The Breakaways by Carol Chappell

Editor’s note: In this short blog series, artist and von Arnim fan Carol Chappell explores a taxonomy of the writer’s most memorable female characters.  In this post she draws our attention to . . . The Breakaways

Carol Chappell portrait
Carol Chappell

Teaching art in public school was my career. Art, books, and gardening are my passions. When my friend Mary found Elizabeth and her German Garden, we were entranced! A decades-long adventure traveling to book towns, haunting used bookstores and even some barns ensued. This resulted in our finding all of Elizabeth’s books. I have read the entire collection twice and some individual books more than that.

One of the things I enjoy most about Elizabeth’s works is her gift for drawing characters. In thinking about her works recently, I discovered that many of her female characters could be grouped into four categories. The Breakaways, for example, are women who broke out of their confining circumstances to find some measure of freedom. Women grouped as Almosts did find some freedom, but went back or were taken back to their original circumstances. The women who were Betrayed, in whatever fashion, were hurt and dismissed by another person – usually a man. The Innocents in Elizabeth’s books are characters who are without guile and do not believe, or do not see, the unkindness of other people.

In Search of Elizabeth
Carol Chappell’s “In Search of Elizabeth” scrapbook documents her travels to find von Arnim’s books. It is now held at the Huntington Library with the Countess Russell papers.

In this blog post, the first in a series, I want to draw attention to the type of character I identify as a Breakaway. It’s important to note that not all women who eventually enjoy an element of freedom in von Arnim’s books qualify for this status, in my opinion. In Elizabeth’s Father, for example, Jennifer Dodge, Netta Baines, and Alice Ollier are all trapped. The three characters represent three socially-conventional lifestyles for women across various stages of adulthood: Netta is an attractive young woman in her twenties; Jennifer is on the cusp of spinsterhood at 33 years of age; Alice is well on in years, having spent much of her adult life keeping house for her confirmed bachelor brother, James, the vicar of a small country parish. The circumstances of these women vary markedly from each other, but all are hemmed in by duty, mores of society, and their own attitudes about life, marriage, and the proper roles for women. All of the women appear to achieve some form of freedom by the end of the novel but only one woman, I would argue, truly achieves what I would call Breakaway status.

Jennifer Dodge, daughter of a famous author, Richard Dodge, has not thought, of being anything but her father’s secretary for as long as he lives. Her father barely notices Jennifer as she goes about her duties to him. For Mr. Dodge, a spinster daughter is a burden to be borne, but that is his duty. Here are two people living together having little affection for each other, bound by invisible threads of a promise Jennifer made to her dying mother to care for her father, and the dilemma of an unmarriageable daughter being made useful. Freedom for Jennifer seems impossible and a thought upon which she cannot dwell, but when her father brings home a new wife, Jennifer immediately sees her route to freedom: a simple life in the country beckons and she flees her father’s house as soon as he leaves for his honeymoon.

Netta Baines is drawn to Richard Dodge because she loves his writing. She is an orphan who depends upon her sister and brother-in-law for sustenance, and the only option for Netta is marriage, otherwise, she might become a spinster like Jennifer. Netta’s assumption that her husband will be like his fictional characters is false, so she is trapped in this marriage with no one to whom she can turn for help out of her predicament, least of all her stepdaughter!

“Elizabeth’s Cottage” by Carol Chappell, 1985

Alice Ollier rents Rose Cottage to Jennifer Dodge behind her brother’s back in order to prove a point, but she quickly realizes her mistake. Having carved out a life for herself as her brother’s housekeeper, her position is threatened by this lively young single woman moving in next door to the vicarage. She had been determined to keep James single and under her thumb. When James eventually falls in love with Jennifer, Alice is almost destroyed. Having sacrificed herself to the church, the clergy, and her brother, she finds herself in a bind of her own making, that is she is unwilling to untie.

All three women are caught up in a web of social expectation, duty, and conventions of femininity in Father. All three women attempt to break out of these confines in different ways.

So who is the real Breakaway?

Netta finds marriage to her elderly husband to be unbearable. As keen as she was to escape a life lived in dependence on her relatives, she finds married life even more intolerable. It’s so unbearable, in fact,that she makes the choice to break away by dramatically abandoning Richard Dodge mid-way through their honeymoon. She’s aware of the social stigma and material disadvantages she will suffer but is willing to pay the price for freedom from a marriage that is intolerable. When Richard dies, Netta’s status is redeemed: becoming a widow makes her a woman to be respected and pitied, free to marry again, or to choose a different path.

Though Jennifer, Alice, and Netta all achieve a measure of freedom in their own ways in Father, it is only Netta who can be said to have achieved Breakaway status. Netta didn’t just wait for life to provide an opportunity for freedom. She chose to break with social convention and duty, no matter what the cost, to create a freedom of her own. This makes her one of von Arnim’s true Breakaways.

Are there other women in von Arnim’s fiction who qualify as Breakaways, in your opinion?

If you have a character you’d like to nominate, please leave your suggestions by commenting below.

3 thoughts on “The Breakaways by Carol Chappell

  1. Carol, thanks so much for this discussion and for your artwork, which is entrancing! I’ve enjoyed re-reading Father recently and was struck by how often von Arnim’s female characters attempt to ‘breakaway’ through travel and relocation, especially to the countryside. I was also struck at what a negative depiction she offers of male models of authorship, if Richard Dodge is any example! It’s true that very few of her female protagonists seem to break away completely–and in many cases it’s unclear as to whether they really want to do so, or would prefer to find some kind of a satisfactory middle ground. . . Interested to hear what others think on this!

  2. Very much enjoyed reading this, Carol. A rich & elegant overview of women in some of von Arnim’s writing. The art work is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your work & insights.

    Isobel

  3. Thank you for your comments, Jennifer and Isobel. It has been a pleasure to work on these blogs. Jennifer and I even got to edit together once…an interesting experience. One idea about von Arnim’s work always seems to inspire another and I hope others will come forward with ideas about my blog and ideas of their own. von Arnim’s writing never seems to get old for me and I enjoy her books whether I have read them once or more. Carol

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