Aspects of the female figure from the Victorian Age to Postcolonial literature

Abstract

This dissertation consists on a comparative study of the female figure in four novels that have marked the history of literature from the Victorian Age up to Postcolonial Literature. The four novels analysed are “Adam Bede” by G. Eliot in the figure of “Hetty Sorrel”, "Dubliners" by J. Joyce in the figure of “Eveline”, "1984" by G. Orwell in the figure of “Julia” and “Purple Hibiscus” by C. N. Adichie in the figure of “Kambili Achike”. Starting from the historical-literary context in which the novel develops, the characteristics of each novel are analysed as well as the influences that the historical era in which the story takes place had on the events of the protagonists. Then, an analysis of the characteristics of the prominent female characters of the novels is carried out, highlighting their sides in harmony with the historical context but also all the vicissitudes that will lead them to be relevant characters in the English literature.