![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdh.rula.info\/y90sclassroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/11\/yellow-197x300.png\")
In the short story \u201cThe Villa Lucienne<\/a>\u201d by Ella D\u2019Arcy, a group of women visit the beautiful yet eerie Villa Lucienne in hopes of buying the property. Here they encounter an uncanny housekeeper in the form of an old man and an unknown womanly presence. What entails is a chilling yet indescribable account of what the women experience as they venture through the villa, entering a universe that seemingly revolves around the dark energies of the house keeper, and the unseen female presence (D\u2019Arcy). This story of the gothic horror genre delves into the cultural issue of the relationships within the domestic space. During the 1890s, more and more people were challenging the ideas of marriage and the domestic space, pointing out the flaws in the marital system at the time. The roles of women and men within the system were also analyzed, as shown through the unseen relationship between the housekeeper and the ghost lady in this story. D\u2019Arcy was one of the many Victorians who questioned marriage in the 1890\u2019s as she was a writer who was often criticized for her modern writing style, which challenged the traditional female and her moralities (Knechtel). She aimed to represent a diverse group of women, who were growing with the new period. \u201cThe Villa Lucienne\u201d is featured in the 10th volume of The Yellow Book<\/a>, along with other gothic stories through the perspective of women, or centered around a heroine. It also features an poem called \u201cIll Omen\u201d by Frances MacDonald, which invokes similar themes of women and the gothic as \u201cThe Villa Lucienne\u201d. This volume captures the essence of the unconventional ways people began to see marriage and family in the 1890s and the flawed patriarchal system that overpowered in all domains.<\/p>\n During this era a controversial issue that gained much attention was the idea of the domestic space as being negative and restricting of women\u2019s rights and freedoms. The growing population of the \u201cthe New Woman\u201d, a term coined to represent women challenging the conservative and traditional barriers imposed on them and demanding more independence, began questioning women\u2019s roles in society and their unfair depictions as simple domestic beings. They viewed the conventional marriage as \u201cdegrading\u201d and an \u201coppressive institution\u201d, due to their status as \u201cinferior\u201d to their male counterparts (Diniejko). They also resisted the title of \u201cThe Angel of the Home\u201d, a concept that dictates that a woman should be \u201cdevoted\u201d solely to her husband and submissive to his needs, taking on the role of a housewife, homemaker, and child bearer (The Angel in The House). Many women writers, including D\u2019Arcy, explored the world of the domestic woman through writing and the \u201cstandard representations\u201d of her at the time, as can be seen in the \u201cThe Villa Lucienne\u201d, through the character of the ghost, and her confinement within the villa. This caused an uproar amongst male publishers who refused to publish her story, as they claimed, \u201cmarriage was a sacrament and should not be treated so summarily\u201d (Knechtel). However, the women during the Victorian Era seemed to believe otherwise, as they made tremendous efforts to voice their taboo opinions.<\/p>\n Many of the issues of the \u201cNew Woman\u201d were conveyed through the subgenre of women\u2019s gothic, as it expressed the deepest thoughts of women. Gothic fiction is writing style that utilizes fear, gore, horror, and other dark topics in order to invoke suspense and thrill within readers. It was typically used as a writing genre to explore themes that weren\u2019t \u201cacceptable subjects for discussion\u201d within conservative societies (Buzwell). Though the genre didn\u2019t originate in the 1890\u2019s, it constantly adapted to \u201creflect the times in which it lives\u201d (Buzwell). During the Victorian \u201cfin de si\u00e8cle\u201d, the genre was adopted by \u201cthe New Woman\u201d. The gothic appealed to the underlying anxieties women had regarding the lives they lived in the Victorian era as well as the dark desires, fantasies, and uncertainties they had during the time. D\u2019Arcy articulately uses the gothic to express this fear within woman, as they unknowingly step into an unsafe domestic space, and are ultimately vulnerable to the mysterious nature of the Villa. Through gothic writing women expressed their contemporary fears and desires, which shape the narratives they impose on history, and allow them to freely express their thoughts on society and their role within it (Liggins).<\/p>\n Through its uncanny yet apprehensive atmosphere, the Villa, in \u201cThe Villa Lucienne\u201d, personifies the traditional domestic relationship of the 1890s as a tyrannizing and unnerving space for women to live in. This story indicates that the Yellow Book, specifically the 10th<\/sup> volume, was a platform that supported feminist views of authors like D\u2019Arcy and allowed them to express their utmost doubts and uncertainties within the boundaries of 1890s culture. My analysis depicts that the Yellow Book was an outlet to deliver the idea of the New Woman, and express the restricting cultural issues in the Victorian society through the perspective of women themselves.