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Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
The Beauty And The Barrister: Gender Roles, Madness, And The Basis For Identity In Lady Audley's Secret, Corey Hayes
The Beauty And The Barrister: Gender Roles, Madness, And The Basis For Identity In Lady Audley's Secret, Corey Hayes
Senior Honors Theses
This thesis examines the concept of identity in the novel Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. In the mid to late Victorian period, self-definition was strongly tied to gender roles. Men were expected to be mentally active, physical strong, and morally guiding leaders of society, and women were to be their passive, pious, domestically minded followers. These expectations for behavior were so strong that those breaking them were in danger of being considered insane. In Braddon’s novel, the behavior of most characters does not align with the expectations for their gender. The exception is Lady Audley, the apparently ideal …
A Love That Lasts: Jane Austen’S Argument For A Marriage Based On Love In Pride And Prejudice, Katlin A. Berry
A Love That Lasts: Jane Austen’S Argument For A Marriage Based On Love In Pride And Prejudice, Katlin A. Berry
Senior Honors Theses
During the period of Regency England, a woman’s life was planned for her before she was born, and her place in society was defined by her marital status. Before she was married, she was her father’s daughter with a slim possibility of inheriting property. After she was married, legally she did not exist; she was subsumed into her husband with absolutely no legal, political, or financial rights. She was someone’s wife; that is, if she was fortunate enough to marry because spinsters had very few opportunities to earn enough money to live on alone. Therefore, it was imperative that women …