The Disease Writing In Elizabeth Gaskell’s Novels

When illness enters literature,it is no longer seen as a mere medical illness,but as a tool to reflect social problems,a means of expressing social disorders.Through the different forms of diseases in the patients ’ world,literature reflects the physical and mental harm of people which caused by social reality,and criticizes distorted social values.At the same time,writers morbidly present the pain of disease in their literary works,revealing the morbidity of society and the negative side of life,so as to achieve the purpose of saving society.Therefore,the study of disease writing in literature focuses on the social problems reflected in the phenomenon of disease,and aims to explore the critical function and healing function of literary works themselves.The female characters in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels are always plagued by illness,either physically or mentally abnormal.With the help of many diseases,the writer exposed the problems of women in Victorian society,and showed the many difficulties faced by Victorian women.In view of this,this paper which selected six novels by Elizabeth Gaskell,takes disease writing as the starting point of the research,and analyzes the phenomenon of disease in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels based on the social background of the Victorian era,the writer’s life,and the metaphor theory of disease.Through the disease writing in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels,we can discuss Elizabeth Gaskell’s thoughts on Women’s problem in Victorian era,and see how she reflects the problems of women in Victorian society through the window of illness.In order to research the disease writing of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels,the author divides the paper into three parts.The first chapter focuses on the phenomenon that Elizabeth Gaskell pays great attention to women’s problems,and sorts out the "partial" female diseases and pathological female characters in the novel from the two dimensions of physical diseases and psychological diseases.These morbid characters cast Mrs.Gaskell’s novels in the shadow of illness,but they also fulfilled her unique literary ideal of writing about the pathology of society.The second chapter focuses on the creative motivation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s disease writing.The author will analyze from the author’s growth experience and illness experience,as well as his personal understanding of the social situation in Victoria,showing that the disease writing of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel is not water without a source,a tree without roots,but an important tool for her self-healing and social salvation.The third chapter discusses the metaphorical significance of Elizabeth Gaskell in the disease writing.The paper sets out the association of diseases from different female figures with Victorian social status,to explore the narrative function of disease in the characterization of Elizabeth Gaskell.The paper points out that these female patients of different identities may be used to present the multiple dilemmas facing Victorian women in both social and moral fields.