In his introduction to
A Woman in the Polar Night, Lawrence Millman notes that is author, Christiane Ritter, had no interest in any of the "Arctic Grails" that drove most northern explorers -- the northwest passage, the pole, or the discovery and naming of some unknown spot. And yet, he notes, she could appreciate the Arctic in ways that those "great explorers," with their "Grail-oriented blinders," could not. Hers was an exploration, not of lands to be named or passages to be navigated, but of the inner nature of life and consciousness in a world in which everything that she -- along with most people of her class and background -- took for granted as much as the air they breathed. It's an exercise in long subtraction: the subtraction, at first, of creature-comforts and little things, then of greater ones, such as predictable food, predictable weather, or the ability to just go get another something when something important breaks or is lost, and at last the subtraction of human company itself.
It's notable that her journey begins in relative luxury, aboard a German cruise-ship with its deck-chairs, its "illuminated coffee lounge," and snug, comfortable beds -- just the sort of cruise ship that presently navigates these regions, though now they are even larger and more luxurious. It's a perfect contrast to the life that awaits her in the little hut with its felt roof, ancient broken stove, and puttied-shut windows. Her sojourn begins in endless day, continues through seemingly endless night, and becomes for her an almost cosmic sort of rebirth, a witnessing of life's great circuit that forever changes her perspective on civilization. Indeed, as Millman notes, not long after her return home, after her family estate catches fire and burns to the ground, Christiane is not perturbed or mournful, but secretly grateful. For the fire had done what ice did: reduced her life to its essentials.
I only have two thoughts from the first half of A Woman in the Polar Night that I want to discuss, with the first being a transformation. I am amazed by Christiane Ritter’s transformation in the first half of this novel, especially because it occurred within only a few months since she got there. She left behind a house in Europe filled with gardeners, cooks, a laundry man, and maids and traded it in for the Arctic winter. She expected to arrive to a private room there, but instead arrived to bunk beds bad of straw. She complains about a rusty stove and little “vitamins” to help her survive, but soon there was a transformation. Ritter began making coffee, getting fresh water alone, and even survived by herself for over a month when the men went hunting. When cutting wood during a blizzard to reinforce the hut she even commented that “[f]or the first time in [her] life [she] experience the joy of struggling with something stronger than [herself]” (Ritter 98). She went from being a luxurious European housewife, to now enjoying the struggle of using all her strength to chop wood in the middle of a blizzard in below zero temperatures to survive. It was just amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe other thought I had when reading this was the gender stereotypes that the story was reinforcing constantly. Christiane decided to go to the Arctic to see her husband, and he was just “…glad that he [was] going to have a proper household” with a woman who can cook, clean, and tend to the men (Ritter 32). Her husband wanted his wife there just to take care of him, not for the adventure or company. This is reinforced again when the author keeps using the word “obedient” and “obediently” when Christiane gets something for the men or completes an act they ask her to do. She does exactly as the men ask, which is just reinforcing the stereotype that women only have the job of listening to their husbands and males. Furthermore, after making a dinner for the males, in the stereotypical fashion of this story Ritter states, “[t]hen they eat. They eat… I am busy filling their plates. They eat until nothing is left…” (Ritter 53). Not only does she “obediently” make dinner for the men, but there was also no food left over for her to have because they ate it all. Not only are the women stereotyped, but the men are stereotyped too as the “masculine provider,” as they are consistently called the “men” or “hunters” in the novel as to show their superiority in providing meat for Ritter to survive.
Even though this novel shows an amazing transformation of Ritter as a woman being able to fend for herself in the Arctic, it also reinforces the gender stereotypes that have plagued novels and stories for centuries.
My first thoughts while reading “A Woman in the Polar Night” when Christiane wanted to join her husband on an adventure to the Arctic was “oh god”. The reason why I think I had this thought was because of all the awful outcomes that people have suffered going to the arctic in the other books we have read. Now involving your wife to go on this adventure with him made me think that this would cause a lot of issues. Women were treated like a housewife so I thought her going along with him, she would just be miserable there. At first I don’t think she expected the arctic to be the way he described it to her. Especially because of the way she used to live back at home and the lifestyle she was used to. I wasn’t sure if she was ready for what was going to come her way. To my surprise though she seemed to really enjoy it there which changed my thoughts right away from what I was thinking in the beginning. I really enjoyed that she wasn’t the “typical” women character of a husband who is a traveler. I am curious to see how this book ends!
ReplyDeleteHi Sheila, after reading your blog I was wondering what the “typical” women character of a husband who is a traveler is? We have only read this novel so far that focuses on the exploration of a woman character, so I wonder if maybe this experience is not particular to Ritter. Perhaps, this is what a lot of women go through when they go to the Artic, where they have an unexpected transformation. I’m interested to see if other stories of women in Artic exploration continue this idea that Ritter started for us.
