Abstract:

In the Victorian society, the fallen woman was identified with the monstrous Other as in the case of George Eliot’s Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede as well as the author herself. Both Eliot and her Hetty are monsters of their society as they violate the Victorian norms. Through the tragic story of Hetty Sorrel, Eliot depicts how the victimized female becomes a monstrous Other. I argue that Eliot creates Hetty as her double to reflect her own unrest and anger in the conservative Victorian society. This paper examines how, as a product of Eliot’s complex mind, Hetty takes two polar opposite roles throughout the novel: a monster who contravenes the Victorian rules and a monstrous Other who is the victim of Victorian ethics and principles. Accordingly, Hetty becomes Eliot’s madwoman who mirrors her own wrath and dilemma between the traditional role attached to women and rebellion against patriarchy.

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