University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Thackeray's Moral Landscape: The Aesthetic Principles of William Makepeace Thackeray
Abstract
dc:descriptionAlthough Thackeray was somewhat ambivalent about his aesthetic of mediocrity, he nonetheless applied its tenets to his fiction, turning a visual aesthetic into a moral philosophy. Thackeray's male protagonists such as Henry Esmond, Clive Newcome, Pendennis, and, in a rougher form, George Osborne and Rawdon Crawley, must choose between women who are presented to them and the reader as different types of art works. The "sublime" women, Becky Sharp and Beatrix Esmond, affect the men as would a sublime painting--overpowering their senses and threatening them with moral destruction. Their refuge from her and their own desires lies with either a child-woman such as Amelia Sedley, or a maternal figure like Laura Pendennis.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Ph.D.
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Dissertation
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- English
- Grantor
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Year dc:date
- 2014
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Fisher, Judith Law
Subjects
dc:subject × 1Rights
- Language dc:language
- eng
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Identifier
- (UMI)AAI8017936
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/66336