Defining her feelings in a Language Chiefly made by Men': Uncovering Alternate Female Subjectivities in the Victorian Novel.

Abstract

This essay compares Charles Dickens's David Copperfield and Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd to explore how the authors employ their narrators to shape readers' perceptions of their female characters. Given the prevailing dominance of male authors in Victorian society, authentic representations of female subjectivity were still constrained, making it difficult to find authentic representations of female subjectivity. This essay inspects how and to what extent male authors managed to present women’s subjectivity authentically. The study delves into perspective, the use of moral guides, and irony in both novels, drawing productive comparisons with the works of female novelists such as Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot. This will demonstrate that the novelists share their use of irony as a narrative device, which allows them to tacitly comment on female characters and the world’s treatment of them. This creates the opportunity for alternative female subjectivities to manifest themselves within the main narrative of both novels. However, beyond this, this article will substantiate that Hardy, in contrast to Dickens, is more able to portray female subjectivity authentically through his narrator.