<\/p>\n The Villa Lucienne embodies a woman in a traditional martial relationship during the Victorian Era. The villa is described as \u201cdilapidated\u201d, and \u201cmournful\u201d looking\u201d (D\u2019Arcy 280) and gives off an \u201ceerie, uncanny\u201d feeling to the group of women visiting the villa (283). It personifies the ambiguity women began having during this time, in relation to their status in their marriage. D\u2019Arcy uses these terms to portray the villa in order to engross women in the masculine space of the gothic, giving them an authoritative voice to carry their doubts and fears (Stoneman). D\u2019Arcy also foreshadows the ghastly nature of the house before the women even step into the home, as she depicts several images of death and decay, such as \u201clichen, deathstool and a spongey moss\u201d (D\u2019Arcy 277) in the dark alley way. This contrasts the traditional view of a home, which is meant to be safe and comfortable with the \u201cAngle of the Home\u201d safeguarding its pureness. Yet the story describes the villa to be full of \u201cincommunicable thrill[s]\u201d (275) and<\/p>\n shows it to instill nothing but fear within the women. D\u2019Arcy also uses specific language and imagery to convey the unnerving fears women have within a marriage, and their lack of freedom within it. She describes the house as \u201csombre\u201d, \u201cneglected\u201d, and shuttered\u201d (274), projecting the feelings of a woman in an unhappy marriage onto the house.<\/p>\n The women further depict this oppression throughout the story as they undergo significant characteristic changes. C\u00e9cile, \u201cthe least nervous of women\u201d (D\u2019Arcy 283), decides to go up to the villa on her own, to save her companions the trouble of the journey. However, upon entering the villa, she insists that they all join her. She later accounts that a \u201cterror [so real]\u201d had \u201claid hold of her when going up the steps to the door\u201d (283). These women are portrayed as independent and joyous, as they venture through the south, however, as soon as they enter the villa they suddenly become vulnerable and consume the fears the villa projects. They also account that \u201cthe change from the gay and scented garden to the dark alley, heavy with the smells of moisture and decay, was quite depressing\u201d (277). Women in Victorian Britain, were quite independent, however after entering a marriage, all characteristics of status and socialism were disregarded as a woman, and her child and property, were now under the \u201ccontrol\u201d of her husband (Sykes). As with the domestic relationship, the women became weak and submissive to an empowering and masculine force, in this case the house, and lost their sense of self. Victorian women were seen to immediately conform to the idea of being \u201cnaturally\u201d submissive to their male counter parts (Sykes) upon entering the martial union, as do the women in the story upon entering the villa. D\u2019Arcy emphasises this idea of \u201creinforce[ing] the \u2018natural\u2019 hierarchy between the sexes\u201d during the Victorian era as men typically married younger women (Hughes). It was very important to have a distinction between a man and a woman during this time, and proving dominance over his wife was one way to do so. This can be seen through the way the women become subjected by the presence of both the villa and Laurent, as latter naturally become dominant over the women, without any previous interactions or any judgement of ones intellectual or social standing. In the tale the house embodies this dominating presence and consumes the women into its mysterious and anxiety-ridden realm.<\/p>\n Laurent, the \u201csurly\u201d house keeper (D\u2019Arcy 280), is also a notable character, as he is a dominating presence throughout the story, yet seemingly the only male figure. When the women first meet him, he is said to have \u201csuspicious and truculent little eyes\u201d (279). He immediately has a hold over them, and compels them into a sort of submission to his presence, as they all fear him for unexplainable reasons. The women themselves feel the \u201coppression of his ungenial personality\u201d (281). Even when the narrator feels the ghostly presence, she is unable to speak because \u201ca glance at Laurent froze the words on [her] lips\u201d (283). His \u201coppression\u201d on the women is so strong that they cannot even speak in front of him out of dread. Sykes explains that in the Victorian culture, there was a parallel between \u201cthe bondage of women to men with the abhorred and recently abolished slave trade\u201d (Sykes). Women were subjected to this \u201cprimitive social interaction based on power and force\u201d (Sykes). Laurent holds the power within the villa, as he knows its secrets and dark mysteries. He then uses this power to enforce dominance over these vulnerable women. It is also considerable that Laurent expresses this dominance over the ghost woman as well. All that remains of her is a fragment of her lace, which induces an \u201can overwhelming pity, succeeded by an over whelming fear\u201d within the narrator (D\u2019Arcy 283). She begins to pity the ghost lady, as she seems trapped within the corridors of the villa. She is confined within a figurative marriage with Laurent, who, despite her gothic and frightening features, seems unfazed by her presence. She becomes a sort of slave to his dominance, as explained by Sykes. D\u2019Arcy depicts that women in a marriage, alive or dead, become oppressed when they enter the world of men, and their \u201cnatural\u201d instinct to have hierarchy, despite any external factors.<\/p>\n1890s Topic Context<\/h3>\n
Critical Claim<\/h3>\n
Critical Analysis<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdh.rula.info\/y90sclassroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/11\/unnamed-300x203.jpg\")
In Conclusion<\/h3>\n