Fingersmith

The women in the novel are not only subversive heroines, as demonstrated by the characters of Sue and Maud, but they are also complicated villains, as illustrated by Mrs. Sucksby and the unreliable stories about Sue’s and Maud’s respective mothers. The stories that Sue and Maud have been told about their mothers give them cause for concern. Does the blood that runs through their veins in some way corrupt them? Is maternal inheritance destiny? While the answers to these questions are not straightforward—the manipulations to which both women have been subject regarding their pasts make simple conclusions impossible—it appears, ultimately, neither nature nor nurture holds exclusive sway over the narrator’s selves. They will forge their own particular future without parental influence.

Sue is told—by the almost wholly unreliable Mrs. Sucksby—that her mother was a gifted thief who incidentally murdered a man during the robbery that was supposed to make her fortune. Thus, she was hanged, and Mrs. Sucksby sheltered Sue. Because Sue never knew her mother, she decides to take comfort in what she is left: “I supposed it was a pity she had made an orphan of me—but then, some girls I knew had mothers who were drunkards, or mothers who were mad [...]. I should rather a dead mother, over one like that!” (11). Nevertheless, the tale leaves Sue with two distinct feelings: one, a sense of pride in her mother’s skills as a thief, which she supposes she has inherited; two, a fascination with and fear of the prospect of hanging. Before she leaves for Briar to impersonate a lady’s maid, she asks Mrs. Sucksby, “Do you think it hurts, Mrs Sucksby, when they drop you?” (43). This is, at once, an admission of fear over her unlawful role in the scheme and a foreshadowing of what ultimately transpires—both in her own betrayal and in Mrs. Sucksby’s unfortunate fate. It also indicates an implicit acceptance of her maternal inheritance that she subconsciously believes is her maternal inheritance. It makes Mrs. Sucksby’s job easy when she lies to the rest of the household about Sue’s absence: “That’s bad blood for you.” Gentleman assists with the fiction: “Shows up in queer ways” (336). All Mrs. Sucksby has to do is tell the household that Sue double-crossed them and ran off with the money; the others believe it because her mother was a murderess—maternal inheritance is destiny. As Sue worries before her betrayal, “I wondered how Maud would look, if she knew what bad blood flowed in me” (73).

In contrast, Maud has been told—by her uncle, another unreliable narrator—that her mother died in childbirth after being placed in a psychiatric hospital for a mental health condition, ironically mirroring Sue’s disdain for mothers who have mental health conditions above. Maud’s nagging fear of following her mother’s experiences with mental health haunts her, and Gentleman gains ground with her by taunting her with that possibility: “The madhouse. Do you think very often of your time there? Do you think of your mother, and feel her madness in you?” (202). Later, when Maud is told that her mother was Sue’s mother (another deception of Mrs. Sucksby’s), the murderess who was hanged, she is tormented again with the possibility of being tainted by unworthy blood. When Mrs. Sucksby tries to gain Maud’s confidence, she reminds her that Maud willingly participated in the betrayal of Sue: “‘You let them take her,’ she says. Then her look changes. She almost winks. ‘And oh, dear girl, don’t you think you was your mother’s daughter, then?’” (321). Maud’s maternal inheritance comes down to a choice of mental dissolution or moral contamination.

Ironically, it turns out that Mrs. Sucksby refers to herself in this anecdote, for she is Maud’s biological mother—a corrupt woman who looks out for herself above all else, for whom betrayal is second nature. Even more ironically (not to mention tragically), the fiction she relates about Sue’s and Maud’s alleged mother ultimately comes true. Mrs. Sucksby—actual mother of Maud, surrogate mother to Sue—is hanged after the stabbing death of Gentleman. Indeed, Gentleman’s fate is sealed when he slyly references Maud’s maternity in front of Sue, who still remains ignorant of the truth: “What’s it to you, what Sue knows? [...] And do you look at Mrs. Sucksby? Don’t say you care what she thinks! Why, you’re as bad as Sue. Look how you quake! Be bolder, Maud. Think of your mother” (467). It is unclear whether Gentleman refers to the fictional murderous mother or Mrs. Sucksby herself; either way, the truth will unravel Mrs. Sucksby’s scheme, should Sue know her surrogate mother’s role in sending her to the psychiatric hospital. For her part, Maud wishes to protect Sue from the truth of Mrs. Sucksby’s treachery, and thus, she and Mrs. Sucksby briefly become co-conspirators. Mrs. Sucksby’s final act, however, is to confess to the murder of Gentleman: “‘I done it,’ she said. ‘Lord knows, I’m sorry for it now; but I done it. And these girls here are innocent girls, and know nothing at all about it; and have harmed no-one’” (475). She protects both of her “daughters,” leaving them free to find each other and divest themselves of misguided maternal influence.