Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s Fiction
In a Freudian/gender approach to the issue of male sex identity in Charles Dickens’s fiction, the present article starts from Edmund Wilson’s seminal study ‘The Two Scrooges.’ It throws light on the way Dickens functioned in his earlier novels ambivalently or irresolutely, but alternately, on two op...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2012-01-01
|
| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/12317 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832581310775820288 |
|---|---|
| author | Max Véga-Ritter |
| author_facet | Max Véga-Ritter |
| author_sort | Max Véga-Ritter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In a Freudian/gender approach to the issue of male sex identity in Charles Dickens’s fiction, the present article starts from Edmund Wilson’s seminal study ‘The Two Scrooges.’ It throws light on the way Dickens functioned in his earlier novels ambivalently or irresolutely, but alternately, on two opposite poles of his mind, those of self-identification with the benign—but eventually possibly inadequate—father image in the Pickwick Papers—the second Scrooge—or of a counter identification with its opposite negative image—the Rebels—in Oliver Twist, leaving the question of sex identity open or in a state of conundrum. Towards the end of Charles Dickens’s life, in Our Mutual Friend or in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, his fiction seems to present the reader with an image of the two Scrooges threatening to merge into one, hence the confusion about who the son is: a murderer or a murdered man. In some ways the Headstone-Wrayburn couple with its repressed homosexual undertones seems to function as an echo of that duplicity and uncertainty about the identity of the son. The first Scrooge seems to come very close to overcoming the second in that process. Eventually, the question of femininity and masculinity in male identity—the conundrum of sexual identity—seems to be still more at the heart of Charles Dickens’s fiction. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7594415ccb444f88a388c15d69b0796d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| spelling | doaj-art-7594415ccb444f88a388c15d69b0796d2025-01-30T10:20:59ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492012-01-0110.4000/cve.12317Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s FictionMax Véga-RitterIn a Freudian/gender approach to the issue of male sex identity in Charles Dickens’s fiction, the present article starts from Edmund Wilson’s seminal study ‘The Two Scrooges.’ It throws light on the way Dickens functioned in his earlier novels ambivalently or irresolutely, but alternately, on two opposite poles of his mind, those of self-identification with the benign—but eventually possibly inadequate—father image in the Pickwick Papers—the second Scrooge—or of a counter identification with its opposite negative image—the Rebels—in Oliver Twist, leaving the question of sex identity open or in a state of conundrum. Towards the end of Charles Dickens’s life, in Our Mutual Friend or in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, his fiction seems to present the reader with an image of the two Scrooges threatening to merge into one, hence the confusion about who the son is: a murderer or a murdered man. In some ways the Headstone-Wrayburn couple with its repressed homosexual undertones seems to function as an echo of that duplicity and uncertainty about the identity of the son. The first Scrooge seems to come very close to overcoming the second in that process. Eventually, the question of femininity and masculinity in male identity—the conundrum of sexual identity—seems to be still more at the heart of Charles Dickens’s fiction.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/12317 |
| spellingShingle | Max Véga-Ritter Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s Fiction Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| title | Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s Fiction |
| title_full | Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s Fiction |
| title_fullStr | Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s Fiction |
| title_short | Ambivalent Father Figures and the Enigma of Male Identity in Dickens’s Fiction |
| title_sort | ambivalent father figures and the enigma of male identity in dickens s fiction |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/12317 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT maxvegaritter ambivalentfatherfiguresandtheenigmaofmaleidentityindickenssfiction |