LIT4016 DISSERTATION

Gender in fin de siècle England (1897 – 1948):
Shifts and subversions of women in literature.
LIT4016: English Dissertation
Submitted by
Philip Sparrow
Student Number removed for LinkedIn
University of Northampton
April 2012
(9,768 words)

Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Shaking the Nineteenth Century Social System 5
Chapter 2: Mrs Dalloway, Gender and Modernity 14
Chapter 3: Restraint and Restoration in Nineteen Eighty-Four 25
Conclusion 35
Bibliography 40

BA English, LIT4016: Dissertation University of Northampton
Philip Sparrow Student ID: Omitted
1
Introduction
Social structures throughout history can always be seen and interpreted in
literature. As well as academic documentation such as journals and
literary criticism, novels can also be classed as historical documentation.
Authors present us with subjective interpretations of their cultural
contexts, and literary criticism inevitably follows. In either case, it is
difficult to separate novels from their contexts and conditions when they
are read (Chaney, 206). As readers we constantly associate with
references to our own culture within novels and their respective authors.
Society passes it culture on from generation to generation through the
process of documentation and sequential interpretation, although there
are times when there are overlaps between new social and cultural
changes presented in new and previous literature.
During the fin de siècle period between the nineteenth and
twentieth century many social and cultural changes occurred due to
several historical factors. The position of men and women during these
times shifted, and this is captured in literature from the time. However, as
society transitioned out of the Victorian period and into modernity, a
cultural overlap was present when looking at gender. The Second
Industrial Revolution secured men working as breadwinners for
households, whilst documented work for women was less common, and as
a result literature from the period depicts them as domestic carers
(Burnette, 24). However, this natural ordering of society was not
nationally accepted in the United Kingdom, and it was the emergence of

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first wave feminism that raised the issue of the treatment of women in
society. Literature of the time became an outlet for women, and a source
of interpretation for the current situation. An example of this is in Virginia
Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Maggie Humm summarises that in the text
“women are simultaneously victims of themselves as well as victims of
men and are upholders of society by acting as mirrors to men” (Humm,
22). As authors and critics began to raise issues such as this in literature,
it raised the question of how this issue being bought into public view
would affect the position of women, and in turn the androcentric order of
late Victorian society.
On the turn of the twentieth century fin de siècle literature focused
on society’s concerns and questions, as some saw the time to be an age
of promise, and others saw it as an age of degeneration (Schaffer, 3). Due
to this views expressed in literature varied, portraying women as either
visionaries or females breaking taboos by moving outside of their gender
scripts. Scripts I refer to are the natural coding of society and stereotypes
that are assumed when the subject of gender and social functions are
mentioned, such as domestic carers and breadwinners in the functional
Victorian family.
The gender scripts of war in the twentieth century reinforced
stereotypes of gender, creating a sense of what type of men and women
are associated with the United Kingdom. This itself created a separate
national identity that we can associate with. As a result there are those in
literature that act as a minority, and can be seen as being excluded from

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their nation, due to going against social norms (Mills, 441). However, as
literature acts as a subjective conscious through writers such as Woolf and
Orwell we always see varied representations of gender shifts outside of
what we as readers deem standard scripts.
This dissertation will act as an exploration of the fin de siècle period
of literature at the turn of the twentieth century. The aim of the
exploration is to show how women are presented within their own
domestic spheres where we see they are acceptable, and as they slowly
move out of their gender scripts and respective spheres. This will be done
using the androcentric order of society as the social norm. My exploration
will go from social norms to the boundaries of contextual gender scripts,
where we see social anxiety directed towards unfamiliar movements of
gender positioning
The three primary texts that will be used for this exploration will be
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and George Orwell’s
Nineteen Eighty-Four. They will be analysed in chronological order, as I
believe this will show historical connections from culture to culture.
Dracula and Mrs Dalloway will be concerned with fin de siècle Victorian
society and its transition into the early twentieth century. This will include
the movements of the male and female gender in pre and post-war
contexts of World War One, as the war reinforced Victorian and Edwardian
gender scripts. The presentation of shifting genders in these times created
anxiety, which was not focused upon in Dracula and Mrs Dalloway.
However, in Nineteen Eighty-Four I will show how anxieties created in the

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previous two texts and their cultural contexts surface, and manifest in
Orwell’s dystopian narrative. Due to its stylistic differences Nineteen
Eighty-Four’s analysis of its presentation will focus less on context, and
more on how specific narrative techniques and theories create the
assertive, totalitarian rule over culture, and in turn gender in the text.
On the whole, the aim of this exploration is to expose the shifts
women took in the early twentieth century, following the fin de siècle at
the end of the Victoria period. By conducting this exploration I hope to
draw conclusions on the effectiveness of gender shifts. This will include
how the androcentric centre of society is affected by women’s movements
outside of their typical gender scripts. Chronologically, the texts I have
chosen to include act as a response to each other, displaying how
messages regarding gender shifts has been taken and carried on to the
following generation. My analysis from chapter to chapter will capture the
progress and anxiety expressed in each text, and their respective
contextual backgrounds. By drawing my own conclusions on these
chapters I hope to prompt further questioning into this area of literary
study. This dissertation itself will conclude on the resulting effect of
anxiety expressed towards modern women, and the responses I believe
have been presented to us in Dracula, Mrs Dalloway and Nineteen Eighty-
Four.

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Chapter 1
Shaking the Nineteenth Century Social System
On the brink of the twentieth century Bram Stoker’s Dracula highlighted
and reacted to Great Britain’s new social identities. During the nineteenth
century significant changes were introduced to its social systems, which
spurred on reforms of various social identities. In 1801 the census was
formally implemented, although there are records of the census in the
eleventh century that was used solely for tax purposes. The census was
originally intended to act as a headcount for the number of men ready to
fight in wars, but from 1841 onwards it monitored growth and changes in
social distributions such as education, wealth and household numbers
(Malthus, 20). The changes in 1841 indicated that as a nation Great
Britain was becoming more aware of its national and social identities. As a
result further acts of parliament were introduced to rectify issues bought
on by the Industrial Revolution such as child labour in factories. The 1844
Factory Act and 1870 Elementary Education Acts were launched to help
the working classes attain more equal standards of living and quality of
life. These acts factor into the Victorian era’s transition into the twentieth
century.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula illustrates a British fin de siècle society in
the 1890s where reforms had taken place, focusing upon domestic social
spheres where change was more apparent. This chapter will explore how
the text captures a modern and stable nation, and then shakes it with
fears of the unknown. Stoker attains control over this memorable

