The Main Father-Daughter Relationship  in Julia Kavanagh’s Rachel Gray  Between Reality and Fictionality Cover Image

The Main Father-Daughter Relationship in Julia Kavanagh’s Rachel Gray Between Reality and Fictionality
The Main Father-Daughter Relationship in Julia Kavanagh’s Rachel Gray Between Reality and Fictionality

Author(s): Alina Pintilii
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Philology
Published by: Editura Casa Cărții de Știință
Keywords: mid-Victorian working classes; father-daughter relationship; devoted filial love; paternal indifference; socio-historical prototype;

Summary/Abstract: The present paper carries out a contrastive analysis between the paternal and filial images that form the main parent-child relationship depicted in Julia Kavanagh’s Rachel Gray in order to invalidate the assumption that Victorian realist writers sought to hold a mirror to reality even in the cases when their novels were founded on fact. This analysis will show that there is a significant divergence between the literary and socio-historical constructs of the family roles of mid-Victorian working classes, in spite of the fact that some of the elements used in the creation of fictional characters were borrowed from real-life experiences. Moreover, the article will indicate that the paternal figure it deals with deviates from its prototypical counterpart by approximating one of the most powerful stereotypes revolving around working-class Victorian men, namely the stereotype of the absent father.

  • Issue Year: 9/2019
  • Issue No: 9
  • Page Range: 157-170
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English
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