위기의 중산층 결혼 적령기 여성들: 『마틴 처즐윗』을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper examines middle class nubile women in crisis in Martin Chuzzlewit. Even though he has been criticized to advocate the Victorian ideal of women as “the Angel in the House,” especially in his early novels, Dickens actually criticizes the women ideology of the Victorian age, and tries to reveal the desperate situation of middle class women. By examining Mary, Ruth, Mercy, and Charity, representative nubile women of the Victorian middle class in Martin Chuzzlewit, this paper claims that seemingly accepting the Victorian women ideology, Dickens realizes and tries to explore the problematic situation of women in predicament. By probing into the repressive character of the Angel in the House ideology under the patriarchal system, he clearly shows the hypocritical fictionality of the Victorian middle class ideal. Martin Chuzzlewit, presenting inner conflicts of confused and desperate women characters of the middle class, foretells Dickens’s later insightful representations of female heroines, and critical penetrations into the dark reality of Victorian women in his later mature novels.