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The Duchess And The Jeweller by Virginia Woolf

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  • The Duchess And The Jeweller by Virginia Woolf

    The Duchess And The Jeweller

    Virginia Woolf





    Discuss the early days of Oliver Bacon?

    Oliver Bacon was the richest jeweller of England who had a hi-fi life style containing all the accessories of modern elite fashion. He lived in the heart of London in a luxuriously furnished apartment. His shop, situated at the Bond Street, was famous in France, Germany, Austria, and Italy… and all over America. He had contacts with the royal personages of the country. He received a lot of invitation cards from Duchesses, Countesses, Viscountesses and Honourable Ladies who liked to be acquainted with him. He had achieved a lot in life but still he was sniffing for more and more. He had risen up from a very low standard of life and was a very sharp little boy living in the filthy streets of some slum area. He dodged in and out and was always playing with the risks. His mother wailed that he should have sense but Oliver wasn’t to be stopped. He started off by selling stolen dogs to fashionable ladies in Whitechapel. Then worked in a shop selling cheap watches. After that he had smuggled a wallet to Amsterdam that contained three diamonds and some emeralds. In this deal he earned a lot and was able to establish a jewellery shop of his own in the most expensive jewellery market at Bond Street. In the early days other jewellers ridiculed him but now they all envied him.


    What is the importance of Oliver’s mother in the story?


    Oliver Bacon was apparently a successful person; he had achieved everything that he aspired for. He had all the luxuries and delicacies of life but from inside he was very dissatisfied. He had an inherent sense of inferiority that haunted him every time, his conscience never ceased its pricking. His old mother who had died many years back performed the role of his conscience. Still when he did something wrong, his mother in the picture reacted strongly and tried to make him realize his blunder but he never paid any heed to her though her warning voice remained drumming in his ears forever. When Oliver Bacon was a little child she used to stop him from his reckless activities and advised him to be sensible, she feared that he might get trapped into some dangerous situation but the lady luck always remained kind with him and he prospered enormously in life. Still his mother and her moral teachings remained at his back. When he was about to be cheated by the Duchess of Lambourne, his mother’s photo seemed to be looking at him and forbidding him to sign the check but the temptation of being with Diana was strong enough for him to neglect his mother’s advice. So it was the voice of his own super-ego that made him see the right and wrong. The role of his mother is like the voice of “goodness” full of motherly love and concern trying to save her child from the evil of the world.

    Describe the appearance of the Duchess?

    Duchess of Lambourne came to see Mr. Oliver Bacon, the most affluent jeweller who had ascended to this status with great struggle and dodgy tactics. The Duchess was his old mate and had been involved in many business dealings with him though most of them were spoiled by her fraudulent nature. She used to buy and sell jewels to him but always wanted a special treatment being the mother of Oliver’s beloved, Diana.
    So she entered the room after waiting for ten minutes outside Oliver’s room. She was past her prime; grand and majestic and was covered with a sweet aroma. She was arrogant and overwhelming. She looked like a wave that struck the shore with full might and vigour. She was like a peacock spreading its spectrum of colours. She was dressed in pink taffeta and looked queen-like. She shook her hand with Oliver and sat down in the leather armchair. When she sat down it seemed the wave had subsided, the peacock had folded its feathers and the parasol had shut its flounces.
    The description of the Duchess shows her to be an extremely splendid regal figure embellished with all the delicate accessories that can be imagined. She is apparently beautiful but her appearance is deceptive and it lures Oliver Bacon to be deceived by her in spite of knowing the truth and the reality.

    Why did Oliver let the Duchess deceive him?

