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During his life in late 18th-century London, Will ferries a gentry couple who are of high social standing and likely connected to a landed estate (Grenville 31). The woman, who is probably the man's wife or girlfriend, reveals her ankles to Will who is then able to see her expensive slippers.
While brief, this interaction insinuates much about the Slippers Lady and her experience as a wealthy gentry woman. Through the Slippers Lady, Grenville captures the dream of so many late 18th-century low-income London women and whether the actuality of that dream was really so great.
Body
For women like the Slippers Lady, privacy and modesty was extremely important. For this reason, when the Slippers Lady reveals her ankles, it is actually an extremely bold, saucy, and scandalous act (Grenville 32). The Slippers Lady appears to be well-aware of her beauty. It may have even spurred her husband to marry her to have for himself. Yet for the Slippers Lady, her beauty and body is not something she sees as always needing to be hidden. She wields her sexuality like a weapon, refusing to be ashamed of it. In a culture where women's strength and bodies were supposed to be suppressed, the Slippers Lady subtly flips the script and uses her physical self to protest her husband who only sees her as a prize (Vickery 390, Grenville 31).
Duties
From her small presence in The Secret River, we cannot know the specifics of the Slipper Lady's duties. However, based on her social status at the time, it is likely that she was supposed to repress her charms and act in a virtuous manner (Ylivuori 51). Politeness was one of the most important of these virtues, and since women were perceived as intellectually inferior to men, polite conversation between gentry of both sexes comprised of the men bringing down their conversation to the women's level (Ylivuori 52). Other forms of socializing included hosting events and attending gatherings. The Slippers Lady may have had to raise children as well, but if she and her husband were wealth enough they would have had a servant or nanny to do so for them.
Power
While it is not likely that the Slippers Lady herself owned property, her husband likely did. However, even if the wife of a male landowner did not actually own the land, many of them still considered themselves landowners (Dashwood 1). But while the Slippers Lady may have had authority over a greater quantity of household and land than Sal, but she almost certainly did not manage her own store like Sal did. It is unclear how much autonomy she had, although she may have had some control over the household servants. While the Slippers Lady's life would have been more closely tied to estate/political/business affairs, she was likely sheltered from the harsh truths and technical details of these proceedings (Saniforth 6). And while intelligence was not highly valued for women of her standing, the Slippers Lady herself comes off as crafty and sneaky in The Secret River scene which makes for a refreshing take on history.
Significance
As the Slippers Lady reigns from the more glamorous side of history, there is lots of scholarship and literature on this group. However, there is a disproportionate about of scholarship on women like Sal. This disparity may be why Grenville only gave the Slippers Lady a small section in her novel. The Secret River, as referenced in the title, is about concealed, ignored, and buried truths, which much more closely relates to poor women's struggles and triumphs than wealthy women's. However, it is noteworthy that the Slipper Lady's one scene is a moment of autonomy, fearlessness, and strength (Grenville 33). As she uses her sexuality as a message rather than just as a prize to be won, Grenville communicates that gentry women did more than just go to tea parties.
While the Slippers Lady's comfortable, structured life is initially set up to be a foil to Sal's and the aboriginal women's lives, it honestly becomes more of a parallel to them. All those women characters actively seek their own power, bodily expression, freedom, and social belonging. Through this implied comparison, Grenville aims to better understand the experience of womanhood in the late 18th-century to early 19th century as it shifts across cultures, classes, and space.
Image: "Au Concert", 1896 paper print of wealthy couple Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran and Émilienne d'Alençon in a red theater box.
Link: https://postimg.cc/rz4YNHKJ