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'From their point of view': voice and speech in George Moore's Esther Waters
Siobhan Chapman Language and Literature 2002 11: 307 DOI: 10.1177/096394700201100402 The online version of this article can be found at: http://lal.sagepub.com/content/11/4/307

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A RT I C L E
From their point of view: voice and speech in George Moores Esther Waters
Siobhan Chapman, University of Liverpool, UK

Abstract
George Moores Esther Waters 1983 [1894] has been praised by critics for the sustained manner in which Esther serves as the controlling consciousness of her own story. This article explores the possibility of using stylistic accounts of some of the distinctive linguistic features of the text to offer an explanation of this. As an illiterate servant girl as well as an unrepentant fallen woman, Esther is an unlikely and, at the time of first publication, controversial heroine, let alone central consciousness. The narrative of the novel is considered in terms of Uspenskys (1973) notion of point of view, and various later developments of this, in order to assess how Esther acts as characterfocalizer for her own story. The manner in which Esther gives voice to that story is examined with reference to Leech and Shorts (1981) cline of speech presentation. Further, it is argued that Esthers voice is not only heard when her speech is represented, but permeates the narration of her story. Bakhtins (1981) notion of voiceimages is used to explore this idea. Throughout the discussion of these themes, comparisons are drawn with Thomas Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles, a novel very close to Esther Waters in date and theme, but in which some significantly different linguistic choices are made. It is argued that these differences can, in part, account for the different viewpoints, or ideological stances, of the two texts.1 Keywords: Esther Waters; focalization; Hardy, Thomas; ideology; Moore, George; narrative; point of view; speech presentation; Tess of the DUrbervilles; voice-images

1 Introduction Since it was first published in 1894, criticism and praise for George Moores novel Esther Waters have both tended to focus on the same property: its unflinching portrayal of the experiences of its heroine. Contemporary reviews praised it for its realistic and sympathetic account of a servant girls seduction, abandonment and subsequent struggle to bring up her child, while at the same time W. H. Smith banned it from railway bookstalls for these same reasons.2 More recent critics have accounted for both realism and sympathy in terms of the fact that the narrative of the novel is focused almost entirely through the consciousness of Esther herself. For instance, Watt (1984: 189) describes the whole novel as seen through Esthers eyes, while Cave (1978: 79) makes the slightly more modest claim that much of the description is presented through Esthers eyes and in terms of her response to it. These critics do not, however, discuss any specific textual features which might bring about this focusing, although Cave suggests tantalizingly that Moore employed stylistic means

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(p. 81) to do so. It is the purpose of this article to explore some of the forms which these might take. I will examine some characteristic features of the language in which Esthers story is told, and consider how these might account for the distinctive, and in its day controversial, treatment which that story is given in Moores novel.3 In section 3 I will consider some of the ways in which the narrative of Esther Waters might be said to adopt a stance of internal focalization (Genette, 1980; Rimmon-Kennan, 1983, both drawing on Uspensky, 1973) with Esther as the focalizing character. Further, if Esther is to be seen as the central consciousness of the novel, it is important to establish how her voice is presented, particularly in how she explains her experiences to others. I will therefore pay attention to the presentation of Esthers speech, drawing on Leech and Shorts (1981) analytical categories (section 4). However, Esthers voice appears not just in her own speech, but in the way she represents her experiences to herself and, I will argue, also permeates the narration of her story. In exploring this idea I will draw on Bakhtins (1981) notion of voice-image (section 5). I will argue that the neutral voice of narration in Esther Waters is in what Bakhtin calls a dialogic relationship with Esthers consciousness, keeping the focus of attention steadily on Esthers observations of, and responses to, the world she inhabits. In this way Esthers own attitudes and values to a large extent determine the point of view of the novel. This article, therefore, does not attempt to offer a new reading of Esther Waters, or indeed any new linguistic insight into literary point of view. Rather, it suggests the stylistic metalanguage appropriate to discussing a fairly wellrehearsed theme of Moores novel. In other words, it explores how certain analytical tools developed within stylistics in recent decades might account for features of the novel which its critics have identified but perhaps not fully explained. These critics have noted that Moore repeatedly and significantly offers the reader Esthers own viewpoint in the telling of her story. As Short (1996: 263) argues, stylistic analysis can be used to explain how viewpoint is controlled by small-scale linguistic choices on the part of the author.

