have been directing his ships action from on the top deck. On the Victory there is a small brass plaque screwed into the upper deck. It marks the spot where Nelson received his fatal wound from a French sniper high in the rigging of the ship The Victory was attacking. The bullet  was fired from a high angle. It entered Nelsons body from near his collar bone and passed down through his body going through his lungs and emerging near the base of his spine. If the sniper had been a fraction to one side or the other he may have hit just an arm or a leg. Could Captain Harville have been shot in a similar way, standing on the upper deck and being hit in the leg? Something to consider.

MENTAL HEALTH

Captain Wentworth

“…in a small house near the foot of an old pier of unknown date, were the Harvilles settled.”

“ (Capt. Benwick) ..had been engaged to Captain Harvilles sister and was now mourning her loss. They had been a year or two waiting for fortune and promotion. Fortune came, his prize money as lieutenant being great,-promotion too at last; but Fanny Harville did not live to know it, she had died the preceding summer while he was at sea. Captain Wentworth believed it impossible for man to be more attached to woman than poor Benwick had been to Fanny Harville, or to be more deeply afflicted under the dreadful change.”

I think this is a strange introduction to another human being. Captain Benwick is obviously suffering the death of his fiance. But even Anne Elliot seems to give him short shift ,”get over it” she thinks. He’s obviously a young man who has expectations of marriage now he has obtained some wealth through the prize money he has gained from attacking and capturing enemy ships. That is what prize money means. The morality of that is questionable. By defeating and perhaps killing an adversary he has improved his own lifes prospects. Survival of the fittest comes to mind. But has he dreamed too much? Are his expectations based on what he thinks society owes him rather than a true deep relationship with Fanny Harville? Is he really mourning what he thought was love? He thought he had it all, promotion, prize money, marriage. The other thing, and Anne notices this , his overly emotional reaction to the things not quite going his way. He couldn’t have known Fanny Harville that well. He was at sea all the time setting himself up for life and Fanny Harville was merely a piece in that structure.

Were our three capatains suffering post traumatic stress? Look at the way they live.

…”they all went indoors with their new friends, and found rooms so small as none but those who invite from the heart could think capable of accommodating so many.”

“Captain Harville was no reader; but he had contrived excellent accommodations, and fashioned very pretty shelves, for a tolerable collection of well bound volumes, the property of Captain Benwick.”

“…he drew, he varnished, he carpentered, he glued, he made toys for the children, he fashioned new netting-needles and pins with improvements; and if every thing else was done, sat down to his large fising net at one corner of the room.”

Those small rooms are reminiscent of the officers cabins onboard a man of war. Captain Harville, Captain Benwick and Mrs Harville all live in a small confined cottage together. And those hobbies of Captain Harville; putting up shelves, carpentry, making fishing nets. Are these preoccupations of a Royal Naval Captain or are they a means to counter post traumatic stress? Captain Harvilles severe wound could all lead to that assumption.

Even without being in a sea battle could the life and training of a naval sea captain cause psychological disorders? The punishment regime carried out at sea was severe. It is not only the receiver of punishment such as whipping who is damaged. The giver of such punishments must suffer psychologically too. It was a hard regime aboard ship and our three captains were trained or forced to carry out that regime. From what we as a reader can tell of the personalities of the three captains they seem gentle, self reflective, kind people. Could these three really command with full authority and strict discipline the crew of a Royal Naval battleship? I struggle to see that they could, any of them.

A lot has been written about Jane’s brother Francis as a pious man. A letter from his father George Austen to his son Francis early in his carreer promotes a Christian approach to life. Francis himself was known for his sincere Christian practice of prayer aboard his ship.But how much was religion a psychological support to get him through a strict education at the naval academy to begin with, the dangers of engaging in battle at sea and the strict discipline he must have had to keep among his crews. The mental and psychological pressure must have been immense. Was religion a psychological crutch for him to get through this sort of life? 

A  definition for Post traumatic stress and other anxiety problems form the National Health Service  is:

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe.

Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life. For example, you may feel worried and anxious about sitting an exam, or having a medical test or job interview.

During times like these, feeling anxious can be perfectly normal.

But some people find it hard to control their worries. Their feelings of anxiety are more constant and can often affect their daily lives.

 Jane Austen only has admiration for her brothers but were they damaged? From a young age their father George Austen had sent them off to the The Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth. What sort of life was that? Was there abuse? I am sure there must have been cases. They would have had a strict regime imposed on them, the same regime they were later to impose on the men they commanded.

SHORE WIVES

Anne Elliot at Lyme.

