Introduction
Gertrude
Stein and Henry James paint material landscapes as background scenery for
readers to stroll through while subtly contemplating the finer points of
masculine and feminine dichotomies. The overall pace of their works and their
word choices lead readers as if on a leisurely stroll through Hyde
Park or the Louvre. In The
American, Christopher Newman displays the tensions between strolling and
sitting. In The Autobiography of Alice B.
Tolkas, Alice
exemplifies the tensions between sitting and standing. The differences, in both
works, revolve around notions of motion (masculine or feminine) and states of
being (active or inactive). Setting up dichotomous states of being increases
dramatic tensions within the works. Dichotomies, primarily involving motion and/or
lack of motion, also control the speed of scenes. Accordingly, moments of
intensity wind up as intriguing bends in the garden’s path (i.e. momentary
tangents). In other words, both, Stein and James, utilize the motions involved
with sitting and standing to move their readers from one point to the next. The
remainder of this paper will focus on explicating a few passages from each work
in order to garner a better understanding of the effects of the sit/stand
dichotomy as presented by Stein and James. (Note: Due to the length
restrictions, I will limit passages to major plot movers specifically utilizing
the words: sit, stand, and stroll.)
Gertrude Stein: “[A]pprenticeship of [S]tanding”
In
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas,
we’re immediately introduced to tense sitting: “I like a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it” (Stein 1 emphasis mine). There is no further
explanation. The ambiguity allows the reader’s mind to drift. Alice could be
putting her back-to-a-view with the same presence as the paranoid who prefers
to sit back-to-a-wall. Though, the distinct smugness in the statement leads the
reader to imagine a girl who doesn’t feel a view is worth the effort of facing
it. Either way, this brief sentence serves to transition the reader from Alice ’s preferences to
the next paragraph concerning her upbringing or “the gently bred existence of
[her] class and kind” (Stein 1). This transition leads the reader to the
conclusion that Alice
is the type of girl who is concerned with “class and kind” and who has time to
ignore the same view that others would barely have time to enjoy. This instance
of sitting helps to pull the reader into the story, additionally, it serves to
move the reader through the subtleties of Alice ’s
class consciousness.
When
moving from sitting to standing much masculine-feminine tension is placed in
the gesture itself, however, this tension is packaged in material descriptions
of “chairs” and their comfort inadequacies for “short-legged people”:
The chairs in the
room were also all italian renaissance, not very comfortable for short-legged
people and one got in the habit of sitting on one’s legs. Miss Stein sat near
the stove in a lovely high-backed one and she peacefully let her legs hang,
which was a matter of habit, and when any one of the many visitors came to ask
her a question she lifted herself up out of this chair and usually replied in
french, not just now (Stein 9).
Sitting on one’s legs invites the
inevitable reduction of blood flow which naturally causes blood to rush back
into one’s legs upon standing. The image of Stein sitting with her legs
dangling then standing up quickly impresses on to the reader Stein’s readiness
to stand up at speed (Gertrude Stein in your face in 2.2 seconds).
Additionally, since this moment is supposed to be an observation of Alice ’s, there is an indication that this opposite action
impressed Alice .
Speaking of those dichotomies: this sit/stand scene involving Stein’s sit-to-stand
preparedness is an observation of a more masculine action whereby one dangles
because one is poised and ready for action. One sits upon their legs when one
feels relaxed, safe, inactive, at which point it is unnecessary to stand
quickly, there’s no rush. Such sitting indicates Alice ’s (in)actions as those of a comfortable
class and a feminine kind. I argue two points here: one, the sit/stand
dichotomy is integral to the movement of the scene and the plotline; and, two,
the masculine/ feminine dichotomy is integral to the observational relationship
of Gertrude (masculine) and Alice (feminine). That said, this section initially
implies paintings will be spoken of, then uses chairs and the act of (un)occupying
them as a transition into character development and dichotomous observations.
Then the reader is just as suddenly diverted back to a secondary implication of
a promised paintings discussion before the reader is deviated into a description
of the room, the lighting situation, a painter, the landlady, and the year they
first got electricity (“1914”) (Stein 9).
For
fear of exceeding the scope of this paper, the final sit/stand scene we will
discuss gave rise to the subtitle of this section:
It is a place where
you were always standing and sometimes waiting, not for anything to happen, but
just standing. The inhabitants of Montmartre did not sit much, they mostly
stood which was just as well as the chairs, the dining room chairs of France,
did not tempt one to sit. So I went to Montmartre
and I began my apprenticeship of standing (Stein 20).
As seen in the earlier passage, Alice places a lot of
importance on comfort while sitting. Yet, she also views sitting as a social
function, whereby if the locals are sitting one also sits, if they are standing
one also stands. For Alice , whose “gently bred
existence” allows for turning away from a view, the act of standing for
extended periods has become work, a social “apprenticeship” This moment acts as
an indicator of the tensions Alice
experiences over time and in new settings. For Alice , standing had previously been a
masculine activity; once she begins her apprenticeship she becomes active, and
therefore minutely more masculine. Interestingly, we’re only introduced to Alice ’s apprenticeship
after a forewarning describing the standing as unproductive and inactive. Thus,
Alice ’s self-affirmed
apprenticeship was actually in feminine standing, a form easily contrasted
against the earlier description of Gertrude’s masculine standing. Stein
utilizes Alice ’s class conscious voice to
describe observations of sitting and standing, which feed the discussion of Alice ’s “kind” (feminine)
and “class” (inactive).
