Islands, Colors and Obsessions

Esffatto da
Ritesof Passage:
RationaI / Irrational
Natural / Supernatural
Local / Global
Atti del XX ConvegnoNazionale
dell'Associazioneltalianadi Anglistica
f Catania-Ragusa,4/ 6 ottobre 2AAII
a cura di
Carrnelal{ocera, GemmaPersico,RosarioPortale
Rubbettino
MichelaA. Calderaro
Islands,ColoursandObsessions.
TheOtherandtheSelfin ThreeCreole\Writers:
JeanRhys,Eliot Bliss,PhyllisShandAllfrey
The islandsof our imagination- with their deepcolours,"hot air", "sffong
seabreeze" and "blazing sun" (Bliss 1984:I77) - were for three white Creole
womenwriters very real islands- Dominica andJamaica.
JeanRhys,Eliot Bliss
and Phyllis ShandAllfrey, though very different personally,shareda common
experienceof the "other", not reallybelongingto any of the communitiesthey
lived in, either on their nativeislandor acrossrhe oceanin Englandor the U.S.
White of British descent,Creoleswere actuallylooked down upon by both
the real white British-born exparriates,who occupied a higher position in the
socio-economichierarchy of the island, and the black community.Yet white
Creole women were the subject of sex discrimination at home when facing
white males.Thus they found themselveson the bottom rung of the Caribbean
socialladder.
The feeling of "otherness",the alienationand rejectionin the questof the
white Creole woman for individual identity, is rhe common element in the
works of thesewriters.
While Jean Rhys is well known by both the literary community and the
public atlarge, Phyllis ShandAllfrey and Eliot Bliss are practicallyunknown.
However,their books are just asimportant asRhys'sfor the understandingof
the difficult and painful experienceenduredby suchwomen in periods of historical changeand socialand economicunrest.Not only do their works belong
by right to the canon of \(est Indies lirerarure,but they also help undersrand
how varied and manifold it is.
Often, there is a journey at the core of the narrative - with the heroine
crossinga wide ocean,and in somecasescomingback.For the physicaljourney awayfrom the islandsmaybe long, but the mentaldepartureis evenlonger.
The theme of 'voyage' or 'passage',both actual and symbolic, from the
Caribbeanto England and back, and the writers' excruciating awarenessof
being other/Different/Women, arethe common subiectsof The orcbid House
98
Michela A. Calderaro
(1953)by Phyllis ShandAllfrey, who was born in Roseau,Dominica, in
190g
and also died there in 1986;v/ide sargassosea (1966)byJean Rhys,alsoborn
in Roseau,Dominicain 1894but died in England,in 1979;andLuminousIsle
(19i4) by Eliot Bliss,born in Kingston,
Jamaicain 19$ and died in England.
choices
they
in
their
personal
liveswere strikingly differlnt: just
pa{9
. Ih:
think of Phyllis ShandAllfrey, a passionarepolitical acdvist,*]lo *u, the ,,iirst
to take the step in 1,954ro wrire boldly about the plight of white creoles"
(Nunez-Harrell 1981: 282) and who made h,rg. p.tsonal sacrifices
for the
Caribbeancause,Bur despitetheir differences,theii pathsoften crossed.They
correspondedand sharedexperiencesand opinions.
, JeanRhys acted as th9 supporter of her lesser-knownfriends. Although
they only met oncein London and neverin Dominica, Allfrey would regul"riy
sendRhyscopiesof rhe star,the oppositionweeklyn.ulrprp., shehad Io.rnded in 1965with her husband.They ran the paper to give u uoi.. to younglocal
writers; she would use it as,"an artistic and political weapon" (polly plttullo
1988:233),and ran it until 1982when financial problemi forced her to close
down. on I March 1979,Rhyswrote ro Allfrey that shewas planning ro go ro
London and show a copy of Tbe Orcbid House (OH) to Anjr6 DeuischTor a
reprint. UnfortunatelyRhys's-failinghealth prevenredher from taking the trip
and shewould die a coupleof monthslater,in May.
MydearPhyllis...fieanRhyswriteslI havebeenill - *ackedup a bit, to tellyouthe
truth - andhavejustgotbackfromanursinghome.I hopeto bewellenoughto getto
Londonin two or threeweeksandit goeswithoutsaying-will
do all I canfor thef,ook.
I havea copyof it and.Iamtakingit up to Londonwith meandamsureI cangetit
readby Andr6Deutsch.