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narrative by presenting us with historical and cultural symbolic episodes
that aim to pinpoint weaknesses in Great Britain’s fresh social system and
its morals. In Eastern Europe we are introduced to Count Dracula, who is
given to us as an allegory for fear of the unknown and different cultures.
The Count’s castle is located in Romania, where the Dracula’s gothic and
literary elements come into play. The episodes I wish to explore with
these factors in mind focus on Great Britain’s social microcosms, such as
general social operations stemming from previously mentioned reforms.
By doing I so I hope to avoid overbearing historical and political
metanarratives that overshadow important social changes of the time that
are portrayed in the text.
The opening chapter of Dracula places us in Romania amongst the
Carpathian Mountains. In the first few pages we are introduced to
Jonathan Harker, who immediately reveals an obsessively modern theme
to the text that is recurrent throughout (McWhir, 31). The Carpathians are
presented to us in a Romantic fashion through Harker’s eyes as he sees
“beauty of every kind” amongst pastoral castles upon steep hills, streams
and wide margined rivers (Stoker, 9). Undertones in this passage are
reminiscent of the Romantic era, but Harker’s musings are those of a new
Victorian man. The passage’s focus is quickly diverted from this broad
landscape view towards an analysis of social classes at each station
Harker stops at. He describes the strange, barbaric appearance of the
Slovakians he sees purely based on their foreign attire of large belts,
cowboy hats and long black hair (Stoker, 9). We see momentary fear from
Harker of the Slovakian stereotype he pictures. As there is no other

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interaction between him and the Slovakians, this fear has only been
induced by the difference Harker has seen in comparison to his British
expectations of briefcases and formalwear. As we step into the Golden
Krone in Bistritz Harker finds civilisation once again and feels comfortable.
This is also comparable to his preoccupation of his train’s punctuality on
the first page (Stoker, 7). As stated previously, Anne McWhir identifies
characterisation such as Harker’s to be vital to Dracula’s overall story and
the Count’s part in it.
Sigmund Freud’s “Uncanny” can interpret the brief fear that is
displayed in Bistritz by Harker, which is frequently associated with the
Gothic genre. Freud states the key to an uncanny environment is how it is
sustained and that it is done consistently (Freud, 3). In the Golden Krone
hotel the text establishes religious symbolism that consistently maintains
an uncanny atmosphere in the narrative. The uncanny expresses a
familiarity to home that is also unfamiliar somehow, which is what makes
it so frightening as it is uncomfortably close to familiar images readers,
writers and characters alike can associate with (Freud, 1). In Dracula’s
contexts Catholicism had a prominent ritualistic and pietistic nature in
eastern Europe. Harker is presented to us as a Protestant man, which was
the standard in England at the time. Victorian Protestantism opposed
Catholicism of any kind, as its main aim was to reform society against
Catholic traditions despite the public being aware of Catholic roots (Sykes,
76). Harker doesn’t come across as a radical Protestant, but the hotel
landlord and his wife startle him with their unfamiliar Catholic gestures,
typical of the Romanian religious culture. Examples of this are when the

8
wife hands him a cross for protection later on after the couple crossed
their chests in the lobby (Stoker, 10 – 11). In spite of their intentions
Harker remains aware his response wasn’t accepted as indicated by their
reactions, and he becomes concerned with his own social position in
Bistritz. Upon his departure the swelled crowd at the inn door put a
religious charm on Harker to guard him against “the evil eye” (Stoker,
12). As he expresses, this gesture from the crowd is the last thing he
wanted to see before heading deeper into the country. At this point the
uncanny is definitely manifest within the narrative as Harker becomes
more and more uncomfortable as the chapter progresses. An increasing
sense of uncertainty is sustained throughout chapter one through the
Romanian religious culture it represents. Stoker successfully sets up the
text by pulling us away from British social norms, by seating us in an
eastern European setting where the culture and the uncanny have a
foreign grasp of the reader and characters.
In chapter two the uncanny is sustained in a similar fashion,
indicating that it is definitely Stoker’s key stylistic device in the novel.
With Count Dracula’s introduction the second element of Stoker’s fearful
gothic narrative, known as the literary fantastic is secured and integrated
into the text. The fantastic is introduced during the final moments of
chapter one where Harker is travelling towards the castle which seemed
like a dream or nightmare, which can both exceed reality’s set laws
(Stoker, 19). This scene presents us with the idea that the text has its
characters and readers on the borders of reality and fantasy, where
changes unfamiliar to us are the most questionable (Todorov, 26).

9
Together the uncanny and fantastic create Dracula’s literary mode that
consistently breaches its own internal laws (Zgorzelski, 289). A prime
example of this boundary breaking nature is the text’s focus on sexual
subversion. Harker’s journal entries in the castle show the Count gradually
dominating the narrative and inverting familiar contextual
representations. Firstly the Count’s dominance is asserted before any
sexual subversion takes place. Our initial encounter with Dracula doesn’t
hesitate to show his power, as Harker barely has time to register his
impulsive movements as the Count’s grasp makes him wince (Stoker, 22).
Due to this, suspicions that the Count is not human are confirmed here,
and as a result the narrative progressively portrays him as a monster
from this point onwards. Dracula’s human form and monstrous mask is
the key to the distortion he creates in the text (Craft, 107).
As Harker explores the castle in chapter three, hints of dominance
from chapter two mature to produce distorted and subverted images. His
journal entry on the sixteenth of May clarifies the effects of the fantastic
and uncanny I have presented so far. The persona we associated with
Harker in chapter one has dissipated into man reduced to questioning his
own sanity (Stoker, 43). Evidence that he has had an elementary
education and that he is a man concerned with punctuality and formal
dress is far less evident to us, as he spends most of his time searching for
an escape route and a familiar feels of home. All that remains to him is his
love Mina. He manages to sustain his journal writing for her, which is the
last remotely modern feature we see at this point. In this state Harker
becomes more vulnerable to the elements at play within the castle. As

