The Representation Of Disharmony Of Victorian Communities In Elizabeth Gaskell's Fiction

Elizabeth Gaskell(1810-1865)writes in a period when progress and crisis coexist in Victorian society.Her work is concerned with various issues including the domestic life with which female writers usually deal,the problem of fallen women”which authors rarely touch with full focus,and the thorny social headaches brought by industrialization.It reflects her deep solicitude for and active response to the condition of England in the nineteenth century,implying her impetus for community.Many critics have paid attention to community in the fictions of Victorian writers such as Dickens and Eliot,while a few have investigated Gaskell's representation of community which actually merits a systematic and comprehensive examination.This dissertation focuses on the disharmony in Victorian communities and its reflection of social headaches with Gaskell's three novels—Ruth(1851),Cranford(1853)and North and South(1854)as texts.Based on the community theories proposed by Ferdinand T?nnies(1855-1936),Raymond Williams(1921-1988),Benedict Anderson(1936-2015)and Anthony P.Cohen(1946-),the study centers on identity crisis,gender problem and class conflict respectively in the ethical community,the female community and the industrial community,probes into their predicaments and the social,political and cultural causes,and examines the resolutions and the consequent transformation of communities.The dissertation mainly consists of three parts.Chapter one,“Ruth:Demonstration of Identity Crisis in the Ethical Community”,referring to communitarians'thought on individual and community as well as the ethics of care,illustrates how community influences the identity reconstruction of the fallen woman as the ethical other and what role individuals play in the evolution of community,in the context that the fallen woman is regarded as“the Great Social Evil”in the mid nineteenth century and showered with condemnation.For one thing,Eccleston with its homogenized moral norms and justice perspective deprives the fallen woman of her membership,which renders the protagonist's identity crisis.For another,the caring community with its care perspective boosts the identity reconstitution of the protagonist.Meanwhile,individuals effect the community as a whole and its transformation.Ethical divergence of individuals on common values causes discordance within community and update of ethical principles resulting from individuals'communication promotes the development of community.In a nut shell,the identity constitution of the individual cannot complete without the community while the latter can be constructive and destructive to the former,and individuals with their progress offer dynamics for the advancement of community.Chapter two,“Cranford:Exploration of Gender Problems in the Female Community”,starts by pointing out that a group of spinsters and widows in the novel who are seen as the surplus of British society in the 1850s build a female community in a symbolic way,making Cranford a female heterotopia,in light of Anthony Cohen's cultural approach to community and Michel Foucault's heterotopia.Then this chapter analyses how the relations among women and that between women and men effect the construction of female subjectivity and the harmony of the female community in the view of Luce Irigaray's theory of subjectivity.Their abidance of the male logic of oneness puts themselves under heteronomy and sets female relation in the heterosexual pattern.On the other hand,it forces them to suppress their desire and induces them to either deify or demonize men,which causes the split of subjectivity and the morbidity of gender relation.Both bring about the discord in the community.Only can the autonomy of women and articulation of desire contribute to the restoration of female subjectivity,the improvement of gender relation and the communal advancement.Chapter three,“North and South:Reflection of Class Conflict in the Industrial Community”,devotes to the ideological wrestle behind class conflicts,the method to ease the tension,the possibilities of community building and its political significance in the Victorian society where the Condition of England Debate is heated and the condition of the working class is miserable and shocking.Karl Marx's perceptive on class and the economic and political thoughts prevalent in the mid 19^th century England are adopted.The exploitative nature of class relation makes class collision hard to avoid and gives rise to the reification of both the worker and the manufacturer,which is intensified by the political and economic policy of“laissez faire”and causes the split within the industrial world.The introduction of paternalism helps Thornton the liberal to balance individual freedom and right and social responsibilities for his workers.The two sides'reconciliation based on mutual understanding and genuine communication allows the initiation of the industrial community which is built on humanity and shared interest and reflects a British industrial empire.The dissertation concludes that community is a pivotal and repetitive presence in Gaskell's fictions with thematic importance and social implications.Gakell's representation of community descends from her concern with marginalized groups and inspects the social ills of the society.Her community is a field where ideologies of ethic,gender and class contradict,integrate and develop.It also offers insight for the resolution of the social problems and serves as glue for the fissures among people.It is both an ideal and reality,stable but open to change.In the contemporary world where the globalization is reversing and crises are happening increasingly,Gaskell's depiction of community is illuminating for the building of the community of a shared future for human beings.Although Gaskell's design of communities is progressive,it aims at social reform and reconciliation instead of thorough revolution.She usually touches the essence of the social problems,yet circumvents or retreats from it.Her compromising attitude proves her conservative credentials and her limitation.