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 PintiliiSubject(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.
Journal: Cultural Intertexts
- Issue Year: 9/2019
- Issue No: 9
- Page Range: 157-170
- Page Count: 14
- Language: English