Chapter 12 - “An invisible Spy”

Summary

The chapter discusses Mary Robinson’s use of the spectator as a controlling satiric device in The Sylphid – a series of satirical essays published in the pages of the Morning Post 29 October 29, 1799 and January 31, 1800 which aim to expose the artificiality of society and ridicule contemporary fashions and characters. Scholarship on Robinson’s persona in The Sylphid has emphasized its importance in promoting Robinson as a free-ranging flâneuse, thus offering an alternative to the male gaze by challenging its authority and asserting the power of the female gaze. However, Sylphid’s gaze is not necessarily divested of the properties of the male gaze. The essay argues that Robinson employed the chief attributes of the spectator to construct her satirical persona: that is, the claim to objectivity, the properties of invisibility and shape-shifting, as well as the surreptitious surveillance of society whose secrets and flaws the spectator makes public knowledge. Figuring the spectator as an invisible spy not only helped Robinson advance her social satire and blur the boundaries between private and public, but also positioned her within the literary tradition of other satirical spectators, which further cemented her authority as a satirist.