I. Biographic Sketch
I. Biographic Sketch
Though her life is as gray as her fiction and poetry, Charlotte Mew is reckoned as one of the great English poetesses whose works have long impressed and touched the readers' inner beings.
A. Family Background and Education
When Frederick Mew married Anna Maria Mardon Kendall, a wealthy London architect's daughter, the renowned Kendall family did not look good on the marriage of the couple. It is widely believe that Anne Maria Mew was a whimsical and spoilt woman whereas Fred Mew strived to cultivate the high society lifestyle his wife was used to living. A young associate in Kendall's firm he was, unfortunately, failed the expectation of a luxurious life; some biographer insinuate that perhaps the failure was due to Fred Mew was a pleasure-loving fellow that lived his life and took care of his family carelessly, particularly in the financial aspect. Born as the third of the seven children, therefore, Mew was the eldest daughter that had learned to take care of the family when she was young, in addition to the maternal grandparents' little substantial help ¡V Elizabeth Goodman, who was a title servant that came with the marriage. Goodman was a religious figure that held high standards over almost everything and that had definite impact on Mew and her siblings. Despite that Goodman's strictness and rigidity in her nursery, Mew was very rebellious and disregarded Goodman's disagreement of Mew's reading and writing, and her disbelief in religion. It is said that Mew's unique way of dress was possibly affected by Goodman.
The Mews had suffered very much by the bereavement of losing the family members in death and ever-ridden sickness. Three Mews male children died and Mew's favorite brother, Richard, included. Her eldest brother, Henry and the youngest sister, Freda, remained in mental institution all their lives since early adulthood. Mew and her closest sister, Anne, believed that the family is genetically challenged with the seemingly schizophrenia-related disease, and are hence determined to remain single so that the illness will discontinue. The remaining Mew sisters, therefore, stayed with each other and took care of Mrs. Mew the rest of their life, with their limited resources and meager wages.
Another influential figure for Mew is Lucy Harrison, with whom Mew had strong emotional attachment. A stone-willed and almost capricious child she was, nonetheless, Mew was popular among her friends in view of her humorous and dramatic expressions. She merely studied those subjects that interested her; her strong attachment to Miss Harrison was well known by her parents and friends. When Miss Harrison announced her retirement from her post, Fred Mew implored her to continue her instruction on Mew because he was aware of his daughter's determination and caprice. That eccentricity made the young Mew, upon learning the news of Harrison 's retirement, disturbed the houseful of people by banging her head to the wall. Some biographers are convinced that Harrison influenced on Mew intellectually and emotionally, to an extent that Mew, thence, had the tendency of growing intimate relationship with women mostly.B. The Career of a Writer
When the family moved to Gordon Street in London, Mew was fascinated by the vibrant city life; even though in her works, she did convey her adoration of the countryside when visiting her relatives residing in the rural area. After Fred Mew retreated from the family and work, the whole Mew household was falling apart: Mew and Anne stayed with their mother, Henry and Freda hospitalized. The financial responsibility fell on the two Mew sisters. Thanks to Henry Harland, the editor of the Yellow Book, who published several Mew's first short stories, and with his introduction, her works gradually gained recognition from her peer and contemporary, such as Evelyn Sharp and Ella D'Arcy. The latter rejected her, as rumor has it, and wounded her feeling so badly that Mew suffered a short period of depression. In addition to the Yellow Book, her works appear in Temple Bar, Pall Mal Magazine, Theosophist, Cornhill and Englishwoman. But it was with her friends Alida Klementaski and Harold Monro that she became even more active in the literary circle, starting with Poetry Bookshop press. Through Monro, Mew's works were appreciated by some of the predecessors such as Sydney Cockerell, Edith Sitwell, W. S. Blunt, Sassoon, A.E. Housman and Thomas Hardy, who particularly praised her as "far and away the best living woman poet," as well as Woolf that considered Mew's good poems made her distinguished from others.
II. Her Works
Though Mew's most eminent works are mostly poems, her short stories appeared early and were published since 1894. In her fictions, there is scare indication of right and wrong. Her depictions of characters, incidents and the plots are realistic, with collaboration of a variety of dialects, social classes and voices from different walk of lives. Her works unveils her sense of ethics, morality, her ambivalent attitude toward religion, involving symbolism and color treatment to demonstrate the imagery, her observation, her doubts about life and her depression that was brought about by consecutive bereavement of loving her beloved family.
Perhaps it was her sorrowful childhood and the ever-lasting sense of solitude, death, loneliness, alienation, anxiety, and frustration are many a time the themes in her fiction and poems. Mew's first short story is "Passed"(1894) depicting a tempestuous girl's reaction upon greeting death, destruction, prostitution and poverty. "The China Bowl"(1899) is about a fisherman torn between his mother and wife, ended up with the tragedy of death and loss. "Mademoiselle"(1904) and "Mark Stafford's Wife"(1905) are both successful portrait of women's frustration in love and in life. "In the Cure's Garden" (1902) and "An Open Door" (1903) reveal Mew's ambiguous response to religion by making the protagonist religious and yet trapped in the dilemma between the religion and real life. "Some Ways of Love" (1901) is about the dilemma of love and duty. "The Smile" (1904) relates with allegory that is violent and tragic in terms of the sense of loss, injustice and the failure of fulfilling the desires that indicates the unquiet mind of Mew. "A Fatal Fidelity" (1953) and "the Wheat" (1954) are often considered two of her best stories because of the realistic setting and plot that revive the dull but conflicting life of the commoners.
Mew's the most well-known works are her poems: "Madeleine in Church" (1913), "The Fete" (1916) and "The Farmer's Bride" (1916), which won her literary recognition and friends. "Madelene in Church" is a monologue that discloses her sin, her love, the unfaithful and her frustration in finding peace with the past and the present, the church and her life. "The Fete" renders a boy's reminiscence of an unusual encountering with circus bareback rider, which leads him to a point of no return and a very different perspective toward life. "The Farmer's Bride" narrates the frustration of a farmer that determines to keep his newlywed wife and makes her love him, only to find that alienation, exasperation and desolate status that is smothering the life.
Penelope Fitzgerald concluded that Mew was not obsessed with death even though she has made death her themes in most of her works. Mew's imagery-enriched poems may have aroused attention and critical review because of the unconventional patterns of stanza and rhyme. Critic like Humbert Wolfs, however, still highly appreciates her works and believes that Mew's works are free of pretension and genuinely and faithfully present the truth and the realistic.
Reference
"Charlotte Mew." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 19: British Poets, 1880-1914. Ed. Donald E. Stanford. Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Gale, 1983. 308-313.
"Charlotte Mew." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Gale.
"Charlotte (Mary) Mew." Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2001.
Fitzgerald, Penelope. Charlotte Mew and Her Friends with a Selection of Her Poems. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1988.
Fitzgerald, Penelope. Charlotte Mew and Her Friends. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1984.