“Maria Edgeworth In Blackface”

Having no prior knowledge of Irish history, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that when I first read Castle Rackrent I assumed that it was just supposed to be a comical story about a over zealous servant to a doomed family. I found it kind of strange how there was an introduction, glossary, footnotes and appendix to what I thought to be a light and inconsequential novel. Having read “Maria Edgeworth In Blackface” I now see that Maria Edgeworth’s motives were not so pure in her conception of this novel and that she had strong political incentive for including all of the attachments, especially the glossary, that were in the novel.

The Irish rebellion of 1798 was something that I had not heard of until reading “Maria Edgeworth In Blackface.” After reading the essay and doing further research online, it became obvious that Edgeworth intended on using the novel as her way of voicing her opinion on the subject of the rebellion. During the time after the Irish rebellion of 1798, many published their accounts of the horrors that took place during that time, almost all of them being from loyalist perspectives. To be able to publish her views of the rebellion without being criticized, Edgeworth created a humorous and seemingly insignificant tale of an artless and illiterate servant to the Rackrent family. To convince the readers of Thady’s legitimacy the Editor “…presents information in the editorial commentary to convince us of its simplicity and authenticity, while simultaneously presenting evidence which alerts us to the political tension in Ireland.” (851)

Edgeworth used several tactics to mask her intended interpretation of the novel. While the most obvious way in which Edgeworth masqueraded her novel was by having a comical overtone in it, I believe that the most successful way in which she achieved this was through her blackface portrayal of the narrator Thady Quirk. Although Thady was a white male, Edgeworth’s performance can still be seen as a form of linguistic blackface in the sense that she represented a simpleminded, imprudently loyal steward. “In taking Thady’s voice, Edgeworth thus becomes a minstrel character, performing what Kenneth Lynn refers to as “a white imitation of a black imitation of a contented slave.” (849) Blackface minstrelsy was a clever way for Edgeworth to cover up her real intentions of the novel because, while she did insert her strong political views into the novel, the fact that she was telling it from the point of view of a simpleminded, subaltern steward made it easy for the reader to dismiss anything they said without getting worked up. “Set apart from society, believed to be mentally inferior and immature, black characters could express serious criticism without compelling the listener to take them seriously.” (864)

Besides the heavy political implications, mostly provided in the glossary, Edgeworth also centered much of the story on land right and law. “Thady called it their whiskey; not that the whiskey is actually the property of the tenants, but that it becomes their right after it has been often given to them. In this general mode of reasoning respecting rights the lower Irish are not singular, but they are peculiarly quick and tenacious in claiming these rights.” (C, 127) In Castle Rackrent, Thady helped his son Jason acquire a farm on the Rackrent estate by manipulating the bids. This action turned out to be one of the first steps that led to Jason overtaking the entire estate. “The central question of the novel thus becomes, Whose land is it and what right do they have to it?” (854)

After completing the essay I found that my original interpretation of the novel was completely off. What I had once assumed to be a light and comical tale of little significance, turned out to be a novel filled with hidden political motives, and which centered itself a great deal around land rights and law.