DeleteI think that this, like a few of our other readings this semester, is very Thoreau driven. Here, we see Christiane leaving behind a life of luxury for a much simpler life and living with just the means. I think taking these ideas presented by Thoreau and weaving in harsh cold and trying environments makes the thought of abandoning the comforts of our luxuries and technologies even more distasteful. Admittedly, living off of the land and living more sustainable is incising, I think that for most of us, we desire the comforts we are fortunate to have. While we do see Christiane adapt and overcome, finding herself to love the challenges of the North, as we have seen in past weeks reading, that is often not the case, and surviving in the extreme cold is often a death sentence. It creates conflicting ideas, for me at least. One moment, I find myself feeling inspired by the desire to venture and live simply while other times, I find myself feeling grateful for the comfort and cozy.
ReplyDeleteJessica, I definitely agree with you that there is something to be said about the luxuries that we have. In all the stories that we've been discussing, people are venturing out and away, and in a lot of them are getting into really harrowing situations. This memoir contrasts them because it shows how she's adapting, but it doesn't gloss over the fact that living in the arctic and these difficult conditions is still incredibly dangerous. So I have the same conflicting feelings as you because we saw what happened with McCandless and his death, but she thrives. I wonder if it really just does come down to preparedness -- then again, the Franklin expedition. It really leaves you to ponder, what causes success and what causes failure when it comes to exploration? Does it all come down to chance?
DeleteTayler
I was surprised when reading this memoir to see such rigid gender roles. Much like Megan mentioned in her post, the culture in Spitsbergen revolves around a hunter-gatherer dynamic where men are exclusively the hunters and women are the homemakers. What surprises me most about this is how Christiane Ritter revels in her role as housewife. She begins her journey with the hopes of “not have[ing] to accompany him on the dangerous winter excursions” (20). Instead, Ritter wants to “stay by the warm stove in the hut, knit socks, paint from the window, read thick books in the remote quiet and, not least, sleep to my heart’s content” (20). She expects to be taken care of like a princess in this arctic land.
ReplyDeleteIn keeping with the gender roles at play, Ritter describes how being a housewife in the arctic allows her to feel at ease and calm herself after being stressed and alone for a period of time: “I am in my own world again. Although only a cook in a sooty hole, housekeeper for two wolfishly hungry ragged men, still I am again a human being among human beings” (109). Not only does this calm Ritter, but she claims that, by doing housework, she is in touch with her humanity again. I think that some modern readers may be shocked at how stereotypical the gender roles are in this Arctic account.
Hi Tim, I never thought about it before that perhaps Ritter sticking to her cleaning and cooking ways even in the most inopportune times, somehow makes her still feel connected with Europe and her home. It seems like a mental way of coping with being alone without society. As the story goes on though, I start to see her cleaning habits subside and even her cooking too, which just shows that perhaps she is getting ready to abandon her European hopes and change to an Artic inhabitant more and more.
DeleteThere certainly are gender roles at work here -- and class roles as well; Ritter comes from a more comfortable echelon of society. Indeed, back home, she would have had a cook to prepare her meals! So her embracing of the rugged version of domesticity here was, I think, an alternative for her to the life she'd known at home. And, much as women on the American frontier in the nineteenth century, it is a very hard-working, ice-chopping, wood-heaving kind of work -- as heavy and "manual" (if not more so) than anything the men do.
DeleteMadeleine Frost
ReplyDeleteUpon reading about half of Ritter’s narrative, as most people have mentioned in their posts, gender roles play a significant role in her experience. I think that the differences with how Christiane Ritter interacts with said gender roles has to do with the environment around her. To start, we notice that at the beginning of the book, she feels out of place in her new environment. In fact, she finds herself thinking about the comforts of Europe and the different way she used to conduct herself and her life in Europe. Take, for instance, the moment when she first arrives and is reunited with her husband where she states, “Then Karl lights his pipe, takes up a pitcher, and goes out. ‘Where’s he going now, just when we want to eat?’ I ask my husband. ‘To look for fresh water,’ is the laconic answer. ‘To look?’ I am horrified. ‘Then you don’t know where it is?’” (32). Ritter, in this moment, illuminates how her life in Europe made her life convenient in that she did not have to go to much trouble to secure fresh water for her consumption. In the Arctic, however, she observes how she must find the water herself. Later, too, once she becomes more comfortable with her new environment and surroundings, Ritter states, “The men are extremely surprised to find the hut still standing; it might quite easily have been washed away by the glacier stream nearby. I am to look for fresh water and get a snack ready while the men continue along the coast in pursuit of the boat” (71). We see here that Ritter has become, in a way, accustomed to the new way of life she experiences in that she (casually) mentions how she held the fort down and how she has the obligation of securing fresh water.
