Romantic Characters in Modern Fiction

Author

Kate Chadwell Galbreath

Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Gregory Schirmer

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This thesis will deal with the breakdown of Romanticism as it occurred through certain characters within Modem Fiction. The selected texts for this study include Tess of the D 'Urhervilles by Thomas Hardy, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Each text is a novel of the Modem period whose title character possesses the qualities typical of the Romantic Movement in literature. The texts span a time period of thirty-five years; their publication dates extend from 1890 to 1925 in the order listed above. The Modem period of the early Twentieth century was a time of great change. Authors dismissed many of the idealistic ideas of their predecessors. While Romanticism remained a force in Victorian literature, authors of the Modem period attempted to dismiss Romanticism entirely. One method of doing so was through the Romantic characters they created: characters like Tess, Jim, Stephen, and Clarissa Dalloway helped to demonstrate and disassemble Romanticism in the Modem age. Ill

Recommended Citation

Galbreath, Kate Chadwell, "Romantic Characters in Modern Fiction" (2003). Honors Theses. 2007.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2007

Accessibility Status

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