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The Fin de Siècle Heroine with a Special Reference to Jude The Obscure and The Woman Who Did
Taher Badinjki
Fin de siècle; freedom; home; woman question; regular marriage; free love; emancipated woman; ideals.
Abstract:
The last decade of the nineteenth century, often referred to as the “fin de siècle witnessed manifestations of a swelling movement for freedom which elicited a change in the manners and morals of women. This spirit of revolt and growing freedom is mirrored in the novels of the period in general, and in those dealing with the woman question in particular. The heroine shakes the dust of the old world from her feet and marshals some advanced arguments against conventional marriage and the laws that govern it. She considers regular marriage as a form of slavery and calls for free love ideals. While in early Victorian novels adultery was under attack, now in The Woman Who Did, Jude the Obscure and many other “fin de siecle” novels, it is marriage which is under attack. The shattering of the phantom of the angel in the house is complete.
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