Abjection and degeneration in Thomas Hardy's "Barbara of the House of Grebe.".
| Publisher | West Chester University |
| Publication | College Literature |
| Subject | Education |
| Format | Magazine/Journal |
| ISSN | 0093-3139 |
| Issues per Year | 3 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Published | 1999-03-22 |
| Role | Type | Name |
| Person | Criticism and interpretation | Thomas Hardy |
| Author | n/a | Jeanette Roberts Shumaker |
Thomas Hardy's Gothic tale, "Barbara of the House of Grebe" (1891), dramatizes the horrid consequences of belief in the Victorian myth of degeneration. Only months after writing Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hardy creates another tragedy in the less well-known "Barbara"; this time tragedy stems from dread of the lower class and of sexually assertive women of any class.(1) The theory of degeneration situates the hatred of the working class and women seen in "Barbara" within the pseudo-scientific debates of the late-Victorian era. Hardy shows how belief in the myth of degeneration could...
[This journal article is 8105 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get complete access to our library of journals with the: