Date of Award
5-2010
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
English
Department
English
Major Professor
White, Leslie
Second Advisor
Cooke, John
Third Advisor
Doll, Daniel
Abstract
In this thesis I examine the evolving social and personal attitudes about marriage and love as depicted in George Eliot's Middlemarch by arguing that Eliot anticipates modern marriages by critiquing traditional Victorian marital values. For the purposes of this analysis, the applicable aspects of modern marriage are sexuality, shifting gender roles, and a dismissal of social class as the major factor in choosing a partner. In order to achieve this end, I apply close textual analysis as well as a New Historical approach to examine how Middlemarch is conditioned by its historical context.
Recommended Citation
Kelly, Katherine Marie, "George Eliot's Middlemarch: The Making of a Modern Marriage" (2010). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1173.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1173
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.