Pink and White Tyranny

A SOCIETY NOVEL

Pink and White Tyranny: A Society Novel was first published in 1871 and in the words of the author, it is ‘A little commonplace history, all about one man and one woman, living straight along in one little prosaic town in New England’. It is not an action or plot centric book, but instead a work that concentrates on the relationship between a married couple and the absurd notions of femininity and the kind of women and subsequently wives these ideals created. The story follows and satirises the life of a nobleman in New England called John, who marries Lillie, whom he describes in patronising terms as a loveliness of ‘pink and white’. He fully expects her to adhere to the ‘angel of the house’ stereotype of Victorian gender ideology, but soon finds himself incredibly disappointed. Lille is selfish, manipulative and materialistic and John becomes disillusioned in his marriage.

Stowe details John’s inability to reconcile his beliefs about the ideals of womanhood with the selfish and deceitful woman he married. At times the author clearly depicts John as a victim of Lillie’s manipulative and self-involved behaviour, but there is also a criticism of Victorian notions of womanhood that encourage women to become like Lillie. Beautiful women were taught to be conceited and vain and to cultivate nothing besides their physical appearance and superficial charms necessary to attract powerful and wealthy men. In order to be successful in the marriage market women were educated to be essentially useless, spoilt, weak and childish. In George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Rosamond Vincy is a fine example and product of this culture and the author chronicles her horrendous marriage to the potentially brilliant doctor Lydgate which ends in disaster for him. Pink and White Tyranny: A Society Novel cleverly depicts the damage and misery caused by these strictly delineated gender stereotypes to both women and men.