Presentation 1: Empiricism and the Misogynistic Aspects of "The = Lady’s=20 Dressing Room" by Jonathan Swift
INTRO
After reading this poem and other works by Swift, like = Gulliver’s=20 Travels, you may think Swift seems a bit obsessed with physiological = functions. I certainly found "The Lady’s Dressing Room" to be a = nauseating read.=20 I was, however, fascinated by what drove Swift to take the artifacts of = a=20 normal, healthy woman and present them in this rather repugnant=20 way.
Some have argued that this borderline obsession with human = physiology,=20 especially in regards to women, is misogynistic. I would like to reflect = on the=20 misogynistic aspects of "The Lady’s Dressing Room," especially in = relation to=20 the Empiricist movement of the day. A bit later on I will describe = empiricism=20 and its relation to this poem more fully.
QUOTES
In doing my research for this talk, I came across a number of = opinions on=20 Swift’s faecal focus. I thought they would be a good jumping off = point.
One reviewer of a Swift biography wrote in the National Review: "I = have just=20 read for the first and (I am determined) last time Swift’s poem = "The Lady’s=20 Dressing Room," which tests to destruction the reader’s tolerance = for=20 descriptions of sweat, snot, earwax, and dandruff." (Derbyshire=20 1999)
John Middleton Murry - coined the term "excremental vision" for = Swift’s=20 scatological poems said:
Nevertheless, it is not his direct obsession with ordure which is the = chief=20 cause of the nausea he arouses. It is the strange and disquieting = combination of=20 his horror at the fact that human evacuation with a peculiar physical = loathing=20 of women. The conventional excuses made for him are ridiculous... Lust = is=20 natural and wholesome compared to the feelings Swift arouses.
(As = quotes=20 in Doody, 1988)Jae Num Lee defends the motif in his paper Swift and Scatological =
Satire:=20
"Swift is not a literary eccentric, but a traditional author making =
imaginative=20
and effective use of controversial material to suit his purposes
Sir Walter Scott said that poems such as the Lady’s Dressing = Room revealed,=20 "an incipient disorder of the mind, which induced the author to dwell = upon=20 degrading and disgusting subjects from which all men, in possession of = healthful=20 tastes and sound facilities, turn with abhorrence." (As quotes in = Anspaugh,=20 1995)
Finally, DH Lawrence said of poor Celia, our poem’s heroine, = "Swift’s=20 insolent and sickly squeamish mind just turned her into a thing of = horror,=20 because she was merely natural and when to the w.c. It is monstrous! One = feels=20 like going back across all the years to poor Celia, to say to her: = It’s all=20 right, don’t you take any notice of that mental lunatic." (As = quotes in=20 Anspaugh, 1995)
BACKLASH TO EMPIRICIST
I read a very interesting article that claimed that the Lady’s = Dressing Room=20 is a kind of backlash against empiricism. (Mandell, 1996)
1. Summary of Empiricism
Empiricism is based on the tabula rasa, or blank slate concept. = Basically, it=20 states that we are born clear, without any kind of innate behaviors or = knowledge=20 and we learn everything along the way.
According to empiricist thinking, knowledge is acquired exclusively = through=20 the senses - through observation.
This aspect of empiricism is the basis of modern scientific thinking = and=20 methodology. The primary tool of scientific research is observation by = the=20 senses, typically sight. Technology has improved our power of = observation over=20 time, but it hasn’t eliminated its importance.
John Locke’s essay, "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" = details human=20 functions in a highly structured format. Human Understanding is first = broken=20 down into a series of components. Each component is subsequently broken = down=20 individually into its sub-components. The description of each component = begins=20 with an idealized explanation of its function when at its peak capacity = in=20 youth. It ends with a detailing of the component’s decay in old=20 age.
On your hand out you’ll see excerpts from the chapter on = Perception. This=20 will give you an idea of both the content and structure empiricist=20 writing.
In this essay, Locke isolates each component of human understanding = and=20 describes its decay individually. Mandell asserts that this is a kind of = disavowal of death because the decay of the whole is never addressed. = Locke=20 breaks down death in terms of the decay of the components that form the = whole=20 making his essay a kind of dilution of death’s = potency.
Furthermore, the tools of empiricist research, objective scientific=20 observation, impose a distance between the observer and the subject. = Perhaps=20 because this is in direct opposition to the poet-muse relationship, = which tends=20 to be highly empathetic, Swift and Pope took an allegedly strong = disliking to=20 the rationale.
"The Lady’s Dressing Room" is a kind of satire of these aspects = of empiricist=20 thought. Swift over-dramatizes learning from the senses, researching = through=20 observation and assessing human decay through its components.
2. Decaying Human Components
Strephon’s intent to catalogue his findings objectively clearly = is=20 expressed:
Strephon, who found the room was void
And Betty otherwise employed,
Stole in and took a strict survey
Of all the liter as it lay;
Whereof, to make the matter clear,
An inventory follow here.
The evidence of Celia’s decay is prevalent throughout the poem. = She uses "A=20 forehead cloth with oil upon’t/ To smooth the wrinkles on her = front." Wrinkles=20 are indicative of aging, a natural decay and progression towards death. = Her=20 offensive smell permeates through the room. An image that I will discuss = later=20 of a worm coming through her nose reminds one of a buried corpse that = becomes=20 subsequently infested with maggots.
3. Scientific Observation and Observer/Subject Distance
Strephon uses his senses to observe Celia’s things. Most = prominent, arguably,=20 is his use of the sense of smell:
For Strephon ventured to look in,
Resolved to go through thick or thin;
He lifts the lid, there needs no more:
He smelt it all the time before.
As from within Pandora’s box,
When Epimetheus oped the locks,
A sudden universal crew
Of humane evils upward flew,
He still was comforted to find
That Hope at last remained behind;
So Strephon lifting up the lid
To view what in the chest was hid,
The vapours flew from out the vent.
Swift exposes the pitfall of drawing conclusion from your senses, as=20 Empiricists would, when Strephon associates Celia’s smell with all = women:=20
But vengeance, Goddess never sleeping,
Soon punished Strephon for his peeping:
His foul Imagination links
Each dame he see with all her stinks;
And, if unsavory odors fly,
Conceives a lady standing by.
All women his description fits
And both ideas jump like wits
By vicious fancy coupled fast,
And still appearing in contrast.
I pity wretched Strephon blind
To all the charms of female kind.
In keeping with the empiricist scientific tradition, Strephon = maintains a=20 distance between himself and Celia. When he looks at her magnification = mirror,=20 he doesn’t think of his own grotesque reflection, but instead = imagines what hers=20 must look like:
The virtues we must not let pass,
Of Celia’s magnifying glass.
When frighted Strephon cast his eye on’t
It shewed the visage of a giant.
A glass that can to sight disclose
The smallest worm in Celia’s nose,
And faithfully direct her nail
To squeeze it out from head to tail;
(For catch it nicely by the head,
It must come out alive or dead)
The parallel between "The Lady’s Dressing Room and empiricist = thinking, like=20 Locke’s "Essay on Human Understanding" is clear. What isn’t = clear, however, is=20 whether, considering this interpretation, the poem is misogynistic. = Strephon=20 observes Celia in her absence with scientific objectivity and imposed = distance.=20 He assesses the components of her decay, one by one, through the use of = his=20 senses. The empiricist subject, however, is traditionally sexless, while = Swift=20 chooses a woman for his. If this poem is an "inventory" of Celia’s = decay and, in=20 turn, her death, then Swift is writing with a morbidity that borders on=20 misogyny.