Ouida (1839 – 1908) practices her typical effusive style in the 1880 novel Moths, so named for one character’s pronouncement that the “fashionable,” or high society, world damages a woman. Moths, half of which immolate themselves “in feverish frailty,” and half of which “are corroding and consuming all that they touch,” constitute that world. For a time, moths and their self-destructive acts also seem a metaphor for the naive and untouchable Vere Herbert, who sacrifices herself to rescue the honor of her foolish mother, Lady Dolly Vanderdecken.

Her husband, the wealthy and unfaithful Russian Sergius Zouroff, proves himself insufferable, objectifying Vere and treating her with such lack of sympathy that after three years of marriage, “all her youth had been burnt up in her; all hope was as dead in her heart as if she were already old.” In the predictable plot, Vere becomes enamored of the opera singer Corréze, rumored to have been based on a handsome young man named Mario who captured Ouida’s own passions. Her love for him both liberates and imprisons her.

Vere endures untold agonies during her marriage, which is rumored as a failure among society types. Eager for gossip, they spread the false rumor that Vere has been unfaithful to Zouroff, and she disappears into exile. Zouroff challenges Corréze to a duel and shoots him through the throat, a desperate wound for a singer. The act had been foreshadowed by Zouroff’s often-repeated phrase, “I will slit the throat of that nightingale.” Corréze’s wounding brings Vere out of hiding as she declares that she will be courageous and help care for him.

The book proves of interest to formalist critics, who recognize many traditional symbols, such as the moon, cherries, and roses, representing women in general, and the lark’s song, representing Corréze, a type of woman figure himself, with his female sensibilities and sympathies. Within Ouida’s florid style lurks admirable metaphors, such as when Vere ponders her imprisonment within marriage: “Never to escape from the world grew as wearisome and as terrible to Vere as the dust of the factory to the tired worker, as the roar of the city streets to the heart-sick temptress.” Such comparisons illustrate Ouida’s own naivete, as she believes the condition of a lovelorn woman comparable to the tortures suffered by members of the ill-used working class and prostitutes.

However, in a later scene noted by feminist critics, the comparison tries to prove itself as Vere seeks to “work” at her art of painting and despairs over the fact that her husband wants her just to hire someone to paint. She understands that “it is the only mission we have, to spend money,” then the narrator explains, “It is a mission that most women think the highest and most blest on earth, but it did not satisfy Vere. She seemed to herself so useless, so stupidly, vapidly, frivolously useless; and her nature was one to want work, and noble work.” In a later scene, she comments to Corréze that “a woman’s courage” is to remain “mute” if struck by a man. In many feminist works, that silence is subverted into power by the heroine, but not in this novel. Ironically, Corréze becomes metaphorically a mute but ends his days devoted to his hard-won wife when he and Vere at last marry.

The moth persists as a crucial symbol throughout the novel. When Corréze gives Vere a necklace bearing a medallion of a moth and a star, Zouroff becomes incensed, demands the medallion, and crushes “the delicate workmanship and the exquisite jewels out of all shape and into glittering dust.” Readers understand that Vere will not find an easy happiness. Zouroff annuls his marriage, based on testimony by his servants, and society rejects Vere, even though it knows of her innocence. In marriage to Corréze, she must live apart from society but welcomes “the gracious silence of the everlasting hills.” The narrative makes clear those hills’ decided superiority to the vacuous existence enjoyed by such individuals as Vere’s mother, who “mourns” her daughter’s absence, giving it equal weight to her regret over the “dreadful” conditions: “to have to wear one’s hair flat, and the bonnets are not becoming . . . and the season is so stupid.” The novel concludes with the line, “So the moths eat the ermine; and the world kisses the leper on both cheeks.” The popular novel was later dramatized, enjoying a solid run.

Ouida’s effect on fiction proved profound. Writers including George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, and D. H. Lawrence used her character prototypes. She remains a favorite in feminist literature courses, and her works are easy to locate.

Bibliography
Powell, Anthony. Introduction. Novels of High Society from the Victorian Age. London: Pilot Press, 1947, vii–xv.
Sage, Lorna, ed. “Moths.” Women’s Writing in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 450.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

Tags: Analysis of Ouida's Moths, female oppression in victorian fiction, feminist critique moths, feminist literature analysis, feminist reading ouida moths, formalist criticism ouida, high society critique victorian novel, literary symbols in moths, literary themes ouida moths, moths and societal critique, moths as metaphor, moths necklace symbolism, moths novel summary, moths stage adaptation, moths symbolism ouida, opera singer correze character, ouida 1880 novel, ouida and feminism, ouida feminist icon, ouida florid style, ouida influence on shaw lawrence, ouida literary criticism, ouida moths novel, ouida women's roles, ouida's impact on fiction, Ouida's Moths, sergius zouroff abusive husband, symbolism in moths novel, vere herbert character analysis, women and silence in literature, women in Victorian literature, women’s work and identity victorian era