10
with previous analysis there are always points in each scene of the text
where the narrative devices are at their peak. In chapter three we see a
subversive climax when the Count’s three brides have Harker under their
control. Jonathan is faced with three highly sexualised female figures,
which contrast other female representations we are given in the text.
Harker specifically depicts that they are collectively “fair as can be” with
“wavy masses of golden hair” and “brilliant white teeth” (Stoker, 44).
Using their physical beauty to seduce him, the brides are pictured circling
him as if they were performing a ritual. When one bride steps over Harker
to target his neck we see a more animalistic scene of hunting where the
woman is a creature dominant over the man. This scene acts as a direct
subversion of roles and genders in the text we are accustomed to. The
overall process can be compared to the Catholic rituals shown to us in
chapter one, but with extreme reactions. Harker expresses a strange
attraction to his predicament with the brides but we are also made aware
of his discomfort. Before the Count enters the bridal chamber Harker
describes himself in a “languorous ecstasy”, once again showing the effect
of the uncanny and literary fantastic directly referenced in the text
(Stoker, 44). The dream-like experience we share with Harker is amplified
when the Count enters the scene. In the same way we see roles changing
with Harker and the brides, we see Dracula dominate him with one piece
of dialogue. An authoritative mask is established as the Count yells, “This
man belongs to me!” as he is no longer just asserting his strength, but
claiming total control over his surroundings. Due to the monstrous mask
Dracula has he can be seen as an impure, evil being. His control over
Harker shows a desire to overpower those purer than himself, which is a

11
fear that was expressed with regard to the Slovakians earlier. The episode
in the brides’ chamber also displays the purity motif as Jonathan’s position
is reversed from when he was introduced to us. More importantly the last
remnant of Jonathan’s modern self appears to us as Mina. As his partner
she acts as a beacon of purity that brings Dracula into the urban labyrinth
that is London.
As a new late Victorian woman Mina is presented as one who is
focused on her domestic responsibilities as a partner, such as helping
Jonathan with stenographs and type writing (Stoker, 62). However, she
also bears the image of a modern feminist woman who has the beginnings
of self-sufficiency with her job as an assistant schoolmistress. Dracula
portrays Mina as a developing character with these factors who is always
a step below her male counterparts, but she aspires to their social
statures throughout the text. As a modern feminist figure she is depicted
as more capable than women in literature before her. As a result she
transcends the internal laws of the text regarding the social identity. In
terms of modernity she is a pure image, and it is this that draws Count
Dracula to her.
The Count’s invasion into Mina’s part of the story begins with the bite
marks on Lucy Westenra’s neck, which Mina mistakes for her own
accidental pin-pricks with a safety pin (Stoker, 103). From here on the
plot of Dracula in general becomes distorted as the Count repeatedly
causes social disruption on mainland. One episode can summarise
Dracula’s actions in the Great Britain as Stoker utilises Mina efficiently as

12
a symbolic element to create a single, iconic incident. The moment in
question is when Dracula attacks Mina in front of Jonathan, Helsing and
the others. This scene is thoroughly prepared for, building up Mina’s
importance to the men around her. Mina is held up like a crucifix with her
arms at full tension and faced towards the onlookers, almost using her as
a weapon against them (Stoker, 300). We can consider this the Count’s
final distortion to the text, as his nightly visits to Mina’s neck are
concluded with her blood-smeared dress. Mina is described by Van Helsing
as having the brain of a man and how fortunate he and the others are to
have her in their situation (Stoker, 250). This shows how Stoker
illustrates Mina’s cultural saturation at its climax, where she is pushing the
gender ruling in the text, as she is almost completely equal to men. With
such value Mina becomes a rich source of culture we rely on, and when it
is forcefully removed the fear of vampirism becomes an exploitative force
(Wicke, 468). When Dracula takes away Mina’s purity by drenching her in
her own blood, and partially turning her into a vampire the text itself loses
its last symbol of modern stability and faith in its new social mode. Once
the Count has been killed there is a small restoration in the modern
narrative as any evidence or memory of Dracula is blotted our from
Harker’s mind (Stoker, 402). Stoker’s interview with Winston Churchill
summarises the situation we are left with, hinting that society has
backpedalled slightly and needs to reconstruct itself “toward[s] a better,
fairer organization of society” (Stoker, 438).
To conclude, Dracula’s narrative is an assertive one that subjects its
internal laws to extreme trauma. Contextually we see significant

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metanarratives from political and social history drawn together to create
microcosms of a fin de siècle society. Stoker’s ability to create this society
accurately presents us with a condensed, stronger image of late Victorian
society going through various social changes. As a part of the gothic
genre Dracula has a library of interpretations and literary techniques to
take into consideration, but the most significant are psychoanalytical and
contextual readings that show us the value of interpretative thought, and
the effects upon its distortion in the text. Stoker presents us this reading
systemically, by using gothic techniques at his disposal. The uncanny and
literary fantastic are Stoker’s largest weapons for breaking down his own
modern narrative. Each of these narrative techniques create a fearful
mode where we see a battle for supremacy between the old and new. This
mainly applies to Mina and Jonathan Harker as well as Dracula. Each have
large amounts of the text in their control by asserting their culture. Harker
and Mina are beacons for modernity, whilst the Count represents a
subversive, eastern European culture. Representations of modernity are
reduced to neat and tidy educated men and women that arose with the
new middle class towards the twentieth century. By forcing the raw and
unfamiliar upon the new middle class, Dracula reveals a social system that
has just reformed, but evidently isn’t stable. We see in particular the rise
of the new woman in Mina, who has greater potential as a character to act
independently. The text attempts to fight Mina’s development, but it is the
one strength the count helps develop throughout the text. Mina is the
image of a strong, resilient woman that breaks the boundaries of her
scripted gender roles, which is carried across into twentieth century
literature such as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.

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Chapter 2
Mrs Dalloway, Gender and Modernity
This chapter will explore Clarissa Dalloway as a new woman in a post-
Victorian and post-war societal frame, and how her internal conflicts and
observations of her surroundings show England is still suffering from
anxieties expressed in Dracula. This shall concern how Woolf carries
issues that Stoker mentioned into the early twentieth century, regarding
gender movements in a post-war context.
Mrs Dalloway’s main thematic concern is gender operations in
modernist Britain. Woolf’s modernist narrative portrays Clarissa as a
modern woman through a stream of consciousness style. A cultural
overlap becomes apparent as a result of this since Victorian gender scripts
can still be seen in the text, where women are idealised inside the
domestic sphere to help their husbands and children. Clarissa is
characterised as a “Victorian Angel in the House”, which idealises her
inside a domestic sphere (Elliott, 1). This Victorian gender script is
reinforced by the First World War as women were not obliged with
conscription, but manned munitions factories and cared for their children
(Adams, 123). Clarissa takes a step outside of this mandatory domesticity
in Mrs Dalloway and encounters images that conflict with her outlook on
masculinity, femininity and their respective scripts. Aspects of the novel’s
context are included within it, making these images prominent in
comparison to appropriated genders of the time.

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England is painted in similar fashion to its portrayal Dracula. We are
presented with stable attitudes towards positioning, and appreciation for
improvements to education and social policies such as 1902 Balfour Act,
which restructured the academic hierarchy in England, spreading power to
Local Education Authorities. This made views expressed in Mrs Dalloway
more accessible to an ever-growing educated middle and upper class.
Progress such as this was instigated during the Efficiency Movement,
which aimed to refine the political, social and economic infrastructures
inside England. Mrs Dalloway uses Clarissa to acknowledge the resulting
national identity present in the early twentieth century, but also to
explore the cracks surrounding gender where men and women were
having separate experiences of post-war Britain.
Virginia Woolf integrates these contextual factors into Mrs
Dalloway, creating an obsessively modern text in the same fashion as
Dracula. England’s concern with its modern identity is established through
Clarissa on the first page of the novel. She expresses domestic concerns
towards Rumpelmayer’s men arriving and purchasing flowers in Lucy’s
place (Woolf, 5). This resembles Jonathan Harker’s obsessive modern
anxieties towards the rustic appeareances of the Bistritz locals, and time
of his trains explored in chapter one. Woolf successfully frames Clarissa’s
assumed feminine role in the text here, readying us for the movements
she makes in Mrs Dalloway. Another interpretation of this is that Woolf is
setting up an appropriate image of a woman in order to give her modern
thoughts validity.

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The thematic concerns of gender and modernity are combined when
looking at Clarissa. As a character she is an embodiment of Mrs
Dalloway’s cultural overlap, contexts and modernist approach in terms of
gender identity. Conflict is created in the novel due to these contrasting
elements residing in Clarissa’s character. The resulting issue of this is that
of the post-Victorian self. The novel presents Clarissa as a new-type
woman who sits between Victorian and modern stereotypes of women.
She has control within a domestic sphere, but does not have a masculine
figure overshadowing her. This results in Clarissa being a representation
of the “Victorian self” she would still be expected to be in the early
twentieth century, and a privately independent persona that bears
resemblance to modern models of women (Forbes, 38). The modern
aspect of Clarissa comes to fruition when she is placed within the public
sphere amongst overt examples of twentieth-century genders. We share
her experiences in public and private spheres, but the novel concerns
itself mainly with observations made in the public sphere, finalising with
internal reflections that reveal issues with said observations.
As we journey out into Westminster the reader is shown an
optimistic first impression of modern day Great Britain. The narration
points towards motorcars, sandwich men and singing of an overhead
aeroplane (Woolf, 6). These signifiers clarify context I have introduced
with regards to society shifting into the modern era. However, Woolf
doesn’t falter here, and presents us with brief but relevant comments
towards the government’s current public image. Clarissa’s point of view is
problematic in that it is positive, but as a middle-aged woman she has

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experienced the latter half of Queen Victoria’s reign, when the Long
Depression occurred. The sandwich men Clarissa refers to can be
generalised as a post-depression glance at society:
… she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they
love life. In people’s eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the
bellow and the up-roar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses,
vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging… was what she loved;
London; this moment of June (Woolf, 6).
In the late nineteenth century the Long Depression saw the economy
destabilise as the stock market collapsed in Vienna, spreading throughout
Europe (Glasner, 43). The home Clarissa sees in this quotation is a post-
Depression society that prematurely celebrates its economic boom, which
is identified here. Industry and the economy are reflected in the motor
cars, sandwich men and the positive outlook towards them which Clarissa
mentions. As a member of the public Clarissa’s positivity shows she has
shifted with society into the modern age. However, as a woman born in
the late Victorian era, the cultural overlap in her views is inevitable.
Despite this brief, positive first glance the text quickly transitions
into a conflicted internal narrative on Clarissa’s accord, as she
deconstructs early twentieth century genders in front of us. Mrs Dalloway
acknowledges Clarissa’s position as a modern woman when she moves
towards the park. Woolf comments on her clarity and depth of her vision,

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showing us that Clarissa has a deeper, differentiated insight in comparison
to most women:
She would not say of any one in the world now that they were this
or that. She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged.
She sliced like a knife though everything; at the same time was
outside, looking on (Woolf, 10).
This insight is one of age, experience and fatigue. Clarissa’s fatigued
insight shows when she observes genders and their movements around
her. Her admiration for Lady Bexborough has many similar connotations
to Mina Harker’s modern capabilities that were recognised by men, which
in turn helped her transcend her contextual gender script.
Lady Bexborough shifts outside of the Victorian Angel in the House
persona and moves into more masculine territory, as she is portrayed as
an opposite to Clarissa, despite cultural overlaps identifying them as
domesticated women in the public sphere. Lady Bexborough’s large,
physical appearance and interest in politics “like a man” are the two
dominant images that construct her butch female identity (Woolf, 13).
Clarissa yearns for this identity, as she views Bexborough as a celebrated
feminist figure (Henke, 125). Praised figures such as Lady Bexborough
attempt to subvert the traditional patriarchal code of society that is
identified in late Victorian literature, which crossed over into the early
twentieth century (Jackson, 103 – 104). Mrs Dalloway presents boundary-

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breaking women throughout the text, in order to assert new gendered
social code demonstrated by Lady Bexborough:
Oh if she could have had her life over again… She would have been
like Lady Bexborough, slow and stately; rather large; interested in
politics like a man; with a country house; very dignified, very
sincere. Instead of which she had a narrow pea-stick figure; a
ridiculous face, beaked like a bird’s… this body with all its
capacities, seemed nothing—nothing at all (Woolf, 13).
The admiration for this new female model comes across intuitively, yet
problematic. This extract claims a masculine frame to be more socially
acceptable. However, Clarissa’s appearance could be deemed perfectly
acceptable from a male gaze. Here readers are sent conflicting messages
about women, society and their relationships. As readers we are asked to
question our own images of men and women, and whether they are
correct from a moral standpoint. Clarissa aspires to be Lady Bexborough,
indicating she is a superior woman. By admiring Bexborough’s subverted
female model Clarissa breaks traditional gender scripts in front of us,
leading to questions regarding the social position of early twentieth
century women.
Clarissa’s heretical thoughts against British gender ideologies
continue in succession as we are presented with the dilemma that is Miss
Kilman. Her surname is indicative of her purpose, as she acts as another
symbol that breaks down stable ideas of gender in England. The functional

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family was promoted during and after the First World War with a head
patriarch and domestic matriarch. Women also helped to spread patriotic
morale during wartime, which led to women earning more political rights
(Taylor, 94). This and the war itself abruptly ended Edwardian ideologies
regarding gender and social class. Miss Kilman is introduced as her name
suggests, to metaphorically eliminate men by shifting into a masculine
frame. As with Lady Bexborough we become transfixed upon Miss Kilman,
because she is a threat to both male and female ideologies:
Clarissa’s relationship with her daughter Elizabeth is overly
hovering and anxious. She is inordinately fearful lest her last
daughter be dominated by her history tutor… She hated Miss
Kilman’s sense of vicitimization, embitteredness, incessant
preoccupation with issues of superiority and inferiority (Panken,
124).
References to domination here can be interpreted in a few ways. In post-
war contexts Woolf makes a bold move introducing a German character
into Mrs Dalloway. Clarissa’s distaste for Miss Kilman works in an almost
nationalist capacity, describing her as a “brutal monster” (Woolf, 15). This
can be based off the fact that Kilman has a history with Britain, as she lost
her previous job during the war under anti-German prejudice. By inserting
her into the novel Woolf is telling us that she should be accepted as a
British woman, and against models such as Lady Bexborough this isn’t
impossible. Both have masculine traits that go against typical associations
to women, as well as having the ability to catch Clarissa’s attention.

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Whereas Bexborough gains Clarissa’s admiration, it becomes quickly
apparent that we are not meant to like Doris Kilman.
Despite mentions of Clarissa’s husband Richard Dalloway in the
narrative, it is also possible to interpret Miss Kilman as a surrogate father
figure for Elizabeth at times. This relates back to Clarissa’s nationlist
attitude towards Doris, who shares a close relationship with Elizabeth,
Clarissa’s daughter. As her tutor Miss Kilman controls Elizabeth through
teaching her history, and as a result spends a great deal of time with her.
This links Woolf’s preoccupation with death and loss in Mrs Dalloway and
how Clarissa deals with it (Spilka, 15). As Richard Dalloway takes a
backseat in the earlier parts of the novel we see no patriarchal force
between Clarissa and Elizabeth. Miss Kilman acts as a replacement
patriarch in Richard’s absence. Clarissa’s views of Miss Kilman expressed
above show how she finds it hard to come to terms with loss, even
temporary loss.
The rise in masculine female figures such as Miss Kilman and Lady
Bexborough didn’t just affect women’s social positions. Woolf’s thematic
concern with loss also surrounds Septimus Warren Smith. Whereas
women manned the home front during the war, men manned the
frontlines where the Edwardian image of men was reinforced. Due to Mrs
Dalloway being written in indirect discourse we see no authoritative or
omniscient narrator. As a result characters such as Septimus have more
control over their parts of the narrative. This subjective control allows
characters to move from interior to exterior worlds of though more

22
smoothly (Minow-Pinkney, 55). Septimus is the fallen war veteran in the
text with severe shell shock. Due to the nature of his character, he sits
between his own internal monologue and external influences. He
compliments Clarissa’s parts of the text by acting as contrasting image.
Clarissa deals with middle to upper class issues of womanhood, whereas
Septimus struggles with the loss of his masculinity, which aligns itself with
Woolf’s thematic concerns.
Mrs Dalloway presents Septimus to us as a problematic man. In a
post-war environment he has lost his purpose, place and sanity, which he
is constantly reminded of through his internal observations and
hallucinations. His social position relates to Britain’s view of shell-shocked
veterans at the time. The government attempted to cut off mentally ill
servicemen in 1921 by cutting their pensions, but faced opposition from
the press. The novel echoes this original intention through William
Bradshaw, as he claims Septimus’ insanity to be down to “a lack of good
blood” which is represented by his “unsocial impulses”. Due to this
Bradshaw claims this in order to make “England prosper, seclude her
lunatics, forbade childbirth” (Woolf, 113).
Social seclusion continues throughout the novel, as Septimus is
isolated from others due to being branded insane. Signs of recovery are
ignored in the text, such as when he becomes aware of his senses and
place in the world as he watches Reiza trim a straw hat (Woolf, 157). This
moment is short-lived as shortly after Septimus attempts suicide and falls
from a window (Woolf, 164). His suicidal tendency confirms his social

23
status as insane. The last of his sanity here saves him from internment
under Bradshaw’s watchful eyes.
Modern society brands Septimus as insane, impure and obstructive
to the development of Great Britain. Despite the fact he represents an
entire generation of Edwardian and Victorian masculinity, he is discarded.
This is not an issue for Septimus, as he chooses death over living in a
post-war world where he is labelled as irrelevant (Knox-Shaw, 101). His
attempts to recover are denied by the context of Mrs Dalloway and its
modern characters such as Miss Kilman and Lady Bexborough, who
overshadow him with their neo-masculinity.
To conclude this chapter, it is evident that Mrs Dalloway uses its
modernist narrative to present us as readers with new ideas to consider
on gender and its limitations to sex. Virginia Woolf takes Victorian gender
scripts and subverts them, by experimenting with masculine women in the
public and domestic spheres. Clarissa Dalloway is used as a medium to
explore and think about these examples, and is exemplified as a
stereotyped early twentieth century woman herself. Through interior
monologues and Woolf’s free indirect speech Clarissa is able to interact
with her modern surroundings. As a woman who is living through a
cultural overlap from the Victorian era, Clarissa is able to provide us with
knowledgeable, subjective insight into how new women operate in modern
Britain. Septimus acts as a contrasting image to Clarissa, as he is on the
receiving end of modernity’s changes to gender roles. Both of these
characters reveal issues regarding movements between personal and

24
private spheres, as there is only so much change they can take before it
invades their personal space. This is evident when Clarissa becomes
extremely uncomfortable with Miss Kilman, which has been explored
above. As Septimus clearly resembles the contextual treatment of post-
war men, Woolf forces us to sympathise with losses of masculinity, and
develop a concern for the course of modern Britain.

25
Chapter 3
Restraint and Restoration in Nineteen Eighty-Four
For the final chapter of this dissertation I will be exploring the extremities
of thoughts displayed in both previous chapters, through George Orwell’s
Nineteen Eighty-Four. This chapter will explore how the novel is an
embodiment of anxieties expressed in Dracula and Mrs Dalloway
surrounding gender and social culture. Focus will be directed towards the
texts stylistic differences, which have a drastic effect upon the
presentation of genders. Whereas Stoker and Woolf’s texts have
presented us with contextual images, I will be explaining how Orwell
creates a new the identity of Oceania to validate the existence of Nineteen
Eighty-Four’s gynocentricism. By exploring the gynocentric nature of the
earlier parts of the novel I will reveal how Nineteen Eighty-Four starts off
with regressed genders due to anxieties of movement such as those in
Dracula and Mrs Dalloway, and then through Winston and Julia’s sexual
encounters we see a temporary restoration of both men and women, in
forms we recognise.
Nineteen Eighty-Four bears contextual similarities to Mrs Dalloway
as a post-war text, but its dystopian style provides different
interpretations of society. The novel’s allegorical infrastructure is outlined
from the start as we are presented with Minitrue, Minipax, Minilux and
Miniplenty in quick succession (Orwell, 6). Through these four ministries
Air Strip One is presented to us as an entirely new social setting, whereas
Stoker and Woolf give us more contextually accurate settings we can

26
associate with. Instead of relating to historical and contextual factors
Orwell communicates the anxieties of gender subversion by creating
entirely new social structures that exemplify them. It is hard to
distinguish between contextual references and subjective interpretations
due to Orwell’s choice of writing a political allegory. However, I wish to
argue that Nineteen Eighty-Four acts as an interpretation of World War
Two’s aftermath, which falls in line with John Brannigan’s view that:
… England is continuous, and is [also] immediately in danger of
disappearing. Orwell’s writings straddle the political time of his
immediate social and cultural contexts and the prophetic time of a
future unknown, yet dangerously close (Brannigan, 3).
By “future unknown” I believe that Brannigan refers to the restoration of
gender we become aware of at times in the novel, which I will later
explore. The future of Oceania is unknown to us in the text, as Winston
and Julia present us with a hope that Big Brother’s regime can fought
against, although their personal battle together is lost.
The future setting of the year 1984 is different to our own timeline,
but Orwell creates the text’s 1984 in such a way that it is concrete. It can
be argued that Air Strip One is a third order simulacrum. This means that
it is originally a copy of something, our society in this instance. The social
code within Nineteen Eighty-Four has been rewritten to an extent it no
longer resembles its original self, our London and our timeline. The effect

27
of this is that we believe Orwell’s 1984 is an original, authentic reality,
which is a copy but believes itself to be the original (Baudrillard, 12).
The third order simulacrum affects everything down to characterisation,
including social structures characters are placed under. Although a Marxist
society is indefinitely in place indicated by the “proles”, the structure from
the Outer Party and above can be argued to be gynocentric. However, as
previously discussed in chapter two contextual wartime society is
relatively androcentric as men played the main roles on the frontline,
whilst women manned the home front. Orwell’s allegorical infrastructure is
key to creating a gynocentric culture in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The main method of creating convincing social codes in the novel to
achieve this culture is through the four ministries. The buildings
themselves are iconoclastic, as they stand similar to God-like structures,
as demonstrated by the Ministry of Truth and its pyramidal structure
(Orwell, 5). The iconoclastic nature of the novel is encased into the four
ministries, as they are central to its message. The Ministry of Truth is also
central to the text and my discussion for the following reason:
… Nineteen Eighty-Four is very difficult to approach without
preconceptions, even without prejudice… it has been
institutionalized, featuring the school and university syllabus, and
therefore, it might be argued, tamed (Calder, 38).

28
The Ministry of Truth attacks readers preconceptions, and is they
key ministry in creating Orwell’s 1984 and its gendered culture. However,
Minitrue mainly concerns itself with historical and political articles.
Winston gives us first hand accounts of this process, as he is a member in
the Party who works in Minitrue. His thoughtcrimes at work show a small
scale scepticism towards the ministries, which is later expressed on a
slightly larger scale towards the Ministry of Plenty. This occurs when
Miniplenty makes an announcement about chocolate rationing, despite
vowing to freeze it at a thirty-gram limit it reduced it twenty grams
(Orwell, 42). Winston is an example of public attitude towards the party,
as sceptics such as him, O’Brien and Julia often notices these instances
but do not retaliate earlier on in his text. The Party’s control through fear
in situations like this demonstrates its unquestionable authority, which is
a by-product of the social code it has created in the text. After O’Brien has
experienced the horrors of Room 101, the nature of this control is
explained:
When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something,
you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I
tell you… that reality is not external. Whatever the Party holds to be
truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking
through the eyes of the Party (Orwell, 261).
By doing this Orwell’s fictional world is set in concrete under a single
subjective consciousness. The Ministry of Truth and Junior Anti-Sex
League play the most active parts in spreading the Party’s totalitarian

29
consciousness, as they both play significant parts in how the novel
constructs gender.
Nineteen Eighty-Four’s presentation of men and women is
regressed, as it shows both sexes as inactive and almost genderless in
function. The novel restricts typical functions of men and women to be
one of the same inside the Party. Through Winston’s eyes we see both
men and women participate in administrative functions at the Ministry of
Truth. Julia is the prime example of this, as she is not representative of
traditional female images we are used to. The breadwinner and
domesticated carer images of Dracula and Mrs Dalloway are only
established around Victory Square where the proles reside (Hester, 256).
An example of this would be when Winston notices girls with lip stick
running in the streets, and he comments upon how they will soon be
swollen like their waddling mothers from pregnancy (Orwell, 86).
Otherwise, men and women are presented to us equally in terms of
functionality. Instead of seeing this equality admirable as Helsing does
with Mina in Dracula, Winston fears Julia’s capabilities as an empowered
woman.
Julia is consistently highlighted as a significant threat to Winston in
the earlier parts of the novel, when she is referred to as the woman with
dark hair. Our first encounter with Julia leads us to believe she is possible
affiliated with the Thought Police, as well as the Junior Anti-Sex League.
These affiliations instantly empower Julia, and she overshadows Winston,
indicated by his fear. The power Winston acknowledges and the fear he

30
shows tells us we are dealing with subverted genders from a reader
perspective. In terms of the novel being a third order simulacrum, it is
likely that women do hold these positions of power, legitimising Winston’s
fear. Another factor that legitimises this is that there are other
empowered, masculine women in the text before Julia’s main entrance.
The woman in question here is the instructress on the telescreen who
instructs The Physical Jerks. She is described as both masculine and
feminine, scrawny yet muscular (Orwell, 34). The pain she inflicts upon
Winston shows his distaste for the instructress, and his subconscious not
wanting to acknowledge her dominance over him. Winston and the
instructress are also finally addressed to us as equals at the end of the
chapter, as she compares them both to men on the frontline against
Eurasia (Orwell, 39).
As stated by Hester earlier, Nineteen Eighty-Four does present us
with positive images of women, but women such as Julia and the
instructress break our personal ideologies, forcing us to take in Orwell’s
gender subversions (Williams, 56). The process of breaking personal
subjectivity like this starts in the canteen, when Julia looks at Winston
with curious intensity (Orwell, 64). When suspicions of dominance and
authority grow in this instance, we see the novel’s tense narrative peak,
where genders start to shift:
The dramatic tension of 1984 is not whether Winston will be able to
revolt successfully against the party… The tensions of the novel
concern how long he can stay alive and whether it is possible for

31
Winston to die without mentally betraying his rebellion (Greenblatt,
115).
Dramatic tension is reinforced as we are introduced to facecrime, as we
become aware that Julia could jeopardise the rebellion. The anxiety of this
is so great the Winston labels Julia as an agent over any other man in the
room. The only reason he does this is because he is looking at her first,
and although her body is not described to us at this point. It is when
Winston acknowledges Julia’s physicality that we see her in a different
light, and the regressed genders of the text and its gynocentric centre
begin to shift.
It takes time for Winston to pay attention to Julia’s appearance,
past her dark hair. The more we confront Julia, the less Winston suspects
her, and the more Winston notices her physical form. As this occurs we
see a restoration the mutual function of sex between men and women,
which in turn temporarily restores each gender role:
Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him,
indeed he barely looked at it. What overwhelmed him in that
instant was admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown
her clothes aside (Orwell, 33).
In this particular instance Winston’s prophetic dream foresees the start of
his sexual encounters with Julia. Orwell’s reference to the gesture is
central to how the dream acts as a starting point for Winston’s

32
restoration. This is because in previous examples Winston recognises and
reacts to Julia’s gestures differently. Her gestures either instigate troubled
thoughts within Winston, or subconsciously fulfil forbidden dreams
(Elsbree, 140). The closer we become to fulfilling his desire, the less
fearful we become of Julia’s subverted masculine female dominance.
This idea comes to fruition when the couple take refuge above Mr
Charrington’s shop. Winston indicates during Hate Week that he wishes to
be with Julia in a more romantic capacity, and move outside of the casual
basis as it had become problematic. Winston has two brief thoughts that
encapsulate his full restoration as a man, in comparison to his regressed,
genderless self from earlier on in the text:
She must’ve slipped into some shop in the proletarian quarters and
bought herself a complete set of make-up… Her lips were deeply
reddened, her cheeks rouged, her nose powdered… The
improvement in her appearance was startling… she had become not
only very much prettier, but, above all, far more feminine (Orwell,
149).
Julia’s application of make-up here transforms her into an unfamiliar
figure within the text. She becomes comparable to Clarissa Dalloway and
Mina Harker. By alluding to female images such as these Orwell shows us
a progressive restoration of self, by transforming Julia into an image we
recognise above. As a result we also see a restoration of a male self in
Winston. His attraction to Julia climaxes, and his previously clouded

33
judgement of hate and disgust because of the party ceases to exist. This
is evident as he climbs into bed with Julia, fully stripping for the first time
without a second thought (Orwell, 149).
To summarise, Nineteen Eighty-Four effectively explores familiar
and unfamiliar images of gender, but ultimately focuses on women.
George Orwell acknowledges the contexts of his novel, but takes a
dystopian slant on them. He makes the stylistic choice of creating Oceania
and Air Strip One as a third order simulacrum, which reinforces the
novel’s interior definitions such as social and gendered operations. Men
and women institutionalised, regressed and restrained into the Party and
its ministries. In doing this Orwell creates a single subconscious in the
text that belongs to the Party, which is expressed through Winston and
Julia’s anxieties and desires respectively. The Party’s control over the
text’s social code is emphasized by Winston’s paranoia. The more
pressure the Party exerts over Winston, the more he attempts to find an
outlet for his heretic thoughts of masculinity and sex. Julia becomes his
single outlet, and in turn we her as a tomboyish woman transform into a
women we recognise, who can be associated with the likes of Mina Harker
and Clarissa Dalloway. The process in which this is done is through casual
sexual encounters, which require the two characters to deviate from the
text’s social norms, just as Mina and Clarissa deviate from their text’s
respective social norms as modern women. This restoration shows an
acknowledgement of not only Nineteen Eighty-Four’s contexts, but also
the likes of Mrs Dalloway and Dracula, and the social movements they
shed light on. The text presents us with these restored images

34
temporarily, and as Winston and Julia fight within their confines, we see
mirror images of the struggles of Mina and Jonathan Harker and Clarissa
Dalloway. Inevitably the novel’s nature as a third order simulacrum forces
men and women into corners, forcing them into a regressed state. Even
when we see Marxist overthrows such as Winston and Julia’s rebellion,
Nineteen Eighty-Four ultimately shows us that society’s natural order and
dominant social code prevails over small-scale movements with gender.

