Infidelities and Indiscretions: Complications of Marriage in Nineteenth-century Fictions.

Julia Miele Rodas

The nineteenth century is often regarded as having “invented” the modern concept of love. The idea of a husband and wife in a permanent, committed, loving relationship is certainly one that is endorsed, even celebrated in Victorian literature and culture. At the same time, some of the best-known and most compelling fictions of the nineteenth century feature jilts and adulteresses, murderers and bigamists. This course looks at the various ways the paradigm of Victorian marriage is contested, exploring what happens when the “typical” trajectory of Victorian marriage is transgressed, and questioning whether these transgressive models ultimately challenge of reinforce conventional ideas of marriage. Assigned readings will include: Perrault’s “Bluebeard” (traditional, 1697); Austen’s Sense & Sensibility (1811); Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) and selections from Anne Brontë’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848); Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1847); Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862); Trollope’s Small House at Allington (1864).