ENGL 538 Reading Journal #5: H. Rider Haggard's She
Reading Journal #5: Response to H. Rider Haggard’s She
H. Rider Haggard’s She is a cleverly disguised love story. While Haggard’s tale initially comes across as one of a mysterious legend, prophecies of rebirth and oaths of vengeance, and plenty of adventure, it is—at its core—a love story. I enjoyed reading it immensely. Of course, a modern reader will run across outdated tropes—the ones we often find in Victorian stories: cannibal natives, derogatory references to the Irish, class division, and elitism in general—but those sad fragments of the milieu fail to crowd out a good, fun tale worth reading even today. In this journal response, I’d like to briefly discuss the role of physical beauty in both the male and female figures and the threat of reverse colonization presented by the persistent shadow of faced by our intrepid adventurers of being “hot-potted” and devoured by cannibals.
Holly and Leo, from the beginning, are presented as opposites on the beauty spectrum. However, they’re both physically capable, athletic, and strong. Leo Vincey is the embodiment of statuesque, Greek divine male beauty and his amazing physical attractiveness, even as a child, allows him special favors and circumstances. While he is certainly smart and academically capable, he is not the highest achieving student. Holly, on the other hand, is referred to throughout the text as a baboon, “as ugly as [Leo] was handsome… shortish, rather bow-legged, very deep chested, and with unusually long arms,” and even in his own voice regularly refers to his ugliness while he narrates the story (Haggard 35). However, Holly is very intelligent and despite his appearance and social setbacks that come with it (mostly with women), managed to become a Fellow at his college and is generally successful and respected. Combined, it’s almost as if these two—the beastly father and divinely beautiful, adopted son—form a single unit; halves of a whole of what qualities a perfect man might display. It is interesting to note that Holly’s physical appearance, does not deny him any opportunities for success in the same way that it would, in other novels from the era, deny opportunities to unattractive female characters—like Limping Lucy or Rosanna Spears in Collins’s The Moonstone, whose deformities were frequently described and had the effect of erasing the characters as desirable, if not entirely as women.
This tight relationship between Holly and Leo is one several love stories in the text. Holly describes his feelings for Holly as so intense “[he] could not have loved [Leo] more if he had been [his] own son twice over” (Haggard 271). Leo, for his part, reciprocates this intense love for his adopted father. Their relationship is so strong that even when seduced by the supernatural beauty of Ayesha, both men can accept their jealousy (more on the part of Holly) and maintain their own bond without disruption.
The female characters in the novel are predominantly attractive and their beauty becomes differentiated only in degrees of how beautiful one woman is versus another. Ustane, although described as very attractive, comes across as one of many beautiful women among the Amahagger people. In fact, the older women are periodically killed when they become cumbersome. This in a culture where women are sexually dominant and choose their lovers at will. This speaks to a society that tolerates women in dominant positions but reserves the right to revoke their freedom or authority at will. This brings me to a brief point of critique: I thought the Amahagger culture was shoddily assembled. It came across as a matriarchy but was led by a patriarch in each “homestead,” but ruled by a supernatural queen. Each bit was an interesting twist to the storyline and served to move it forward, but any in-depth world development or world-building would require some time back at the drawing board to make the culture make sense. I digress.
Ustane’s love for Leo, one he reciprocates until Ayesha’s beauty overwhelms his feelings, is the second love story in the text.
Ayesha, She-who-must-be-obeyed, however, is staggeringly beautiful and her beauty has supernatural qualities. It can overpower any man and he will fall eternally in love with her. So powerful is her beauty, that she wears a veil and cloth wrappings to hide her features and form from observers. Even Holly succumbs to her powers after, at his request, Ayesha reveals herself to him. She effectively seduces both Holly and Leo, which she believes is the reborn Kallikrates, and this love triangle makes the third and fourth love story and draws attention the meta-love-story of Kallikrates and Amenartas that began the whole epic saga—the fifth love story in the text.
Ayesha is a fascinating villain (is she a villain?). By the end of the novel, she is a sympathetic character that is neither good nor evil. She is immensely powerful, politically savvy, extremely intelligent, and cunning. Her beauty is staggering, but it is not her primary source of power. Her intellect is what allows her to successfully live for centuries and bend the tribes of the Amahagger to her will and to learn the secrets of chemistry. The reader also sees that while she is immensely powerful, power is not her ultimate goal. While she describes women as lusting after power and gold, she is willing to share her power with both Leo/Kallikrates and Holly. So, by the time Ayesha dies the reader is left with a complicated character that has committed despicable acts yet is very likeable.
Ayesha’s death is also a reaffirmation of her power. In many adventure stories the villain is slain by the hero. Ayesha’s death is the result of her trying to encourage Leo to step into the flames. Her death is a mistake that she makes herself. If reaffirms her power because no one could have killed her, it undermines her depiction as a pure villain, it invites sympathy for her because of the gruesome death, and it reinforces the love story as both Holly and Leo watch her wither. It is interesting that when she dies, she decays rapidly and is left small, the size of a monkey, shriveled, and ugly—at which point Holly ponders if the love she inspired in men would endure even if she lost the beauty with which she inspired it: “If we lost them [the beautiful women we loved] and found them again dreadful to look on, though otherwise the very same, should we still love them?” (Haggard 267) Is Haggard trying to make a simple statement about beauty and love and their fragility with the death of a very complex character? It isn’t clear. Despite Holly’s pondering, both he and Leo take clippings of her hair and swear off other women. Well, Holly, a self-described misogynist, had already sworn off women for most of his life. Leo, however, does make a significant vow.
This feels like a bit of a ramble so I’ll wrap up. In the end, I felt like this text was a lot of fun. It reminded me of those old adventure stories that gave birth to all the adventure formulas we see repeated now ad nauseum. I liked that the entire plot structure was wound around a series of love stories and triangles and that in the end love wins despite Ayesha’s death. Unlike many of the formulaic stories of this type, this one never had a clear villain and I like it for that reason.
Works Cited
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. 1868. Edited by Steve Farmer. Broadview, 1999.
Haggard. H. Rider. She. Edited by Andrew M. Stauffer. Broadview, 2006.