2 Focus and subjectivity If Esther Waters can be shown to share the attitudes and values of its central character, this may go some way towards explaining the striking, and indeed controversial, nature of the novel. Esther, the sturdy and illiterate servant girl, is an unlikely heroine, and an even more unlikely central consciousness. Moore himself commented on what was to make his novel distinctive when he wrote to his brother that he was planning to write a book about servants, from their point of view.4 Recent critics have picked up on this very feature, commenting on Moores daring focus on the lives of working-class characters (Fernando, 1977: 98; Watt, 1984: 193; Haywood, 1997: 12). Attention has also been paid to the
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significance of Moores choice of a woman as his central consciousness; Federico (1993: 141) suggests that by selecting a feminine voice, and thereby giving expression to a womans experience, Moore was questioning received ideas about what subjects and subjectivities are appropriate for art. But Esther is not just a servant and a woman; she is a woman who bears a child outside of marriage, and indeed a woman who demonstrates no particular embarrassment at, or repentance for, her fallen state. Watt (1984: 192) describes Esther as repenting to the extent that she feels reasonable and no more. The novels concentration on Esthers own view of her story could explain the pragmatic, nonjudgemental treatment which that story receives, a treatment which has contributed to the praise afforded the novel as much as to its early banning. The date of Esther Waters, its themes and its story make comparisons with Tess of the DUrbervilles inevitable. Moores novel was published just three years after Hardys, and reviewers at the time were quick to draw comparisons, often in Moores favour.5 More recent critics have also drawn comparisons, concentrating on the treatment of the experiences of the fallen heroine in the two novels (for instance, Watt, 1984: 191). The similarities between the stories are striking. Both Tess and Esther are from working-class backgrounds. Both are seduced and then abandoned. They each bear a child, and are later courted by another suitor before re-encountering the childs father. However, the differences between the presentation and outcome of the two stories are equally significant. Whereas Tess is described as superior to her peers, a superiority associated with possible aristocratic descent, Esther is not characterized by any particular distinction of appearance or sensibility. Tesss child dies soon after birth while Esters grows to adulthood. Tess marries her second suitor only to be abandoned again, whereas Esther rejects hers in favour of her previous, now divorced, lover. Most significantly, Tesss fall leads eventually to her own death, while Esthers leads to a tranquil, if not entirely happy, retirement. In what follows, I will draw on examples from Tess of the DUrbervilles when comparison with Esther Waters can offer insights into those aspects of the text under discussion. My purpose is not to offer an evaluative comparison of the two novels, but merely to highlight by contrast some of the linguistic features of Moores novel.

3 Internal focalization Perhaps the most obvious way in which Esther Waters follows its heroines own view of her story is that the narrative is restricted almost exclusively to recounting Esthers experiences. It is a third-person narrative, but for the most part it forgoes the possibilities afforded by a potentially omniscient author. This type of narrative is described by Genette (1980: 193) as internal focalization. In drawing attention to this style of narrative, Genette draws heavily on Uspenskys discussion of the use of point of view of a character internal to the narrative. Uspensky describes this as one of the transformations of Icherzhlung [first person] (1973: 88), a

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style of narrative which could be rewritten in the first person without the need to change anything other than the pronouns. The following passage, describing Esthers experience of losing and regaining consciousness under chloroform, is typical of this style: He placed a small wire case over her mouth and nose. The sickly odour which she breathed from the cotton wool filled her brain with nausea; it seemed to choke her; life faded a little, and at every inhalation she expected to lose sight of the circle of faces. And then darkness began to lighten; night passed into dawn; she could hear voices, and when her eyes opened the doctors and nurses were standing round her, but there was no longer any expression of eager interest on their faces. (Esther Waters, 125) Other characters, here the doctors and nurses, are described from the outside and their thoughts inferred from their expressions and actions. In contrast, the reader is given direct information about Esthers physical and mental experiences. Expressions such as she expected and she could hear contain verba sentiendi, verbs which express internal conditions and which function in the text as formal signs of description from an internal point of view (Uspensky, 1973: 85). Further, the narrative breaks off and resumes as Esther loses and regains consciousness, mirroring the way in which, in the novel in general, the narrative remains with events which Esther herself witnesses. The passage quoted above is taken from the description of the birth of Esthers child. Esthers seduction, and her subsequent pregnancy and childbirth are central to her story, and as such they are described as she experiences them. Fernando (1977: 88) suggests that these events are given space in the text appropriate to their duration and impact. Crucially, they are treated as experiences which deserve inclusion in the novel. Women had given birth to illegitimate children in novels before, but the physical reality of this was rarely alluded to; the account of Esthers harrowing experiences in the paupers lying-in hospital was considered particularly shocking when the novel was first published.6 Watt (1984: 198) compares this description with the treatment of childbirth in literature immediately preceding its publication (in which Tess of the DUrbervilles could be included): In the earlier Victorian novels where a child is born, the moment is given no attention at all. Saying what had previously gone unsaid, because it is central to its heroines story, is one way in which the narrative maintains its use of Esther as focalizing consciousness. But there are other ways in which the description of events follows Esthers own point of view, ways which are grounded in the linguistic choices made throughout the novel. Uspensky describes how internal focalization can be achieved on a variety of planes, including the spatial and temporal, the psychological and the ideological. This work on point of view has proved particularly productive in stylistics. Rimmon-Kennan (1983: 74) draws on it when she identifies three facets to the process by which a particular protagonist can

