Servants and Paternalism in the Works of Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth GaskellRoutledge, 30. 11. 2017 - Počet stran: 141 Writing during periods of dramatic social change, Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Gaskell were both attracted to the idea of radical societal transformation at the same time that their writings express nostalgia for a traditional, paternalistic ruling class. The author shows how this tension is played out especially through the characters of servants in short fiction and novels such as Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, Belinda, and Helen and Gaskell's North and South and Cranford. Servant characters, the author contends, enable these writers to give voice to the contradictions inherent in the popular paternalistic philosophy of their times because the situation of domestic servitude itself embodies such inconsistencies. Servants, whose labor was essential to the economic and social function of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British society, made up the largest category of workers in England by the nineteenth century and yet were expected to be socially invisible. At the same time, they lived in the same houses as their masters and mistresses and were privy to the most intimate details of their lives. Both Edgeworth and Gaskell created servant characters who challenge the social hierarchy, thus exposing the potential for dehumanization and corruption inherent in the paternalistic philosophy. the author's study opens up important avenues for future scholars of women's fiction in the nineteenth century. |
Obsah
Servants and Paternalism | |
Servants in Gaskells Domestic | |
Servants in Maria | |
Servants and Labor Relations | |
Conclusion Well done thou good and faithful | |
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Servants and Paternalism in the Works of Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Gaskell Julie Nash Zobrazení fragmentů - 2007 |
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Alice Alice Wilson aristocratic Belinda Bruce Robbins Butler Castle Rackrent century child Condy conflict Cranford critics daughter dependent depicts Despite Dixon domestic servants duties Edgeworth and Elizabeth Edgeworth and Gaskell Elizabeth Gaskell Ellinor employers England English Ennui factory father fiction Gaskell's Glenthorn Hale Harrington Helen household husband ideal industrial industrial novels Ireland Irish Jason Joe Kelly John Ruskin Juba Kester Lady Davenant Lady Delacour letter literary lives loyalty maid Manchester Margaret Maria Edgeworth marriage Marriott Martha Mary Barton masters and mistresses masters and servants middle-class Miss Matty moral mother narrator never nineteenth nineteenth-century North and South novels of manners paternalist paternalist social patriarchal Petito political position relationship reveals role Ruth Sally servant characters servant class social change social hierarchy social paternalism society stereotypes story Sylvia Sylvia's Lovers tells Thady Thady's traditional Uglow Victorian wife woman women writers workers writes