Descriptions of physiognomies in English fiction
from realism to early modernism

DIPLOMARBEIT /DIPLOMA THESIS

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
einer Magistra der Philosophie

an der Geisteswissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

vorgelegt von

Mirjam MARITS

am Institut für Anglistik

Graz, August 2003

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of abbreviations ... 1

1. Introduction: Descriptions of physiognomies in (English) literature and their significance ... 2

2. Definitions of the terminology: ′physiognomy′, ′pathognomy′ and ′body language′ ... 6

I. Descriptions of physiognomies in mid-19th-century realist fiction as a reflection of the period′s norms and worldviews ... 8

3. The general importance of physiognomy in the realist context: the dominance of ′readable′ physiognomy as a confirmation of an objective, transparent world ... 8

4. Descriptions of physiognomies in Elizabeth Gaskell′s North and South (1854-55): strong confirmation of a transparent, ′readable′ world ... 9
4.1. Introduction ... 9
4.2. The narrative transmission of physiognomic descriptions ... 10
4.2.1. Transparent portraits of characters transmitted by an authorial narrator ... 10
4.2.2. Characters as successful ′readers′ of physiognomies and the functioning of non-verbal communication ... 20
4.3. The ′message′ of transparent faces ... 26
4.3.1. General remarks ... 26
4.3.2. Physiognomy as an indicator of a hereditary background: family likeness ... 27
4.3.3. Physiognomy as a reflection of influential circumstances: events, milieu (′local origin′) and social class ... 30
4.3.3.1. General remarks ... 30
4.3.3.2. Physiognomy as an indicator of influential events ... 30
4.3.3.3. Physiognomy as an indicator of the milieu or local origin ... 32
4.3.3.4. Physiognomy as a class indicator ... 36
4.3.4. Physiognomy as a moral indicator ... 38
4.4. Occasional opacity of faces and its (plausible) reasons ... 41
4.5. Conclusion ... 44

5. Descriptions of physiognomies in George Eliot′s Adam Bede (1859): confirmation of a transparent world partly undermined by critical authorial remarks ... 46
5.1. Introduction ... 46
5.2. The narrative transmission of physiognomic descriptions ... 47
5.2.1. Transparent portraits of characters transmitted by an authorial narrator ... 47
5.2.2. Characters as successful ′readers′ of physiognomies and the functioning of non-verbal communication ... 53
5.3. The ′message′ of transparent faces ... 59
5.3.1. General remarks ... 59
5.3.2. Physiognomy as an indicator of a hereditary background: family likeness ... 59
5.3.3. Physiognomy as a reflection of influential circumstances: events, milieu (′local′ and ′racial′ origin) and social class ... 62
5.3.4. Physiognomy as a moral indicator ... 67
5.4. Doubts about a ′readable′ world: instances of opacity (and their reasons) and critical authorial remarks ... 71
5.4.1. General remarks ... 71
5.4.2. Opacity in Adam Bede′s faces and critical authorial comments on a ′readable′ world ... 72
5.5. Conclusion ... 81

II. Descriptions of physiognomies in early modernism as a reflection of the period′s new norms and changed worldviews ... 84

6. Early modernism: the gradual rejection of realist norms, new modernist aesthetics and the consequences for descriptions of physiognomies ... 84

7. Descriptions of physiognomies in D.H. Lawrence′s Lady Chatterley′s Lover (1928): partial continuation of the realist tradition and the growing importance of subjective perceptions of physiognomies ... 87
7.1. Introduction: the peculiarity of D.H. Lawrence′s style ... 87
7.2. The narrative transmission of physiognomic descriptions ... 91
7.2.1. Remnants of transparent portraits of characters transmitted by an authorial narrator ... 91
7.2.2. Enhanced importance of intradiegetic physiognomists: continuation of ′transparent′ physiognomic observations, and the increase in (un-)reliable subjective physiognomic perceptions and in non-verbal communication ... 98
7.2.2.1. General remarks ... 98
7.2.2.2. Characters as physiognomists (I): Clifford Chatterley: the continuation of the realist belief in transparent physiognomies ... 101
7.2.2.3. Characters as physiognomists (II): Connie Chatterley: the heroine′s overall belief in transparency in spite of her occasional inability to ′read′ faces ... 103
7.2.2.4. The increase in non-verbal communication ... 112
7.3. The message of faces and bodies: transparent faces in the realist tradition, ′new′ and ′reduced′ transparency ... 117
7.3.1. General remarks ... 117
7.3.2. Transparent faces in the realist tradition: Physiognomy as an indicator of a hereditary background, as a reflection of influential circumstances: events, milieu (′local origin′) and social class ... 118
7.3.3. ′New′ transparency: descriptions of physiognomies and bodies as indicators of sexual experience ... 122
7.3.4. ′Reduced′ transparency: vital, sexual descriptions of bodies for their own sake ... 126
7.4. Conclusion ... 128

