Margaret Oliphant and the Chronicles of Carlingford: between Victorian Female Conventions and Subversions

Abstract

Margaret Oliphant presents some of her most compelling female characters in her famous domestic novels’ series Chronicles of Carlingford. Although they safely remain inside the female Victorian conventions, her characters show traits and attitudes beyond the ordinary Victorian model of the ‘angel in the house’. Intelligent, efficient, energetic, and practical-minded, they shine in comparison to the male figures both in knowledge and behaviour. Through an investigation of the Victorian publishing system and woman condition, this dissertation analyses the ongoing dialogue that Oliphant builds up in her novels with her female readership, especially based on her own experience as a woman, mother and writer and a close observation of the life of mid-Victorian middle-class women. Declaring a firm intention in revealing the ‘true’ depiction of womanhood, Oliphant offers her readers female models which make the best of their social, cultural, and psychological limitations, but also ‘conventionally’ subvert these restrictions to their own advantages. This study emphasizes the ambiguous dichotomy between conventional and unconventional attitudes regarding the representation of femininity in Oliphant’s Carlingford novels. It exposes a spider-web interconnection between author, reader and fictional characters linked in a shared female experience. And finally, it brings to light the image of an unusual and original writer, who often radically diverges from the traditional Victorian models.