Possession and Patriarchy: Gendered Ownership in Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South

Author Bio:

Rosie Higgins is graduating this summer with a degree in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh. Her academic interests focus on nineteenth-century literature, particularly novels that interrogate the intersections of society, gender, power, and relational dynamics. She is especially interested in how Victorian fiction both reflects and critiques patriarchal structures, with a recurring fascination for narratives of female agency and resistance within restrictive social frameworks.

Essay Abstract:

This essay explores the themes of possession, patriarchy, and gendered ownership in Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (1860) and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1855). It argues that while both novels initially present female protagonists who appear to challenge conventional Victorian gender roles, their narratives ultimately reaffirm patriarchal dominance through legal, societal, and narrative structures. By analysing characters such as Marian Halcombe and Margaret Hale, the essay investigates how marriage, the male gaze, and narrative control function as mechanisms of ownership over women’s bodies, voices, and identities. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Laura Mulvey and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, the essay contends that these texts commodify female protagonists within a social economy that limits their autonomy. Through comparative analysis, it highlights how sensation fiction and domestic realism alike reflect broader Victorian anxieties surrounding gender and authority. The essay concludes that while moments of resistance do occur, they are ultimately contained by the pervasive forces of patriarchal power, reinforcing the gendered hierarchies the novels superficially appear to critique.

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Possession and Patriarchy- Gendered Ownership in Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and El.

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