Diverse Interpretations of the Pinafore in Cousin Phillis: Historical Backgrounds
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Phillis is represented as a contradicting image embracing at once the force of the plot and that counteractive to the plot in Gaskell’s Cousin Phillis. She is not only distinguished as a type like Eve in Paradise Lost, but also as a type of women who tries to get the equal status to men through their aspiration for knowledge. The two types as which Phillis is represented are two conflicting forces in the story. Phillis’s pinafore is a center of controversy which can be explained and interpreted with diverse approaches supported by intellectual, religious and historical backgrounds. Firstly, the pinafore signifies her innocence before her fall like Eve in the myth of the fall. Secondly, it is a symbol of patriarchal sexual oppression upon women, artificially perpetuating their childish sexuality until their marriage. Thirdly, it implies the passionlessness of moral superiority supported by the evangelical movements, but the moral superiority is vindicated to provide a “better home”. Fourthly, it epitomizes women’s spontaneous passionlessness sustained by feminists to achieve equality with men. The debates and the larger contemporary discussions on the woman question do not provide us with a definite answer of the Victorian attitude, but really unsolved questions and contradictions. Gaskell does not try to argue for patriarchal attitude, nor extreme feminist view, even nor their compromise, but represents the questions and contradictions themselves, and the reality of the women among the whirlwind of the debates.
Abstract
Phillis is represented as a contradicting image embracing at once the force of the plot and that counteractive to the plot in Gaskell’s Cousin Phillis. She is not only distinguished as a type like Eve in Paradise Lost, but also as a type of women who tries to get the equal status to men through their aspiration for knowledge. The two types as which Phillis is represented are two conflicting forces in the story. Phillis’s pinafore is a center of controversy which can be explained and interpreted with diverse approaches supported by intellectual, religious and historical backgrounds. Firstly, the pinafore signifies her innocence before her fall like Eve in the myth of the fall. Secondly, it is a symbol of patriarchal sexual oppression upon women, artificially perpetuating their childish sexuality until their marriage. Thirdly, it implies the passionlessness of moral superiority supported by the evangelical movements, but the moral superiority is vindicated to provide a “better home”. Fourthly, it epitomizes women’s spontaneous passionlessness sustained by feminists to achieve equality with men. The debates and the larger contemporary discussions on the woman question do not provide us with a definite answer of the Victorian attitude, but really unsolved questions and contradictions. Gaskell does not try to argue for patriarchal attitude, nor extreme feminist view, even nor their compromise, but represents the questions and contradictions themselves, and the reality of the women among the whirlwind of the debates.
참고문헌 (30)
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