Henry James "Spoils of Poynton"

All page numbers reference Penguin Classics edition (isbn 0-14-043288-4) edited and with an introduction by David Lodge and notes by Patricia Crick, 1987.

It is easy to be simply frustrated by Fleda Vetch. To be frustrated by what seems her "systematic...idiotic perversity"(183).

If the apparatus of the Penguin edition I used is to be believed, the critical community has viewed Fleda with some ambivalence, seeing her as a young woman who is frightened by what she wants and at cross-purposes with her own self. She is a classic James motherless heroine, trying to forge an alliance but deeply ignorant and terrified of all matters sexual. In the introduction, Lodge mentions a number of Freudian interpretations of Fleda's actions and motivations.

Perhaps, by the end of the book, I find myself at one with Mrs. Gereth who comes to greater understanding of Fleda after long exposure, who "resigns" herself to Fleda's choices after "some practice in following queer movements prompted by queer feelings"(189). Nevertheless, its difficult not to identify with a character as compelling, brave and extraordinary as Fleda Vetch. After some practice, I'm not sure she is best or most completely explained by all the critics who see her as sexually frustrated.

In part, Fleda takes a collector's, a connoisseur's approach to her relations. And, this is not just in matters of person or physical form but in terms of their manners and morals. At the last meeting of Owen and Fleda in the book, the two acknowledge their love for one another, there is the extraordinary embrace, "he clasped her and she gave herself....something prisoned and pent, throbbed and gushed"(161). But, then, Fleda holds back and insists that Mona must release him. That Owen made her a promise and only Mona can release him from it. Perhaps its a fine moral point, but its in Fleda's nature to insist on such fine points, whether the fine points are related to a piece of furniture or to the conduct of the young man potentially in her life. In the flush of these moments of their coming to a knowledge and an understanding, Owen exclaims, "'Oh, I'm so awfully happy'"(164) and James writes, "'You'll be happy if you're perfect!' Fleda risked"(164). Owen laughs at her statement and Fleda wonders if "he saw the absurdity of her speech and that no one was happy just because no one could be what she so easily prescribed"(164).

The last sentence is filled with complicating detail. It clearly shows Fleda is attached to perfection, in people as well as furnishings. It also shows her aware of how impossible her attachment and program is, however helplessly she professes it. Yet, it may be what drives her, however inappropriate or impossible collectors' standards may be when it comes to including people in one's life. And, it complicates what drives Fleda's attachment to Mrs. Gereth which may be the most important relationship in Fleda's life.

General Notes
Fleda Vetch:

"She herself was prepared, if she should ever marry, to contribute all the cleverness, and she liked to figure it out that her husband would be a force grateful for direction"(40).

"On that flushed and huddled Sunday a great matter occurred; her little life became aware of a singular quickening"(40).

of Mrs. Gereth's son Owen: "It was clear enough, however, that the happy youth had no more sense for a motive than a deaf man for a tune; a limitation by which, after all, she could gain as well as lose"(46).

Adela Gereth: "She trod the place like a reigning queen or a proud usurper; full as it was of splendid pieces it could show in these days no ornament so effective as its menaced mistress"(63).

"...it left her occasion to marvel at the way a man was made who could care in any relation for a creature like Mona Brigstock when he had known in any relation a creature like Adela Gereth"(63).

In a fit of pique, Mrs. Gereth accuses, "it was his failure from the first to understand what it was to have a mother at all, to appreciate the beauty and the sanctity of the character. She was just his mother as his nose was his nose"(65).

"The shimmer of wrought substances spent itself in the brightness"(71).

"She thought of him perpetually and her eyes had come to rejoice in his manly magnificence more even than they rejoiced in the royal cabinets of the red saloon" (71-72).

Timeline:
Mrs. Gereth seems to accede to Owen's request and accepts a move to Ricks after visiting: "at the turn of a corridor," Fleda finds Mrs. Gereth "with the hanging hands of despair and yet with the active eyes of adventure"(70). Mrs. Gereth tells Fleda "'I'm thinking over what I had better take!'"(70).