Public Masturbation in Dublin

power from the male character, as he is unable to sexually objectify her. As her body changes upon their second meeting and no longer fits his idealized image, the speaker highlights the oppressive nature of the male gaze: “he thought of me as a dream lady with dainty hands, idealized me – and wrote to that dream creature” (Egerton 31). The speaker is therefore successful in turning the gaze back upon the male character as she addresses his oppressive idealization, demonstrating that her body does not exist for the viewing pleasure of men. Instead, she an active participant in society who “make[s] her own choice[s] and guide[s] her life in the way that seems good to her” (Allen 257). She is her own woman, a body who does not exist to fulfill the desires of the male gaze; in fact, a body who exists in spite of it. The concluding line of Egerton’s text questions the prevalence of the male gaze in Victorian society and highlights its confinement of women. The speaker asks, “Do you really think that crinolines will be worn?” (Egerton 33). Crinolines refer to the rigid petticoat that women of this period wore underneath their skirts to provide them with a more attractive shape or appearance (“Crinolines”). The speaker’s incredulous intonation when she asks this question illustrates the discomfort around the garments themselves and is symbolic of her discomfort in a society defined by the male gaze. Lisa Hager explains that “when Egerton’s female characters have the most agency to choose what sort of life they want to lead…they remain inside the system that they seek to challenge” (5). Hence, the speaker remains within her relationship with the male suitor in order to successfully return the gendered gaze. Concluding the text with an emphasis on the speaker’s indignant self-determination suggests that she desires something more for herself, perhaps a future where women have agency and do not face confinement as passive objects for male observance. In “Now Spring Has Come”, Egerton’s protagonist questions the male gaze and reflects it back onto her suitor, resisting passivity and reversing gendered power dynamics. Ultimately, Egerton’s protagonist disrupts the power dynamic of the male gaze and repositions herself as an active participant in society instead of the passive muse for sexual objectification. By engaging in scopophilia, the speaker reverses the gendered gaze to reclaim her agency as she looks back at her suitor. As she initiates contact and pursues a relationship with the male character, she relegates him to the passive muse for her enjoyment, reversing gender and power dynamics that position the man as viewer. In fragmenting the male body and disrupting the viewer vs. viewed dynamic, the protagonist rejects the gaze from the impressionistic male artist and gains control of her own representation. Despite its obvious connections with New Woman literature, Egerton’s text also addresses issues of gender inequality, illustrating how Mulvey’s ideas about the male gaze extend beyond the context of cinema. The male gaze is universal and continues to fragment the bodies of women, restricting them to the role of a passive muse for male pleasure.

Works Cited

Allen, Grant. “The Girl of the Future.” The Universal Review 7, 1890, pp. 49-64. Cameron, S. Brooke. “The Flâneur (Can There be a Flâneuse?).”

ENGL 451 Topics in Victorian Lit I: Decadents, Dandies, & New Women F21. Queen’s University, 28 Sept. 2021, Kingston, ON. Lecture Notes. “Crinoline.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., https://www.britannica. com/topic/crinoline. Accessed 1 Dec. 2021. Egerton, George. ““Now Spring Has Come”.” A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, and Drama of the 1890s, edited by Carolyn Christensen Nelson, Broadview Press, 2001, pp. 22-33. Hager, Lisa. “A Community of Women: Women’s Agency and Sexuality in George Egerton’s Keynotes and Discords.” Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, Summer 2006, pp. 1-26. MLA International Bibliography, http://www.ncgsjournal.com/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2021. Henderson, Kate K. “Mobility and Modern Consciousness in George Egerton’s and Charlotte Mew’s Yellow Book Stories.” English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, vol. 54, no. 2, Spring 2011, pp. 185-211. Gale Academic OneFile, https://go-gale-com.proxy.queensu. ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=queensulaw&id=GALE%7CA246534600&v=2.1&it=r. Accessed 28 Nov. 2021. Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and

Criticism, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 1954-1965. Nelson, Carolyn C. “Introduction.” A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, and Drama of the 1890s, edited by Carolyn Christensen Nelson, Broadview Press, 2001, pp. 9-14. Ouida. “The New Woman.” A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, and Drama of the 1890s, edited by Carolyn Christensen Nelson, Broadview Press, 2001, pp. 153-160. Winchester, Boyd. “The Eternal Feminine.” A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, and Drama of the 1890s, edited by Carolyn Christensen Nelson, Broadview Press, 2001, pp. 176-180.