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act as character-focalizer, as does Fowler (1986: 141) when he posits two subtypes each of internal and external point of view. Borrowing RimmonKennans term, it can be claimed that Esther acts as character-focalizer for her own story, an effect achieved on a number of different planes within the text. In the consistency with which this is achieved, Esther Waters differs markedly from Tess of the DUrbervilles, with its much more frequent use of external focalization. This difference between the novels depends on the sustained use of focalization; in what follows, I offer a few short extracts which can be seen as illustrative of these general trends. Discussing the spatial and temporal plane, Uspensky (1973: 58) draws attention to examples of internal focalization where the narrator seems to be attached to the character and thus holds the same spatial position as the character. He notes that in some cases this process may be taken further, so that the narrator may merge with the character, taking on her view of a scene as well as her spatial position in relation to it. On these occasions, events are seen through the eyes of what Rimmon-Kennan (1983: 77) terms a limited observer. A striking example of this merging in Esther Waters occurs in the description of Derby Day. When Esther goes to the races, the reader is offered an extended, lively description of the scene. But the emphasis throughout is on what Esther observes, and what corresponds with her interests. So there are detailed descriptions of the crowds and their clothes, the refreshments, and even of the mechanical horses which Esther delights in riding. But Esther has little understanding of, and no real interest in, the actual racing. The only account of the racing which is offered is the following short paragraph, after Esther has been persuaded by William to climb onto a box to watch the last race. Esthers observation of the race, and therefore that offered to the reader, is limited by her lack of interest and also, physically, by her restricted view. There were two or three false starts, and then, looking through the multitude of hats, Esther saw five or six thin greyhound-looking horses. They passed like shadows, flitted by; and she was sorry for the poor chestnut that trotted in among the crowd. (Esther Waters, 284) Uspensky (1973: 64) contrasts internal focalization of this type with instances where an overview of a whole scene is offered. He notes that because such a spatial position usually presupposes very broad horizons, we may call it the birds-eye point of view. This type of panoramic view is conspicuously absent from Esther Waters, but is to be found in Tess of the DUrbervilles, such as in the descriptive passage which opens the final chapter: The city of Wintoncester that fine old city, aforetime capital of Wessex lay amidst its convex and concave downlands in all the brightness and warmth of a July morning. The gabled brick, tile, and freestone houses had almost dried off for the season their integument of lichen, the streams in the meadows were

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SIOBHAN CHAPMAN low, and in the sloping Highstreet, from the West Gateway to the mediaeval cross, and from the mediaeval cross to the bridge, that leisurely dusting and sweeping was in progress which usually ushers in an old-fashioned marketday. (Tess of the DUrbervilles, 383)

The reader is offered a birds-eye view of the scene, together with an interpretation of its significance. It is not a scene which is witnessed by Tess herself, or indeed by any character internal to the narrative. Focalization on the psychological plane includes the use of verba sentiendi discussed previously, and more generally any direct reference to the thoughts, perceptions and emotions of the focalized character. Further examples of this type will be discussed below in relation to voice-images. However, focalization on this plane also includes choices about how much knowledge is implicit in the narrative. In the case of certain styles of internal focalization, description may be subjective, narrated through the perceptions of [one character] and sharing that characters knowledge or ignorance (Uspensky, 1973: 82). An example of this latter type can, again, be found in Esthers ignorance about horse-racing. When she first arrives at Woodview, the country house in which she goes into service, and which is a centre for breeding and training race-horses, she is worried that the horses she glimpses in the yard are too thin. Later, at the servants meal table, she is surprised by a thin boys refusal of food: Esther thought him a nice little fellow, and tried to persuade him to forgo his resolution not to touch pudding, until Mr Swindles told her to cheese it. The attention of the table being drawn to the boy, Esther wondered at the admiration with which everybody viewed him; it seemed strange that he should be the centre of so much interest, for he was but a little fellow; the bigger boys were overlooked. (Esther Waters, 16) Unlike Esther, the reader may well be aware that extreme thinness is prized in both race horses and jockeys. However, the narrative, with its focus on Esthers perceptions of the world around her, does not make any mention of this misunderstanding; Esther eventually realizes her own errors when these matters are directly explained to her. Perhaps the most detailed classification of focalization on the psychological plane is that offered by Fowler (1986: 135). He divides internal narration into type A (narration from a point of view within a characters consciousness) and type B (from the point of view of someone who is not a participating character but has knowledge of the feelings of the characters). External narration is divided between type C (from a position outside of any of the protagonists consciousnesses, with no privileged access to their private feelings and opinions) and type D (actually stressing the limitations of authorial knowledge, the inaccessibility of the characters ideologies). As Fowler notes, this last type is

