Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White tells a common tale with a not-so common twist. With “Cinderella Narratives” a dime a dozen in popular culture, it would be easy to find a film from any decade to pair with Faber’s novel. However, Pretty Woman featuring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere may be one of the best films to choose from as the female lead shares many similarities to Faber’s own Sugar. The narrative known as the “Cinderella Story” is typically that of a young woman who is the victim of a horrid circumstance who has no choice but to live her doomed life until a knight in shining armor comes along, saving her because the shoe fits. For Pretty Woman’s Richard Gere and Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White, the shoe happened to be a high heel and the foot that fit it was attached to a prostitute. While the two meet their women of choice differently, and treat them quite differently, there is one moment so blatantly connecting the sources that echoes the other perfectly. Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White follows William Rackham through his life as he falls in lust with a prostitute, Sugar, and attempts to keep his wife content so that she will play along with his charades. Though Sugar is very much in love with William and what he can do for her in her life, he turns from treating her like a partner to an employee near the end after he moves Sugar into his home as his wife falls ill. Without giving away too much about the novel’s ending, the time comes in Faber’s novel that Sugar reveals she was pregnant with William’s child. His response was to provide her with a letter of termination as his employee and a letter of recommendation (Faber 846 - 48). This is very much like the scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere’s character reveals to his crass lawyer that Vivian (Julia Roberts) is a prostitute. The lawyer tells Vivian that he knows what she is and proposes that they go for a romp in the hay after she is through with Gere’s character, all while the lawyer’s wife is just out of range to hear this exchange. As she discovers what Edward (Gere) has done, she is hurt by him. Later on, he makes the comment that he would like to put her up in a nice place and see her whenever he is in town. This upsets her further and in response to him pointing out that he has never treated her “like a prostitute”, Vivian remarks, “You just did.” In not fully embracing Vivian as she imagined she was being embraced, Edward and William are cut from the same cloth. Both of these scenarios represent the struggle of women as subjects to what a classmate of mine called “ the male performance”, meaning the actions men take when they perform the way society expects them to. Both male characters of significant societal reputations comment several times over on wishing they could be more involved with their ladies of the night, though they cannot be because society looks down on them. Though Faber’s novel and Pretty Woman were published just over a decade apart, the story they tell incorporates the “Cinderella Story” in unique ways. The Crimson Petal and the White offers an ambiguous ending in allowing women to move on, though it is not known if it is for the better. Pretty Woman offers ambiguity only in wondering if Julia Roberts’ character will actually go on to school to better herself now that her knight in shining armor (or rather, business man in a shiny limo) has come to “save” her. Though these romantic dramas are quite entertaining the question needs to be asked as to what is the takeaway? Have women only been able to progress as far as prostitutes turned mothers/who-knows-what from the Victorian era to the early 1990s? If so, how minuscule has the change been in the last decade compared to the last century? Though Vivian’s final line of the film redeems her by suggesting that she might have something of value to continue adding to Edward’s life, viewers do not know if her life will end up just as Sugar’s does. Arguably the best part of Faber’s novel, and what sets it aside from the other damsel-in-distress stories, is that the women get away from the men for better or for worse whereas nearly every other fairy tale ending includes the male lead’s return. Faber’s ability to create a personality for his female characters adds a depth that is valuable to women everywhere. "I’m glad you chose me, even so; I hope I satisfied all of your desires, or at least showed you a good time." - Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, pg. 895.
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About the Faux HistorianAs a Graduate student at Wright State University, Kayelynne Harrison found herself studying Neo-Victorian Literature as she pursued her Master of Art's Degree in ENG: Literature. This page is a small reflection of the work she has accomplished in her last semester. Though preferring to study Gothic Literature and Horror Film analysis, where she hopes her future lies, these Neo-Victorian studies prove helpful in Kayelynne's journey. Archives
April 2021
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