I found Lolly Willowes to be a very humorous and interesting story. The ending was totally bizarre, and I'm not totally sure what to make of it. Although Lolly was obviously a raving lunatic, I think it's easy to see why this kind of story would be shocking for the time it was published in. I've never really read a story quite like this before.
I thought the strong feminist aspects of this book were very interesting. Lolly is, to me, the most independent character we have read about in class so far. She wasn't looking for a husband, she really wasn't looking for any type of companionship at all. She just wanted to be alone, and have the peaceful quiet time she enjoyed. At the end of the novel when she is conversing with "the devil" she says that she "can't take warlocks so seriously, not as a class. It is we witches who count. . . Women have such vivid imagination, and lead such dull lives," (page 211).
Lolly totally shunned having a relationship with a man, and decided to be independent and become a witch. However, the fact that a woman asserting her independence is portrayed as a witch is pretty questionable? Although the story definitely seemed feminist to me, Lolly was portrayed as crazy, and witches don't exactly have a great connotation. Why??? This is something I would like to discuss in class, and I would like to hear your comments.
-Mallory Londeck
4 comments:
I kind of think I like Lolly becoming a witch. To me it speaks to the idea that society and their ideas for women push them to such extremes as becoming a witch. Almost as if Lolly desires to be completely opposite of what they want or twisting it into her own individuality. So instead of baking she brews, instead of serving a man she serves the devil, and so on; so that is some weird way she is still doing what society expects of her but rebels at the same time. I think the same is true of her walks, there is nothing wrong with her taking walks but to her it is some sort of secret because nobody knows what she is doing and she could if she wanted do "bad/unacceptable" things on this walk and no one would know, even though she does not.
I feel like considering the time period in which this book was written, feminist undertones were definitely apparent. Although the only man Lolly becomes involved with ends up being the Devil, I feel as though her deviance in itself is speaks to a feminist theology. Never was it insinuated that she was forced into this engagement with the Devil, or that she had to commit to him. She consciously made this decision. I think that the fact that she makes such a deviant decision is proof of her independence. She made a possibly dangerous commitment, but the point of it is that SHE alone made that decision for herself, no matter how risky the consequences are.
I agree that this is one character we have read about so far that is very strong. I think that this does come from the fact that we don't see her seeking out the type of relationships other characters we have read about have or even addressing some of the issues they have. This brings me to wonder about the title being "Lolly Willowes." We learned in the book that her real name is Laura and Lolly is name used by her family as she is the caregiver to her brother and his family. Lolly seems to be the less strong version of the character. However, after reading the ending and seeing Lolly go off on her own, I wonder why this is the name that titles the book since in the end she is more identified as herself or the Laura side of her??? Is this because of her end dealings with the devil and being his "Lolly"??
I think Lolly's union with the Devil reflects her rejection of english society during the time period. During the period, the Anglican church had a large umbrella over British subjects, in-part by the monarchy through parliament. If individuals like Lolly, rejected the religion, which was highly polarized to favor men and was ran by men, they were perceived as witches, because anything that strays from Christ is evil as professed in the bible, thus her rejection of such ideals was her suffocation into the identity of a witch that society refracted unto her. I don't think she was necessarily crazy at all, but as the character progresses throughout the novel, the rejection by society increases and the author does a great job of showing, not telling, how society alienates those who dare to be different.
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