Seeing Reality, Making Masculinity Visible: The Limits of Photographic Vision in The Story of a Modern Woman

Ella Hepworth Dixon's Story of a Modern Woman (1894) offers a distinctive opportunity to consider the visual aptitude and activities of Mary Erle. Dixon's story repeatedly presents her heroine's attempts to see the harsh and confusing realities of late-Victorian society, including the changing relationships between men and women, as integral to her urban life. Mary's ongoing observations of men, and especially Vincent Hemming, her ostensible lover, are vital to the development of her visual skills. Dixon's heroine uses her vision—and specifically a photographic mode of viewing—to make visible and expose the decay of late-Victorian masculinity. Her novel, however, does not just portray degenerate, manipulative, and anxious male characters and point toward changing gender expectations for both men and women. Dixon ultimately comments on the very photographic mode of viewing that her work showcases. She empowers her heroine to see the deplorable condition of late-Victorian masculinity, but Mary also learns to recognize the limitations of photographic strategies by noting their artistic manipulations.