The space of the novel : physical and feminist spaces in middlemarch and jude the obscure

Abstract

This thesis proposes to study the significance of certain places in the lives and development of some characters in the two nineteenth-century novels Middlemarch and Jude the Obscure by George Eliot and Thomas Hardy respectively. It will be argued that the places in the two novels do not serve merely as backgrounds, but are entities that interact with the characters. In this process, characters take these places into their thoughts and emotions and thus transform them into spaces. These newly transformed spaces become projections of the characters inner selves and, in turn, transform the characters after they have experienced them. This affects the development of the plot and how certain events are acted out. Following this line of thought, feminist spaces will be given particular attention. What will be argued here is how certain female characters in the novels interact with their surroundings, given the restrictions placed on women during the nineteenth century and the gendering of certain spaces. Moreover, the woman herself will be perceived as a space that men regard as "home" and constantly pursue for comfort.