This article explores how George Eliot shows fathers in domestic life in her fiction by focusing on the core components of Victorian fatherhood named by Claudia Nelson, that is, “authority, guidance and financial support.” In the 19th century Britain, fathers were having privileges of ownership and authority while mothers were confined to nurturing and comforting in domestic life. Most of the researchers on fathers in Eliot’s novels have tried to analyze the father-daughter conflicted relationship from a psychological, or Freudian, perspective. Alternatively, this study by drawing upon the theories of Lucian Goldmann and Alan Swingwood, focuses on the representation of fatherhood by Eliot with the help of comprehensive and interdisciplinary supporting literary, social, and historical resources from the Victorian age. The article argues that Eliot brings up the problems of patriarchy and authority of fathers of the transitional period of the 19th century. Eliot emphasizes that fathers are actually aware of their responsibilities even if they are not always able to carry them out completely. In middle class families, the failure or success of the father as head of the family has a deep impact on the other members of the home. The article concludes that by showing weaknesses, Eliot actually yearns and desires for the perfect father and admires the “intimacy” of “rare manly fathers” of the 19th century. Thus, Eliot idealizes future where individuals recognize and fulfill their duties and avow social and familial bonds.
George Eliot wrote about the social, cultural, and historical issues of her time. She represented the middle-class homes in her novels and showed how the Industrial Revolution changed the very setting of domestic environment. The home became the domain of women, where they were to fulfil the nurturing duties while men moved to work place to provide for their dependents. In middle class families, the nurturing duty was not the domain of the father only in the society of this period. Fathers and mothers substituted their duties either under extraordinary circumstances or as a matter of choice. This study analyses the substitution of duties by fathers and mothers in Eliot’s novels with the help of comprehensive and interdisciplinary supporting literary, social, and historical resources like magezines and books, from the Victorian age. The study concludes that George Eliot’s homes are not perfect without a benevolent mother and responsible father.
This research employed the feminist stylistic framework of Sara Mills in determining the difference between Kamila Shamsie’s women and men characters in her novel “Broken Verses”. The selected novel was analyzed using the model provided by Sara Mills, which aims to investigate texts at the level of word, phrase/sentence. The research identified dominant and recurring features in the novel. Women characters differ from the men in that there are more descriptions given to them which pertain to their thoughts, emotions, experiences, vulnerability towards men, and their physical characteristics. Men are described according to their physical strength, personalities, attitudes, which dominate women. Overall, the research shows that at these levels of analysis, the novel consistently foregrounds the female consciousness and experience. At the same time, the novel also magnifies the pervading dominance of men over women in many circumstances.
The article discusses distant fathers in the novels of George Eliot within the context of the nineteenth century. In the nineteenth-century Britain, the father's role is best defined by Nelson, "authority, guidance and financial support". (Natalie 2011, p.155) The article is devoted to explore the distant or absent fathers, which means no guidance, protection, and financial support to the children. The absence might be the consequences of many aspects relating to fathers. The father could be absent either physically or emotionally. The article argues that Eliot seeks and yearns for a perfect fatherhood by showing some shortcomings of the father and its effects on the lives of their children.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.