Artikel
Not-so-happy homemakers : women, property and family in Ellen Wood's "East Lynne"
Verfasst von:
Simpson, Vicky
in:
Wallingford:
2012
,
584 - 601 S.
Weitere Informationen
| Einrichtung: | Ariadne | Wien |
|---|---|
| Verfasst von: | Simpson, Vicky |
| In: | |
| Jahr: | 2012 |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Beschreibung: | |
| This article considers Ellen Wood's sensation novel East Lynne (1861) as part of the mid Victorian period's reconception of the family. Wood's heroine, Isabel Vane, suffers serious injustices at the hands of men who are, in one way or another, her family. Although her husband, Archibald Carlyle, is often read as a modern, bourgeois hero, he does not behave that differently from the rogues around him. However, the women in East Lynne are presented as dynamic individuals, who are active, authoritative property owners. In fact, the heroine's economic dependence on her husband is underlined as the ultimate source of their family conflict. Thinking of the family in terms of property, commodification and ownership is a corrective to the sentimentalization of family in much Victorian literature, and the focus on Wood, in particular—who was one of the most popular and prolific writers of the century—demonstrates that even a reputedly conservative supporter of “traditional morality” could discern the ways in which the Victorian family served, most often, to disempower and disenfranchise women. | |
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