Joanna Baillie entered into the era of Romanticism as a female writer confronting the double-standards of gender. She entered the realm of the literary world when she was first introduced to a wide range of education at Glasgow. Baillie knew the repercussions and large amount of criticism that she would face being a female author and dramatist in a male dominated literary world. When Baillie began to write tragedies and her "Plays on the Passions," she chose to publish anonymously.
Baillie revealed in many letters that she did not handle the gender criticism well. (Read more about her letters, here) Her desire to prove that gender did not matter for the success of playwrights or literature was proven with her "Plays of the Passions." When Voltaire was asked why no woman has ever written even a tolerable tragedy, "Ah (said the Patriarch) the composition of a tragedy requires testicles.' If this be true, Lord knows what Joanna Baillie does-- I suppose she borrows them." This was just one of the many critics that Joanna had to read and hear criticism from. The criticism that she faced could be used to justify Baillie's motive for placing such a strong emphasis on critiquing the gender norms in the plays that she wrote.
Instead of staying within the traditional sphere of "domesticated" writing, Baillie enters the masculine world of tragedy and drama. Baillie, instead of writing in a masculine way, writes in response and critiques the gender roles and the patriarchal structures in place. Baillie takes the traditional tragedy and adds her gothic touch by creating female characters that reflect the different passions such as fear. In her play, Orra, Baillie uses the passion fear to attempt to critique the theory that woman are the only ones that can experience fear and be consumed by fear. She uses this play to show otherwise.
In Orra, Baillie chooses to have a female protagonist consumed with her struggle of overcoming her fear and other passions that are fighting to consumer her. Following the Gothic tradition, Baillie uses a female protagonist to exemplify how woman are the main characters in Gothic literature to be seen in conflict with the power dynamics and in constant danger of "disrupting" the patriarchal system that is in place. By creating Orra, Baillie has used her character to be directly at odds with what a "traditional" Gothic story should follow. Orra becomes consumed with her fascination of the supernatural elements within the play. This obsession becomes her "tragic flaw" which eventually leads to the destructionof her character. In the introduction to Joanna Baillie's "Six Gothic Novels," Christine A. Colon states that, "rather than using these [Gothic] stories to learn to check her excessive passions, Orra uses them to inflame her passions, delighting in the physical sensations of fear that sourse through her body with every exciting ghost story" (xxvii).
Baillie goes further through discovering the underlying truths of the purpose of Orra's character. Baille uses Orra to show the disempowerment of woman and how little control they have over their own lives. Orra may be responsible for being consumed by the ghost stories, and for her inability to resist the temptations of giving into fear. However, it is the men in her life they should be held accountable for locking her away in a castle that is overflowing with the supernatural. Orra is used to represent a woman that is put back in her "domestic and submissive" place in society when she makes it evident that she does not want to marry. Her goal in life is to remain single, and to remain in full control over her assets. She falls victim to Hughobert, Glottenbal, and Theobald when she is forced to remain in confinement of the haunted castle for her refusal of marriage. Eventaully, she is forced to play the typical "damsel in distress" in order to be rescued by Theobald. Baillie uses this as a critique to show that woman are constantly made the victim of men. She is revealing the truth behind the desires of men. Men put woman in danger by not being able to control their own sexual desires. Orra is placed in danger because of masculine desire. Orra is forced into mentally breaking down and self-destructing because all of her outlets include a man.
Discussion Questions:
1) How does Joanna Baillie version of the Gothic compare to the Radcliffe's version of the Gothic? Compare and contrast the female characters in Radcliffe and Baille's works?
2) If Gothic works are said to be "feminine" or "masculine," which would you categorize Baillie's work under? Why? What makes it this?
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