AlsoI will talk to DianaAthill andshemaybe able,o"gr*
g-oodadvice.I amsupposed
to restfor severalmonthsandnot do anywork at all but
if possibleI will try to writesomerhing
asapreface(campbellrg90t;J7).
JeanRhyswas alsoa very supportivefriend to Eliot Bliss,whom shewould
often invite for dinner.In her unpublisheddiariesBlisswrites:
Sheusedto makeme delightful\7est-Indiansuppers,and we usedto drink an
arx,{ullot.
\ilell shecouldholdit, but it usedto
ill, frequentlyill (pringle
1984:xvii).
-uL. -.
Another writer, vita Sackville-\west,
was alsoextremelyhelpful in advancing Phyllis ShandAllfrey's and Eliot Bliss'scareers.Shewas ,,ilnsrrumentalin
getting" LurninousIsle (LI) published(Pringle1984:xv), and was a member
of the jury that awardedAllfrey a secondprize in an internationalpoetry competition sponsoredby the society of \x/omenrfi/ritersand lournaliirs. However small the prize might have been, ir allowed Allfrev to write Tbe orcbid
House.
Unfortunately,besideshaving friends and interestsin common, all three
writers alsohavelong periodsof literary neglectin common.
Islands,
coloursandobsession
s.Theotherandthesetfin Three
creolewriters:...
99
JeanRhyswaseventhought to be deadfor quite a long time: after the publication of Good Morning Midnight (i.939) she disappearedand her books
v/ent out of print. Only after the dramatizationof this novel was broadcastin
1958,shewas traced down in Cornwall andlater, after the publication of the
much acclaimed\wideSargasso
Sea(WSS),wasacknowledgedasa greatwriter.
Rhysreturnedto the Caribbeanonly once,and stayedvery briefly.
PhyllisshandAllfrey died pennilessin a "broken-downlittle house"(pattullo lggg: 225).This despitethe fact that at one time sheservedasthe Minister of
Health and SocialAffairs in the first FederalGovernmentof WestIndies (being
the only woman andthe only white personin that government).Her The orch.id
House,after various ups and downs, ended up among the 'neglected,out of
print books', and asfar aswe know it is still there.only recentlyrherehavebeen
somefeeblesignsof interestin her work and life. However,the critical bibliography on Allfrey includesonly a few articles,somereferencein essaysabout
JeanRhys,and a singlebookJengthstudy,that is Ms. Allfrey'sbiography
by Liz-Dominica,
abeth Paravisini-Gebert,published in 1996. Allfrey rerurned to
fought for freedomalongsidethe black communityand died there.
Eliot Bliss'sfate was evenworse,if suchthing is possible.Like Allfrey, she
too wasplaguedby constantfinancialproblems.Her critical bibliography consistsof a singlearticle,wheresheis consideredin a group with Rhysand Allfrey
but is not examinedindividually (O'Callaghan1986:74-88).There are a couple of reviewsof her two books, saraband(r93r) and Luminous Isle (1934),
written at the time of publication. There is no mention an),uzhere
of her third
book, TheAlbatross ig35). Shedied not long ago,alsoin poverty.By the way,
her christian namewasnot "Elior". she herselfchangedit to Eliot after T. s.
Eliot and GeorgeEliot when shereturned to Englandin 1925.Her real name,
Eileen,appearsinTbe Lettersof JeanRhys;itis nor evenmentioned inthe\x/ho
was.l[/boAmongEnglishand EuropeanAuthors - wherethe avrfullybrief entry
under Eliot Bliss includes only her date of birth and the name of one of the
conventswhere she receivedher Catholic education. She never returned to
Jamaica.
The acutedilemmaof white creole women - the frustratedand frustrating
searchfor a "Self" that is not alwaysor not only an "other" - is underscoreJ
by the different stylisticchoicesin the threebooks.
rn The orchid House,the story is narratedin the first-personby Lally, the
black nurse of three sisters,Joan, Natalie and Stellawho are returning to the
island. Luminous Isle, though natratedin the third-person,brings the reader
closeto EmmelineHibbert's strugglefor freedom from the restrictiverules of
colonialgarrisonlife.
stylisticallythe turning point is reachedwhen, besidesstrugglingwith her
fate, the heroine tries to understandit too. This evoludon is clearlyevident in
\Y/ideSargasso
sea, with events rendered through the two main characters'
100
Michela A. Calderaro
points of view in an alternating duet. Rhys's style is undoubtedly more complex
and her mastery of the writing tools is by far more refined than her fellow Creole writers'. However, it would be unfair not to mention that Rhys wrote her
book much later in life; that she did not "use Dominican material centrally
until after she read The Orchid House landl her Christophine and Baptisre are
names,almost characters,ftom Tbe Orcbid House" (Campbellt99o:2j9); and
that she began her writing career under the wings of "Master" Ford Madox
Ford, whose influence is quite evident throughout her writings.