Henry James: “An [A]esthetic [H]eadache”
James,
unlike Stein, doesn’t make it beyond the first sentence without making
reference to “reclining,” though as promised, we shall skip over that sentence
to another sentence about half a page down:
But his exertions on
this particular day had been of an unwonted sort, and he had often performed
great physical feats which left him less jaded than his tranquil stroll through
the Louvre. He had looked out all the pictures to which an asterix was affixed
in those formidable pages of fine print in his Baedeker; his attention had been
strained and his eyes dazzled, and he had sat down with an aesthetic headache
(James 1).
Here the reader is introduced to
Christopher Newman, an active man who took a “tranquil stroll” through the
Louvre to find himself sitting, mentally exhausted, sporting “an aesthetic
headache”. James has painted an exquisite landscape for strolling, what better
portrait to paint than inside of the Louvre, home to the greats? Yet, the
action of a “tranquil stroll” leaves Newman without energy, “reclining” and
inactive on a couch. Newman’s inactivity is not a feminine action, it is
masculinity exhausted. This inactivity is also class- and kind-based as
indicated by the “Baedeker” reference and the whirlwind tour of looking at
everything premarked in the travel guide. Newman went to the Louvre for a
“tranquil stroll” an elitist notion, but he preplanned like an active middle
class tourist with a set goal and not like an inactive upper class local out
for a leisurely stroll. For James, the act of strolling and sitting indicate
class and kind, while simultaneously controlling the speed of the scene. As
mentioned earlier the first sentence introduces Newman in a very inactive
position, the reason for his inactivity is quickly explained and his inactivity
is then reintroduced. In this introduction, it is less important what works of
art were viewed, than that the implied acts of viewing, walking, standing,
staring, and contemplating were cause for sitting and cause of his “aesthetic
headache.”
The
second James passage which interests us, involves Newman’s marriage proposition
to Madame de Cintre:
Madam de Cintre
stood there a moment longer, looking away from him. If she was touched by the
way he spoke, the thing was conceivable. His voice, always very mild and
interrogative, gradually became as soft and as tenderly argumentative as if he
had been talking to a much-loved child. He stood watching her, and she
presently turned round again, but this time she did not look at him, and she
spoke with a quietness in which there was a visible trace of effort (James
118).
The tension in this standing scene
is wrapped up in the interplay between masculine and feminine as well as on the
level of class. Though for James, this scene serves as an exploration of social
expectations as viewed through dichotomous characters: one bound by class-based
on blood (blood class), the other bound by class-based on finances
(finance-class). That “thing [that] was conceivable [if…]” becomes the all
important focal point of the scene, yet the readers are moved to the “thing”
and moved out of the “thing” with a tension-in-standing that is elevated by
James’ use of “looking” and “turning.” This scene is full of bodily motions affected
by gaze and emphasized through voice. Those final four words provide a brief
insight into Madam de Cintre’s take on “the thing”; a take which included her
responding with “a visible trace of effort”.
For
that promised sake of brevity, the final James passage which interests us is as
follows:
He watched the deer
in Windsor Forest
and admired the Thames from Richmond Hill ; he
ate whitebait and brown-bread and butter at Greenwich ,
and strolled in the grassy shadow of the cathedral of Canterbury . He also visited the Tower of London
In this scene Newman takes in the
English sights, strolls through the English countryside without mention of his
Baedeker, and impresses upon the reader a sense of aimless wandering. Newman’s
surety in his finance-class has been thwarted by members of the blood-class;
even so, it is the thwarted Newman that comes closest to obtaining a genuine
level of leisurely strolling. In other words, he has to escape Paris
and lose himself in England
to accomplish this approximation. Thus, readers are moved through Newman’s
inner tensions as played out in his varied strolling habits. The early Newman
is a purposeful stroller checking off pieces of art with intention (masculine
action); whereas this later Newman, tainted by interactions with blood-class,
finds himself strolling without purpose (feminine action). For Newman the class
battle has stripped away his surety, his masculinity.
Conclusion
Looking at three passages from both
texts hardly does this subject justice and further limiting this examination to
three words (sit, stand, stroll) is unfair to the role that bodily motion plays
in moving these works. Stein and James were observers in human behavior and
these two works show their abilities to capture the subtleties of movement and
the dichotomous tensions involved in interactions between people of varied
“class and kind”. While sitting, standing, and strolling are at a minimum basic
action descriptors, Stein and James harness these movements as transitionary
aspects of their characters which also control the speed of scenes and the flow
of the plot.
James,
Henry. The American. New York : Penguin Group.
2005.
Stein,
Gertrude. The Selected Writings of
Gertrude Stein. New York :
Random House. 1990.
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