As far as gender roles go, in Europe women were not expected to be the individuals to go out and secure fresh water — the men were. As we see towards the beginning of the narrative, Ritter was accustomed to this life and was shocked that water was not at their immediate disposal. Later, the European way of life (and comfortability) is challenged as Ritter settles into her new lifestyle. Living in the colder climate challenges one as a human being. And, in this case, everyone must work together to keep everything functioning and keep everyone safe. In this way, Ritter challenges the gender norms of the time by participating in activities such as hunting, gathering wood, shoveling, acquiring water, and other things that benefit the group as a whole. Gender and gender roles are arbitrary — these concepts have meaning because a certain culture gave them meaning. In Europe, as dictated by Ritter’s book, they seem to be more strict and individuals have certain roles depending on their identity. In the Arctic, however, the environment allows for gender roles to lose their power and importance (as dictated by social norms) in that individuals have the opportunity to pursue and engage in any activity regardless of their gender identity.
As many have stated before, I definitely feel "A Woman in a Polar Night" is driven around the concept of gender roles, which is really strengthened in the way Ritter deals with and adapts to her new Arctic Environment. From what I have seen in the comments above me, there seems to be a contradictory way of viewing her new life. For one, it is that Ritter is fit into the role of housewife, at times of her own volition, but still nonetheless follows the strict rules that comes with being fit into this gendered role.
ReplyDeleteHowever, she also performs activities that are far more physical, like searching for fresh water or cutting wood to reinforce their abode, in freezing temperatures as well, which is far from what a housewife should be doing. Those types of things are some that the men, if we are talking in gender stereotypes, should be attending too. Which means in a way, Ritter does defy the gender stereotype she inhabits in the book.
Simply put, I see an argument for both sides of the situation, and I do find it highly intriguing how Ritter proposes this to readers.
Hey Shawn, I agree with you to an extent, but I also feel like you're falling into the trap of Western housewife ideology. If you look beyond just American housewifery, you'll see a lot of other cultures with strict gender roles have women gathering those things as well because the men are busy hunting/etc. So really, she isn't defying any gender roles because she's still just doing wifely things, just in their new setting. But it is still a very gender-centric piece because it shows her adapting to the environment and traveling with her husband, which is something we haven't seen before really. She doesn't stay home like Lady Jane, or the other wives. So there could be an argument there about whether she really is a housewife or not. Interesting take.
DeleteTayler
I would like to talk about what I think is missing from “A Woman in the Polar Night.” What Ritter shares with the reader seems to revolve around how her experience in the arctic has changed her and how her experience is different from the men around her. I think she could have gone deeper by showing her relationship with her husband before and throughout her arctic journey. She mentions a few times how surprised she is that he is so calm and carefree but neglects to mention how she feels or how he was before the arctic. We also get minimal dialogue or interaction between the two. For the most part, we experience the arctic through Ritter’s eyes while only reading about the objective actions of her husband. It is as if each character is experiencing their trip completely separately. Even after a quick verbal outburst in the hut, we get very little insight into their dynamic: Hermann comes back to the hut to find that his wife has cleaned the whole place, but as a result, the walls are covered in ice. He asks, “Are you Mad” (Ritter 161)? The two go at it for a short time, but eventually, “lighthearted and singing [they] go about [their] work” (Ritter 161). The reader only gets an insight as to how they communicate and their attitude towards the other within the last few chapters.
ReplyDeleteWhen talking to a colleague, she brought to my attention that at this point in the novel, Ritter has been experiencing the arctic for a year and is now more confident and independent. Towards the beginning of their trip, their relationship may not have been at the forefront of Christiane’s mind, for she had willingly taken the role of “housewife” and followed what her husband expected from her: there was no reason for any friction, therefore, there was no reason for comment.
Towards the end of the novel, we see Hermann’s condescending attitude towards Christiane when he scoffs at her as she insists on crossing the fjord on a lovely day (Ritter 184). He insinuates that she is inexperienced and is making silly judgements. He then calls her “stupid” on page 191. Is this the attitude he had towards her from the beginning? Or did it start when she became more confident? I would have liked to analyze the effect the arctic has on the psyche through character development within the novel, but the information is limited.
You raise a fascinating question -- indeed, we know little of her husband's inner state of mind, and nothing much of their life before or after. But that is in large part because it's not a novel, it's really a journal. While of course captains of voyages write 'official' narratives, private journals often survive as well, and are often far more insightful, although they present the same difficulties you note about Christiane's account. The British Admiralty, indeed, was so worried about what such private journals might contain that they ordered all the men to hand theirs in for official review at the end of an expedition.
