Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

2007

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department / School

English

Abstract

Most of Elizabeth Gaskell's critics analyze the significance of her female protagonists' roles within their patriarchal world. Some critics assume that these protagonists ultimately achieve a participatory role in the public (male) realm; other critics argue that these protagonists eventually revert to their expected female domestic roles. Unfortunately, Gaskell's critics often fail to point out the significance of the characters who do not appear as part of the action but who are present nonetheless through the commentary of other characters or through the narrator's voice. These silenced, "absent" characters actually play an important role by allowing the protagonists room to transcend their private domain, thereby allowing Gaskell to make obvious and to comment upon oppressive Victorian society. This project will show Elizabeth Gaskell's support for a female voice in the public realm and the importance of women's participation within that realm. She reveals this position in all of her novels, not exclusively through the characters who are present (most often the protagonists), as others have already analyzed, but through the absent characters -- both male and female. In general, "public role" refers to the protagonists' participation in anything extending beyond the home sphere; for instance, they might employ their minds to solve problems (including the protagonists' saving lives and Gaskell writing her novels) and gain the physical mobility to affect the events in the stories. By giving her protagonists this public role, Gaskell gives women, including her protagonists, herself, and her (female) readers, public voices. All of Gaskell' s works incorporate this theme of absence. She uses this absence in several ways: to confront social problems of her day, to silence the Victorian version of the ideal woman and the dominating man, and to allow the protagonists participatory roles in the public realm. Gaskell confronts social issues by returning certain absent characters to the story, characters who portray the controversial issues of her day. The deceased absent characters represent the ideal Victorian woman, whom Gaskell wishes to silence, for their ideality is unattainable; at the same time, Gaskell suppresses the male characters by removing them from the story, forcing the female protagonists to venture into the public realm to experience those roles traditionally assigned to men. Ultimately, then, the absent characters allow the present female protagonists to acquire a voice and a place in the public realm. If Gaskell had neglected to silence these groups, the protagonists may simply have hidden behind their male counterparts as expected and chased the unattainable, ideal position. She, instead, shows readers alternatives to that ideal position and challenges women to become an active part of society, whether the men are present or not.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865 -- Characters -- Women

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865 -- Criticism and interpretation

Women in literature

Sex role in literature

Absence in literature

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

106

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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