Introduction: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Woman Of Colour, A Tale <\/em>is an anonymously written novel written about a young biracial girl named Olivia Fairfield in 1800s England. Olivia was born in Jamaica as a result of a secretive sexual relationship between her mother, an enslaved woman, and her father, her mother\u2019s enslaver. Her mother died in childbirth and Olivia was raised by her father. When Oliva\u2019s father died, his will declared that Olivia must marry her cousin Augustus in England to receive her inheritance. The novel follows every step of Olivia\u2019s dramatic journey as she seeks a new land and society that treats her in an unprecedented way due to her mixed race. The tale is told through letters Olivia has written to her mentor, teacher, and motherly figure, Mrs. Milbanke. Olivia used the word \u201cyour\u201d in her letters to Mrs. Milbanke in an effort to give herself an attachment to a person, place and time that is home. This use of pronouns connects Olivia to her past while giving her a stronger personality through her future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Close reading: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Olivia used the word \u201cyour\u201d in her letters to Mrs. Milbanke in an effort to give herself an attachment to a person, place, and time that is home. Olivia\u2019s use of \u201cyour\u201d is really a metonymy as she makes herself apart or a belonging of Mrs. Milbanke, but is not actually hers. Here, we see how Olivia\u2019s longing for the familiarity of home and family is represented through the language pattern \u201cyour Olivia\u201d. Additionally, metonymy provides a connection between Olivia and Mrs. Milbanke. Without any real family alive, saying \u201cyour\u201d makes Olivia have a history. Olivia uses these letters as a vessel of ease as she is debriefing these very difficult times. Olivia is single and at her age in this society, she would ideally be engaged or wed. She wants to be Augustus\u2019s \u201cyour\u201d but he turns out to secretly have a wife and child. Therefore, she is nobody in England’s \u201cyour\u201d like she is to Mrs. Milbanke. The constant repetition of calling herself \u201cyour Olivia\u201d is a self reminder that she is loved, desired, and never alone. Olivia refers to herself as \u201cyour poor girl\u201d (TWOC 53) as she seeks sympathy in her unimaginable pain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can use these letters to further understand Olivia\u2019s relationship with Mrs. Milbanke. For example, when she signed a letter, \u201cI am always your own affectionate child – your own Olivia Fairfield\u201d (TWOC 63), the reader knows that Mrs. Milbanke was a motherly figure for her. Referring to herself as \u201cYour own affectionate and grateful Oliva Fairfield\u201d (TWOC 37) is Olivia\u2019s way of defying her aunt\u2019s racist thoughts of her. \u201cYour Olivia\u201d can also represent Olivia\u2019s sense of pride. Olivia is making a stand and being true to her \u201csense of blackness\u201d. Throughout the novel, Olivia proves herself to be a strong-headed independent woman. She educates her young cousin who is being taught anti-black morals and false information. She makes her own way of living that goes against her father\u2019s will and society. \u201cYour Olivia\u201d is a form of sharing how Miss Milbanke should be proud to call her her own.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The keyword \u201cyour\u201d can be broadened into the idea of ownership and possession. Humans are not meant to be alone. We live with families, go out with friends, and travel with groups. Olivia being alone in this foreign country is completely isolating. Throughout The Woman of Colour,<\/em> the characters use pronouns to establish their relationship with each other, especially within their political status. Olivia seemingly belongs to her cousins as she can not survive without their income. Without even considering race, we see Olivia\u2019s heavy reliance on them turning into an unhealthy power dynamic. Olivia\u2019s aunt does not hesitate to remind Olivia that she is a woman of color in a wealthy white home that does not fully accept her as one of them. Her aunt repeatedly behaves in ways or uses certain phrases to \u201cown\u201d Olivia and reiterate that she is under their control. There is also the factor that Olivia must belong to Augustus, as his wife, in order to receive her inheritance. In this time period, husbands seemingly controlled their wives’ lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Critical Conversation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah Salih writes about Oliva\u2019s use of pronouns in a much broader sense in her work The Woman of Colour. A Tale. Anonymous (1808) (review). <\/em>Slih explains how \u201cOlivia aligns herself with Jamaican and English people, black and white, deploying an elastic first-person plural pronoun:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are considered an inferior race, but little removed from the brutes, because the Almighty Maker of all created beings has tinged our skins with jet instead of ivory! I say our<\/em>, for though the jet has been faded to the olive in my own complexion, I am not ashamed to acknowledge my affinity with the swarthiest n**** that was ever brought from Guinea\u2019s coast!\u201d (TWOC 53).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Olivia is a free woman and she is not labeled as \u201cblack\u201d except by those trying to insult her. She is proud of her mother\u2019s ancestry and proud to wear part of her mother\u2019s skin. This quote can be put into conversation with Olivia\u2019s use of pronouns. We see her use terms such as \u201cwe\u201d and \u201cour\u201d when referring to the black population, evidently grouping herself a part of that community. Surrounded by mostly white, racist, people in England, Olivia explains how they were all made by the same and even though he happens to make some of them with darker skin, they are all still equal human beings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Olivia\u2019s use of pronouns demonstrates how she takes great pride in her identity. One critic, Nikrouz Jafarzadeh, argues \u201cOn most occasions, minor black female characters act with bravery to support white female characters, who occupy the role of protagonist in the plot or title of the novel. On rare occasions, a black female character is portrayed in a novel as the main character that is accompanied by white females\u201d (Jafarzadeh 1). Olivia\u2019s role in this story is to go against the grain. Not only is she a main black character, but she is a woman who refuses marriage. Her story is evidently revolutionary. Pronouns such as \u201cyour\u201d give Oliva the strength to assert herself in this new society and forge her own path in a traditional world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Olivia can be compared to Mary Seacole in The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole. <\/em>In her book, Seacole tells the story of her work during the Crimean war. Despite her heroic behavior, Seacole never had anyone by her side. Her mother and husband died before this journey leaving her to endure these unimagine experiences solo. Similar to Olivia, <\/em>Seacole didn\u2019t have anyone in her corner to confide in. These two women went on strenuous journeys across the world by themselves and had to navigate unprecedented emotions and confrontations of race. Olivia is just a young woman all alone trying to make the best out of her life and uses pronouns to establish herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Work cited:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dominique, Lyndon Janson. The Woman of Colour: A Tale<\/em>. Broadview editions, 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nikrouz, Jafarzadeh. Race, Mimicry, Ambivalence, and Third Space in The Woman of Colour: A Tale (1808)<\/em>. Mar. 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salih, Sara. \u201cThe Woman of Colour. A Tale. Anonymous (1808) (Review).\u201d Eighteenth Century Fiction<\/em>, vol. 21, no. 3, Apr. 2009, pp. 448\u201350. muse.jhu.edu<\/em>, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1353\/ecf.0.0055.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction: The Woman Of Colour, A Tale is an anonymously written novel written about a young biracial girl named Olivia Fairfield in 1800s England. Olivia was born in Jamaica as a result of a secretive sexual relationship between her mother, an enslaved woman, and her father, her mother\u2019s enslaver. Her mother died in childbirth and Olivia was raised by her father. When Oliva\u2019s father died, … Continue reading Your<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3282,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,8],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-he-him","tag-your"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",960,1200,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",600,750,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",256,320,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D-240x300.jpg",240,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D-768x960.jpg",720,900,true],"large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D-819x1024.jpg",720,900,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",960,1200,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",960,1200,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",600,750,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",256,320,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",80,100,false],"canard-post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",618,773,false],"canard-featured-content-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",400,500,false],"canard-single-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",614,768,false],"canard-logo":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/M1845D.jpg",72,90,false]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"alexhalsey","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/author\/alexhalsey\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Introduction: The Woman Of Colour, A Tale is an anonymously written novel written about a young biracial girl named Olivia Fairfield in 1800s England. Olivia was born in Jamaica as a result of a secretive sexual relationship between her mother, an enslaved woman, and her father, her mother\u2019s enslaver. Her mother died in childbirth and…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}