Item Details

title

The Romance of Social Problems in Austen and Gaskell

author

Doski, Natasha

abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the use of the classical and modern romance plots and their interactions with the social problem-novel plots in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. After a discussion of classical romance conventions in the first chapter, I will employ a close reading of Pride and Prejudice to show how it both fulfills and subverts romantic conventions, arguing that Austen's unique romance structure allowed for the beginnings of social problem-novels. The second chapter will analyze North and South as a modern romance and then address the novel's romantic resolution not as a way to distract the reader from a lack of social resolution but instead to demonstrate a model for social resolution. Overall, I will argue that both works achieve their social commentary by simultaneously adhering to certain elements of the classical romance and distancing their works from others, creating the hybridization of the romance and social problem-novel plots.

subject

Austen

Gaskell

romance

social problem-novel

contributor

Jenkins, Melissa (committee chair)

Richard, Jessica (committee member)

Kairoff, Claudia (committee member)

date

2014-09-10T08:35:24Z (accessioned)

2014-09-10T08:35:24Z (available)

2014 (issued)

degree

English (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/39400 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis