Castle Rackrent
Maria
Edgeworth and “Castle Rackrent”
Maria Edgeworth was an influential and renown female Irish writer.
Living from 1767-1849
and writing in the early 19th century, she belongs to one of the
earliest group of female writers who called for sexual equality in her writings.
Based in Ireland, her writings focused mainly on the life of Irish
commoners, principal works on the topic including Castle Rackrent, Ennui, The Absentee, and Ormond, written in 1800,
1809, 1812, and 1817 respectively. Although
her encouraging father led her to write many children’s books, a large amount
of her literature deals with very adult and very political problems. Later
influencing Francis Scott and other writers who dealt with the Irish, she tried
to establish an interest and pride by the Irish for their history, especially in
the wake of British domineering.
These were clearly her intentions in writing Castle Rackrent, as
laid down in her preface to this adult novel.
Written in 1900, her intent was mainly historical.
She wanted to preserve the history of the Rackrent family by recording
the story given to her by a man named Thady. Thady apparently had determined to
tell the secret story about this family as a manner of honor and loyalty to the
family. But Edgeworth’s historical motives are much deeper. Knowing that the race of Rackrent had disappeared in Ireland,
she wanted to preserve what remained of this family so influential in old Irish
history. Likewise, she admitted
that many contemporary and coming readers would delight in reading about the
bumbling and antics of her characters; admirable though they may be she knew
that just as people read avidly the antics of Falstaf in Shakespeare’s
writings, that readers would avidly read her story.
Additionally, Edgeworth intended to whip up Irish pride at a time when
Ireland was losing it. She wrote
the story in 1800, as Great Britain was slowly fusing Ireland with itself. She
claimed to look dismayingly forward to “when Ireland loses her identity by a
union with Great Britain”. In
short, she aimed to preserve a unique Irish heritage before the last strands of
Irish culture were Anglicized. She
wanted the Irish to recognize a different ancestry, not only to enjoy ridiculing
it, but to invest pride and love for the former days for Ireland.
But by writing a biography, Edgeworth planned to give the Irish a
personal account to which they could connect and truly appreciate.
As per her preface, she believed history for the most part left out
anything that the common man could associate.
With perfect meter and formality, common history was not comprehensible
to the common man. The exigencies of historical accuracy, brevity, and
impartiality, she wrote, prevents historians from getting truly personal with
the stories they tell. As a result, she argued, most people cannot connect with
the person they are reading about, and the effect is lost on them—they cannot
envision an incomplete account of historical persons.
Thus she embarked to collect the minutest details about each of the
characters in Rackrent to get as accurately as possible an appreciation of the
real character with whom she was dealing. Examining
journals and memoirs, quotes and pieces of conversation, she claimed to have
created a much more acceptable narrative than history.
The biographer, she claims, is the true source of an accurate judgment of
a person, as history tends to record popular and not always just judgments.
The story is one of an Irish noble family, told in vernacular for the
common Irishman to understand. Key
to the narrative is a thorough characterization of a certain class of Irish
gentry that had since vanished when she wrote this novel.
Each of the main characters had a problem; Sir Patrick was a drunkard;
Sir Murtagh sought litigation too much; Sir Kit was a hot-blood; and Sir Condy
was an unkempt slob. Their habits
and characteristics no longer a part of accepted Irish culture, Edgeworth used
it as a reminder of what the Irish once were like, and compares the need to
protect even the absurd and undesirable characteristics to a similar desire in
British literature. The story is
one of their exploits and how they were judged in their own setting.
To phrase it the way she did, the use of the Rackrents’ bad
characteristics works like an Irish idiom, which is culturally significant to
the Irish, but lost in translation to the British.
Edgeworth, Maria. "Author's Preface". Worldwide School Library. 1 April, 1999. 28 January, 2004.
<http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/socialcommentary/CastleRackrent/chap7.html>
"Maria Edgeworth". 10 March, 2000. 28 January, 2004.
http://www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/exhibits/women/19th.itm>
Back to Great Gatsby Summary