steepholm

And of course, Toad/Gertrude's only sustained passage of illusory freedom--for her road-orgasms are as fleeting as intense--is achieved by embracing her self-despised femininity and casting off class privilege. By assuming the petticoats of a washerwoman, she takes on her attributes of freedom and power, her fluidity: all traditional aspects of the undesirable woman, of the crone. "The washerwoman's squat figure in its familiar cotton print seemed a passport for every barred door and grim gateway." For a broomstick, she takes a great black locomotive, and becomes a night-hag. "They piled on more coals" --she is clearly hell-identified-- "and the train shot into the tunnel, and the engine rushed and roared and rattled, till at last they shot out at the other end into fresh air and the peaceful moonlight, and saw the wood lying dark and helpful upon either side of the line." Note that "dark and helpful": the powers of night conspire with her, only in her transformation into crone. This is demonic comedy, almost worthy of the Master's Margarita.

Nine