By Comparing and Contrasting the characters of Flora and Prue, discuss how Stella Gibbons has parodied the concept of heroine.
By Comparing and Contrasting the characters of Flora and Prue, discuss how Stella Gibbons has parodied the concept of heroine.
Flora and Prue are both the main female characters of their novels but each author has portrayed the aspect of heroine differently. Stereotypically a heroine has always been the lead female character of a novel, and following history she has been shown to be a damsel in distress, waiting for her "hero" and love of her life to save her from some kind of disastrous event, this concept has developed over many years. However Mary Webb has strayed from this role to create her heroine of Prue in Precious Bane, by combining a traditional heroine figure with a modern side to her as well, hence the fact that she helps her brother with work in the farm yet she still holds expectations of finding her true love and living her fairytale some day. Stella Gibbons has parodied Prues character to shape Flora, her heroine of Cold Comfort Farm by contrasting the fact that she doesn't think working for a living is right and takes more pride in her appearance, which is more of an accurate description of the heroine that we have become familiar with over the years.
Stella Gibbons has shown Floras narrative to be the vehicle for parody in Cold Comfort Farm, her writing in the novel becomes a joke as she decides being an "author" is going to be her profession. Although Prue is similar to Flora in the sense they are both heroines who enjoy writing, Webb has shown Prue to take her writing a lot more seriously. To Prue writing a diary isn't just describing the activities she took part in during the day, it is an actual form of release for her from society, she gathers her thoughts on paper, hence the fact that it's a lot more natural and reflects the countryside where she has been brought up. Whereas Floras writing is a lot more alienated because of her lack of sympathy for rural life, the name of the novel itself "Cold Comfort Farm" is ironically a parody, just like Flora's writing. She doesn't show any respect for the farm house as she refers to it as a "shed", this highlights the difference in the writing style and emotions of the two heroines and also highlights the parody, as Prue has such a great bond with the farm house in her novel. Subsequently Stella Gibbons has done this extremely deliberately, in order to emphasize the aspect of parody. Prue tells the truth in the diary of her life, recording the events that she finds she can identify herself with, along with her thoughts about what happens. She sees it as a means of escape from her cursed hare lip, working with Gideon and the lingering thought of whether she will marry one day or not. Being able to express her feelings in writing adds to her independence as in the past she had to get others to write her letters for her, being able to do it herself now is very comforting for Prue, it also enables her to have constant contact with Kester, keeping her hope of winning her true love and marrying one day alive.
Although Prue is a heroine she has been portrayed as being "cursed" because of her hare lip, this does stray from the stereotype of a typical heroine, consequently because of this her confidence has been affected, although she's quite comfortable interacting in her normal everyday living conditions, she hesitates when talking to new people outside of her surroundings, especially when it involves talking to the opposite sex and prefers staying behind the scenes. In comparison Flora is a lot more confident, she finds it easy to talk to anyone, may it be strangers, men or women. Stella Gibbons ...
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Although Prue is a heroine she has been portrayed as being "cursed" because of her hare lip, this does stray from the stereotype of a typical heroine, consequently because of this her confidence has been affected, although she's quite comfortable interacting in her normal everyday living conditions, she hesitates when talking to new people outside of her surroundings, especially when it involves talking to the opposite sex and prefers staying behind the scenes. In comparison Flora is a lot more confident, she finds it easy to talk to anyone, may it be strangers, men or women. Stella Gibbons has parodied the aspects of confidence in heroines, as normally a heroine is seen to be confident because of her appearance and attributes, but Mary Webb didn't follow these conventions and in contrast has shown her heroine to have a disfigured lip, thus Prue is shown to have a defect in her confidence, which is why she finds it extremely difficult to communicate with the opposite sex and furthermore adapt to any kind of living conditions outside of her surroundings. Following the aspect of parody between the two novels Stella Gibbons has formed a heroine who is attractive and confident because of it, this is the complete opposite to Webb's heroine, Prue. Flora is extremely confident as a person and Gibbons brings this out in her strong minded character, as she moves into an alienated environment and instead of changing herself, decides to adapt others to her way of life, this is clearly something Prue would never do.
Gibbons has also parodied the fact that Webb has portrayed Prue to contribute with farm work in quite a masculine role with her brother Gideon, despite the fact that she is the heroine of the novel. Gideon encourages her to sign a contract, basically signing her life away to him and the farm, meaning she is forbidden to marry, until the farm has become a success. As a result of this he will allow her to have a share of the takings. In contrast to this concept Gibbons has represented Flora to be a typical town girl and therefore she refuses to work, she clearly says in the novel that her parents taught her everything except for the concept of working and she would rather live with people she doesn't get on with than stay in London and work, "...and learn to work, as you suggest. But I am not too anxious to do that, because I am sure it would be more amusing to go and stay with some of these dire relatives."