8. Descriptions of physiognomies in Virginia Woolf′s Mrs Dalloway (1925): the dominance of subjective, ambiguous perceptions of physiognomies as a strong undermining of the realist worldview and as a reflection of a ′new′ sceptical approach to the world ... 131
8.1. Introduction: Virginia Woolf′s approach to the world and the new treatment of physiognomies ... 131
8.2. The narrative transmission of physiognomic descriptions ... 133
8.2.1. The overall withdrawal of the authorial narrator and its consequences for the treatment of physiognomies ... 133
8.2.2. Characters as the novel′s major physiognomists: various subjective perceptions of physiognomies and the lack of a ′common′ worldview ... 138
8.2.2.1. General remarks ... 138
8.2.2.2. Characters as physiognomists (I): Clarissa Dalloway: the novel′s heroine as a representative of the traditional belief in ′speaking′ faces ... 141
8.2.2.3. Characters as physiognomists (II): Septimus Warren Smith: an insane person′s distorted belief in transparent physiognomies ... 150
8.2.2.4. Characters as physiognomists (III): Peter Walsh: observations dominated by his ′male gaze′ and the implicit rejection of realism′s epistemological basis ... 155
8.2.2.5. Characters as physiognomists (IV): Elizabeth Dalloway: her self-perception as a (possible) projection of her feeling of ′otherness′ ... 162
8.3. Conclusion ... 164

9.Final remarks ... 167

10. Bibliography ... 173

1. Introduction: 
Descriptions of physiognomies in (English) literature and their significance
It is a fascinating phenomenon, that whenever we meet another person for the first time, we unconsciously and immediately judge him or her by merely looking at the person’s face. Although we may call ourselves the most tolerant people free of prejudices, we cannot help thinking a person likeable or not right away by the first visual impression we get, without ever having talked to him or her. Even though we know that a correspondence of physiognomic and ‘inner’ traits has never been convincingly or scientifically proved, it is unquestionable that most of us are impressed and influenced by visual data we receive from our fellow human beings’ faces.

In the course of history (and thus, of literature), people have repeatedly tried to come to terms with this phenomenon and to find explanations as well as definitions that may help to ‘face’ and deal with physiognomy in everyday life. Apparently, it has always been, and still is, people’s wish to ‘read’ in other faces so as to facilitate contact and to know how to judge characters. That this desire is not new can be seen by the fact that even (Pseudo-)Aristotle set up (very questionable, highly racist and sexist) rules according to which one could ‘categorise’ faces and thus know what kind of character is hidden behind the surface. Today, nobody relies on his writings anymore, which categorised people, among other factors, by establishing an analogy between animals and human beings. According to the author, those who had certain traits that were seen as resembling certain animals were considered to have the respective animal’s ‘inner’ traits as well, as in the following examples. “Die [Menschen] mit dicken Lippen, wobei die obere weiter vorsteht als die untere, sind dumm; siehe die Esel und Affen. [...] Die eine kleine Stirn haben, sind ungebildet; siehe die Schweine.“¹

In (English) literature, the question of whether there is an indexical or arbitrary connection between inner and outer traits has been approached in many different ways which cannot be analysed in detail here. In a large number of older texts, descriptive passages containing physiognomic hints were not included, which points to a certain disinterest in this field of explanations (as well as in visual details in general). Some earlier works like Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (written around 1380), although dealing with physiognomy only in passing, rely on ‘speaking’, that is, expressive faces, without explicitly thematising physiognomic reading as such. Other authors seemed to be undecided between belief in ‘speaking’ physiognomies and a sceptical approach, as the following two quotations from the great dramatist’s plays illustrate. In Troilus and Cressida (IV, v, 55ff.), William Shakespeare unmistakably proclaims the ‘readability’ of physical traits: “There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, / Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out / At every joint and motive of her body.” 2 In Macbeth3, however, a remarkable quotation includes a message contradicting the previous one: “There’s no art/ To find the mind’s construction in the face” (I, iv, 11f.), the king of Scotland cries out.

