The Violence of Men

[mtvessel]

Aug 2021
Jamaica Inn - Daphne Du Maurier – Virago, 2012
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Like Dracula, this book opens with the protagonist in a coach that is travelling through a desolate landscape towards an ominous destination. In this case it is an inn with a bad reputation rather than a bat-infested castle, and the main character is a young woman, but otherwise the parallels are remarkably similar. Fortunately the storyline soon diverges into an interesting and stark look at male violence from a female perspective - one possible way to describe the premise is what if Jane Eyre had failed to redeem Mr Rochester? - but also, alas, follows Dracula in being rather less transgressive than it originally appears it will be.

The protagonist is Jane Yellan, a farmer's daughter who has recently been orphaned. Unable to manage the farm on her own, she sells up and goes to live with her Aunt Patience and her husband, Joss Merlyn, at the titular inn. Well, "inn" is not exactly the right word, as no-one ever stays there, and the rough and rowdy locals only seem to turn up on certain nights. Indeed, given that Joss is a terrible landlord, a violent drunkard who has turned Patience into a mousey, quivering wreck, it is unclear how the inn is commercially viable. Jane soon resolves this mystery, but in doing so becomes a potential victim of her uncle and his cronies. Will she and her allies, Francis Davey, the albino vicar of the nearby village of Altarnun, and Joss' younger brother Jem, a horse thief, be able to thwart him?

There is some splendid writing in this book. The depiction of Dartmoor with its bleak tors, treacherous marshes and terrible weather is very well done, as is that of the run-down and dilapidated inn. The heroine is spirited and mostly sensible, and Joss is given enough back story to make him more than a one-dimensional villain. At times the plotting strains credulity, particularly in the number of coincidental meetings, but just avoids tipping over into absurdity.

However, Du Maurier's resourceful heroine is undermined by the conventions of the bad-boy gothic romance genre. Jane's sense of self-preservation goes out of the window when love interest Jem appears - he freely admits to being a dishonest scoundrel and he woos her by getting her to cook his supper when she visits his bachelor hovel, which would be clear red flags if there was anything rational going on. To be fair, Jane expresses her doubts about his character, but a decision to go on a jaunt with him to Launceston is explained as a desire to show that she is not afraid, which makes no sense. And without wanting to be too spoilery, it is fair to say that things go a bit perils of Pauline towards the end, meaning that Jane is less involved in the climactic scenes than she should be. It is also infuriating that in the final choice that she makes, she carefully considers the right ending, and then opts for the wrong one.

This is a pity because violence and its consequences as seen through a woman's eyes is an interesting theme, particularly in the diverse ways in which it manifests. I wish there had been more focus on this - we never get a good sense of how Joss' operation works - and less on the romance elements.