Because Prue has been brought up in the countryside her writing is a lot more ordinary and reflects the environment she's lived in forever, she's quite content with her living conditions. Although she tries to change herself by learning how to read and write she's very much manipulated by others throughout the novel, which is why although she has romantic, sentimental values of marriage, with true hope that one day she will indeed find her courtly lover who will whisk her away Gideon's comments suggesting she will never marry due to her hare lip, encourage her to sign the contract and in a way sign her life away to him, finalizing the idea that supports the fact that she will indeed not marry for an allocated period of time and subsequently devote her life to the development of the farm. Nevertheless Gideon is not the only character from the novel that encourages Prue to believe she will never marry, her mother has believed from the day she was born that it was her fault that Prue was cursed because the hare crossed her path whilst she was pregnant. Jancis is also a significant character that plays a part in influencing Prue to believe she will never marry, she encourages her to take part in The Raising of Venus and justifies it by telling her she will never marry anyway therefore it would be ok for her to appear nude in the community. However it is not only her loved ones that encourage her to believe this, members of the community also refer to her as "The woman with the hare - shotten lip" and say she's "bit of a witch", therefore a constant build up of negative thoughts from her loved ones and other surrounding people, forces her to believe she may in actual fact never marry because of the curse her hare lip represents.
Mary Webb has intentionally shown her heroine to be unique and different to the stereotypical heroine character that we are all so used to reading about in common novels, hence the fact that the main characters from Precious Bane do not allow Prue to forget about the disfigurement she was born with. At the same time Webb, makes this highlights one of the main themes of the novel, which is superstition and allows the reader to identify how important it is in to the plot of the novel. Following on from this it is made easier for Gibbons to accentuate the parody of her novel by comparing Webb's idea of heroine to hers. This is one of the reasons why she created Flora to be so attractive and confident, reflecting upon the more traditional description of a heroine.
However Flora is more of an alienated writer, she doesn't carry any sympathy for rural life what so ever, supporting the idea of her people a pure town girl, and therefore isn't used to living in farm like conditions. Despite of this Flora is a dynamic heroine and has her heart set on changing things around her as she is not content with being part of the farms surroundings, therefore she aims to manipulate others directly and indirectly to get what she wants, and instead of asking for what she wants she demands for it, "I want my rights". An example supporting her pragmatic views is how she encourages contraception, something that doesn't have any relevance to the existing ripe and fertile people currently living there. This issue in particular is made significant by Stella Gibbons to parody the idea of a more confident heroine in Flora, compared to how Prue is portrayed in Precious Bane.
Superstition is one of the main themes in the novels and Stella Gibbons parodies this idea through heroine as well. Prue takes the idea of superstition and mystery very seriously indeed, in fact her whole life revolves around it, and as a result of this is part of her traditions. She fears her future because of her hare lip furthermore Gideon and Jancis have influenced her to believe she will never marry because of the disfigurement on her face. Although Kester allows her to keep up hope a little as he boosts her confidence, "A very neat, tidy figure she's got". Whilst this eases the wounds of her believing she will never marry, the dream of her hero whisking her away still seems immensely far away for her.
Following the aspect of parody Flora ignores the whole idea of superstition completely, she doesn't believe in rituals, whereas in Precious Bane a ritual like the sin eating is a major part of Prue and her family's lives; however Flora insists on taking life as it comes. She doesn't seem to care who she will marry, or even if she ever will as she doesn't feel the need to be with a man because she's an independent woman, which is an absolute parody of Prue as her whole life revolves around her being whisked away by the man she loves and settling down, just like a fairy tale.
In conclusion the rural novel of which Precious Bane is an example has been parodied in detail by Stella Gibbons, from which she has crafted Cold Comfort Farm. Although there a several differences in the two heroines in the novels there are also a number of similarities, both novels are written in first person narrative, in the perspective of the heroine, allowing the reader to get inside the characters head quite effectively. Although both novels are written in considerable detail, Gibbons has exaggerated a lot of her concepts and she does her best to highlight this.
Although Flora and Prue aren't both portrayed as stereotypical heroines, they are still both rescued by a male character from the novel, which is term is a cliché that rural novels follow, of a hero rescuing his heroine. However despite the few similarities the two novels contain, Gibbons has engaged several of Mary Webb's concepts and parodied them to perfection, and therefore in a result of this has portrayed Flora, her heroine in a completely different way to how Prue is shown by her author, attractive, confident and independent, she's more of a modern heroine whereas Prue is more traditional.
Sana Mahmood
13SW
