Masters Theses

Date of Award

3-1981

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Nancy M. Goslee

Committee Members

Lori Hall Burghardt

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine a particular genre--the classical detective novel--and its conventions in light of the stated aims of one of its most acclaimed practitioners, Dorothy L. Sayers. General works on formula fiction were studied first as background in the genre. Next, Sayers' own essays on the genre and on aesthetics and morality were read. Finally, all the Lord Peter Wimsey series was read in order to select five representative novels. Whose Body? was chosen to represent the conventions of the genre and to introduce Sayers' detective, Peter Wimsey. Strong Poison and Have His Carcase were chosen to introduce Harriet Vane, the woman Sayers intended Peter Wimsey to marry. Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon were chosen because for Sayers they represented the realization of an aesthetic dream.

This thesis was inspired by Sayers herself. In 1937, she wrote an essay on her ninth novel, in which she explored the artistic journey she had taken from Whose Body? to Gaudy Night. In this essay, also entitled "Gaudy Night," Sayers claimed to have finally written the sort of novel she always wanted to write, an amalgam of the classical detective genre with the novel of manners. She wanted to create a new type of popular fiction, one that would address itself to real human problems. She felt the detective formula restricted an author, prevented her from writing more than a sterile, cerebral crossword puzzle. If, she thought, one could make one's central figure more human and build a believable story around him as Wilkie Collins had done in The Moonstone, then perhaps one could teach as well as entertain.

Sayers'desire to teach, to convey a message in a serious novel, was the problem. She had grown up in a Victorian family whose belief in authority was based on traditions of church and state. She absorbed her parents' values, but absorbed them subconsciously. When Sayers reached her late 20's, however, she was forced by circumstances to become a modern working woman, and was, moreover, exposed by way of college friendships to a new morality best exemplified by that part of London called Bloomsbury. Her subconscious belief in authority--intellectual and religious-- clashed with her conscious beliefs in independence and male/female equality.

In the novels I have selected Sayers attempted to reconcile authority and independence by bringing her two protagonists, Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey, together in a real as well as a symbolic marriage. Peter was the authority figure; as a classical detective he had to be superior in all things. Harriet was the modern woman, one who worked to support herself by writing detective novels. Sayers found, however, that she was unable to reconcile the authoritarian Peter with the independent Harriet because her own belief in authority was too dominant. Despite her claims to the contrary in her essay "Gaudy Night," the marriage she worked out for her hero and heroine was completely traditional. Moreover, Sayers found that Peter, who was to become human for love of Harriet, had instead become more formulaic than before. Although Peter was not real in the novelistic sense, he had become all too real to Sayers. He was her authority figure, her judge, her constant accuser. This was the paradox. Sayers had created a fictional character that now seemed to call her every professional action into question. Therefore, she abandoned detective novels, indeed fiction altogether, in order to free herself from Peter's domination. Sayers turned instead to religious drama rewriting the stories of the Bible in contemporary languages. Through this new career, she felt able to convey her values and beliefs unhindered by the restrictions of formula and by a fictional character who, she knew, could assume an awesome life of his own.

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