I wonder at the relationship between Captain Harville and Mrs Harville and also that of Mary Austen and her husband Francis Austen.

 Jane had knowledge of her own two naval brothers Francis's and Charles's relationships. After quitting Bath following their fathers George Austen's death, Francis  asked his two sisters Jane and Cassandra and his mother to live with his new wife Mary, married in 1806, and their new born child in Southampton.   Francis had wanted to make sure he had a son for the purpose of inheritance. 

Life as a naval officer was precarious and fraught with danger. Mary was made, early in her marriage, a ,"shore wife." She was thrown together with her new relations who she hardly knew, to live   in a house in Castle Square Southampton while her husband was away at sea aboard HMS Canopus.Mary must have become Francis’s financial and business proxy? Was she the one in charge? We are told that Jane did not particularly like her sister in law. In all the letters from Southampton that Jane wrote to Cassandra, Mary is not often mentioned. You get the impression from Jane’s letters that her sister, her mother, her friend Martha Lloyd , who was also living with them and Jane did their own thing. Mary must have been in charge of paying the rent, ordering the food and keeping her husbands interests going.There appears to be a joint decision about getting rid of their gardener at one point. Maybe Jane and Cassandra felt as though they couldn’t say much and had to keep their mouths shut. 

So what of Mrs Harville. How were things really for her? It is also important to remember that Anne Elliot will eventually marry Captain Wentworth, and that means she too will become a shore wife, a proxy for her husband while he is away at sea. Louisa Musgrove and Captain Benwick will  be in the same situation. One of the many side affects was  the fear of their husbands dying at sea.

The situation of Mrs Harville is interesting. Some wives usually of high ranking officers could go to sea with their husbands such as  Mrs Croft decided to do but most wanted to stay at home. They became proxies for their husbands. They paid the bills, looked after the money, made investments, educated their children, bought property and  did all the work and took on all the responsibilities  their husbands would have had. When husbands came home for any length of time there must have been a distance between partners and their children especially if they had been away for years. There must have been resentment if a wife had been a capable, successful manager of everything and then suddenly been reduced to merely, the wife, the mother with all duties taken away from her again. The shore wives were only doing what was expected and required of them by their husbands, the admiralty, and society. However, in taking on these responsibilities, they proved that women were very capable. To a modern perspective, this amount of independence and responsibility seems like it would have been welcome. However, their letters suggest that to many of these naval wives, this responsibility was instead a burden.  Nevertheless the majority of the shore wives were quite successful, financially and politically. There is evidence from the letters sent between naval officers and their wives there was a great amount of trust and pressure put upon these women.  

Women and the Royal Navy in the 18th century.

These ordinary women who lived at a time when women did not have equality with men  were left with the responsibilty of not only running their homes but managing their husbands finances participating in the Royal Naval patronage system, a system whereby it is who you know not what you can do, gets you promotion. , using power of attorney to invest their husbands money and keeping up a correspondence with their absent husbands which strangely required  a knowledge of the worlds wind systems and a good knowledge of geography to be able to get their letters to the right place. 

In the letters written from Castle Square by JaneAusten to her sister Cassandra very little of Mary is mentioned. We get the impression, if neither sister was called away by Edward to stay at Godmersham, his house in Kent or by one of their other brothers to help with child care, they did their own thing, dealing with their own finances. We do not hear whether Francis gave his sisters and mother an allowance. They spent their time  receiving visitors, making local acquaintances and on occasion attending balls and the theatre.  Jane mentions Mary in her letters referring to her as Mrs FA. 

Wednesady 7th January 1807

..we changed it for the “Female Quixote,” ( a novel by Charlotte Lennox published in 1752)which now makes our evening amusement, to me a very high one, a I find the work quite equal to what I remeberd it. Mrs FA, to whom it is new, enjoys it as one could wish.

Thusrday 8th January 1807

“ Mrs FA has had a fainting fit lately, it came on as usual after eating a hearty dinner, but did not last long.”

Referring to her as Mrs FA sounds impersonal and almost rude if a little sarcastic. There is a feeling that Mary is merely tolerated.

We do not hear from Jane or Cassandra how capable Mary was but as there is nothing derogatory about her management capabilities mentioned , or rather in the letters that survive nothing bad  is said, we can only surmise things went well. 

In Persuasion we don’t hear how Mrs Harville performed as a shore wife.  There is a  nod towards the abilities of women in the Lyme Regis  episode. When Louisa Musgrove falls form the Cobb and strikes her head becoming unconscious it is Anne who takes charge. Captains, Wentworth, Harville and Benwick are rendered helpless. Three naval captains used to keeping strict discipline and control over a war ship and its crew do not know what to do.

