Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
English
Date of Award
5-2015
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Robert Sawyer
Committee Members
Judith Slagle, Phyllis Thompson
Abstract
Poets such as Thomas Hardy, Augusta Webster, and Amy Levy portray prostitutes who seem guiltless about their choice of profession. Hardy's Amelia seems to symbolize the mutation of a pure country girl into a soiled disciple of evil; yet in the poem the changes in her life brought on by prostitution are evident in her drastically changed physical appearance and mannerism. Webster's Eulalie is an intelligent and well-spoken woman who undermines the stereotypical generalizations about prostitutes, relocating the source of the Great Social Evil from her profession to the institutionalized educational failure that trains women for nothing better than housekeeping. Levy's unnamed Magdalen, disease ridden and dying, may resemble a fallen woman. However, her lack of regret over the out-of-wedlock relationship with a man would make her an unrepentant prostitute in the eyes of the Victorians and she openly points to the real unmentionable of Victorian prostitution—the male client.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Stojkovic, Marijana, "Redefining the Unrepentant Prostitute in Victorian Poetry" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2532. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2532
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.