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often used in cases of one character observing another (1986: 142). It offers a useful way of describing Esthers observations of the young jockey in the passage quoted earlier. The narration is internal to Esther and external to the jockey and other servants; if the behaviour of A is described through the perceptions of B (A and B being characters in the same narrative), then A is described from an external point of view, while B is described from an internal point of view (Uspensky, 1973: 84). Tess, too, is in many ways nave and fails fully to understand what is going on around her. Unlike in Esther Waters, this lack of understanding is sometimes described from a point of view external to the heroine, as in the following passage, where Alec is attempting to teach her to whistle: He suited the action to the word, and whistled a line of Take O take those lips away. But the allusion was lost upon Tess (Tess of the DUrbervilles, 63). The reader is given information to which Tess does not have access; she remains ignorant of the name of the tune. Moreover, explicit reference is made to the fact that Tess misses the significance of what she hears. The narrative focus remains external to Tesss consciousness, and is able to comment both on aspects of the situation of which she is unaware and on the extent of her ignorance. Discussions of focalization on the ideological plane generally concentrate on how characters reactions to and judgements about their experiences are presented. Such reactions offer insight into how the world of the novel is evaluated by a character or characters, understanding by evaluation a general system of viewing the world conceptually (Uspensky, 1973: 8). Fowler, too, comments that when we speak of point of view on the plane of ideology in a narrative text, we mean the set of values, or belief system, communicated by the language of the text (1986: 130). Focalization on the ideological plane is, therefore, determined by how the views and attitudes of a particular character are made apparent in the language; indeed Uspensky (1973: 15) explicitly equates ideological focalization with characterization. Perhaps the best-known treatment of this type of focalization is in Hallidays (1971) discussion of ideational language. Halliday famously discusses a type of language use which, through a marked lack of transitive verbs, is indicative of a limited world view which fails to comprehend how deliberate actions can affect external objects. The following extract from Esther Waters, on the contrary, is striking for the way in which objects are presented as things which must be acted upon. One of the central preoccupations of Esthers world-view, and therefore of the ideological slant of the novel, is her need to work in order to earn a living. In this passage, the nouns are placed in apposition to active verbs, as Esther contemplates the objects around her in terms of the processes she must perform on them (plates are to wash; knives are to clean; coal is to fetch etc.): There were plates to wash and knives to clean, and when they were done there were potatoes, cabbage, onions to prepare, saucepans to fill with water, coal to fetch for the fire, and Esther worked steadily without flagging, fearful of Mrs

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SIOBHAN CHAPMAN Barfield, who would come down, no doubt, about ten oclock to order dinner. (Esther Waters, 14)

Tess, too, must earn her living, but the narrative does not generally focus on this aspect of her story. In the following passage, the milkmaids are tired after a night of speculating about Angel Clare; this episode, concerned with Tesss mental and emotional experiences rather than her work, has been described in great detail. The narrative continues: They came downstairs yawning next morning; but skimming and milking were proceeded with as usual, and they went indoors to breakfast (Tess of the DUrbervilles, 142). The actual work of the dairy is described in the passive voice, drawing attention away from the individual workers and the actions they perform.7 Both Rimmon-Kennan and Fowler observe that as well as implicit markers of ideology, such as those I have just discussed, narratives sometimes include explicit presentation of ideological stance; presenting the judgements of a particular character is another way of focusing on his or her view of the world. The following passage neatly combines both implicit and explicit ideology, both of which belong to Esther: He had gone through the baize door, and no doubt was sitting by Peggy in the new drawing-room. He had gone where she could not follow. He had gone where the grand folk lived in idleness, in the sinfulness of the world and the flesh, eating and gambling, thinking of nothing else, with servants to wait on them, obeying their orders and saving them from every trouble. (Esther Waters, 80) William is described as having gone through the baize door; the repeated verb of motion describes movement away from Esther, the focalizer, while the door has come to represent for Esther an impassable barrier between her life in the kitchen and the life of the family upstairs. Similarly the description of the family as the grand folk draws on Esthers own view of them. The description of their actions then moves towards Esthers more explicit moral evaluation of them, based on her strict protestant upbringing, and her position as servant. Cirillo (1991: 801) suggests that the characterization of Esther is determined in part by the fact that she is unreflective about her morality, drawing without question upon her religious precepts. Williams desertion, therefore, is given emphasis because it is seen, both implicitly and explicitly, through Esthers ideological stance.