PATRIONAGE IN THE 18thCENTURY ROYAL NAVY

Portrait of Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) by John Francis Rigaud, 1781. 

By 1794 both of Jane Austen’s seagoing brothers, Frank and Charles were at sea.

“Charles left the naval academy in September 1794 and shipped as a Midshipman aboard HMS Daedalus, under the command of his cousin’s husband  Captain Thomas Williams.”

 There seems to be more than a hint of patrionage  where Charles is given a posiiton aboard HMS Daedulus by a family member, somebody he knew.

Frank, the elder borther meanwhile was in the sloop HMS Lark stationed in the North Sea. He seemed to be getting noweher with a distinct lack of opportunity. So his father the Reverend George Austen wrote to the families old friend Warren Hastings to get Frank moved to a larger ship with more chance of active service. The enagemnet in active service was beneficial if  dangerous. There was a chance of gaining prize money from taking enemy ships and of course with promotion up the ranks the chance of getting a larger share of the prize money available. 

The Reverend George Austen wrote,

“I… must ever acknowledge myself much your debtor, for the friendly manner in which you have undertaken our cause, and the application you have made in behlkaf of my son. As to the event of tiI am not very sanguine convinced as I am that all patrionage in the Navy restes with Lord Chatham however as ot may be of material serviceto us to have a warm Friend at the borad I am very thankful you haver procured us one in Admiral Affleck. If I mistake nothe had formerly some acquaintance with my family and  perhaps his recollection of that may be an additional motive with his regard for you toedeavur to assist us.”

It is a begging letter and I think it gives a poor reflection of how promotion worked in the Royal Navy of the time. Its who you know not what you know. But patrionage could be interpreted in a better light.The system of patrionage the navy used did actually work reasonably well. Patrionage did not always mean you were promoted because you had a relative or friend of the family who could get you promoted. Research has shown that those promoted in that way  could end up with a mediocre or average career. The other view of patronage was the promotion of those with ability. Admirals or those in the hierarchy often gave those with obvious abilities their patronage and helped them get promoted. This happened particularly during the time of war.  This fast tracking system  only benefitted the navy.Whether Frank Austen could be regarded as somebody with ability it can be left open to speculation. He reached the position of admiral by the time he was 90 years old partly because his contempories had all died off.

In Persuasion Captain Wentworth is the brother of Admiral Crofts wife.We can imagine his career path smoothed because of this connection. We do not learn in the novel whether he was a man of naval ability.

When Anne goes to Lyme with Captain Wentworth and the Musgroves 

“ Captain Wentworth turned in to call on his friends ; the others walked on and he was to join them on the Cobb.

…..Louisa seemed to feel that they had parted with Captain Wentworth long when they saw him coming after them, with three companions, all well known already by description to be Captain and Mrs Harville, and a Captain Benwick who was staying with them.

Captain Benwick had some time ago been first Lieutenant of the Laconia; and the account which Captain Wentworth had given him, on his return from Lyme before; his warm praise of hm as an excellent officer, whom he had always valued highly, which must have stamped him well in the esteem of every listener, had been followed by a little history of his private life, which rendered him perfectly interesting in the eyes of all the ladies.”

If we put Captain Benwick's  personal life and  ,"the interest in the eyes of all the ladies," that he attracts to one side  part of this description reveals one officer highly regarding another officer. Presumably Captains Wentworth and Harville are senior to Captain Benwick. It seems that.Jane Austen is describing  the patronage system at work.  Captain Wentworth with his connection to the Crofts and in particlar Admiral Croft  his praise and good reports of Benwick can  promote Benwick  through a mix of who you know and also the  meritocratic side of the patrionage system. 

The Old Royal Naval Academy (1733- 1837) building Portsmouth. 

THE ROYAL NAVAL ACADEMY PORTSMOUTH

Francis Austen joined the Royal Naval academy Portsmouth in April 1786. He was twelve years old. Later ,in 1791, Janes other seafaring brother Charles joined the academy. He was thirteen years old.

In 1733, a shoreside facility was established in the dockyard for 40 recruits. A comprehensive syllabus provided theoretical and practical experience in the dockyard and at sea. Graduates of the Academy could earn two years of sea time as part of their studies, and would be able to take the lieutenant's examination after four years at sea instead of six. The Academy did not, however, achieve the objective of becoming the preferred path to becoming a naval officer; the traditional means of a sea-going "apprenticeship" remained the preferred alternative. The vast majority of the officer class was still recruited in this manner based on family ties, and patronage. Family connections, "interest" and a sincere belief in the superiority of practical experience learned on the quarterdeck ensured that the officer class favoured the traditional model. William IV summed up this view when he remarked that "there was no place superior to the quarterdeck of a British man of war for the education of a gentleman".

They also had an education in mathematics, the science of the day, navigation,negotiating skills, leadership skills and learning about foreign diplomatic relations. All of this was all part of the education.Those skills were needed by a Royal Naval Captain

There was a clear prejudice against graduates. The then rating of midshipman-by-order, or midshipman ordinary, was used specifically for graduates of the Royal Naval Academy, to distinguish them from midshipmen who had served aboard ship, who were paid more. After two years at sea, graduates of the academy were eligible to be promoted to midshipman. 

In 1806 the Academy was reconstituted as the "Royal Navy College" and in 1816 was amalgamated with the "School of Naval Architecture".

The college closed as a young officer training establishment on 30 March 1837, meaning that from that date all youngsters setting out on a naval career proceeded directly to sea. The closure of the college created a gap in officer training, and in 1857 the two-decker HMS Illustrious undertook the role of cadet training ship at Portsmouth. In 1859 she was replaced by the three-decker Britannia, which was removed to Portland in 1862 and to Dartmouth in 1863. 

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AT SEA.

A flogging at sea on a Royal Naval ship.

Can we imagine Captains Wentworth, Harville, Benwick Charles Austen and Francis Austen overseeing a strict regime that included corporal punishment?

There are the punishment records for some of the Roayl Naval Ships of the time that can be perused. HMS Daphne" The 6th-rate frigate Daphne (twenty guns; 160 men) was built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1776. The commander was Captain St. John Chinnery, and the frigate's first commission was for the North American station. 

There is a substantial corporal punishment list for HMS Daphne. There were ninety-nine floggings in just over seven years, giving a total of 1464 lashes and an average of 14.8 lashes per flogging. Most of the floggings were of twelve lashes, but nineteen were of twenty-four; one of thirty-six; and one of forty-eight. A total of ninety-two individuals were flogged. The fifty-seven men flogged in the period 1776-1780 comprised 11.2% of all seamen and marines who passed through the ship in that period. There were eleven repeat offenders in Daphne: six men received two floggings each; four had three floggings each; and one, John Mahoney, was flogged four times over two years, receiving a total of seventy-two lashes. On each occasion Mahoney's offences were drunkenness and neglect of duty. 

The main cause of punishments was the  neglect of duty. There is not really a definition for neglect of duty but one exception is Richard Tokley who received twelve lashes on 19 February 1777 for "losing a Dutch flag overboard." The next punishable offence was caused by  alcoholic drink,  often when the ship was in port. Most of the drink-related offences in 1778 took place while Daphne was at New York. The next main offence was insolence (fou followed by quarrelling. 

I am sure jane Austen was aware of this strict punishment regime when writing her ,"Naval Captains," in Persuasion, and she was all too aware of what the life of a naval officers wife would have entailed. Like  much  of what Jane writes in her novels it can pass  the modern reader by. Somebody reading her novels in the 18th century, just after they were first published, would have known what Jane knew.

References:

Jane Austen A Family record by Deirdre Le Faye 

2008 Shore Wives: The Lives: The Lives Of British Of British Naval Officers' Wives And Widows, 1750-1815 Amy Lynn Smallwood Wright State University

Portsmouth Royal Naval Academy : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Naval_Academy

Patrionage in the Royal navy 18th Century (published 2022): Guo Xu ( University of California) Hans Joachim Zoth ( University of Zurich) 

Jane Austen;  PERSUASION: Penguin Classics (pub 1998 reissued 2003) 

THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE definition of stress including post traumatic stress.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/generalised-anxiety-disorder/overview/

JANE AUSTEN the PUNK ROCKER.

 

It’s strange how various things can come together to get you thinking along a new track.I had read something about Edmund Burke and his extreme conservative views that believed traditon and the status quo was a natural way of existence.  Burke believed in continuity. He thought that we are born into a class and that is where we should remain.He had a particular anti view of the enlightenment that was taking over the world. 

Recently too I have been listening again to some of my favourite punk music from the 1970s. I’ve been reading up about the philosophy of punk.  In a mad moment I Googled ,”Jane Austen and punk rock.” Why not? Wild thoughts come to all of us. 

Reading a definition of Punk Rock you can begin to see Jane Austen in that light. 

Punk Rock is a group of varied social and political beliefs associated with the punk subculture and punk rock. It is primarily concerned with concepts such as mutual aid against selling out hierarchy, white supremacy, authoritarianism, eugenics, class and classism, gender equality, anti-homophobia, racial equality, animal rights,  free-thought and non-conformity.