The islands, where the battle for freedom is fought - and perhaps also lost are co-protagonists of these books. And if the way these islands are described is
similar in the three novels, so is the relationship between the island and each
heroine.
Emmeline Hibbert in Luminous Isle feels that
the bleachedhills seemedto run out to meet her with her calm limbolike brows.
[...] therewasrecognitionbetweenthem and herself.It had not beenimagined,it
was a feeling,this understandingbetweenherselfand the hills (lI 100).
Antoinette, inV/ide SargassoSea,is the island and the island zi Antoinette.
Rochester (though unnamed in the novel) would do anything to own both, to
unveil the seret Antoinette and the island share and hide:
It was a beautiful place* wild, untouched,aboveall untouched,with an alien,disturbing, secretloveliness.And it kept its secret.I'd find myself thinking, '\X4ratI
seeis nothing - I want what it hides-thatis not nothing (WSS73).
And a vital part of the islands are the gardens. They stand out magnificently and dangerously:
Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible - the tree of Iife
gre$/there. But it had gone wild. The paths were overgrownand a smell of dead
flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneaththe tree ferns, tall asforest
tree ferns,the light was green.Orchids flourished out of reachor for somereason
not to be touched.One was snakylooking, anotherlike an octopuswith long thin
tentaclesbare of leaveshanging from a twisted root. Twice a year the octopus
orchid flowered - then not an inch of tentacleshowed.It was a bell-shapedmass
of white, mauve, deep purples, wonderful to see.The scent was very sweetand
strong.I neverwent nearit (WSS17) [my emphasishere and below].
Beautyand disease,beautyand sickness,beautyand horror: that wasthe island.A
quartering breeze hurried easfward,over cotton tufts of clouds; the air was soft
and hot; color drenchedeverything,liquid turquoise melted into saffire and then
into emeraldQH75).
The North breezewas just beginning.At the end of the garden the mango tree
beside the fence trembled violently, and severalover-ripe mangoes fell to the
Islands,
coloursandobsession
s.Theotherandtheselfin Three
Creole
writers:...
101
ground'Theairwasfull of thelongshrillhummingof thecricketswhichpersisted,
neverevenstoppingfor a moment,throughtheotherwise
deeplysilent\flestIndian night. [...] The North breezegentlystirredthe air andblewin, in little puffs
- eventhroughthe meshes
of the mosquito-net
with its starchycleansmell- the
smellof the night.The smellof grass,greenscentedand strong,cut that afternoon,lying in litde heapsin the middleof the lawn andalreadysoakedthrough
with nightdew;thesmellof waterdrippingon to a flowerbedfrom a tapnot quite
turnedoff in the garden,anda faintsweetcoldsmellfrom a rreenearih. burrgurow\Ll J-)t.
The three descriptionsmight very well come from the samebook: the
orchidsarethere,flowering both in Antoinette'sgarden,explicitly connectedto
parasitelife, and in the orchid house at IjAromatique, in Lally's unfolding
accountof events;the islandswith their dangerousyet irresistibleatrractions,
beautiful and ho*ific loom large in all three quotes;and, most notably, the
coloursand the smells,of flowers,dead and alive,of grass,of water,of the night.
The diseaseof the islands- brought on by the parasite/Englishcolonizersis describedin similar mannerin the threenovels,and it leadsihe heroinesinto
a similardisastrous
conclusion:exile.
Antoinette, in \[/ide sargasso
sea,is rakenaway,deprivedevenof her name
and identity,by her Englishhusbandand forced into exile and madness.
Emmeline,inLurninous Isle, choosesto go into exile of her own free will as
away of keeping her mental sanity.Struck by the impossibility of coming to
terms with the "perfect Englishness"of the colony, she sails a-ay leaving
behind her much loved, goldencoloredisland.
Stellaand Natalie,inThe orchid House,go down a similar path. only
Joan, in The orchidHouse, stayson, though with a maimed soul and forced
obey such rules that would not allow a woman - a white woman - to playan
activepart in the island'spolitical life nor mix with its black inhabitants(Toanis
certainlya reflectionof Allfrey herselfl.