4 Narrative presentation of Esthers speech In the sustained use of Esther as focalizer for the narrative, then, Esthers own experiences, and her ideology, are given a voice throughout the novel. This can perhaps go a long way towards identifying the mechanisms by which the text is

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centred on Esther, the feature which shocked some contemporary readers, and has been praised by more recent critics. However, in other, more literal ways, too, Esthers voice is heard throughout the text. That is, because of the ways in which dialogue is represented in the novel, the reader is offered repeated instances of Esthers own way of describing her experiences. In order to illustrate this point, I will draw on well-known work on speech presentation presented originally in Leech and Short (1981) and subsequently developed in work such as Short (1988, 1996). Leech and Short identify a variety of modes, both direct and indirect, by which speech can be presented in written form. The full range of these options is exploited in Esther Waters; I will argue that the preponderance of choices in favour of more direct forms, and also the significance of the occasions on which these are chosen, are effective in keeping Esthers own voice before the reader. Leech and Short arrange the options which they identify in a cline of speech presentation. First is narrative report of speech acts (NRSA) which, they suggest, is a way of presenting speech entirely through the intermediary, or interpretation, of the reporter, but as we move along the cline of speech presentation from the more bound to the more free end, his [the novelists] interference seems to become less and less noticeable (1981: 324). The cline moves through indirect speech (IS), free indirect speech (FIS), direct speech (DS), and finally free direct speech (FDS) in which he apparently leaves the characters to speak entirely on their own (p. 234). In this section, I will consider modes of speech presentation chosen at some key moments of Esthers story. I will suggest that, particularly saliently in these instances, as well as more generally in the text, Esthers speech is presented predominantly in modes from the freer end of this cline. In this way, Esther is repeatedly given a voice in the novel; the reader is presented with Esthers own words, not an interpretation of them. An initial illustration of this claim can be found in the first conversation to be presented in Esther Waters, which takes place between Esther and a porter when she arrives to take up her position at Woodview. The porter initiates the conversation, but variation in speech presentation ensures that Esthers voice is the first to be heard in the novel. She was laughing now, the porter having asked her if she were afraid to leave her bundle with her box. Both, he said, would go up together in the donkeycart. The donkey-cart came down every evening to fetch parcels. The man lingered, and she heard from him that all the down lands she could see right up to Beading belonged to the squire. Beading? she said, I thought the Barfields lived in Shoreham. So they do, he answered, near Shoreham yonder. (Esther Waters, 1) The use of indirect and then free indirect speech to express the porters speech means that his words are presented through the intermediary of the narrator. Esthers first speech is presented in direct speech, so that there is no distance

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between her words and the report of them. It is only after this that the porters words, too, are reported directly. It is also illuminating to consider the presentation of Esthers speech at certain crucial points in her story, particularly those where she describes her own experiences as fallen woman. The significance of these choices can be highlighted by a comparison with the different choices made at similar points in Tesss story in Tess of the DUrbervilles. In both novels there is a scene when the heroine tells her mother about her seduction, and a scene when she tells her second suitor about her child. In both cases, the two novels can be placed at opposite ends of Leech and Shorts cline in terms of how these speech events are presented. When Tess returns to her family home after her stay with Alec dUrberville, the greetings and initial conversation with her mother are presented in direct speech. However, Tesss actual confession is presented as follows: Then Tess went up to her mother, put her face upon Joans neck and told (Tess of the DUrbervilles, 87). What Short (1996: 292) describes as narrators representation of action (NRA) introduces NRSA; Tesss actions, including her act of telling, are described. The crucial speech is presented in the most mediated of forms: the reader is presented not with Tesss words, or even a summary of them, but merely with an assertion that some words were uttered. Short (1996: 297) suggests the further category of narrators representation of speech (NRS), which merely tells us that speech occurred, without any indication of what was said. The extract above has at least some of the properties of this most mediated of forms of speech presentation. If readers have some idea as to the content of what Tess told her mother, it is only because they can infer this from the story so far. This is in sharp contrast to the presentation of Esthers confession to her mother. When Esther returns home from Woodview, she explains her situation to her mother as follows: I had to leave, mother. Im seven months gone. Oh, Esther, Esther, I cant believe it! Yes, mother it is quite true. (Esther Waters, 95) By omitting even reporting clauses from the presentation of this conversation, in other words by using free direct speech, the narrator appears to allow Esther to explain her situation entirely in her own words; she is allowed to give voice to her own experience.8 A very similar comparison can be made of later extracts when each woman tells her second suitor that she has had a child. Tess finds herself agonizingly unable to explain this to Angel Clare, and in fact does not do so until their wedding night. The presentation of their conversation changes from FDS to NRSA when Tess finally makes the crucial confession. Her actions, including her act of telling, are narrated.