These ideas are similar to those Burke and Austen dealt with. Burke didn’t want change. Jane Austen in a subtle way by revealing the realities of people and relationships made the 18th century reader reflect and reflection is always the first step to change.

Autumn de Wilde

Surprisingly. there are T shirts with a punk rock version  of a Jane Austen portrait on the front.  I also came across an interview with Autumn deWilde who produced the recent film version of ,”Emma,” with   Anya Taylor Joy who starred as Emma, Mia Goth who played Harriet Smith and Jonny Flynn as Mr Knightly. You can’t get much more rock and roll than those. Autumn de Wilde is quoted as saying,

 

“Emma is such a lead singer, man! And you’re like, ‘Oh god, you’re such a jerk – but I am obsessed with you’.

She said: “I think Jane Austen has punk DNA. They weren’t even allowed to  be funny in that time period.

“Women weren’t allowed to be funny or witty in that time period and God, was she funny.

“She created the first female anti-hero… I could be wrong about that but it seems pretty legendary to have created a character like that.

“I think women are very punk rock - we have to hide a lot - we’re not allowed to say we have periods in public. Somehow we’re still not OK with that.

Speaking about her own background in bringing this story to life, there was a sense, for de Wilde, that doing something almost unexpected was the essence of “punk rock.”

(Daiy Express interview.)

A Punk Rocker

Were Elizabeth and Darcy the punk rockers of their era? Elizabeth stood up to Darcy’s pomposity, his pride and his prejudice. In many ways by writing about those two Jane Austent was putting her own life, livelihood and. future happiness on the line. Autumn de Wilde would agree that is a punk attitude without a doubt.

Some of those listed points about punk rock you can apply to Jane Austen.  I would say however,  Jane Austen does not blatantly express her political or social views. Her family and the society she lived in would have more than just disapproved. Jane would have  been roundly censured and maybe never published again if she had complained overtly. 

Recently I have been reading Helena Kelly’s, ”Jane Austen The Secret Radical.”

She refocuses our views of Jane Austen. She didn’t just live in a country village shut off from the wider world nationally and internationally. Kelly argues that Jane’s writing often is a response to the wider world politically, socially and philosophically.

“Jane was born five years after the poet William Wordsworth, the year before the American Revolution began. When the. French revolution started; she was thirteen. For almost all of her life, Britain was at war. Two of her brothers were in the navy; one joined the militia. For several years she lived in Southampton, a major naval base. It was a time of  clashing armies, warring ideas, a time of censorship and state surveillance. Enclosures were remaking the landscape; European empire building was changing the world; science and technology were opening up a whole universe of new possibilities.

We’re perfectly willing to accept that writers like Wordsworth were fully engaged with everything that was happening, and to find the references in their work,  even when they are veiled or allusive. But we haven’t been willing to do that with jane’s work.”

That is a great description of punk attitudes and Helena is saying why shoudn't Austen be the same?

Coincidently, before reading Helena Kelly’s book and unconnected to what Kelly wrote I wrote an article for my blog ,"London Calling," ( a punk title if ever there was) entitled ,”Understanding George Wickham.” I could see that the  ,”Enlightenment,” views that were the force behind the French Revolution and the American War of Independence and along with Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas about the equality of men and women I made an argument explaining Wickham from the point of view of mans ,”equality,” and in his case his inequality.  I argued that Wickham’s personality and anti establishment actions was formed in a society that was unequal. He suffered  inequality with Darcy and the upper classes. This brought disastrous consequences  upon himself and others because he was formed in the class riddled society he was born into. He wanted to smash it all. The Sex Pistols lyrics  come to mind.

Austen describes the warts of society. The Bennet sisters struggles to find suitors, the ineffectiveness of the Bennet mother and father, Lady de Bourgh's aristocratic rigid views and Mr Collins smarmy. oily personality seeping around the social rules of the time in Pride and Prejudice. Emma's terrible put down of Miss Bates and Mr Knightly's rebuke  and the need for secrecy in the relationship between Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill. You can feel Jane Austen itching to show the absurdity of the need for that secrecy.The way Anne Elliot has to negotiate life with her terrible father and sister in Persuasion. The awful treatment of the Dashwood sisters and mother by their half brother when he inherits their estate in Sense and Sensibility.The plight of Fanny Price a poor inconsequential young girl and the Bertram family in Mansfield Park and of course Catherine Moreland and Henry Tilney  and the Thorpes in Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen is saying, this is how they are, this is how they treat each other, this is how they behave.Often it’s not very nice. Austen’s strong female characters usually come through though and are often triumphant. This strength of character is definitely a punk rock trait. 