Although these two passages point to different approaches to the field of physiognomy, they at least reveal that the author has given some thought to the topic. In the course of the following centuries, due to a general rather careless treatment of outer details in English fiction, physiognomic descriptions did not play an important part. This does not necessarily mean that people in earlier times did not rely on the belief that faces are ‘readable’, but that the way of writing simply did not yet attempt to ‘visualise’ the (fictitious) world (including faces). This can partly be explained by the fact that novel-writing as such developed late in English literature, and that we have to wait until the 18th century to find novels that intend to depict ‘the real world’, that is, that try to create the illusion of ‘reality’. Thus, it is only from this point in history that physiognomies within a literary work can be treated as indices to the worldview underlying the respective work.

The interest in creating a plausible ‘real’ fictitious world, ‘inhabited’ by characters who have an ‘authentic’ life-like outer shape (which required descriptions of their looks) gradually increased, until it reached its heyday in 19th-century realist fiction.

Quite clearly, it would go beyond the scope of this book to discuss the various instances of physiognomies in English literature in general. Therefore, the focus will be on prose only and restricted to two literary epochs, which will be contrasted by their different treatment of physical traits. The discussion will start with an analysis of mid-19th-century realist works, in particular Elizabeth Gaskell’s industrial novel North and South (1854/55)4 (cf. chapter 4) and George Eliot’s famous Adam Bede (1859)5 (cf. chapter 5).

The task of this book is not merely a discussion of the treatment of the numerous descriptions of characters’ physiognomies within these works. As will be illustrated, the representation of characters’ looks not only reflects the implied norms of the respective work (and thus the implied author’s): by finding out how an implied author dealt with physiognomies – whether he or she presented them as transparent and ‘readable’, ignored this question, or treated physiognomy as ‘opaque’, that is, not revealing anything about the character beneath the visual surface – it should be possible to draw conclusions about the implied author’s (and even the epoch’s) general approach to the world. This is the reflection this thesis is based on. In the case of realist writers, as they mostly relied on the assumption that a face is indeed a ‘mirror’ of one’s soul, the suggestion that they generally had a positive, optimistic view of the world as a transparent and accessible one seems plausible and will be questioned and tried to be illustrated in the first part of this book.

The various reasons for the optimistic (in the semiotic sense) conviction of authors like Elizabeth Gaskell, Anthony Trollope or Charles Dickens will be included, too. What may have had a strong influence on at least some of these authors is the famous treatise about physiognomy by Johann Caspar Lavater called Physiognomische Fragmente, zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniß und Menschenliebe published in 1775, which was well-known also in England6. While his theories were already strongly criticised during his lifetime, the fact that major thinkers and writers like Arthur Schopenhauer or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe favoured them contributed to their wide-spread popularity (cf. Gray: 2001). Although Lavater wrote his treatise centuries after (Psuedo-)Aristotle’s theories, the idea of facial features as unambiguous outer signs of inner traits is inherent in his work as well. The analogy between animals and human beings is given up, but the strong belief in transparency is still the basis of his observations, which he illustrated by including ‘model’ pictures of people’s heads which readers are meant to compare to those faces around them. In the 5th chapter called “Über die menschliche Natur”, Lavater strongly affirms the readability of physical traits.

So wie [der Mensch] nur durch die Sinne erkennt, so kann er nur durch die Sinne erkannt werden. [...] Dieß Aeußerliche und Innere stehen offenbar in einem genauen unmittelbaren Zusammenhange. Das Aeußerliche ist nichts, als die Endung, die Gränzen des Innern – und das Innre eine unmittelbare Fortsetzung des Aeußern. Es ist also ein wesentliches Verhältniß zwischen seiner Außenseite, und seinem Innwendigen.⁷

Approaching the turn of the century, in many works that distance themselves from the previous literary period’s convictions and conventions, the realist worldview is more and more critically questioned and undermined, until, with the modernist period, a countermovement becomes the dominant literary influence. As modernist writers do not trust in the same ‘old’ system as the realist writers anymore, and radical modernist representatives openly dismiss the established conventions of storytelling as well as the former period’s whole epistemological basis, it can be suspected that the treatment of physiognomies within their literary works will have changed, too. A gradual development, from early ‘moderate’ modernism still stuck with old traditions to a final general dismissal of realist norms and worldviews, will be analysed in detail by taking two representative novels from the new period. After David Herbert Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover8 (published in 1928, but written earlier), in which realist elements and ‘new’ modernist insights as well as the author’s very peculiar style (cf. chapter 7) are combined, Mrs Dalloway (1925)9, written by one of the most famous radical modernist writers Virginia Woolf, will prove to be an ideal example of the author’s new way of storytelling, whose effects on the field of physiognomy will be examined, too. (cf. chapter 8)

