Gender Essentialism in The Day of the TriffidsPresentation by Ben Craske

Thesis: Even the End of the World cannot change gender relations in The Day of the Triffids.

NB: All quotes are from Wyndham, John. The Day of the Triffids. London, Penguin: 1951). Print.

‘With the old pattern broken, we have now to find out what mode of life is best suited to the new. We have not simply to start building again: we have to start thinking again- which is much more difficult and far more distasteful.’

-Dr. E. H. VorlessChapter 7 p. 119

Epistemological Reading

•Sections like the quote on the previous slide demonstrate that the text prompts and encourages the reader to think about the reality of a changed world.

•Therefore, one important element to the text is Epistemology:

- how we acquire knowledge- what it means to know something - to what extent can a person know

something

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Classical-Definition-of-Kno.svg

Essentialism, n.1. Educ. A theory advocating the teaching, on traditional

lines and to everyone, of certain ideas and methods supposed to be essential to the prevalent culture (opp. to progressivism n.)

2. Philos. The belief in real essences of things, esp. the view that the task of science and philosophy is to discover these and express them in definitions.

Source: OED online

Essentialism and Gender• Affecting the perception of gender:

- Essentialism would argue that sex results from biological differences between men and women, which also affects gender behaviour.

- Many feminists condemn Essentialism, because it implies that there are inherent “feminine” characteristics.

• Feminists see Gender Essentialism as binding because:

- Characteristics associated with “essential” male behaviour tend to allow greater “success” in patriarchal societies:

a) Aggressionb) Experiencec) Independenced) Non-emotionale) Sexually aggressivef) Competitiveg) Strength

- Characteristics associated with “essential” feminine characteristics may inhibit women from progressing in a patriarchal society:

a) Empathyb) Sacrificec) Emotionald) Dependencee) Passivityf) Innocenceg) Nurturing

My ArgumentDespite:

- the upheaval and distress caused by the blindness

- the threat of the Triffids- new implications of a “post-apocalypse”

society (learning new skills, finding resources etc) - implorations by new leader figures to embrace

a “new order”

The Essentialist ideas regarding gender remain and endure. This is because the characters do not markedly change their way of thinking.

Evidence

Josella and Bill’s interaction

Capture

• ‘her hands were tied together behind her back, and a cord tethered them to the man’s left wrist’

Chpt. 4 p. 64• ‘“I think,” she said judicially, “that thought you

wouldn’t have guessed it to look at him, he wasn’t perhaps too bad a man really.”’

Chpt. 4 p. 70

Release

• ‘She sipped at, and snuffled over, the first drink. I gave her time to get sorted out…’

• ‘The drink gradually did good work. By the end of it she was sufficiently recovered for habit of mind to reassert itself.’

Chpt. 4 p. 65

Appearance

•Bill’s first description of Josella:‘She looked as if she had strength if it were necessary, but strength which, in her

approximately twenty-four years, had most likely not been applied to anything more important than hitting balls, dancing, and, probably, restraining horses.’

Chpt. 4 p. 65

• ‘Twenty minutes or so passed before she came back. Considering the limited facilities there must have been, she’d made a good job: morale was much restored. She approximated now to the film-director’s idea of the heroine after a rough-house rather than the genuine thing.’

Chpt. 4 p. 66

Reputation•Josella’s career as a writer before the

apocalypse endures, and she cannot shake the implications of the book’s title even after the apocalypse.

- ‘“It was called Sex is My Adventure.”I started, and then smote my forehead.’

- ‘Two large circulating libraries had banned it, probably on the title alone.’

Chpt. 5 p. 90

•The reactions of others are very telling, pre and post-apocalypse:

- ‘“I seem to have been keeping up a permanent defensive ever since against people I don’t like…”’ (Josella)

Chpt. 5 p. 91- ‘“Well, really, Mr Masen, I can scarcely

think she would be the sort of person to care for the kind of community we are building

here.”’(Ms. Durrant)Chpt. 10 p. 170

•However, it is her own response to the controversy which is telling:

‘“It sort of twisted everything,” she complained. “I was writing another book to try and balance things up again. But I’m glad I’ll never finish it- it was rather bitter.”’

Chpt. 5 p. 91

Mind-set•Josella wanting babies

- ‘“And after all, most women want babies, anyway… I’m talking about real women, not those in the magazine-movie-make-believe-world.”’

Chpt. 7 p. 122

• What legacy should be passed onto David, their child:

Bill: ‘“I’ve collected a mass of biochemical books… I shall teach David all I can, and he must hand it on.”’

Chpt. 15 p. 243Josella: ‘“do you think we should be justified in starting a myth to help them? A story of a world that was wonderfully clever, but so wicked that it had to be destroyed- or destroyed itself by accident?”’

Chpt. 15 p. 245

Tynsham Manor and Shirning Farm: a fresh start?

Gendered language- Tynsham Manor• Coker’s rant regarding the sewing machine, and his

opinion on women not understanding engineering or mechanical devices:

- ‘“Failure to use them is not a virtue to be praised: even in women it is a gap to be deplored.”’

- “Men have played up to it by stoutly repairing the poor darling’s vacuum cleaner, and capably

replacing the blown fuse… Tough practicality complements spiritual delicacy and charming dependence- and he is the mug who gets his hands dirty.’

Chpt 10. p. 175

Gendered Roles- Shirning Farm• ‘Josella was kept busy, mostly in the house, and

Susan was learning to help her.’ Chpt. 14 p. 226

• ‘“Oh, Bill, Bill, I wasn’t meant for this kind of life. If you weren’t here I’d…”’

Chpt 14. p. 228• ‘my foraging expeditions’ Chpt. 14 p. 225• ‘ambitious plan’ Chpt. 15 p. 229• ‘It was a heavy, tedious job’ Ibid.• ‘I was endeavouring to learn the a-b-c of farming’

Ibid.

Why does Gender Essentialism persist in Day of the Triffids?

Epistemological Explanation

• ‘There was, too, a feeling that as long as I remained my normal self, things might even yet in some inconceivable way return to their normal.’

Chpt. 3 p. 53

• ‘The old doctor had been only too right when he stressed the difficulties of mental adaptation.’

Chpt. 11 p. 189

Question of Narrator

•The reader only understands the text through the interpretive frame of a male narrator.

•Josella has her own exploits, challenges and problems to overcome, yet the reader learns much less of these than the male undertakings in the narrative.

Conclusion

•The characters, opinions and events displayed in Day of the Triffids demonstrate that “old world” values are indeed difficult to change.

•Therefore, the text shows that Gender Essentialism was difficult to shake, because the characters did not evolve, develop or change epistomoligcally.

Broader implications of this message

•Are there some Beliefs or Truths that are so deeply embedded, that they are impossible to change?

• If they are, are we, as able thinking human beings, capable of changing the way we think, even when we contemplate ‘Thoughts of the Unthinkable’?