So does this all add up to jane Austen being a punk? She doesn’t change society. I would argue she is more for  organic change.What she describes in her novels is not sudden change,its not revolution she is arguing for. She would have been  guillotined (metaphorically of course, in Britain) if she had asked for revolution no doubt. Her revolt  is a more organic approach. She is a realist not a bomber or assassin. From her family loyalties and the socialisation she went through she doesn’t want a French Revolution or an American War of independence. The Austen family would most definitely not approved.

Did punk rock itself  change society drastically? What it did do was make us all think and look at our world with the blinkers taken off. That’s Jane Austen in a nutshell.  Punk Rock with its clothes, record deals , Tv appearances and so forth was drawn into the mainstream of society. It became another acceptable important art genre. Without a doubt that describes Jane Austen today, films, spin off novels, ball reenactments, dressing up.  She is definitely part of main stream society now. She is a commodity like punk has become a tourist attraction in Camden lock in north London. What punk rock did was make it more acceptable in a democratic society to complain about things which seemed sacred and needed complaining about, often with an angry snarl admittedly and with a studded forehead and a safety pin through the nose. If being aware makes us change then punk rock helped. Being aware is how Jane Austen helped develop society from her house in a country village in the 18th century. 

No matter how much the Sex Pistols wanted anarchy they weren’t really advocating it.   Jane shows a disgust for  Lady Catherine de Bourgh , Mr Collins and the John Thorpes of her world but she didn’t ,”execute,” them. So Jane Austen is a punk rocker. She makes us aware of what life, family, community the class system was really like. When you turn attention to things and examine them you begin to ask questions, you are, Punk Rock. 

THE CLASH , a band at the forefront of the Punk Rock movement in Britain were

“formed in 1976 in the vanguard of british Punk. The Clash would soon become the most iconic band of their era, a symbol of the intelligent protest and stylish rebellion in the turbulent years of the late 70’s and early 60’s.”

A quotation from the Website dedicated to The Clash. https://www.theclash.com/biography/

We could almost say that Jane Austen’s novels are 

“ ……a symbol of the intelligent protest and stylish rebellion in the turbulent years of the late ,(1700s and early 1800s.)

Here are some of the lyrics from,  “Hate and War,” by The Clash.

Hate and war…

I have the will to survive

I cheat if I can’t win

If someone kicks me out

I kick my way back in

An’ if I get aggression

I give it to them two time back

Everyday it’s just the same

With hate an’ war on my back

Hate and war- I hate all the English

Hate and war- I hate all the politeness

Hate and war- I hate all the cops

Straight out of the mouth of George Wickham.

References:

PUNK ROCK:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock

THE CLASH  Lyrics; https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/clash/hateandwar.html

Kelly Helena :  Jane Austen The Secret Radical. (2016)  ICON BOOKS LIMITED 

The novels of Jane Austen.

Edmund Burk: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/burke/

Mary Wolstonecroft: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml

UNDERSTANDING GEORGE WICKHAM

 

George Wickham and Lydia Bennet

Is George Wickham, in Pride and Prejudice, more complex than we thought?

Wickham is one the most loathed characters in a Jane Austen novel. 

He first appears in Meryton High Street, an associate of Mr Denny.

“His appearance was greatly in his favour; he had all the best part of beauty, a fine countenance , a good figure, and a very pleasing address.The introduction was followed up  on his side by a happy readiness of conversation- a readiness at the same time perfectly correct and unassuming;…”

The Bennet sisters, with Mr Collins in tow and along with their aunt MrsPhilips had been encouraged by their father to walk to Meryton. Mr Bennet being eager to have a respite from the attentions of Mr Collins. In the high street they came across  an unknown young man in the company of Mr Denny who they do know. This was their first meeting with George Wickham.  They were to dine at their aunts, Mrs Philips’s house the next day. At the behest of the women Wickham was later invited to dine with them too by Mr Philips personally.

As soon as he arrived all the young females were immediately enamoured of him. He had a smooth relaxed way of talking. He came across as being a handsome, confident, assured young man with impeccable manners. Wickham had learned how to ingratiate himself, especially with young ladies. He had learned to come across as the perfect example of the male species. Is this acting , a learned habit, a way of getting others to like him? Probably all of these. What is surprising is how Elizabeth Bennet herself was enraptured and attracted by him. Lydia, of course, is completely taken by him too. The uniform was all to her.

 Somebody who has this sort of charisma and practiced charm is all surface. It cannot possibly be their whole personality, their whole character, but it takes experience to know that.

