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always recognizably Victorian in its approach and analysis” (p. 288). Yet, Orwell gradually
became aware of the delusions of this false grandeur, which were already being exposed by
the modernist writers at the time, and thereby embarked on a literary career so as to critique
the social malaises of the modern age such as economic injustice, extreme poverty and above
all religious belief all of which are pertinent to each other.
Orwell himself argued that
religious belief in the form in which we had known it, had to be abandoned. By the
nineteenth century it was already in essence a lie and a semi-conscious device for
keeping the rich rich and the poor poor. The poor were to be contented with poverty;
because it would all be made up to them in the world beyond the grave . . . . And
through the whole fabric of capitalist society there ran a similar lie, which it was
absolutely necessary to rip out. (as
cited in Beadle, 1975, p. 296)
Therefore, all these illusions and beliefs regarding the economic system and more importantly
religious faith were shattered with the rapid erosion of the Victorian ideals and values in the
early twentieth century to which Orwell was strongly committed. Consequently, this erosion
of traditional values and beliefs removed the firm ground on which people stood and led to
one of the most prevalent malaises of the modern age, that is, pessimism of which Orwell
partook as well.
Furthermore, the chaotic atmosphere of the first half of the twentieth century and
especially the tumultuous political, social and economic upheavals of the 1930s such as the
economic depression in the late 1920s and the early 1930s caused Orwell to employ the very
modernist themes, if not a modernist style, such as dehumanizing effects of poverty on the
individuals, loss of faith, frustration and disillusionment regarding religious belief and
economic injustice, etc. In this regard, hard as he tries to avoid the (formal) devices of
modernism, Orwell cannot elude exploring the modernist themes and, in one case, he cannot
help experimenting with the form of his novel
A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935) in its third
chapter by employing a dramatic sequence – a very modernist formal device. Hence, although
he disdained the modernist devices and writing style and tried to move away from this
tradition through the medium of realism, Orwell made use of this modernist tradition
thematic- and for once technique-wise and thus can be deemed a modernist writer.
A Clergyman’s Daughter tells the story of Dorothy Hare, the daughter of Charles
Hare, the clergyman of Knype Hill parish church. The novel consists of five long chapters
each of which takes place in different settings with different situations.
The first chapter opens
with the waking up of Dorothy at 5.15 in the early morning. Dorothy gets up very early in the
mornings so as to prepare his father’s breakfast and to do the daily household work. Dorothy
is observed throughout the chapter as helping other people, doing parish works, preparing
costumes for the upcoming parish play, attending Communion, and performing many other
chores. However, Dorothy is very strict to herself especially with regard to religious issues.
For instance, if she happens to find her mind straying while praying, she pricks her arm with
her hat pin so deeply that she sometimes finds it quite hard to keep herself from crying out
loud. In the second chapter, all of a sudden, we find Dorothy in London wandering around. It
is revealed that she has been experiencing a temporary amnesia and does not remember
anything. In the meantime, since Dorothy is gone from the town, a gossip rapidly spreads
around the town that she eloped with Mr. Warburton who in fact went to Paris alone.
In London, Dorothy joins a group of homeless people and goes to Kent with them to
do hoppicking which would earn them little money to survive the day. After the hoppicking
season ends, they return to London where the third chapter begins. Since they have no money
left, they spend many nights at Trafalgar Square. This part of the chapter is given through a
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Daughter
dramatic sequence. In the meantime, Dorothy’s father affected by the gossips about his
daughter also believes in these rumors. Yet still he contacts his cousin in London to find her
and get her a suitable job. His cousin arranges a school for Dorothy to teach. During this time,
Dorothy recovers her memory and also finds out the rumors about herself and thus knows that
she cannot go back to the town. In the fourth chapter, she chooses to work as a schoolmistress
at Ringowood School where Dorothy comes to see the terrible conditions of the schools and
the education system which is solely based on profit-making. At the end of a year at the
school, Mrs. Creevy, the headmistress of the school, fires Dorothy. While Dorothy is about to
leave, Mr. Warburton arrives and tells her that the gossips are proved groundless and untrue
and that she can now return to her town. The last chapter tells of Dorothy’s return to the very
same duties as previously seen in the first chapter – except for a huge difference: Dorothy no
longer has any religious faith.
George Orwell is deeply concerned with the issue of religious belief, and consequently
with the loss of faith, in this novel. He explores this religious crisis, which pervades the first
and the last chapters, through Dorothy. Michael Levenson (2007) states that “Dorothy is a
recognizable portrait, from literature if not directly from life: the hard-pressed child of a
selfish parent, repressed and pious, the one who carries on the real work of the parish while
her father drifts in protective fantasy” (p. 63). Although Dorothy’s relationship with her father
is not developed fully, the narrator provides us with bits and pieces with regard to their
relationship. Their mutual conversation is, most of the time, based on what Dorothy’s father
demands from her. For instance, Dorothy, before her father even asks for, prepares his
breakfast every morning because the first thing he demands in the morning upon waking up is
his breakfast. Also, Dorothy arranges his father’s clothes,
handles the bills to be paid, does the
household chores, etc. In this sense, Dorothy, as Stephen Ingle (2006) argues, “[contrives] to
come to terms with a stultifying, suffocating ritual of petty chores and physical hardship but
only by practicing masochistic forms of self-discipline” (p. 147). Dorothy, more often than
not, exerts this self-discipline on herself especially when she fails to concentrate on her
prayers during the church service:
Dorothy pressed her fingers against her eyes. She had not yet succeeded in
concentrating her thoughts – indeed, the memory of Cargill’s bill was still worrying
her intermittently. The prayers, which she knew by heart, were flowing through her
head unheeded. She raised her eyes for a moment, and they began immediately to
stray. . . Dorothy drew a long glass-headed pin . . . [and] pressed the point against her
forearm. Her flesh tingled apprehensively. She made it a rule, whenever she caught
herself not attending to her prayers, to prick her arm hard enough to make blood
come. It was her chosen form of self-discipline, her guard against irreverence and
sacrilegious thoughts. (Orwell, 1997, pp. 6-7)
As can be clearly seen, Dorothy feels extremely obliged to continue her prayers and is quite
afraid of sacrilegious thoughts. The fear of committing blasphemy against God permeates her
mind and at the same time implicitly foreshadows and prepares the ground for the advent of
her loss of faith.
However, the preparation of the ground for such religious crisis notwithstanding, the
direct or indirect reasons for it are neither explicitly called into question nor readily implied in
the novel. Considering the fact that the issue of religious faith, and loss thereof, form the
backbone of the novel, the absence of a full examination of the causes of such a crucial loss
can be seen as a significant technical defect. As Levenson (2007) rightfully contends,
“Orwell’s notorious solution is to have Dorothy lose her memory and to wake up in London