The image of the unmarried mother in the novel

• Main Author: Lindberg, Laurie K.
• Other Authors: Eddy, Darlene M.
• Format: Others
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Unmarried mothers.; Mothers in literature.
• Online Access: http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/handle/181920; http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/264591

This thesis identifies and discusses three specific approaches to the subject of the unmarried mother in the British and American novel. The novels used to illustrate the perspective of the unmarried mother as a tragic figure are Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson, Adam Bede by George Eliot, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, and Jennie Gerhardt by Theodore Dreiser. The novels considered in the discussion of the second approach, that of the unmarried mother as a sacrificial figure, are George Moore's Esther Waters, Fannie Hurst's Lummox, Ethel Wilson’s Lilly's Story, and Joyce Carol Oates's A Garden of Earthly Delights. In examining the third approach to the unmarried mother, which perceives of her as a human being who grows in self-awareness and sensitivity to others through her experience, these novels have been used: The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks, The Millstone by Margaret Drabble, Jane by Dee Wells, and Give Me One Good Reason by Norma Klein.