Cousin Phillis : 変革する女性の運命

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In this study, I argue that Cousin Phillis portrays changes in Victorian women in three aspects: growth through feelings, chages in social posision and modernity. The story of Phillis Holman is her own trajectory of growth. She arrives at self-awareness through her romance with Holdsworth. Phillis falls in love with Holdsworth, breaks down upon hearing of his marriage in Canada, and slowly returns to health. Victorian women's lives were defined by fathers, lovers, and husbands. Phillis's father, the minister-farmer Holman, is a typical Victorian male who believes that a good woman's sexuality does not exist until awakened, and sees his daughter as his possession, not an individual in her own right. But at the time of his daughter's dangerous illness, Holman, who also has human emotion and tenderness, is filled with anxiety about his sick daughter and affirms her guiltlessness. Phillis experiences many hardships and changes in spirit, developing an independent mind. This story is basically a pastoral, and the quiet life portrayed in it reminds us of Cranford. In Cousin Phillis, Gaskell traced the remembrance of her youth in Knutsford, revisiting the roots of her beliefs. She was also aware of the increasing distance betweeii contemporary life and her rural childhood. Knutsford was changing with the building of the railway. Modernity encroached on the rural community, and science and technology brought about a change in social and gender relations. There was no avoiding this invasion of the new, that is, the city's impingement upon the country. Gaskell tells us we should accept individual and social changes, look stoutly into this world and endure the pain with great courage, not give up when facing difficulties. These points all indicate changing aspects of the role of women in Victorian society.
2009-12-25

著者

朝川真紀
国際短期大学

Cousin Phillis : 変革する女性の運命

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