The Deviation from Women's Normative Behaviour in Victorian Literature

3 Introduction In June 1837, one of the most famous English monarchs of all time, Queen Victoria, ascended the throne and reigned for the rest of the century. Admired and followed to the point of marking, with her wedding dress, the collective imagination to this day 1 , one would think that women would have the same respect as her in everyday life. Instead, the Victorian era was characterised by the presence of strict behavioural rules, especially for women, who had to abide by them with little chance of escaping from such a patriarchal environment. One of the cornerstones of patriarchy is heteronormativity. In relation to women, heteronormativity equated to a very precise model of behaviour—naturally decided and controlled by men—present in real life as much as in literature, a reflection of the former. Starting from the theories of Eve Sedgwick and Elaine Showalter, this paper aims to illustrate thematically and chronologically all those behaviours that in some way departed from the normative behaviour, both amorous and sexual, expected of Victorian women. I will therefore first examine the Victorian model of the angel woman, while also illustrating its “corrupted” versions, namely the madwoman and the fallen woman. Afterwards, a number of novels will be discussed to illustrate the reception of such behaviours in nineteenth-century literature, and the purposes for which they were illustrated in such novels. It is important to make explicit two particular theories as presented by Eve Sedgwick, on which the rest of the paper will be based. The first is that of homosociality, while the second is the evolution of the term “queer” from the nineteenth century to the present. The concept of homosociality aims to explain the non-romantic bonds that bind people of the same sex. Its definition as conceived by Eve Sedgwick, interestingly, relates to the male gender and is formulated in her 1985 monograph Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial 1 “Why Do Brides Wear White?”, at www.britannica.com/story/why-do-brides-wear-white, accessed on July 08, 2021.