The Jolly Corner | Doing Good by Stealth: Alice Staverton and Women’s Politics in The Jolly Corner
In his historicist reading of ‘‘The Jolly Corner,’’
Reising sees the story ‘‘not as a mirror of a
stable and coherent moment in history but as a text
that represents, through its own flux and contradictions,
an arena of social and cultural change.’’
I
At the conclusion of ‘‘The Jolly Corner’’ Spencer Brydon recovers consciousness (after swooning at the sight of his double) in the lap of his friend, Alice Staverton. In sharp contrast to the complex and sometimes violent imagery of Brydon’s experience throughout the extraordinary middle section of the tale, the mood of the brief, concluding section is mild and conciliatory. Significantly, it is Alice Staverton, not Brydon, who dominates that final scene, both physically and verbally. The barely conscious Brydon is aware, as he comes to, of his head...
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