The Female Monsters or the Monstrous Others: George Eliot and her Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede

Yıldız N.

Uludağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences, cilt.23, sa.42, ss.583-607, 2022 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

In the Victorian society, the fallen woman was identified with the monstrous Other as

in the case of George Eliot’s Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede as well as the author herself.

Both Eliot and her Hetty were monsters of their society as they violated the Victorian

norms. Through the tragic story of Hetty Sorrel, Eliot depicts how the victimized female

becomes a monstrous Other. This paper asserts that Eliot creates Hetty as her double

to reflect her own unrest and anger in the conservative Victorian society. The paper

also examines how, as a product of Eliot’s complex mind, Hetty takes two polar opposite

roles throughout the novel: a monster who contravenes the Victorian rules and a

monstrous Other who is the victim of Victorian ethics and principles. Accordingly, Hetty

becomes Eliot’s madwoman who mirrors her own wrath and dilemma between the

traditional role attached to woman and her rebellion against patriarchy.

Key Words: Adam Bede, George Eliot, Hetty Sorrel, monstrous Other, Victorian

woman