Single Women In Mrs. Gaskell’s Shorter Fiction

Elizabeth Gaskell was a most beloved Victorian woman writer. Living in an age of social transformation, she noticed the substantial emergence of single women and portrayed a series of single women images in her short stories and novellas. Single women were regarded as a social headache, labeled as "surplus", "redundant" or "eccentric" by the mainstream opinion, but single women in Mrs. Gaskell’s shorter fiction are independent and benevolent. Mrs. Gaskell’s works acknowledge single women’s value as independent individuals and challenge the prevalent prejudice against them. The 21st century has witnessed the rise of Mrs. Gaskell’s literary reputation, but most of the critical attention is focused on her novels while her shorter fiction is much neglected. Based on Mrs. Gaskell’s shorter fiction, this thesis analyzes the common features of all sorts of single women in her shorter fiction, and reveals the significance of her portrayal of such a social group.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one introduces Mrs. Gaskell’s life and literary creation, offers a general summary of Gaskell study and briefly explains the focus and structure of this thesis. Chapter two summarizes three types of single women images in Mrs. Gaskell’s shorter fiction:spinsters, widows and fallen women, explains the various reasons for their being single, exhibits their living conditions and reveals the social and in particular male’s discrimination against them. On the basis of Chapter two, the third chapter further explores a common feature of Mrs. Gaskell’s single women: androgyny. Women as they are, the single women in Mrs. Gaskell’s shorter fiction bear obvious masculinity, embodied in their authority over their household and their active participation in social matters. At the same time, they never lack femininity, which is embodied in their maternal instincts and their compassion for those in need. Chapter four reveals the significance of Mrs. Gaskell’s portrayal of single women in her works. Her shorter fiction focuses on single women, faithfully representing single women’s dilemma and at the same time acknowledging women’s values as independent individuals. Besides, Mrs. Gaskell shows her foresight in her description of single women-her portrayal of the single women as androgynous and description of their solidarity are respectively in accordance with Woolf’s theory of androgyny and the sisterhood advocated by black feminists. Chapter five brings the thesis to a conclusion, summarizes previous discussions and reemphasizes the significance of Mrs. Gaskell’s description of single women images and the significance of this thesis.