While talking in the high street Darcy and Bingley happen to ride past and acknowledge the ladies. Darcy and Wickham, their eyes meet, and a strange atmopsphere descends between the two of them. They obviously know each other. Darcy stiffly acknowledges Wickham who stiffly acknowledges him in return.Elizabeth notices the exchange. Obviously everything is not as first appearances make out.

At the Philips’s dinner the next day Elizabeth and Wickham talk. Elizabeth is keen to ask about his acquaintance with Darcy but she dare not. Wickham however begins a conversation about Darcy himself, wondering how long he has been in the area. Elizabeth relates the rumours that Darcy has a large estate in Derbyshire and that he has a large fortune.

“ Yes,” replied Wickham;-‘ his estate there is a noble one. A clear ten thousand per annum. You could not have met with a person more capable of giving you certain information on that head than myself- for I have been connected with the family in  a particular manner from my infancy.”

Then Wickham reveals his close connection to Old Mr Darcy and to Darcy himself. Wickham’s father had been the estate manager for Mr Darcy. He and Fitzwilliam Darcy had grown up together. Old Mr Darcy out of his attachment to Wickham’s father and a liking for the son had provided an education at Cambridge,  for Wickham, the same he provided for his own son and had left Wickham  not only £1000 in his will but also the promise  of a rich parish when one came up on his estates. Wickham explained to Elizabeth that he had been brought up to be a clergyman. He also added that how ,after the death of both his own father and also Old Mr Darcy the youmger Darcy, Fitzwilliam had provided the money but when a rich living did come up Darcy had refused him. Wickham describes Darcy  as proud and jealous. And Wickham himself opines,

“ I have been a disappointed man and my spirits will not bear solitude..” 

  Truth but untruth and Elizabeth because of her own initial aversion to Darcy believes it  and we as the readers, perhaps, believe it too.

But there is the alternative explanation of events later in the novel, Darcy’s take on the same events and facts. In an empassioned letter to Elzabeth he explains,

“ With respect to that other more weighty accusation, of having injured Mr Wickham, I can only refute it by laying before you the whole of his connection with my family.”

And so Fitzwilliam Darcy begins. He relates  how Wickham's father was a loved and respected estate manager, and Darcys father’s liking and fondness for George Wickham, the son. He describes how they had a close associationin in their youth and he saw him at unguarded moments.

Darcy goes on to explain.

“ George Wickham, who was his (Old Mr Darcy's) godson,his kindness was liberally bestowed. My father supported him at school, and afterwards at Cambridge;-most important assistance.......My father was not only fond of this young man’s society, whose manners were always engaging he had also the highest opinion of him ……..As for myself, it is many many years since I first began to think of him in a very different manner. The viscious propensities- the want of principle which he was careful to guard from the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape the observation of a young man of nearly the same age with himself and who had the opportunities of seeing him in unguarded moments…”

Wickham had turned down the offer of a parish living when it did come up but had asked for a further £3000 in its stead which Darcy gave him to follow a career in the law. Wickham instead lived a dissolute life. He spent very little time in following the law which he found himself unsuited for and instead spent the money on gambling and drinking.

Old Mr Darcy had in effect tried to raise George Wickham above his birth status. He provided all the means for him to move upwards in society and as such change his class. He was a man of Enlightenment views. So why would Wickham turn out like this when he had been offered so many advantages in life? 

 Britain has a class system which even today is still extant. Many governments over the decades and centuries have talked about making a more equal society but, we still have an aristocracy that owns a large part of the landmass of the United Kingdom, we have a two tier education system, state and private and we have a massive wealth divide. Those divisions in society were much more stark in Jane Austen’s time. She herself was writing  about the gentry and the aristocracy, privately educated men and wealthy landowners.  The serving class , the poor people ,are viritually erased from the world that Jane Austen creates. Where they appear they are generally nice people. We have Mr Martin the farmer in Emma and  some servants who appear briefly in the novels. The Springers,father and son, in the unfinished Sanditon come to mind and have some connection to the situation of Wickham and his father but of course that novel never develops beyond  introductions so we will never know their role in the entirety of the novel.

The difference between those others  compared to Wickham, is that they  are portrayed as honest, hard working and likeable characters and George Wickham is not. They all remain apparently happy  within their strata of society and in relation to the gentry. They have no ambitions to move upwards in society.

Wickham seems to be an experiment where Austen is saying, if you try and move upwards in class, get above yourself, there are terrible consequences. You will destroy yourself and damage others around you. She is making a case for the extant societal structure and the status quo. Maybe she sees it as a natural way of existence as Edmund Burke the philosopher and statesman, believed.  

