The Point of View

The Point of View by Agnes Repplier

"The Point of View" by Agnes Repplier is an extended critical essay examining the representation of men and women in fiction, the dynamics of reader attraction to fictional characters, and the question of whether male and female novelists can authentically portray members of the opposite sex. Repplier opens by dismissing the condescending critical tradition that explained women's success in fiction through their supposed greater affectionateness and familiarity with domestic life. She argues that the achievements of Austen, the Brontës, George Eliot, and George Sand long ago earned women the right to be judged by universal literary standards rather than indulgent, gendered ones. What remains of the old condescension, she observes, is a persistent tendency among male critics to distrust the male characters created by women, while accepting female characters with enthusiasm. This leads Repplier to her central thesis: that the appeal of a novel rests largely on the attraction its hero holds for female readers and its heroine for male readers. She marshals considerable evidence for this claim, noting that men have ardently loved fictional heroines such as Elizabeth Bennet, Beatrix Esmond, and Diana Vernon, while women have cherished and defended heroes such as Lovelace and Helbeck of Bannisdale despite male skepticism toward those same figures. The instinct of sex, she argues, governs literary taste as surely as it governs life. The essay proceeds to examine specific cases in which male and female novelists have been accused of failing to render the opposite sex convincingly. W. E. Henley's dismissal of George Eliot's male characters as governesses in revolt is cited at length, as is the suggestion that Rochester and Paul Emanuel in the Brontë novels are ultimately men described from the outside by a woman who could only surmise. Repplier treats such judgments with characteristic irony, pointing out that the same logic should apply symmetrically: if women cannot grasp the essence of masculinity, men should be equally incapable of grasping femininity. Yet this symmetry is never acknowledged by the critics who claim that Hardy, Meredith, and Henry James understand women better than women understand themselves. Repplier turns this argument against the celebrants of analytic male novelists, suggesting that the appearance of penetrating insight into feminine character may be no more than a refined skill at reproducing detail mistaken for comprehensive understanding. She invokes Rochefoucauld's warning that the greatest mistake of penetration is not to have fallen short but to have gone too far, implying that the elaborate enigmas constructed by James and Meredith around their heroines may reveal ingenuity rather than genuine comprehension. The essay also surveys the war of tastes around specific canonized heroines. Repplier notes that men consistently praise figures such as Amelia Sedley, Sophia Western, and Lady Castlewood as the embodiment of true womanhood, while female readers resist these portraits as reflections of what men wish women to be rather than what women are. Conversely, men tolerate or enjoy female characters who are self-serving or morally compromised, such as Becky Sharp, while resenting the saintly heroines Thackeray and others put forward with such evident approval. Women display the reverse tendency, pardoning Becky and bristling at Amelia. Scott receives careful treatment as an author whose heroines are often perfunctory yet who demonstrated in works such as "The Bride of Lammermoor" a rare capacity to probe a woman's inner life with genuine artistic power. Repplier argues that this capacity was exercised seldom and at emotional cost to the author, who frankly preferred writing about men. Austen is held up as a contrasting model of honest artistic economy: she knew her men well enough without straining after masculine psychology, and her moments of true illumination were reserved for women. This, Repplier implies, is the appropriate and honest use of one's knowledge rather than the determined effort at analytic revelation that characterizes later novelists writing across the gender divide. Throughout the essay, Repplier's method is to introduce a critical position, apply it evenhandedly to both sexes, expose its inconsistencies, and conclude that honest literary judgment requires acknowledging the limits of one's point of view rather than claiming an omniscience the work itself does not support.

By Agnes Repplier · First published 1891 · Genre: Essay, Literary Criticism, Social Commentary · 3,169 words

First lines

Look contentedly upon the scattered difference of things. -- SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

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essays · literary criticism · social commentary · American literature · Victorian era · humor · culture · morality · education · women's perspectives · intellectual life · observational prose

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The Point of View is listed on Textopian as an essay by Agnes Repplier, dated 1891 CE.

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