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She bent forward, at which each diamond on her neck gave a sinister wink like a toads; and pressing her forehead against his temple she entered on her story of her acquaintance with Alec dUrberville and its results, murmuring the words without flinching, and with her eyelids drooping down. (Tess of the DUrbervilles, 222) This passage ends a whole phase of the novel. The next phase begins as follows: Her narrative ended: even its reassertions and secondary explanations were done (Tess of the DUrbervilles, 225). In this latter passage, Tess herself is not even given an active role to play; it is the narrative which reaches the end. Again, a manner of presenting the speech even further removed from Tesss actual act of speaking than NRSA, something akin to Shorts (1996: 297) NRS, is used for this most crucial revelation. After the very passive role which Tess is presented as playing in the narration of her own story, it is Clare who is given the first direct speech.9 Esther has much less trouble telling Fred her story, and in fact does so as soon as he asks her to marry him. The presentation of speech switches from DS to FDS. As little narrative intrusion as possible is allowed to intervene between Esther and her telling of her story. Will you? he said, I cant; Im very sorry; dont ask me. Why cant you? If I told you I dont think youd want to marry me. But I suppose Id better tell you. Im not the good woman you think me. Ive got a child. There, you have it now, and you can take your hook when you like. (Esther Waters, 190). The different ways in which Esthers and Tesss speech is presented in these episodes might be seen chiefly as a reflection of a difference between their characters, particularly in their attitude to their fallen state. But this in itself, particularly Esthers readiness to give voice to her own experiences, is highly significant. Federico (1993: 153) suggests that Esther wants repeatedly to tell her story: to tell the truth, to elicit sympathy, to create relationships, to affirm connections. I have a story is another way of saying that the personal is political. When Esther gives voice to her story and, in effect, to her status as a fallen woman, this act is presented in the most direct, undisguised way possible. The unmediated focus on Esthers voice in general, and on her own account of these experiences in particular, may explain to some extent why the novel seemed so powerful, or so shocking, to its first readers.

5 Voice and narrative Choices in speech presentation ensure that readers are apparently given direct access to Esthers way of speaking; in effect they hear her voice throughout the

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novel. This same voice is recognizable to the reader when Esthers thought is presented. For instance, when Esther is struck by a moment of conscience during a ball at Woodview, her thoughts are reported as follows: She felt that all this dancing, drinking, and kissing in the arbours was wicked. But Miss Mary had sent for her, and had told her that she would give her one of her dresses, and she had not known how to refuse Miss Mary. Then, if she had not gone, William . . . (Esther Waters, 71) This passage moves from indirect thought, introduced by the reporting clause she felt that , to free indirect thought (FIT), with no reporting clause. As it does so, the voice becomes closer to what the reader recognizes as Esthers own. There is no specific stylistic feature which marks out this change, but the narration seems to be slipping into Esthers voice (Leech and Short, 1981: 340). To put it another way, the language becomes an echo of Esthers voice (Thompson, 1996: 514), in that the narrator is taking on aspects of Esthers voice in a kind of linguistic ventriloquism. So, for instance the repeated use of the term of address Miss Mary to describe one of the Woodview family is more like Esthers voice than the narrators, as is the simple co-ordination of events. The dots indicate the point in her train of thought at which Esther is distracted by a sound outside, heightening the impression that the reader is being given direct access to her thoughts, not a summary or interpretation of them. This pattern, of moving from the language of the narrator to that of a character, with no formal marker of difference, is discussed by Bakhtin (1981) in terms of a distinction between speech zones or voice zones. One voice zone differs from another not in any single identifiable linguistic feature, but in terms of the general style of the language used. The author presents an image of a characters voice, and sets up a dialogue with the language of that voice. This image both represents the world through the eyes of the character and, at the same time, serves to represent the characters voice and world view. Bakhtin suggests that the significance of this device derives from the fact that to represent anothers voice is to make immediate anothers world view: images of language are inseparable from images of various world views and from the living beings who are their agents (cited in Lodge, 1988: 131). What is perhaps most striking about Esther Waters is the way in which, with very few exceptions, it is consistently Esthers voice which is represented in this way. For instance, in the following passage from early in the novel, Esther is walking from the station to Woodview to take up her position as kitchenmaid: At the end of the platform the station-master took her ticket and she passed over the level crossing, trying to gather her wits but unable to do so till she caught sight of some villas, a row of twenty-four semi-detached houses, iron railings, laurels, and French windows. She had been in service in such houses and knew that a general servant was kept in each. But the life in Woodview

