Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

V.E. Schwab’s novel Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a sweeping historical saga that moves through the centuries, beginning in 1521 and ending in 2019. Schwab covers 500 years of human history through the stories of María/Sabine, Charlotte, and Alice. Because all of her main characters are queer women, Schwab is able to examine the historical evolution of women’s rights and LGBTQA+ rights over the past half a millennium as her characters move through a rapidly changing world.

María grows up in a world with strictly prescribed gender roles that feel stifling to her. She’s expected to get married and have children—the only avenue available to her. In 16th century Spain, historian Dr. Marjorie Ratcliffe writes, “Women…were not passive witnesses to the deeds performed by the men of their society…Nevertheless, the majority of medieval women considered no other role but that of wife and mother” (Ratcliffe, Marjorie. “‘Matris et Munium…’ Marriage and Marriage Law in Medieval Spanish Legislation.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 13, no. 1, 1988, pp. 93-109. JSTOR). Ratcliffe goes on to elaborate that though there were “severe” laws that punished those who harmed women, the severity of the punishments reinforced the sense of women as the property of powerful men: “their subordinate status is repeated throughout the law codes of the different centuries” (Ratcliffe, Marjorie. “‘Matris et Munium…’ Marriage and Marriage Law in Medieval Spanish Legislation.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 13, no. 1, 1988, pp. 93—109. JSTOR).

Schwab’s novel uses this historical context to emphasize María’s lack of options—she must marry or become a nun, as women did not have the legal autonomy to live independently outside of marriage. Because of her family’s socioeconomic status, they relied on María’s marriage to provide them with needed money and resources. Historically, widowhood offered wealthy women the opportunity to control their own lives and finances—an element that Schwab incorporates into María’s narrative—she only achieves autonomy once she kills Andrés, becomes a widow, and assumes Sabine’s identity.

In 19th-century England, specifically the Georgian Era during the reign of King George IV, women also had little agency. According to English literature scholar Dr. Heather Nelson, women in English society were not considered equal to men and were denied the autonomy to make their own decisions when it came to marriage (Nelson, Heather. “The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature.” Purdue E-Pubs, Purdue University, Apr. 2015). Nelson asserts that these conventions robbed women of the ability to genuinely agree to marriage, even if they accepted marriage proposals, because they did not have the necessary freedom to offer genuine, veritable consent under consent theory. Schwab’s novel uses this context to raise the narrative stakes, pushing Charlotte to accept Sabine’s offer to flee with her. Charlotte, like her peers, lacks the agency to reject her brother and father’s decision to send her to London and accept George Preston’s proposal. Charlotte’s only option is to flee with Sabine, and build a life at the fringes of patriarchal society.

Living in the 21st century, Alice doesn’t face the same pressure to marry to secure her future and livelihood. She’s able to make her own choices, leave home, enroll in Harvard, and pursue whomever she wants romantically, but she still faces the detrimental impacts of sexism, misogyny, and the threat of sexual assault. Though strides have been made toward gender equality, entrenched gendered social dynamics sustain oppressive systems of power that privilege men and remain and leave women’s emotional, physical, and psychological safety constantly at risk.

Schwab’s novel also explores the changing attitudes toward the LGBTQIA+ community. In both María/Sabine and Charlotte’s original timelines—the 16th to 19th centuries—lesbian relationships were completely taboo, and in many places even illegal. This anti-gay bias remained standard into the 20th century until the Stonewall Uprising, which marked a turning point for the LGBTQIA+ rights movement. As the 20th century transitioned to the 21st, LGBTQIA+ rights continued to expand, with the Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized marriage equality for all couples. Though there have been notable steps toward equality in the 21st century, Schwab illustrates the ongoing prevalence of anti-gay bias through Alice’s encounter with her classmate Hannah, whose attitude toward Alice’s sexuality illustrates the pervasive nature of anti-gay bias.