‘HOME’ IN IVY COMPTON BURNETT’S NOVELS: A STUDY

 

DR. T. ASOKA RANI

 

“Pure” is the appropriate epithet to de­scribe the novel of Ivy Compton-Burnett who took care to see that her fiction was not con­taminated by political religious and such like factors. The credit for this epithet goes to Robert Liddell when he says: “Miss Compton-Burnett has freed herself from all irrelevances in order to write the pure novel”1 He commends this ap­proach as the concentration does not get dif­fused from the purely domestic aspects.

 

However, as irony would have it, her ex­cessive exposition of the impure aspects of per­sonal relations within the domestic confines has the unfortunate effect of polluting the entire at­mosphere. Hers is not the conventional type of fiction depicting ‘home-truths’ in a simple, direct manner. Keeping the deceptively normal home-­front as the facade, she delved deeper to un-­ravel the ugly side of the outwardly sophisticated and respectable British family life. So shocking was the denouement that Frederick R. Karl was prompted to sum it up as:

 

            “-----Miss Compton - Burnett has of course taken the Victorian family novel and turned it inside out, revealing the dirt behind the romantic exterior….she recognised that below normal social behaviour lies a swamp of discon­tent, mixed motives, and deception.” 2

 

Her attempt to turn the domestic novel ‘in­side out’ was with a specific purpose. Probing far beneath the veneer of respectability and so­phistication, she found evil lurking there in sev­eral manifestations, silently eating into the very roots of happiness. What she discovered was that overbearing selfishness, total lack of con­cern for others, adoption of means, however unethical, to achieve one’s ends were the domi­nating features which bedeviled the otherwise happy domestic life in her chosen society.

 

‘Home’ which is the focal point of interest in all her novels is very exclusive in the sense that it is devoid of several normal aspects of family life in inter - personal as well as social relation­ships. Family unhappiness is the curse of every home. Disintegration in a family begins with the straining of the emotional and psychological re­lationships between its members. The dictato­rial and high-handed attitude of elders towards children is another major factor causing fiction in a family. Different kinds of inconceivable evils figure in her novels, but they are portrayed in the most suitable and covert manner possible. Marital infidelity leading to liberal distribution of illegitimate children, all sorts of sexual aberra­tions, manipulation of wills for personal benefits and many other forms of fraud abound in her world. There are even murders skillfully manoeuvred and accomplished.

 

A review in the Times Literary Supple­ment compliments Ivy Compton - Burnett for not having omitted, unlike her precursors, to ignore the ‘tangled roots of life’. The reviewer defines ‘home’ asthat small community shut in together from infancy into domestic turbulence, domestic adventure, domestic feuds, alliances, jests, affections, jealousies, resentments, de­votions, hostilities, unkindnesses, despairs ­that intimidating trinity of parents and children on which life is built.”3

 

The ‘Home’ in all her novels is governed by the ‘law of the jungle’ with the sole motto ‘survival of the fittest’. Frederick Karl explains:

 

“How does one sustain himself in what amounts to a predatory jungle?…..Neither side is restricted to gentleman’s weapons. Nagging is raised to an art, and each side dogs the other, looking for an advantage, trying to thrust in a verbal dagger. For in the destruction of the other person, whether actual or figurative, the indi­vidual gains his own life.”

 

In depicting such darker aspects of do­mestic life, Ivy Compton - Burnett was moved by a burning desire to highlight by contrast the innate virtues of home - life. Her intention, as R. N. Sarkar opines, was not merely

 

“...to trace the gradual decay of the Vic­torian home, but to explore the unhappy facts so as to bring out the very essence of home – life”.

 

One remarkable feature, however in Ivy Compton - Burnett’s novels is that her ‘homes’ are inexorably drawn into the vortex of collapse through internal strife and then, as by some con­trivance, she rescues them, if not all, at least in the majority of cases. This is as it should be, for it cannot certainly be her purpose to sound the death knell of the family life in her chosen stratum of society in the late Victorian England.

 

In almost all the novels, home, appear­ing to be on the verge of collapse, survives by its inherent strength for adaptability and thus a possible tragic conclusion is avoided. All the ‘homes’ of Ivy Compton - Burnett are found to be stabilised by exposure to stress. In Brothers and Sisters, the stace children leave the place of disgrace and scandal in the hope of starting a new life . Further incest is prevented by the timely revelation of their parents’ incest. In Men and Wives, Harriet’s death relieves the house of the tyranny. The children come round and accept the course recommended by their mother. In More Women than Men,­

Gabriel along with his father makes a separate home away from Josephine’s tyranny. The Edgeworth’s home in A House and Its Head is saved from ruin by the marriage of Duncan to the good - natured Cassandra. Death of Sabine and marriage of Hetta save the home of Ponsonby’s (Daughters and Sons) from col­lapse. John Ponsonby’s marriage to Edith Hallam brings peace to the family. In A family and a Fortune, the reconciliation between the brothers, Edgar and Dudley, and the loss of Matty’s power helps resurrect the Gaveston home. In Parents and Children, Fulbert re­turns home to save Eleanor from bigamy and the children become happy with the restoration of both the parents.

 

In Elders and Betters, Anna’s marriage and her intention of setting up a separate home relieves the homes, both of the Donnes and of the Calderons from tyranny and unhappiness. Horace’s reformation helps to free the Lambs’ home (Manservant and Maidservant) of tyr­anny and Charlotte’s decision not to leave the home helps to stabilise it. Happy reconciliation is found in Darkness and Day where the prob­lem of incest troubling the family is found to be a misapprehension. The husband’s pre-marital af­fair or the wife’s illegitimacy troubles them no longer. The Clares’ home (The Present and the Past) is saved by the death of the tyrant father and the removal from the neighourhood of his divorced wife with her children. Miranda’s (Mother and Son) death makes the members of the family breathe freely. The adultery of both the husband and the wife does not interfere with the stability of the home. Verena’s exit and Ellen’s return stabilise the Mowbray’s home in A Father and His Fate. Miles Mowbray has to bow his head in the end to the greater forces of family unity. Simon’s (A Heritage and its History) timely confession of his incest avoids further in­cest. He regains his lost inheritance and peace is restored in the Challoners’ home. In the Middleton home (the Mighty and their fall) affection between father and daughter is restored and peace and happiness return to their family. Understanding and adjustment of Ada saves the home of the Egertons in A God and His Gifts. Timely financial help prevents the Heriot family in The Last and the First from falling. Removal of Eliza from power brings back peace.

 

Even death does not shatter the lives of people. No survivor grieves for the deceased. Immediately after the death of wife or husband, they contemplate second or even third marriage. Life is not too difficult even for Gabriel (More Women than Men) who has lost his wife, very soon after his marriage. The only exception seems to be Sophia (Brothers and Sisters) who grieves a good deal and makes the lives of her children miserable. Home appears to be an abid­ing shelter for the members even in the face of a threat to its peace. Christopher Gillie sums up:

 

            “……a family can proceed equably until it undergoes stress, and the balance of this one is upset, and, then restored, by its encounter with multiple stresses. 6

 

“If insults, outrages, incest, adultery, murders and so on which abound in Ivy Compton Burnett’s ‘homes’ do really happen in life,” .... the result would inevitably be a fine quarrel and the dissolution of all ties. But here the family remains together....” 7

 

Frederick R. Karl comments on this fea­ture:

 

“….some spark of vestigial feeling usually keeps the family together. Perhaps it is not feeling that finally unifies, but the law of the Jungle. 8

 

If, however, some venture to leave the home for good, it becomes inevitable for them to be back soon. Those who many and set up families are an exception to this phenomenon. Hetta (Daughters and Sons) leaves home wanting to teach a lesson to the neglecting fam­ily. Disappointment in love makes Dudley (A Family and a Fortune) leave the house whereas the desire to escape torture of a step ­mother prompts Hermia to leave home. How­ever, all these stage a return after a while, unable to bear the rigours of living outside the home.

 

In the home, they remain semi-devel­oped, immature, clinging, and protected, but atleast alive. Outside, where the wicked world awaits them with an entirely different set of val­ues, they can hope for no solace whatsoever.

 

            Rabindranath Sarkar expresses more or less the same view when he points out:

 

            They know that the home can be a nest of evils, yet there is nothing to replace it, for the roots of their life lie deep down in it.10

 

            Even after the most shocking revelations of incest, adultery and illegitimacy, home is kept intact and life is somehow continued.

 

            “....This family’s....potency as a force that can still hold the allegiance of its members is perhaps the most fundamental feature of Miss Compton - Burnett’s work.” 11

 

 

REFERENCES

 

1 Robert Liddell: A Treatise on the Novel, (Jonathan Cape, London, 1965), p. 148.

2 Frederick R. Karl, ‘The Intimate world and Ivy Compton - Burnett , ‘A Reader’s Guide to the Contemporary English Novel (Thomas & Hudson, London, 1972) p. 203.

3 “The Unhappy Family Game” The Times Literary Supplement, (March 22, 1947) p. 126.

4 KARL, P. 202.

5 Rabindranath Sarkar, Ivy Compton     Burnett: A Trend in English Fiction (Firma KLM Pvt. Ltd., Calcutta, 1979), P. 146

6 Christopher Gillie, Movements in English Literature. 1900 - 1940 (C. U. P. London, 1975). p. 109.

7 ‘Analysis by Dialogue’, Review of Daughters and Sons. The Times Literary Supplement, (April 10, 1937). p. 273.

8 KARL p. 201.

9 KARL p. 218.

10 SARKAR, p. 147.

11 ‘Family Feeling’ Review of A Father and His Fate, The Times Literary Supplement, (August 16, 1957) p. 493

 

 

           

 

            ‘The dreams and hopes of man, Their joys and sorrows, Their delight over the beauty of nature and distress over the misfortunes of men, are themes of all great literature. There is a unity of feelings and ideas, a common sensitiveness to life’s troubles, a common yearning which eludes thoughts and words for the mysterious something which we tremblingly call God who is working in us and shines with increasing radiance, if only We seek for Him who impels         us willingly to build temples and create poems’.

 

–Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

 

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