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involuntarily, and in Barrett's case firstly in the daring expedition to the dog-stealers'
Whitechapel and secondly in the escape from the Barrett household altogether,
takes on signal power accordingly.
17
Flush's capture by the dog-stealers revealed not
only the vulnerability of the Barretts' domestic refuge in Wimpole Street, but also
the symbiotic male domination of both Mr Taylor's den of
banditti
and the Barrett
household itself. Indeed, for Elizabeth Barrett, the abduction of Flush may be taken
to speak to her own personal domestic subjection quite directly:
The Whitechapel episode is a temptation scene; forced to choose between
winning the approval of her male counterparts and saving Flush, Barrett is
also being asked, symbolically, to choose between two systems of morality—
one masculine and impersonal, the other feminine and personal.
(Squier 1985:128)
That Barrett chooses to ransom her pet dog, whatever the cost, is thus of tremendous
personal and political significance. Since 'Flush's value to patriarchal society is
analogous to woman's value' (Squier 1985:132), the message of the dog-stealing
episode was that women, like pets, are worth only what their masters will assign to
them; and it is this realisation that connects the serio-comic
Flush
with the high
seriousness of a feminist epic like Barrett Browning's
Aurora Leigh,
much
preoccupied as it is with the victimisation of women within patriarchal society.
18
To those who might cavil at regarding dog-stealing as a feminist issue, we can
point to a painting by the genre and animal painter Briton Riviere—in his day
regarded as second only to Landseer—entitled
Temptation
(1879), in which the dog-
stealers' challenge to domesticity, and the concession of the vulnerability of
property, domestic security and even woman's virtue, are neatly illustrated (see
Figure 2.3
). The painting captures the key moment before the abduction of a prized
spaniel. In the words of one critic:
An untrustworthy-looking individual is trying to win the confidence of a King
Charles Spaniel with a seductive bit of liver. The drama is unfinished.
Whether fidelity or
gourmandise
will turn out the stonger passion we can only
guess.
(Armstrong 1891:18)