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was a great dream, and she could not imagine herself accomplishing all that would be required of her. There would be a butler, a footman, and a page; she would not mind the page but the butler and footman, what would they think? (Esther Waters, 2) This passage begins with what is clearly the voice of the narrator, describing Esthers actions, the scene before her, and her response to it. By the end of this extract, however, reporting clauses are dispensed with and the voice is much closer to Esthers own, particularly apparent in the use of a rhetorical question. These are characteristic of Esther throughout the novel as she struggles to make sense of her experiences and assess her future prospects. The narrators account of the scene interacts with, or is in dialogue with, Esthers own, so that the whole passage seems coloured by Esthers point of view. Short (1996: 316) notices a similar effect in a passage from Dylan Thomass The Visitor, where it is possible to back-project from sentences in FIT to reinterpret NRA as such. Shorts explanation could be applied to the present passage: [The first sentence] is thus potentially ambiguous in terms of its source narrator or character and this fact helps us to explain the peculiar effect of FIT, which is that because the FIT form combines the position of the character and the narrator we are bound to want to sympathise with the characters position. The dialogue with Esthers voice is perhaps most striking in passages such as this, where she is looking at her world from her perspective as a servant. The narrators voice represents the houses in terms of their external appearance. Esthers voice represents them in terms of the servants who would be employed there, and in terms of how they contrast with the establishment she is about to join. A similar point can be made about the following passage, which occurs later in the novel and again concerns Esthers status as servant. After the birth of her child, unable initially to earn enough money to keep them both, Esther is forced to take refuge in the workhouse. Part of the process of making this decision is described as follows: Her heart beat violently, her thoughts were in disorder, and she walked on and on, stopping to ask the way, and then remembered there was no whither she might go unless the workhouse; no matter, any whither. All sorts of thoughts came upon her unsought till she came to the river, and saw vast water rolling. Was she to die, she and her child? Why she more than the next one? Why not go to the workhouse for the night? She didnt mind for herself, only she did not wish her boy to go there. But if God willed it (Esther Waters, 159) This passage includes elements of narrative report of Esthers actions and thoughts and also much more immediate access to Esthers own way of representing her world. Again, this is perhaps signalled most clearly by the use of rhetorical questions, but the reader can also recognize echoes of her own voice in the colloquial form she didnt, her concern for her boy, and the phrase

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remembered from her Brethren childhood if God willed it . Again, the exact moments of transition between these two voice zones are not clearly marked; both the narrator and Esther are engaged in the process of giving voice to her experiences. This use of two voices, which I am suggesting can be seen as dialogue between narrator and character, is described by Federico (1993: 143) in terms of a struggle. The narrators authoritative voice is ranged against the heroines insistence on subjectivity in a contest to determine who will do the analysing. However, the relationship between the two voices seems more harmonious than Federico suggests. Esthers approach to her story is indeed more subjective than the narrators, but the frequent representation of her voice ensures that the point of view is afforded at least equal status with the more objective view. Furthermore, the fact that the two voices frequently merge, as in the examples of slipping between the two voice zones suggested here, indicates that they are far from incompatible or competing. Indeed, they are close enough to make the joins sometimes invisible. By way of comparison, it is illuminating to consider the following passage from Tess of the DUrbervilles. Here, too, the central character gets her first glimpse of a new place of work. It was intrinsically different from the Vale of the Little Dairies, Blackmoor Vale, which, save during her disastrous soujourn at Trantridge, she had exclusively known till now. The world was drawn to a larger pattern here. The enclosures numbered fifty acres instead of ten, the farmsteads were more extended, the groups of cattle formed tribes hereabout; there only families. These myriads of cows stretching under her eyes from the far east to the far west outnumbered any she had ever seen at one glance before. The green lea was speckled as thickly with them as a canvas by Van Alsloot or Sallaert with burghers. The ripe hues of the red and dun kine absorbed the evening sunlight, which the white-coated animals returned to the eye in rays almost dazzling, even at the distant elevation on which she stood. (Tess of the DUrbervilles, 108) Here, too, the narrators voice describes the scene visible to the character. However, the narrator does not present the scene as it would appear to Tess, and no image of Tesss voice, representing her world view, is offered. For instance, Tess would see many cows, but she would not represent this to herself in terms of a canvas by Van Alsoot or Sallaert. The narrators voice does not engage in dialogue with Tesss. Different voice zones are, of course, used elsewhere in the novel. But, as this passage illustrates, there are occasions, even when the narrative is following Tesss experiences, when her view of those experiences is not represented.

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It has been widely noted that Esther Waters is striking at least in part for the sustained focus on the point of view of George Moores unlikely heroine. This can in part be explained by the fact that the narrative follows Esthers experiences throughout the novel. The reader does not witness any scenes at which Esther herself is not present, but is presented with scenes which are important to Esthers story, even if they are not traditionally thought appropriate topics for literary description. But further to this, an analysis of some of the linguistic choices made in the text can suggest more specific ways in which the concentration on Esthers viewpoint is maintained. Esthers position as focalizer for the narrative is assured by the linguistic choices made on spatial, psychological and ideological planes. Choices about the presentation of her speech cumulatively keep Esthers voice in front of the reader, and give the impression of direct, unmediated access to the ways she represents her world to others and to herself. Furthermore the narrators voice, although at times identifiably distinct from Esthers, maintains a constant dialogue with it, further encouraging readers to align themselves with Esthers outlook. Tess of the DUrbervilles is in many ways similar to Esther Waters, particularly in some elements of plot and in its sympathetic treatment of a fallen woman. However, particularly in some key incidents, it differs from Moores novel in terms of choices concerning voice and point of view. The stylistic accounts considered in this article suggest explanations of how the voice of the narrator is much more clearly distinct from Tesss own voice. The reader is offered a much more detached, although perhaps no less sympathetic, view of Tesss story; her experiences are more obviously interpreted by the narrator. This article has suggested the stylistic tools to explain an aspect of a particular novel which has frequently been noticed by literary critics. In so doing, it has highlighted some of the textual features of Esther Waters which make it striking, and which were initially seen as shocking. The focus on Esthers point of view is perhaps most significant when it dwells on her experiences as a fallen woman, a single mother and, as in the final passages quoted earlier, a working servant. The novel not only deems such topics worthy of detailed and sympathetic treatment, it also ensures that, in considering them, the reader is aligned with Esther as she experiences her story.