After the modernist period, it becomes more and more difficult to obtain an overview of the period’s overall approach to people’s looks. While postmodernist writers, based on their idea of a fragmented world that cannot be grasped and explained in its entirety, continued and radicalised the modernist depiction of reality (including physiognomies), thereby often mocking conventional ways of storytelling, other writers of the 20th century took up the realist tradition again and continued to transport the belief in ‘transparent’ faces through their books. Other, new media, like comics, make strong use of expressive physiognomies and body language to make it easy to tell right from wrong. The development of the film has taken up this black-and-white ‘colouring’ (already frequently found in realist fiction) from the very beginning, too. Even today, although many counter-examples exist which have found means to show a more differentiated picture of the world, films to a high degree still rely on ‘speaking’ pictures. A high number of mainstream-films, whose main action – to put it bluntly – is often about a hero fighting against an antagonist, speaks an inherent and unmistakable ‘language’ as far as the characters’ looks are concerned. Moreover, children’s literature, cartoons and related media make strong use of ‘speaking’ faces, which is a device apparently meant to facilitate the understanding of the story for the children. Up to this day, heroes tend to be the good-looking guys, while their enemies are easily recognised by their ugly features, although there is no scientific proof for unequivocal facial information and every (adult) viewer will know from his or her own experience that the world’s surface can not be categorised that easily.

These contemporary phenomena all underline the fact that the question of whether faces are ‘speaking’ the truth about the underlying character or not is still a topic of interest in our time. Maybe it is due to the enhanced fragmentation of reality, the blurring of reality and fiction and a general feeling that there is no firm basis we can rely on anymore, that people would like to find new ways of explaining the world or continue the age-old tradition of taking faces as a system of indexical signs. One very questionable result of this possible wish is an online-course about face reading, in which participants are instructed how to read physiognomies. For only $ 25, one can attend twelve online lessons, in which an instructor will teach participants how to “recognize and read the personality traits for lines, dimples [!] and clefts”10 as well as learn how to interpret a person’s eyelids, nose, jaws, cheeks and hair [!]. (cf. Online Course: Face Reading [Physiognomy] 2003).

However various and interesting the dealings with physiognomies in our times may be, for a better understanding of our present culture as such, it is helpful to know the backgrounds and to take a closer look at the past. It is this book’s task to analyse the treatment of physiognomies preceding the fragmented postmodernist era by taking a closer look at representative works of two strikingly different literary periods, namely 19th-century realism and (early) 20th-century modernism. The novels’ treatment of facial descriptions shall reflect this book’s thesis, namely that it is possible to illustrate the norms and worldviews underlying the respective novels (and thus, the literary epoch it belongs to) metonymically by the presentation of physiognomies in the work.

2.Definitions of the terminology: ‘physiognomy‘, ‘pathognomy’ and ‘body language’
Before analysing the treatment of physiognomies in the realist and modernist novels, it is necessary to define what is meant by the most common terms used during the following analysis.

[...]

1 [Pseudo-] Aristoteles (~ 300v.Chr./1999). Physiognomica. Übers. u. kommentiert von Sabine Vogt. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. 26f.

2 William Shakespeare (1609). Troilus and Cressida. In: The Illustrated Stradford Shakespeare (2000). London: Chancellor Press. 637.

3 William Shakespeare (1623). Macbeth. In: The Illustrated Stradford Shakespeare (2000). London: Chancellor Press. 779

4 Elizabeth Gaskell (1854-55/1988). North and South. Oxford: Oxford UP.

5 George Eliot (1859/1985). Adam Bede. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

6 For example, the fact that a character in Anthony Trollope’s The Kellys and the O’Kellys (1848) refers to Lavater shows that the author must have been familiar with the latter’s theories: “I have studied Lavater well enough to know that such a head and face as yours never belonged to a mind that could satisfy itself with worsted-work.” Anthony Trollope (1848/1982). The Kellys and the O’Kellys. Oxford: Oxford UP.414. Although this is only a character’s position, which cannot be equated with the narrator’s nor the author’s opinion, the overall treatment of physiognomies in Trollope’s work underlines this belief in ‘readable’ faces, apparently based on Lavater’s assumptions.

7 Johann Caspar Lavater (1775/1908). Physiognomische Fragmente, zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniß und Menschenliebe. Berlin: Conrad Paris, 1908. 33.

8 David Herbert Lawrence (1928/1994). Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

9 Virginia Woolf (1925/1996). Mrs Dalloway. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth.

10 “Online Course: Face Reading (Physiognomy)“.Universal Class School. [Online] http://home.universalclass.com/i/cm/2200.htm