METAPHORICAL IMPRISONMENT OF VICTORIAN WOMEN IN DICKENS’S HARD TIMES: A FOUCAULTIAN APPROACH

Berna Köseoğlu

Abstract


In the nineteenth-century English society, during the Victorian period, most of the women experienced metaphorical confinement due to the dominance of power relations though they were not in the real structures of imprisonment. Victorian women were excessively disciplined and controlled by men who were very dominant and influential in that society. These women were captivated not by the iron bars of prisons, but by the walls of Victorian houses in which they were physically and psychologically subjected to the pressure of a male-dominated society. Charles Dickens, in his novel Hard Times, also sheds light on the miserable condition of Victorian women due to abuse of power. While analyzing the dominance of power in society and its impact on individuals, it would be worth dwelling on French philosopher, Michel Foucault’s concept of power and imprisonment. The aim of this article is to stress the influence of power upon Victorian women in Dickens’s Hard Times by emphasizing Foucault’s interpretation of power and incarceration.

 

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Keywords


Hard Times, Victorian women, Michel Foucault, power relations, metaphorical imprisonment

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v5i4.327

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