White Accessories

What does it take to be white? Let’s view the checklist: you must first have the skin colour and bone structure to match (by contrast the ‘native’ is “dark” or “bronze” and has a flat nose, not forgetting the reminders that they have “eyes like those of a dog”), next you need the attitude of a racist, and you also ought to know how to shoot or play polo. A rough checklist may be derived from Elizabeth’s likes and dislikes—they serve as a marker for what is socially desirable in a proper White man. My point in dwelling on this issue of White criteria has to do with the fact that the theme or the up-keep of appearances seems very central to the performance of Whiteness.
Flory looks the part of the White man (and thus pleases Elizabeth) when he talks about dogs and shooting, attends club activities and dresses in “silk shirts” or “shooting boots”; Ellis through his belief in “ruling [“damn black swine”] in the only way they understand”, i.e. aggressively; and Elizabeth by responding with an expression of horror and disgust at everything native (rejecting Chinese tea, Burmese dance, even innocently non-toilet trained native babies). I’d argue that even her “tortoise-shell spectacles” symbolically enhances her performance of White superiority and “self-possess[ion]”, especially because it is described as “more expressive, indeed, than eyes”—eyes, being the windows to a soul, should express the heart of a person, but those spectacles express the look of a confidence befitting a White woman. The only time I recall Elizabeth not wearing them is when she is trying to seduce Verrall. Similarly, the Eurasians wear “huge topis to remind you that they’ve got European skulls”, and make claims of suffering “prickly heat”. If Whiteness is a culture, then these are its signposts.