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The tyranny of the happily-ever-after plot
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In eighteenth and nineteenth century coming-of-age novels, marriage is often depicted as the conclusion of the heroine’s journey. While most endings resemble a fairytale finale, with the protagonists achieving their happily-ever-after, some novels appear to challenge this tradition. This thesis examines the marriage plots and their implications in the lives of the heroines in Frances Burney’s Evelina (1778) and Cecilia (1782), Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Jean Webster’s Daddy-Long-Legs. To do this, this research focuses on the secondary characters and their romantic subplots, illustrating how Burney, Brontë, and Webster utilise these parallel narratives to question notions of femininity and marital destiny. The secondary plots not only provide contrast with the heroines’ lives but also highlight alternative paths and potential futures that may either imprison or liberate them. To understand the role of the secondary female characters in these four novels, this thesis applies Adam Phillips’ concept of the “unlived life,” from his book Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life. Phillips suggests that individuals carry imagined versions of their lives – missed opportunities, unfulfilled desires, and unchosen paths – within them, which often reveal deeper truths about their desires and inherent conflicts. Based on his assumptions, the following research suggests that the secondary characters of these novels symbolise representations of the heroines’ unlived lives. In contrast, the “lived life” corresponds to the main narrative arc, reflecting the protagonist’s present reality, thereby culminating with the traditional happily-ever-after plot. This thesis aims to demonstrate how the unlived lives, embodied by the secondary figures, frequently represent alternative and somewhat progressive possibilities for female characters in these novels.
Descrição
Mestrado em Literaturas, Artes e Culturas Modernas.