Uludağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences, vol.23, no.42, pp.583-607, 2022 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
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