We have heard from both Wickham himself and Fitzwilliam Darcy. His father was obviously a talented  estate manager and may well have earned a good salary from Old Mr Darcy but he was still of a lower class. The Old Mr Darcy seemed to have attempted, because of his fondnes for the father and the boy, to move him out of his class into a higher class through education, encouraging and allowing an association with his own son and by providing money and a future position in life. Nowadays we think of education as the answer to a fulfilling life and in many ways it is but in a cruel twist, the education of the masses, as we have today ,still leaves us with a world of poor and rich, the upper classes and the lower classes. 

The effect of this attempt to raise George Wickahm in society, in Jane Austen’s mind, was to create a  monster.

Darcy had noticed the bad side of Wickham as they grew up together. Can you imagine a boy from one class trying to be the equal of somebody in a higher class? Surely in the 18th century it was impossible. He must have felt torn between his own father and Old Mr Darcy,  what advantages and socialisation  Fitzwilliam Darcy received as a natural course  and was heir to and what he himself was being offered out of generosity in what must have seemed an unatural way. He must have felt an imposter. He must have felt bitter, mixed up and vengeful. All of which is apparent in Pride and Prejudice. His way of coping was to copy the actions and demeaner, of a member of the upper classes but he had become neither one nor the other. And so his response was to sink into dissipation.

Examples of his dissipation are his attempted seduction and elopement in Ramsgate,  of Darcys young sister Georgiana aided by, probably  just as bitter a person, Mrs Younge,who was put in charge by Darcy and his cousin, to run the establishment set up for her . Then of course there is his later elopement with Lydia and unhappy marriage. In the final chapter Darcy has accepted the situation and he keeps Wickham financially viable, financing his dissolute ways for the sake of his wife’s sister and perhaps his own conscience. It’s a mess and It’s all very sad and in many ways a grotesque life for Wickham.

 Austen portrays throughout her novels society changing and developing in an organic way.  Much of the plot of each of her novels is about human and societal development but as a gradual process. Wickham stands out from all this because he is an experiment outside of  the  process of gradual change.  Wickham’s effect on society is sudden and brutal.

“The Enlightenment,” which dominated Europe in the 18th century was centred around  the idea that reason is the primary source of authority and legitimacy. Modernisation, scepticism and liberty were its main traits and influenced much of the political and social thinking of the 18th century either  agreeing or  opposing those ideas.

Pride and Prejudice was published in January 1813.   The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783) ended thirty years before.  Jane had been working on the novel since the 1790s. There is the famous statement in the American Declaration of Independence, a version of enlightenment thought, that says,

“we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

The Declaration of Independence..

All of this statement is important but with relation to Wickham and his predicament the bit which says ,”all men are equal,” is the pertinent phrase. Equality with Fitzwilliam Darcy and the gentry was impossible  for him. So from a young age he became, bitterand twisted. 

A Vindication Of The Rights of Men.

Mary Wollstonecraft had written, by the time Pride and Prejudice was published, both her enlightenment statements including The Vindication of the Rights of Men 1790. A long letter counteracting the  views of Edmund Burke who  believed that sexual, social and other inequaliies were a natural order of things.The French Revolution begun in 1789 was reverberating around Europe and the World with its cry for,”Liberty , Equality and Fraternity.” Charles James Fox (1749-1806), the great Whig politician was sympathetic both to the American cause and the French Revolution. Wordsworth the poet was sympathetic to many of the ideas espoused by the French too. There were many others in high positions. 

Britain and the British monarchy were nervous to say the least. The Austens were traditionalists, they supported the monarchy, the church, were friends with members of the gentry, Edward Austen being part of the gentry and Mrs Austen descending from a gentry family,  they joined the navy and the military and so supported the traditonal social norms.

The new French Republic continues with the Girondists.

Wickham can be seen as a fictional metaphor  for Jane Austen’s view of ,The Enlightenment.  In many ways he is Austen's emotional reaction to the revolutions of France and America.

Perhaps if Wickham had been born and brought up across the Atlantic he would have had different opportunities in a different social climate and turned out differently? 

References:

The Declaration of Independence 1776,

 https://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/declaration

Wollstonecraft Mary, The Vindication of The Rights of Men, 

Online Library of Liberty, https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/wollstonecraft-a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-men

The French Revolution, https://www.swansea.ac.uk/history/history-study-guides/the-long-and-short-reasons-for-why-revolution-broke-out-in-france-in-1789/

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Penguin Classics 1996. (First published 1813)