Victorian Pilgrimage

M. Joan Chard

Victorian Pilgrimage

Sacred-Secular Dualism in the Novels
of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell,
and George Eliot

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chard, M. Joan, author.
Title: Victorian pilgrimage: sacred-secular dualism in the novels of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot / M. Joan Chard.
Other titles: Sacred-secular dualism in the novels of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot.
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2019.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019017726 | ISBN 978-1-4331-6212-1 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-6215-2 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-6216-9 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4331-6217-6 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: English fiction—19th century—History and criticism.
English fiction—Women authors—History and criticism.
Pilgrims and pilgrimages in literature. | Religion in literature. | Women in literature.
Brontë, Charlotte, 1816–1855—Criticism and interpretation.
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810–1865—Criticism and interpretation.
Eliot, George, 1819–1880—Criticism and interpretation.
Classification: LCC PR878.P52 C53 2019 | DDC 823/.809—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019017726
DOI 10.3726/b15765

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

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About the author

M. Joan Chard holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and an MA from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, as well as an MA from Dalhousie University. She has taught in four Canadian and three Japanese universities. Her publications include articles on Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot.

About the book

Victorian Pilgrimage: Sacred-Secular Dualism in the Novels of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot argues that Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot are foremost among nineteenth-century novelists to explore the pilgrimage motif, a major preoccupation of the Victorian imagination. Drawing upon their primary sources of the journey archetype—the King James Bible, The Pilgrim’s Progress, and popular hymns—they reveal in their work the significance of the religious impetus, which in their treatment is neither narrowly moralistic nor conformist. Recognizing the radicality of scripture free of its patriarchal bias, they bring a feminine sensibility to their delineation of gender ideologies in romantic and marital relationships as well as to their reformulation of the traditional fictional heroine. Their female protagonists are caught in the struggle between succumbing to the stereotypical ideal of womanhood and attaining authentic selfhood leading to both personal and social transformation. Sharing the conviction that the main dilemma of their times is the separation of sacred from secular, Brontë, Gaskell, and Eliot, each with a distinctive approach to the theme, open up fresh perceptual and relational pathways for pilgrimage.

Advance Praise for

Victorian Pilgrimage

“Recent decades have emphasised the importance of the Bible in literatures in English, and M. Joan Chard’s book fulfils an important function. With a guiding emphasis on Victorian figures—Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot—and a prevailing grounding on the idea of pilgrimage, this book takes the reader who may be unfamiliar with both the Victorian texts and the King James Bible to see the wealth of association and quotation and expansion possible once the inter-relations are acknowledged. While the readings of these authors are enriched, Chard’s study is likely to trigger a much wider reading of Victorian texts—and an enriched one.”

—Ian Campbell, Emeritus Professor of Scottish and
Victorian Literature, University of Edinburgh

“M. Joan Chard’s illuminating discussion of works by Brontë, Gaskell, and Eliot examines the spiritual pilgrimages of individuals in relation to each other, to the wider community, and to humanity as a whole. A thoughtful analysis that considers the influence of religion on each author, this book explores universal themes—sacred and secular, conflict and reconciliation, suffering and transformation—and how they mesh with the central concept of pilgrimage. Chard opens many possibilities for further enquiry.”

—Willadean Thordis Leo, former Supervisory Editor,
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1. Charlotte Brontë

The Way of Pilgrimage

The Wilderness Experience

Redemptive Love

Chapter 2. Elizabeth Gaskell

New Directions for Pilgrimage

“Strong-Minded” Women

“Two Worlds” Reconciled

Chapter 3. George Eliot

Religion of Humanity

Quest for Vocation

Memory and Prospect