The varying senseof place in thesenovelsmay alsobe relatedto the contrast between reality and dream. Each heroine is torn between the warm
caribbean of her "dream" - a dream that often invades rcalityand is in turn
invadedby it - and the cold alienEnglandor New york.
Emmeline, in Lurninous Isle, wishes she cor.rld"go back to the Island,'
which is "more realthan the peoplesittingon eithersideof her,' (LI100). but
is driven awaybythe narrowmindednessof the "perfect Englishness',of colonial society.To her,
the green- and - gold backgroundof rhe \fest Indian homehad alwaysbeen
thereat the backof all her schooldays... makingher wanrpassionately
in the
secretdepthsof her being- almostmorethan anythingelse- to go backto the
Island(LI 54).
102
MicheliA. Calderaro
The contrasrbetweenthe warmth of the caribbean and the Grey coldness
of English-speakingcounries is stressedin The orcbid House.Joanhasdreamt
of life in New York and createdher own myth of it, imagining the New york
snow would tastelike ice-cream,but then facesutter disillusionwhen actually
living in the "straight Grey world of New York" (OH 5l ).
Longing to be acceptedby their own, but feeling that the gap between
them and the white privilegedclassof the realBritishis too wide to .u.n ,ry ,o
bridge, the white creole girls turn to blacks in moments of crisis. They ieel
closer to the disadvantagedand powerlessthan to their own people. Their
black friends seemto representa shelterduring a srorm.
The bond betweenAntoinette and christophine in \Videsargasso
seais the
bond betweenmother and daughteqand in Tia she seesherself- the self she
wishesshe could be. Lally, the black nurse in Tbe orchid House,is the everpresent figure who offers unconditional affection, like a mother. And when
Joan asksLally whether shecould resther headin her lap, we wirnessthe bond
of love berweenthem. EmmelineinLurninouslsle feelsa more physical affinitv
with the black inhabirantsrhan with the whites: "they fascinatedher. Ther!
was somethingrestful about black people, and nothing in the leastindecent',
LI4).
Yet the bond, howeverstfong, must be severed.The white creole women
of thesenovels,in their attempt of integration,ultimately encounterrejection
and areforced to facethe consequentalienationand uncertainfuture.
Tia rejectsAntoinette; christophine is obligedto abandonher in the hands
of Rochester;Joan
is blackmailedinto giving up her political aspirarionsand
personalassociationwith the island blacks, as well as with the Llack servant
Baptiste.And although Emmeline feels strongly drawn to blacks, she never
actuallyfollows her desires."Alienated from her beloved island by the souldestroyingwhite society"(o'callaghan 1986:84),sheleavesit and its inhabitantsbehind, neverto return.
The views,feelingsand emotionsexpressedby thesewriters through their
_
heroinesare the expressionof the manifold culture of the west Indiei. Their
voiceis the voiceof the white Creolewoman,one amongmanyothersthat conmibuteto the rich and complexworld of 'the \flest Indies'.
\Ylriters:...
Creole
TbeOtherandtbeSelfin Three
andObsessions.
Islands,
Colours
'n
References
P.,1990,TheOrcbidHouse(1953),ViragoPress,London
Arrrnpv SH.q,No
Press,London.
lsle (1934),Virago
BrtssE., 1984,Luminous
London.
Sea(1966),Penguin,
Sargasso
RHvsJ.,1968,'Wide
8.,1990, Afterword,in PhyllisShandAllfrey,Tbe OrcbidHouse(I95)),
CaNrpsEI-r
ViragoPress,London.
of Belonging:The \X/hite\fest Indian
E., 1981,"The Paradoxes
NuNEz-HampLL
pp.28I'293.
)L,2, Summer,
\flomanin Fiction",ModernFictionStudies
Novelistsin the
Voice:\X/hiteCreoletWomen
O'CerrRcnaNE., 1986,"TbeOutsider's
1,pp' 74-88.
Indian
Literature,l,
West
LiteraryTradition",Journalof
Caribbean
in
Mary ChamPolly
Pattullo",
"Phyllis
Allfrey
Talking
to
Shand
Parrur-roP.,1988,
(ed.),WritingLiaes:ConuersationsBetweenV,/ornen'Writers,ViragoPress,
berlain
London,pp.224'D4.
Isle(l%4), ViragoPress,
in Eliot Bliss,Luminous
A,, 1984,"Introduction",
PnrNcr-r
London,pp.xi-xix.
Finito di stampare nel mese di settembre 200J
dal1aRubbettino Industrie Gmfiche ed Editoriali
per conto di Rubbettino Editore Srl
88049SoveriaMannelli (Catanzaro)