Materiality of Money in Our Mutual Friend and Middlemarch
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Wang, Yu-feng
Abstract
Materiality of Money in
Our Mutual Friend and Middlemarch
Abstract
In my thesis, I argue that materiality of money constitutes a major feature of two novels, Our Mutual Friend and Middlemarch. In my first chapter, I contend that the materiality of the monetary instruments contributes significantly to our understanding of characters in Our Mutual Friend. I will demonstrate how Dickens creates a moral hierarchy in which characters’ character is defined by the materiality of precious metals, banknotes, bills of exchange, and shares. As I will demonstrate, precious metals and banknotes function to represent morality of characters in the major plots. On the contrary, bills of exchange and shares provoke readers’ suspicion of immorality of minor plots’ characters. Besides, I will examine the role of financiers in the novel. In my second chapter, I turn the attention to Middlemarch and to a much less discussed aspect of materiality of money, credit. It is my contention that credit structures the novel’s two major male plots. I will take on the question of how we can establish credit’s materiality and show how the novel reflects on ways Victorian males experienced appropriation of credit’s materiality for gentility.
Subjects
materiality
money
credit
gentility
morality
character
plot
Our Mutual Friend
Middlemarch
Type
thesis
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