ReplyDeleteThe point of view of A Woman in the Polar Night is super interesting. Ritter goes to be a housewife to her husband, but it’s a temporary thing and there is an “end point” for her that isn’t related to discovery. She has something of a rosy view of what it will be like before she actually gets there, and seeing her transformation as she gets used to living in the Arctic is cool. She must change her expectations and adjust to what’s “normal” in the Arctic. I found it intriguing that Ritter found solace and a sense of normalcy in housework. There’s a routine that comes with performing the daily housekeeping tasks, and it feels like it’s a way to maintain a sense of normalcy. We’ve spoken before about the officers and crew on the Franklin who wore uniforms, kept social rankings, and grasped for a sense of normalcy in the strangeness that is the Arctic. With Ritter’s performance of housework and the rituals and routines that she engages in, to me, it feels like an extension of the (sometimes desperate) grasping for the somewhat familiar and routine in a wholly unfamiliar place. The same goes for the men, too—they all create their own routines and rituals, things that they do to help them organize their days and structure their lives.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this book. I like the way that Ritter writes, I find it to be captivating and interesting. It was so well-written and sort of fantastical that I thought I was reading fiction at first. After I put pieces together I was delighted to find out that this is her own account of her time in the Arctic with her husband. I like Ritter and her personality. At times, yes she seems to make herself out to be the best, but she is smart and wise and wistful in some ways. Some parts that I liked was her liking to the arctic fox that they all nicknamed. I love animals myself so I always like it when they are in the story. She really liked the fox and was gentle to it, hoping and helping for its survival. I also really liked the very ending of the memoir. I think she wrote it so well. She is back on a ship, and she seems and notices that she is sort of out of place from the other passages on the ship. (I sort of think that she thinks of herself as better than the other passengers) The last line shows that is still thinking about the arctic, and that she will forever miss her time that she spent there. It shows that she has changed and that her perspective on things have changed, if we compare it to the very start of the story. She was happy to be on the ship, enjoying luxurious things, but at the end she is sort of sorrowful and mourning in way over her leaving.
ReplyDeleteHi guys sorry for the late reply I thought I responded to this thread. I just wanted to touch on how opened minded and adaptable Ritter was. Like many of the characters we have read about thus far, Ritter exhibited a similar McCandless flare. Not knowing much about the land of ice she becomes subjected to. I think her character is interesting because she came from luxury and finds her self in a set of circumstances that exhibits the complete opposite. I think that finding herself in this predicament is something she was secretly searching for in her life to discover her true self. I think that the everyday responsibilities and life itself just gets in the way of ever truly discovering who we are and our purpose. With this said, becoming one, essentially, with the ice allowed her to find her true self. The simplicity of the land and the ability to persevere through actual survival situations the Artic offered was something she needed to realized she loved it. Perhaps living in an already establish place with real housing and food readily available caused Ritter to be blanketed by privilege's she was unaware of. I believe hard work and the beauty of the Artic is what made her fall so deeply in love with it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading “A Woman in the Polar Night” because of how it is a woman traveling to the Artic. I really like how Christiane Ritter decides to join her husband in the Artic. As she is traveling there and informs people of her staying there, they tell her not to do it. They tell her that a woman shouldn’t be going there. What I thought was interesting was how Ritter enjoyed staying in and taking care of the house. She enjoyed her duties of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the men. She even mentions at one point how she hoped she wouldn’t have to join her husband on hunting trips. As Megan mentions above, that her cooking and cleaning seemed to be a coping mechanism to help her keep in touch with her European ways. I also noticed this and believe the same thing. As the story goes on, we see her deviate from this and starts to get used to the Artic ways of life.
ReplyDeleteI found it fascinating to read about Ritter and her experience in the arctic. I was not sure what to expect of the work, as immediately the trope of the character who is used to luxury came to mind, like Emperor Kuzco from "The Emperor's New Groove". The difference here was that Ritter is an actual person and not a fictional character who we know will have a change of heart by the end of the story. Watching Ritter adapt to her new surroundings in a completely non-fictional way was quite interesting and somewhat relatable, as well as refreshing. It was also enjoyable to watch Ritter break through the sexist barrier that can often be seen in the theme of exploration. The transition from luxury and European gender roles to an arctic survivalist is not only an example of breaking cultural boundaries, but is also an example of internal growth and self enlightenment.
ReplyDeleteI believe class brings it's own daunting, tiring expectations that I believe she was free of once she hit the Arctic. I enjoyed reading this account because it was a woman's experience going to the Arctic, and while it was not typical to the male, it was refreshing. I believe going to the Arctic gave Ritter some sort of freedom as every day she lived with a purpose. It was a challenge that she could work for each day. Whereas home had little challenge. People say that doing the housekeeping tasks was a way to keep normalcy, I agree to a point. Housekeeping was not a norm for her, but I believe living in the Arctic subjected her to a different form of life. Housework made her feel of a purpose. As if she was being productive and contributed to life whereas home, she felt locked into this role that gave her little room.
ReplyDelete