THE ARTICLE “STRONG ANGELS OF COMFORT: MIDDLE CLASS MANAGING DAUGHTERS IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE

Author (s) : B.Balasubashini, A.Senkathir velavan, C.J.Vishnupriya, A.Thiruthurai

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Abstract :
This dissertation contributes to a lively debate in the social sciences on the difficult nature of care work as well as feminism discussions about the daughter's place in Victorian culture.  It investigates the manager daughter from a middle-class family's literary presence in the Victorian house.  Together, the novels in this study express social anxieties about daughters' ambiguous and unstable roles in families, the physically and emotionally demanding work that they—and all women—do, and the struggle for daughters to find their place in a family hierarchy that is frequently structured not by effort or affection but by prescribed traditional roles that do not easily adapt to managing daughters, even if they are the ones keeping the family together. There is no role, no clear set of responsibilities, and no boundaries that could, and perhaps should, define her obligations, offer her opportunities for empowerment, or set necessary limits on the broad cultural mandate she has to comfort and care for others because the managing daughter is a problem that is not taken into account in any conventional domestic structure or ideology.  Without the legendary "angel in the house" hyperbole that so frequently hides the challenges of domestic life for women, the extremes to which she is frequently driven reveal the tensions and covert struggles for authority and autonomy inherent in domestic labor. No matter how devoted or even how important she is to a family, she never achieves authority or stability because she isn't given a place in the parental family hierarchy.  By demonstrating how frequently a loving non-traditional family member cannot be accommodated, protected, or validated because established hierarchies are valued over emotion or effort, the managing daughter exposes a significant flaw in the traditional Victorian family structure.  However, by doing so, it also implies that if position rather than passion is what matters, then as long as a woman holds the appropriate position within the family, she need not have strong emotional ties to others in order to provide competent care for others.

Keywords : Hierarchies, Obligations

Conference Date : 17/09/2021

Pages : 152

Paper ID : IESMDT150