Notes
1 2 3 Earlier versions of this article were presented to research groups at the University of Liverpool and the University of Middlesex. I am grateful to those who attended both of these sessions for their insightful comments and helpful discussion. See Frazier (2000: 2345) for an account of both these responses. Moore was notorious for repeatedly revising his works for each new edition. I have worked with the 1983 Oxford edition, based on the 1931 text, incorporating Moores final revisions. This text

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is therefore in some ways different from that first published in 1894; in particular it is several thousand words shorter. Letter to Maurice Moore, quoted in Frazier (2000: 168). See Frazier (2000: 234). Moore recounts how Smiths librarian, Mr Faux, explained to him that the novel was excluded from the library because our subscribers are not used to detailed descriptions of a lying-in hospital (Moore, 1933: lii). There are, also, more dynamic descriptions of work in Tess of the DUrbervilles, such as the swede-cutting episode. But the description of Tesss work here, too, could be seen as a backdrop to an episode from her emotional life: in this case, her re-encounter with Alec. In much of Esther Waters, as in the extract quoted here, the processes of Esthers working life are a narrative focus in their own right. The speech presentation does next move to NRSA (she hurried through her story) rather than repeat details of a story which the reader has just encountered. But it is the crucial summary of that story, and therefore Esthers declaration of her own status as fallen woman, which is presented unmediated by narrative intrusion. George Moore himself, who was steadfastly hostile to Hardy and his novel, reserved particular derision for this episode. He describes how this should be the most crucial scene in the book; and then in a few pages, and in the third person, Hardy disposes of it all (Goodwin, 1929: 158). The third person which Moore picks up on highlights the way in which Tess is viewed from outside in this crucial passage. The reader is invited to see her as an observer, perhaps even Angel Clare himself, would see her.

4 5 6 7

References
Bakhtin, M. (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, tr. C. Emerson and M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press. Cave, R. (1978) A Study of the Novels of George Moore. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe. Cirillo, N. (1991) A Girl Need Never Go Wrong, or, The Female Servant as Ideological Image in Germinie Lacerteux and Esther Waters, Comparative Literature Studies 28(1): 6888. Federico, A. (1993) Subjectivity and Story in George Moores Esther Waters, English Literature in Transition 36: 14157. Fernando, L. (1977) New Women in the Late Victorian Novel. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Fowler, R. (1986) Linguistic Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Frazier, A. (2000) George Moore, 18521933. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Genette, G. (1980) Narrative Discourse, tr. J. Lewin. Oxford: Blackwell. Goodwin, G. (1929) Conversations with George Moore. London: Ernest Benn. Halliday, M. (1971) Linguistic Function and Literary Style: An Inquiry into the Language of William Goldings The Inheritors, in S. Chatman (ed.) Literary Style: A Symposium, pp. 33068. New York: Oxford University Press. Hardy, Thomas (1988 [1891]) Tess of the DUrbervilles. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Haywood, I. (1997) Working-Class Fiction. Plymouth: Northcote House. Leech, G. and Short, M. (1981) Style in Fiction. London: Longman. Lodge, D. (ed.) (1988) Modern Criticism and Theory. London: Longman. Moore, George (1933) A Communication to My Friends, in A Mummers Wife, pp. viilx. London: Heinemann. Moore, George (1983 [1894]) Esther Waters. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rimmon-Kennan, S. (1983) Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London: Methuen. Short, M. (1988) Speech Presentation, The Novel and the Press, in W. van Peer (ed.) The Taming of the Text, pp. 6181. New York: Routledge. Short, M. (1996) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose. London: Longman. Thompson, G. (1996) Voices in the Text: Discourse Perspectives on Language Reports, Applied Linguistics 17(4): 50130. Uspensky, B. (1973) A Poetics of Composition, tr V. Zavarin and S. Wittig. Berkeley: University of California Press. Watt, G. (1984) The Fallen Woman in the Nineteenth-Century Novel. London: Croom Helm.

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VOICE AND SPEECH IN GEORGE MOORES ESTHER WATERS Address

Siobhan Chapman, Department of English Language and Literature, Modern Languages Building, University of Liverpool, Chatham Street, Liverpool L69 7ZR. [email: src@liverpool.ac.uk]

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