Interdependence, Incarnation, and Disability in Charlotte Yonge's The Pillars of the House

ABSTRACT

The author suggests that aspects of recent disability models and disability theology were already in the Victorian consciousness, doing so by applying narrative theory and literary analysis to demonstrate how Charlotte Yonge's (1871–1873) novel The Pillars of The House manifests inclusive disability theology via its structural and narrative depiction of incarnational interdependence. The novel's interdependent, multiple-focus plots emphasize the novel's theological themes of incarnation in the Church as many members of one body. This thematic emphasis in the novel relies on a resymbolization of the cross that reflects the incontrovertible interdependence of people, both with and without disabilities. This meaning is then reiterated through the interdependent daily lives of the novel's disabled and nondisabled characters, and through sacramental theology conveyed in scenes in which characters with disabilities receive sacraments.

KEYWORDS:

• disability
• disability studies
• family
• inclusion
• religion

Notes

1. When I use the term disability in this essay, I refer to the social and cultural disablement caused by cultural and environmental privileging of some types of bodies and minds over others. For those reasons, I include illness in this category, because Victorians themselves did not differentiate between illness and disability to the same extent we often do today. Additionally, when referring to the physical and mental realities of those who are disabled in the novel, I choose to continue to use the word disability rather than impairment because the latter term implies that the physical and mental characteristics of those who are disabled are somehow substandard or faulty.

2. The Victorian use of the word girls often included unmarried adult women as well as adolescents.

3. See, for example, Talia Schaffer (2016), Karen Bourrier (2015), and Martha Stoddard Holmes (2007).

4. See, for example, Susan Cólon (2010a, 2010b), Tamara Wagner (2010), Gavin Budge (2007), and Virginia Bemis (1998).

5. In her devotional writing, Yonge frequently emphasized the Tractarian “notion of the Church as a ‘body’ in which all believers were linked to Christ” (Knight & Mason, 2006, p. 91). For example, in her Musings on “The Christian Year” and “Lyra Innocentium” Yonge (1871), she frequently explicates Keble's poetic descriptions of unity through worship, which she describes as “the fragments of our imperfect intermitting devotion that are gathered from thousands of altars, millions of worshippers, and all blended into one” (p. 279).

6. I do not mean to say that Yonge believed in social or economic equality, however. Yonge was a staunch conservative and often stressed the necessity of respecting social order. While individual people may be equally important to one another in her worldview, she certainly did not consider them equals.

7. I first found this quotation in Cecelia Bass's (2007) chapter, “Charlotte Yonge and the Critics” (p. 75).

8. Though at times in Pillars, Yonge criticizes church members who are either “too” Evangelical or Catholic, she makes it clear that as long as they are communicants, then “the army is all one” (Vol. II, p. 522).

9. See Rom 12:3–5 and 1 Cor 12 for Paul's description of Christian unity as “many members” but “one body” (KJV).

10. Tractarian poet Isaac Williams (1843), for example, in his book-length poem The Cathedral, or, The Catholic and Apostolic Church in England, identified the cathedral nave's pillars as representing the “patriarchs and prophets,” from Noah to Daniel, and the choir pillars as representing the apostles.

11. Of course, as Reynolds (2008) noted, “Disability is neither the direct cause of suffering nor a concrete sign of weakness” (Ch. 1, Sec. 4, para. 19).

12. The view of people with intellectual disabilities as burdensome still persists, as the increasing termination rates for fetuses with Down syndrome might suggest.

13. Theodore's disability combines with his musical genius to make him a fictional example of a savant. Though unable to communicate verbally, Theodore has perfect pitch, plays accordion, and can repeat any tune after hearing it once—even associating specific tunes to specific people and humming the tunes to call them.

14. Unfortunately, this drowning threatens to undo much of the good work of the novel by turning disability into both a tragedy and a spiritual lesson for others, and by presenting death as a cure for disability via Theodore's tombstone's inscription, “Ephphatha.”

15. This is the literal translation of his given names, Theodore Benjamin.

16. I was originally directed to Yonge's description of the Sacraments in Bemis (1998), on page 128.

17. While confirmation is not one of the two Anglican sacraments, which are baptism and the Eucharist, I am including Theodore's confirmation as it leads to and includes Theodore's first participation in the Eucharist.

18. To be fair, Theodore's nonverbal method of communication would perhaps have been beyond the bounds of 19th century realism to represent narrative through.

19. Victorian melodrama (and current melodrama, as Downton Abbey illustrates) commonly uses disability in this way, as “a simple tool for cranking open feelings, and everyone involved—disabled and nondisabled, viewers and actors—is somehow placed and defined by what floods out” (Holmes 2004, p. 3).

20. Ephphatha, the Aramaic word meaning “be opened,” refers to the biblical story in which Jesus heals a deaf-mute man by sighing this word to the heavens while touching the man's ears and tongue (Mark 7:32–37). Earlier, Geraldine had comforted Stella regarding Theodore's intellectual disability saying, “It is not the Promised Land yet, for there you know there will be Ephphatha indeed!” (Vol. II, p. 327).

Additional information

Funding

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria.