Naslov
The Portrayal of Miss Havisham's Body

Autori
Vlašić, Tea

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Ocjenski radovi, diplomski rad, preddiplomski

Fakultet
Odjel za anglistiku

Mjesto
Zadar

Datum
16.09

Godina
2022

Stranica
37

Mentor
Bukač, Zlatko ; Musap, Emilia

Ključne riječi
Victorian literature, Charles Dickens, anorexia nervosa, eating disorders

Sažetak
This paper is concerned with the question of whether the character of Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations suffers from anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa was first diagnosed in the 19th century, and certain ideologies of the period are thought to have encouraged the incidence of this eating disorder in a portion of the population, particularly young women. Investigating this issue on the example of Miss Havisham can provide insight into this disorder from the period when it was first diagnosed. Although Miss Havisham was frequently analysed and discussed by literary theorists, she was generally regarded as a “madwoman”, while other, specific mental illnesses were not as widely examined. Therefore, due to the peculiar portrayal of her body and erratic behavioural patterns, the paper focuses on the possibility of Miss Havisham suffering from an eating disorder, or more precisely, anorexia nervosa. In order to investigate this issue, the paper first presents a brief, general overview of Miss Havisham’s life ; secondly, it moves on to the portrayal of her body ; thirdly, it examines Miss Havisham’s relationship with food ; then, it provides an overview of anorexia in the Victorian era ; subsequently, it focuses on Miss Havisham’s behavioural aberrations in relation to the symptoms of anorexia nervosa ; and finally, it discusses the potential causes of Miss Havisham’s eating disorder. It has been concluded that Miss Havisham was indeed suffering from the restrictive type of anorexia nervosa and that the primary cause of her illness is the trauma of being abandoned on her wedding day

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

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