Date of Award
1992
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Hokenson, Jan W.
Abstract
Critical estimates of George Gissing's position on "the woman question" range from "pro-feminist" to "misogynist." Three novels reveal an ambivalence that is best characterized as the attitude of a benevolent despot. In Thyrza he glorifies two female characters as respective embodiments of loveliness and wisdom. A third woman is a paragon of housewifeliness. In later novels Gissing vents the frustrations of his own unhappy marriage. The Odd Women presents two feminists advocating better education for women who do not marry, and also discusses radical ideas about marriage. In The Whirlpool Gissing reveals a patriarchal stance in his story of two married women led astray in a metropolitan "whirlpool" because of too much liberty granted by their husbands. The happiest home in the novel is a rural one with a home-loving wife and mother at its center.
Extent
61 p.
Recommended Citation
Hertz, Anne., "Benevolent despot: George Gissing's ambivalence toward his women characters in three novels" (1992). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1990 - 1999. 267.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_4/267
Identifier
FADT14803
Comments
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1992.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters