The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Hannah Badger will present Master’s research titled, The Portrayal of Dissent and The Anglican Church in Victorian Literature on 03/10/2023 at 2:15 in Lupton 374 . Everyone is invited to attend.
English
Chair: Christopher Stuart
Co-Chair:
Abstract:
The reduction of the power of the Church of England during the Victorian era was inevitably reflected in the work of Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Charlotte Bronte. In this paper, I will examine one novel from each writer to explore how each responded to the decline of the Church of England and the growth of other denominations, and the way their responses converge and diverge from one another. This thesis project rests on the idea that Gaskell was both the main source of tension and also the connection between these three novelists. She presents religious dissent in a sympathetic light and Dickens and Bronte respond to this topic with trepidation. Gaskell’s presentation of religious dissent along with the responses of Dickens and Bronte to that dissent is at the heart of this argument. Although the Victorian era brought a new religious standard, Dickens’ and Bronte’s fear of Gaskell’s dissent novel betray the tight grip which traditionalism still had on Victorian society. The examination of North and South, Hard Times, and Jane Eyre will show how the larger conversation about the cultural shift away from Anglicanism was manifesting itself on the literary page.