Fallen Women in George Eliot’s Early Novels
The Victorians placed such an importance on virginity and chastity that they regarded a woman’s loss of chastity as ‘the tragedy of tragedies’. This paper deals with this form of moral and sexual deviance as it is represented in the early novels of George Eliot. It starts with two minor works, Scene...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2005-12-01
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| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/15025 |
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| Summary: | The Victorians placed such an importance on virginity and chastity that they regarded a woman’s loss of chastity as ‘the tragedy of tragedies’. This paper deals with this form of moral and sexual deviance as it is represented in the early novels of George Eliot. It starts with two minor works, Scenes of Clerical Life and Silas Marner, where the theme is only given secondary importance, before considering the fall of Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede, and of Maggie Tulliver in The Mill on the Floss. In this last novel George Eliot’s treatment of the theme is more original than in Adam Bede. This is certainly her most committed defence of the fallen woman. Perhaps it can also be read as an attempt at self-justification, meant for Victorian public opinion. |
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| ISSN: | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |