Thou Art the Man by Mary Elizabeth Braddon [1]: Scoundrel Fathers, Fugue States, and the Problematized Real in Victorian Sensation Novels

Abstract

Victorian sensation novelist, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, subverts gender roles and generic expectations with Thou Art the Man [1], which subverts a patriarchal culture by exposing the father as a duplicitous scoundrel who resorts to murder, and then conceals his secret to maintain his position in society. This article examines the narrative surrounding the exposure of the true nature of the father, and the female protagonist’s expanding awareness of how reality is not what it seems, and that fugue states, which are seemingly flights of irrationality, actually point to the truth. Braddon’s narrative within a narrative, which is the protagonist’s journals, creates a foundational narrative of revelation, while the characters’ narratives that surround it create threads of deception, secrets, and lies, suggesting that the world of appearances in Victorian England was not to be trusted.