The Heavenly Twins

For the Victorian reader, the 1890’s was a time of change. Women not only asked questions openly about “the woman question,” but explored and answered them, from a woman’s perspective, through writing (Clark, 94). Until this time female characters were portrayed from a male-approved, narrow, and stereotypical perspective which consisted of prescribed thoughts and behaviors. The Heavenly Twins (1893) by Sarah Grand, one of “the most successful novels of the purity school, possessed shock value for [its] attacks on convention rather than for any reassessment of the female character” (Cunningham, 181). While Grand’s novel may not be viewed by modern readers as radical for the time, it was certainly shocking during the fin de siecle for its feminist and anti-Catholic views. Uniquely, in order to highlight the intensity with which the establishment of marriage (as enforced by the Roman Catholic Church) suppresses women Grand evokes musical elements, as found in settings, moods, and narrative language, all of which revolve around Angelica, who serves as an outlet for Grand’s views. Specifically, the musical elements that Grand uses to stress her outlook are: Angelica’s association with heavenly melody, the “Israel” (Grand, 71) lullaby, the timing and effect of the clock chimes and cathedral bell, her relationship with “the Tenor,” her dreams, and the aura of sound when she describes her freedom in Mother Nature. Biblical angels are organized into categories called choirs, which emphasizes Angelica’s association with heavenly melody; although she does not initially behave in a manner one would associate with being ‘angelic.’ She reads irrelevant novels at church, bullies her brother, and ignores authority figures when she disguises herself as her twin brother Diavolo. Diavolo in this sense is her counter-part, and while his name alludes to devilishness and mischief, Angelica is portrayed as the cleverer, “taller, stronger, and wickeder of the two”. As a