Meta Gothic and Gender Confusion

I think in order to suss out this novel, Misfortune, it is important for me to just simply state all of the various facets of the largely ambiguous and troubling scenes and themes. To start with, like I stated in class, there are seemingly a lot of similarities to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The first of which that I found is the elaborate experiment regarding the capacities of human life that Anonyma engages in with baby Rose. Now, this is obviously not reanimation or anything as extreme or scientifically improbable (improbable should really have scare quotes around it), however, Anonyma does in fact take on an experiment whereby she is taking certain boundaries that persist to human life and seeing at what points she can bend, shape and basically erase them. And, just like Victor Frankenstein, Anonyma is present for the duration of the process. She knows all along that Rose is a boy in girl's clothing. It should be as little a surprise that Rose would eventually discover "her" anatomy than it was to Victor that he was building a human form out of various large cadavers. How can Victor think these dead rotting tissues wouldn't be horrifying when they stood up and looked at him? Similarly, how did Anonyma think that, without informing Rose of the availability of the proposed gender choice that she had tried to afford her, Rose would grow to be anything but confused and self-destructive? To be fair, Anonyma's experiment was cut short by external machinations.

I also found odd, as I'm sure the author intended, the three sort of sex scenes discussed in class: first with creepy old Uncle Edwig (who reminds of the child molester uncle from Tommy), then the encounter with Sarah, and finally Esmond's (deserving) torment. To start, the scene with Uncle Edwig is nothing short of horrifying. There are multiple factors and cues that Stace gives us to interpret. One, there is a sensational quality to the disgust. The old man has spilled food strewn over him, he smells awful, and he has a dubious manner of speaking. Other things include the obviousness that he is an alcoholic in withdrawals and that he makes extremely unwanted advances at all manner of women in his own family. Finally, we have the omniscient view point's sense that Rose really has no idea of the disturbing quality of the situation she is in. There is (or was for me) a palpable sense in the reader of wanting Hood to simply stroll out and end the debauchery. Which of course doesn't happen. To Rose, it becomes an exploration of anatomy that becomes something of a comfort, in that "she" seems to think there is nothing wrong with "her" body. This juxtaposition is simultaneously brilliant and demented. Finally, Rose gets the stigma of Edwig's death, in association with what she believes is the "tuning" that she feels from Edwig.

This stigma carries over to the sensation that Sarah has during the encounter between her and Rose. This scene is especially ambiguous because it casts into light so many different ways of observing the relationship. It seems apparent that Rose looks up to Sarah. Sarah is an exceptional model for what a girl should be (Prudence is as well, physically, but is lacking in character). Rose wants to be like Sarah. In discovering the disparities in their anatomies, Rose becomes sorry for Sarah at what she perceives as a loss. If the male uncle Edwig had this appendage, and the "female" Rose does as well, then everyone should right? After some fears, Rose finally pieces together the only logical solution: that "she" is a not a she.

Where this matters for the sake of the theme of gender identity/roles and how these play into sexuality lies in the analysis of the intentions in this scene. We know that Sarah and Rose have kissed multiple times, with varying degrees of romantic (or maybe proto-romantic) weight. So. The many, many possibilities in this situation play out like this. Sarah is embracing this as much as Rose is enacting it. Intentionality towards continuation from both. But. Sarah is literally a girl, who thinks that Rose is also a girl. Rose is not a girl. This can mean many things, not all of which could have changed due to whether Rose had been raised the way she was or not. Is Sarah accepting the pleasurable feeling from the simple attention of the friend she is extremely close with, or does she have an implicit attraction to other females in general. Does she have an attraction to Rose only because of her androgynous qualities? Also, does Rose, raised as a girl, still hold all alleged biological propensities towards heterosexuality despite not really even knowing what that means for "her." It is almost impossible to say whether this experiment had an effect on the situation. There are a lot of questions here, but I think to strengthen the theme, it is important to isolate perhaps a stronger teleology. Reading more of the story might clear this up (what a novel concept). Yet at the same time, in the spirit of deconstruction, perhaps it would make the utterly confusing quality of Rose's position even stronger if there was a disharmony between this scene and any further evidence we get from Rose and Sarah as they develop.

Finally, I have to mention the scene with Esmond just because I thought it was, for lack of a better term, super badass. I laughed openly throughout it. The powerlessness that Esmond encounters is such great vengeance for the slew of awful attitudes and behaviors that most of the Loveall's extended family exhibit. Also, there is one more thing that I thought was great about this scene. Anonyma had intended to create a being that was, at least as close as possible to, equally feminine and masculine. And it is in this embracing of a male body and a feminine mind that Rose is completely in control of her full faculties of embodiment, wit and personality.