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Description
This thesis argues that androgyny--a term that has traditionally been associated with individuals?is also, within the context of nineteenth-century British literature, a concept that applies more broadly to certain kinds of intimate relationships. I focus on how an early prominent feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft, initiates the conversation concerning gender, equality, and relationships with her works and sets the precedent for future authors to emulate and manipulate her theories. Chapter one looks into Wollstonecraft's fiction and theoretical works, so that scholars can begin to see how feminist studies came to be. It was her work that initiated the process of modern gender studies. Chapter one will discuss the homosocial female relationship present in Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman. During the 1700s, the relationship was seen as platonic but now with modern queer studies readers can view the relationship as a lesbian relationship founded on the companionate friendship outlined in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Chapter one also discusses the unsuccessful triangular androgynous relationship between Maria, Jemima, and Darnford. Wollstonecraft, then, can be viewed as the prominent feminist voice which sets the precedent for successful androgynous marriages in Victorian literature. Thus, chapter two discusses androgyny and how the term can be applied to marriage in two prominent novels during the time, Jane Eyre and The Woman in White. I argue that in both novels, Charlotte Bronte and Wilkie Collins argue for a relationship that is neither purely sexual nor purely obligatory, but rather is in between the two. I call this state "androgynous marriage" because it contains passion and equality and is founded on companionate friendship that Wollstonecraft calls for. In order for this relationship to occur both of the partners in the relationship must also be androgynous. Finally, the second chapter examines the successful triangular androgynous marriage between Marian, Laura, and Walter in The Woman in White, and this relationship showcases the shift from early feminist theory regarding relationships. The early failed triad in the late eighteenth century novel becomes not only successful, but acceptable in midVictorian literature, an era noteworthy for its relatively progressive relationship shifts and blurred gender paradigms. Thus, the late-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century marks a change from strict gender norms to more open and socially acceptable and varying forms of gendered relationships.
