Creating a Paradigm of Gentleman by Displacing History: A Historical Reading of John Halifax, Gentleman
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This essay attempts to read Dinah Maria Mulock’s John Halifax, Gentleman by focusing on how the novel identifies and justifies ideals of gentlemanliness (or paradigmatic masculinity). This essay’s main argument is that these ideals of gentlemanliness are made possible only by displacing the conflicting history of both the Romantic and the Victorian era. In order to highlight the ways in which this novel displaces history, the essay pays critical attention to two issues: class and gender. First, for the issue of class, this essay covers self-help ideals, poverty, and Evangelicalism to argue that John Halifax’s self-positioning as an apolitical Christian gentleman entails Mulock’s political, ideological bent toward conservatives who tried to contain contemporary people’s attention to the social problems generated from class struggles. Second, for the issue of gender, the essay draws on how this novel deals with domestic ideology, evincing a conclusion that, although domestic ideology foregrounds feminine values as crucial part of its social working, these feminine values are ultimately appropriated into John Halifax’s paradigmatic masculinity based on patriarchal orders. Given the ways in which the novel addresses these two issues, however, it is hard to deny that Mulock’s historical anxiety toward both her and John Halifax’s contemporaries is embedded in her strong will to create an impeccably virtuous gentleman.
Abstract
This essay attempts to read Dinah Maria Mulock’s John Halifax, Gentleman by focusing on how the novel identifies and justifies ideals of gentlemanliness (or paradigmatic masculinity). This essay’s main argument is that these ideals of gentlemanliness are made possible only by displacing the conflicting history of both the Romantic and the Victorian era. In order to highlight the ways in which this novel displaces history, the essay pays critical attention to two issues: class and gender. First, for the issue of class, this essay covers self-help ideals, poverty, and Evangelicalism to argue that John Halifax’s self-positioning as an apolitical Christian gentleman entails Mulock’s political, ideological bent toward conservatives who tried to contain contemporary people’s attention to the social problems generated from class struggles. Second, for the issue of gender, the essay draws on how this novel deals with domestic ideology, evincing a conclusion that, although domestic ideology foregrounds feminine values as crucial part of its social working, these feminine values are ultimately appropriated into John Halifax’s paradigmatic masculinity based on patriarchal orders. Given the ways in which the novel addresses these two issues, however, it is hard to deny that Mulock’s historical anxiety toward both her and John Halifax’s contemporaries is embedded in her strong will to create an impeccably virtuous gentleman.
참고문헌 (19)
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