    The Duchess of Lambourne was a frequent visitor to the great jeweller Oliver Bacon’s shop. They had a strange relation; they were friends yet enemies, he was master, she was mistress, each cheated the other, each needed the other, each feared the other, each felt this and knew this every time they touched hands thus in the little back room. She used to disclose her secrets before him and he always helped her to get out of the mess. In fact she possessed what was the most dear to him… Diana. So both exploited each other’s needs.
    At that day the Duchess came to Oliver Bacon because she wanted to sell ten pearls from Appleby cincture to him. Oliver was apprehensive about this deal, as the Duchess had deceived him before and as far as Oliver could recall, she had sold the Appleby cincture before. But the Duchess implored that she had played gamble and had lost, so she had to sell these pearls, which were the last thing left with her. She further told him in a confiding tone that the Duke would cut her in two if he came to know about her gambling. She said that it was for her daughters Araminta, Daphne, Diana… and she started to cry. Tears slid down her powdered cheeks and Oliver melted. She said, “old friends”. Oliver saw the pearls falling down from a little pouch and he took one so that he could get that checked but the Duchess interrupted him by telling that he was invited to her home on a party where Prime Minister and all the other ministers would be present. This trick of the Duchess worked and he postponed the idea of getting the pearls checked for whether they were true or false. He asked how much she wanted for these pearls, she replied, “twenty thousand”. Whether the pearls were real or not, Oliver Bacon took his chequebook and wrote “twenty”, his mother in the picture warned him to have sense. He stopped... but the Duchess entreated and lured him by reminding him that there was going to be a long weekend… with Diana, riding in the forest with him… and he wrote “thousand” and signed it. The Duchess took the cheque and was extremely elated. She had successfully deceived him again. She had befooled him again in the name of Diana. When she went away he stood before his mother’s picture laying the palms of his hands together and murmured, “ its to be a long week-end”.

    Oliver knew that she was again cheating him but he willfully let himself to be misled by the Duchess. This was so because he wanted to get his own motives out of it. He as well as the Duchess knew that they were involved in a wrong transaction but both were taking it as an investment. He invested this money to be with the only joy of his life… Diana. While she knew that she could pay this price to him and let him spend some time with her daughter. Both of them were doing business though both of them disliked each other but as they needed each other so they accepted the fraud willingly. He gave twenty thousand pounds for the honour of Diana’s mother and she received that sum apparently for those false pearls but inwardly it was the price of her daughter’s love. She exploited her daughter’s lover to serve her own purpose… how pitiable and how low the modern morality had descended.

    This story shows the moral degeneration of the aristocracy in the modern time. Explain.

    Virginia Woolf has written this story in her typical charismatic style, using the technique of stream of consciousness. She masterfully portrays all the edges of Oliver’s thoughts before the reader who comes to know about the past, present and the future of the main character. This in-depth study basically reveals the complexes and desires of the main character as a child, as a young man and as a middle-aged thriving businessman. His reveries of past reveal his true personality and his natural reactions to the acts and remarks of the Duchess show his distrust and inability to stop her from cheating him.
    This story is basically a collage of different shades of characters present in the modern world where values of truth, honesty and sincerity have become very rare. Today every one is running behind one’s own vested interests. Friendship and love is a moneymaking commodity for people, easily saleable and purchasable. The upper class that has been thought to be the custodian of higher moral values, itself undermines each and every value. The Duchess in the story is a royal personage while the jeweller represents the richest business class. Both exhibit a bankrupt morality through their questionable characters. Both cheat, defraud and exploit each other for little gains. Money becomes their driving force that they give and take, trading on human emotions. The jeweller buys her false pearls while the Duchess trades on her daughter’s love and goes to the level of a bandit by selling false pearls. The jeweller thinks that he can buy Diana’s love by paying an attractive sum to her mother. The Duchess gambles without her husband’s notice though she knows he will “cut her in two” if he comes to know of this. The Duchess and the jeweller sit face-to-face pretending to have good friendly relations but from inside both dislike each other and can go to any extent to get their own purposes.
    So the story reveals the degenerated characters of aristocracy and establishes the power of wealth that has driven every other value out of this world. The technique and symbolism used in the story supplement the reader’s understanding. Comparing Oliver Bacon with camel, hog and elephant reveal the vindictive and greedy nature of the jeweller. The appearance of the Duchess is described with an ironic purpose. She looked majestic and grand outwardly but her inner personality is weak and corrupt. Her outward beauty ironically points towards her true ugly mercenary face. She and Oliver Bacon both are like the pearls sold by her; “rotten at the center”, “rotten at the core”.

    Never stop learning
    because life never stop Teaching
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