For the majority of the novel, Adeline Mowbray is estranged
from her mother and pines for her forgiveness. The two are brought together by Adeline’s illness at the
beginning and the end of the novel.
Adeline is convinced that her mother does not love her sufficiently and
tries to earn her love through scholastic and domestic education. While she is unable to earn her
mother’s attention through her studies, her mother abandons “all her vanities,
all her systems” when Adeline catches “an alarming illness.” However, Mrs. Mowbray quickly returns
to her former ways and the two drift apart. Mrs. Mowbray’s marriage to Sir Patrick and Adeline’s
relationship with Glenmurray further separate the pair. At the conclusion of the novel,
the two are brought together when Adeline becomes ill. Mrs. Mowbray goes to assist a sick
woman and discovers it to be her daughter. The two reconcile and as soon as Adeline receives her
mother’s forgiveness, she expires. This reminded me of a few post earlier in the semester about illness and the character and the plot. While Jane Austen used illness to emphasize Marianne's personality, Radcliffe used illness to drive the plot. I believe that Obie used illness for both reasons. Illness drives the plot by bringing the characters together and making Mrs. Mowbray a little more "motherly."
In novels of this time period it's so strange to me how many "emergency" illnesses there are to drive the plot. As I've said before, no one is really doing anything all day, in these books, so there needs to be some device to move plot and show how characters react to stress. Illness appears to be the plot maneuver of choice because what else could possibly happen? A broken carriage wheel or storm in Bath would hardly do the trick.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of Jane's post comparing The Romance of the Forest to Sense and Sensibility. In both of those novels and in Adeline Mowbray, illness plays a significant role in plot development, as you also point out. Sometimes all the "illness" in these novels irritates me because I feel like no one gets sick or faints as often as these heroines do. I wish that, as female authors, Radcliffe, Austen, and Opie would portray strong female characters who stand by their decisions without constantly fainting into a man's arms.
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