Aunt Arabella would totally sign up for hinge…
Summary: Aunt Greenow/ Mr. Cheesacre/ The Rivals
Kate's aunt takes her to the seaside town Yarmouth. There they meet a whole cast of characters including two older gentlemen Mr. Cheeseacre (a farmer) and Captain Bellfield. Mrs. Greenow acts as if Mr. Cheeseacre is courting Kate but in fact, both men are courting Mrs. Greenow. Kate's aunt wishes Kate would pay more attention to Mr. Cheeseacre and less to Captain Bellfield but as Kate notices Mrs. Greenow pays more than enough attention to Captain Bellfield for both of them.
Mr. Cheesacre and Mrs. Greenow decide to throw a picnic at the seaside together. Yarmouth isn’t a great place for a picnic because it’s all seaside not pleasant rolling hills but their friends make a theme out of it. Who doesn’t love a themed party? Mr. Cheesacre doesn't mind paying for the picnic but he wants credit for what he pays for. Mrs. Greenow also doesn't mind paying for things but she wants them to be set out according to her taste. Once the party has started Cheeseacre feels Captain Bellfield is getting too much credit and too much attention and the two spar back and forth over the meal. Bellfield wins and also wins the attention of the widow. Cheeseacre uses a moment at the party to propose marriage to Mrs. Greenow but she turns him down with talk of her late husband. When they're back in town Mrs. Greenow tells Kate she doesn't see much harm in old people flirting, as long as they don't flirt with young people.
Alice and Arabella: bring on the Arabella prequel!
Reading these chapters I was interested mostly in comparing Alice and Arabella.
Trollope reflects on Arabella’s history in this chapter, saying “Arabella Vavasor had no fortune, and that she had offended her father and brothers by declining to comply with their advice at certain periods of her career” (58) and we hear also that “Arabella had long been a thorn in their [the Vavasors] side, never having really done anything which they could pronounce to be absolutely wrong, but always giving them cause for fear” (58). This reminded me of Alice’s current position in her family. Having Alice in a respectable upper middle class/aristocratic family calmly canceling engagements might also be a “cause for fear” and in this way, she and Arabella might be very similar to one another. If flashbacks were a thing in this novel we could compare their two histories. The difference is when we meet Arabella she has reached a point in her career where her family is no longer worried about her whereas Alice is perhaps at what her family feels is a crisis. In fact, George, Kate’s grandfather, and the whole family are prepared to pay Arabella positive attention now that she has 40,000 pounds in her control. She has transformed from a disappointing daughter to a rich relation.1
Arabella herself seems to revel in her transformation: insisting on calling her maid Jeanette instead of Jenny2, traveling by cab instead of by omnibus, wearing the most over-the-top widow's weeds. She’s a little extra —a little over the top. She cares for how things look, she might not be able to enjoy dinner—though I say this with a wink—but she wants to make sure there’s sweetbread. Arabella Greenow, despite Trollope calling attention to a little of her vulgar pretensions, doesn’t seem like a bad rich aunt to have. She might actually be the happiest character we’ve met so far in the novel.
It’s interesting to read Trollope describes Mrs. Greenow as having no “false shame” (60) when my recent readings suggest what Alice battles is essentially shame. Trollope means Arabella doesn’t hide her enjoyment at her command of herself, her fortune, and everything it brings to her. Whether it’s handkerchiefs with deep hems or the right music for a seaside party Mrs. Greenow intends to have and enjoy what she feels she is owed by her circumstances. In fact, she might be so confident it’s now so much what she’s owed as what she commands. Alice and even Kate are flooded by their feelings of not being owed anything. Consider Kate’s certainty that her life will essentially end when Alice marries. Granted Kate might play this up for Alice’s attention and sympathy but that reveals real anxiety about their relationship that a more secure bond would preclude. Consider also Alice’s insistence Mr. Grey is too good for her despite the fact she’s an eligible young woman with a tidy fortune.
It’s also worth reflecting on when Arabella does hide behind pretense: her insistence that Mr. Cheesacre is courting Kate and her insistence that they are at the seaside for Kate to meet eligible young men when really they’re there for Mrs. Greenow’s enjoyment and ambitions. If a character as flagrant as Mrs. Greenow cannot openly admit her position as a desirable woman in search of a husband no wonder Alice, who is timid in her own way, can’t scrape together the courage to see her own worth. I think this reveals more about society than it does about their characters. Respectable women are seen as essentially romantically passive because giving women romantic agency would jeopardize the status quo of patriarchal control
Mrs. Greenow is secretly however quite romantically active. True she doesn’t outright state her motives and hides behind the screen of widowhood when her suitors come calling but she chooses who will accompany her home and how far.
“They were now upon the esplanade, and Mrs. Greenow's house was to the right, whereas the lodgings of both the gentlemen were to the left. Each of them fought hard for the privilege of accompanying the widow to her door; but Mrs. Greenow was self-willed, and upon this occasion would have neither of them. "Mr. Joe Fairstairs must pass the house," said she, "and he will see us home. Mr. Cheesacre, good night. Indeed you shall not;—not a step." There was that in her voice which induced Mr. Cheesacre to obey her, and which made Captain Bellfield aware that he would only injure his cause if he endeavoured to make further progress in it on the present occasion.” (84)
She also is able to insist just before this that Captain Bellfield accompany her home from the picnic
“Mr. Cheesacre had vainly endeavoured to arrange that Mrs. Greenow should return with him. But not only was Captain Bellfield opposed to such a change in their positions, but so also was Mrs. Greenow. "I think we'd better go back as we came," she said, giving her hand to the Captain.” (83)
I think Arabella’s ability to command her gentleman escorts compares well with Alice who in our last section was hemmed in completely by George and Kate so she couldn’t even get up from her chair. Their control of the space around them betrays their agency or lack thereof. Mrs. Greenow and Alice both pretend that they aren’t interested in men they are interested in. Mrs. Greenow pretends she isn’t courting with Captain Bellfield and Mr. Cheeseacre and Alice pretends she isn’t flirting with George (or really being seduced) but Mrs. Greenow doesn’t pretend to herself whereas Alice does deceive herself about George’s power over her. Why? Perhaps because Mrs. Greenow has the benefit of more money and the societal independence a widow has. A widow in control of her own money is in a very different social position than an unmarried woman like Alice. Even though Alice will show a great deal of control over her finances her control ends up being somewhat diluted by the collusion of the men around her. Mrs. Greenow doesn’t have family-men around her that way. Her family conspires for her favor not for her protection.
There’s not as much written critically about the Mrs. Greenow section, she’s widely condemned as a C plot to Alice and Glencora. I think there’s a little snobbery too Mrs. Greenow’s husband wasn’t gentry and Mrs. Greenow’s suitors represent the lower end of the respectable classes. Consider the gulf between the Bennets and Mr. Darcy and then consider the even larger gulf between Wickham and Darcy and you’ll get an idea of the distance between the upper echelons of society Trollope will take us to from the Pallisers to Mr. Cheeseacre.
Critics I think sometimes show the same snobbery that their characters do. Mrs. Greenow is eager to learn if Cheeseacre could become a landlord, Mrs. Greenow’s reviewers are eager to move on to gentry in the rest of the novel.
There’s definitely hope that if they make nice with her they can end up inheriting her money and thus “keep it in the family” but they aren’t panicked by the idea of her marrying the way some families are.
People pretending to have french maids for social points = people fronting on Instagram? There’s definitely some class pretension there. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone has an actual french maid in the book — I don’t think one is mentioned.