Ambivalence Towards the Traditional Victorian Model of Femininity in Rosa Nouchette Carey’s Rue with a Difference

• Main Author: Alina PINTILII
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Casa Cărții de Știință 2018-12-01
• Series: Cultural Intertexts
• Subjects: representation; family roles; femininity; victorian ideology; character construction
• Online Access: http://files.cultural-intertexts.webnode.com/200000331-5dd505dd52/112-121%20Pintilii%20-%20Ambivalence%20Towards%20the%20Traditional%20Victorian%20Model%20of%20Femininity%20in%20Rosa%20Nouchette%20Carey%E2%80%99s%20Rue%20with%20a%20Difference.pdf
• ISSN: 2393-0624; 2393-1078

Like other novels by Rosa Nouchette Carey, Rue with a Difference focuses on female experience as revealed through women‟s concerns surrounding their various family roles. It deals with marriage and maternity at a time when such domestic-related issues were obsolete and when the pervasive ideology of domesticity gave way to late Victorian ideologies. The novel‟s adherence to traditional domestic ideals was one of the reasons why it was considered outdated and doomed to oblivion for the most part of the twentieth century. Attempting to reassess Rue with a Difference from a more neutral perspective afforded by the passage of time, the present article is designed to prove that the novel does not fully approve the domestic ideology, displaying instead an ambivalent attitude towards it and its model of femininity. By comparing the representations of feminine family roles in Rue with a Difference with the non-fictional accounts of the models of womanhood promoted by the contrasting ideologies of Victorian culture, the paper will show that the angelic ideal is both supported and subverted within the same fictional text through the mixture of traditional and non-traditional features defining the main female characters.