35
Conclusion
Through chronological analysis of shifting genders in the late Victorian
period through to post-World War One and World War Two society, I
believe I can draw my exploration to a close. In Dracula, Mrs Dalloway
and Nineteen Eighty-Four there are evident connections in terms of social
anxiety towards gender shifts in public spheres. A combination of
contextual, modernist and dystopian narratives used in the three texts
have challenged the androcentric order of society, and shown us the
potential of modern women in the world of men.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula signalled the end of prescribed gender
scripts in the Victorian period, where men were breadwinners and women
were domestic carers. His novel introduces us to modern genders that are
experimented with in Woolf and Orwell’s works. Both Jonathan and Mina
Harker act as contrasting sexes, each of which Stoker subverts so that
Mina has masculine traits, whilst Jonathan regresses and loses his
masculinity. Each of them are portrayed as equally educated, as individual
results of the 1870 Elementary Education Act. Initially his profession as an
educated solicitor establishes Jonathan’s masculinity, and his modern
traits stand out in comparison to Romania’s dated socio-cultural scenery.
From the first chapter of the novel Stoker begins to break down
Jonathan’s façade of masculinity, by pulling him from his modern,
industrial homeland. He is presented as an unknown against the locals of
Bistritz, oblivious to the cultural concerns surrounding the Count. The
locals appearances, mannerisms and dependence on religious symbols for
defence against Dracula we see Jonathan question his sense of self, and

36
his purpose in Romania. It is in the Count’s castle Harker confronts
Dracula as an alpha male who claims ownership over him, overriding his
sense of reason that he has inherited from his modern education. He is
also overwhelmed by the brides, whose sexual dominance overwhelm
Jonathan’s perception of reality where he was previously an alpha male
with control over his parts in the narrative.
Mina Harker is set against this harsh, subversive narrative as a
beacon for modernity, and the potential its reformed sexes carry.
Throughout the novel Mina’s new educated skillset is established, and
although her typewriting and stenographic skills are useful, it is her brain
that is admired most by Van Helsing and the others (Stoker, 250). In
saying this Stoker acknowledges that women such as Mina had
progressed up the social ladder closer to men. However, her
independence is still lacking as she works under Van Helsing and Jonathan
for a majority of the novel, still fulfilling her duty as a domestic aid to
men, which we can associate with the text’s Victorian context.
In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway we are presented with Clarissa
Dalloway. Woolf’s stylistic choice of using free indirect speech portrays
women who have shifted outside of Victorian gender scripts at the turn of
the twentieth century. In terms of progression Mrs Dalloway develops
upon Dracula’s representation of modern women, and deals with social
concerns regarding their movements. The text draws attention to
Clarissa’s observations, and the conclusions she comes to about modern
women she aspires to. Through her Woolf presents us with two masculine

37
female figures, which in turn brings up to question the validity of
Edwardian masculine figures such as Septimus Smith. As Clarissa
confronts the likes Lady Bexborough and Miss Kilman we become aware
women have stepped outside of the domestic sphere. Lady Bexborough
specifically raises awareness of her similar social stature to men, in that
she shares similar interests and a masculine physical figure. Through
Clarissa’s internal monologue we become aware that Bexborough differs
from the traditional post-war female model, which Clarissa also
exemplifies. We are inclined to aspire to Lady Bexborough as she is
portrayed as powerful and independent publically, although not physically
attractive (Woolf, 13). The same is also true of Miss Kilman, as Clarissa’s
view of her isn’t positive. Miss Kilman is presented as an “other” to us,
just as Jonathan Harker is in Romania. Mrs Dalloway focuses on her
German heritage and the amount of time she spends with Elizabeth
Dalloway, and as a result she becomes a replacement father figure for her
who has to share Clarissa’s affections. Miss Kilman’s domination threatens
Clarissa’s sense of self, as she herself is caught the cultural overlap of
genders from the nineteenth century.
As Septimus Smith shares the other half of the narrative with
Clarissa, we are made aware he is the contrasting conscious in the novel
in comparison to the observations Clarissa makes. Through Clarissa’s
observations we learn that Septimus has been forced into a regressed
state, due to the death of his social function after the war ended. Also, the
emergence of stronger, masculine women such as Lady Bexborough in the
public sphere replace the need for men like Septimus completely. In

38
comparison to Dracula’s anxious concerns that are kept under the surface,
we see small-scale manifestations of worry in Mrs Dalloway. The gender
subversions are more obvious to us as readers, and Woolf identifies
subversions to us as well through Clarissa. It becomes apparent in Mrs
Dalloway that the modern gender scripts we see are going against the
grain of the United Kingdom’s national identity. We see this through the
death of Septimus, as he stands as a final strand of wartime Edwardian
gender scripts that are discarded in Woolf’s modernist narrative.
In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four we see the concerns Woolf
has raised in Mrs Dalloway fully manifest. Anxieties of gender shifts in the
United Kingdom are supressed and restrained, for fear of female figures
moving outside of gender scripts and creating regressed men such as
Jonathan Harker and Septimus Smith. To avoid losing androcentric
ideologies Orwell supresses portrayals of gender in his novel by creating
the world in the text as a third order simulacra. We are convinced that
both men and women have regressed to the point that they are equal. By
neutralising the tensions between masculinity and femininity, Orwell
temporarily prevents modern women from emerging. However, the text
restores a recognisable social order through the rediscovery of the mutual
function of sex. In doing this Julia is prematurely established as a
subverted, dominant woman. As the novel progresses she reverts to a
domesticated woman we can associate with the likes of Clarissa Dalloway
and Mina Harker. Winston rediscovers his masculinity as he goes from
being repulsed by Julia to finding her feminine and attractive. As a result,
Nineteen Eighty-Four acts as a response to the gender shifts in Dracula

39
and Mrs Dalloway, and acknowledges that movements out of prescribed
gender scripts will happen, but that societal anxiety towards this issue is
also inevitable.
To conclude, the exploration I have conducted into gender shifts
has provided insight into the development of modern women. Dracula,
Mrs Dalloway and Nineteen Eighty-Four all acknowledge that women have
become more educated, independent, powerful, and in some cases
masculine, but they also capture public concerns. Nevertheless, we see
women in all three novels break preconceptions of prescribed gender roles
inherited from the Victorian period. The effect this has on us is that it
forces us to reconsider preconceptions we approach literature with. This is
vital when considering the presentation of the sexes in modern literature,
as the thematic concerns of more modern texts often challenge readers’
preconceptions.
In this dissertation I have focused upon movements of women in
the twentieth century with a positive outlook. Although informative, there
are also potential research aspects to the suffering of men during this
period as a result of gender shifts in post-war environments, which I have
touched upon. I am also aware that the positivity I have focused upon is
half of the spectrum of women’s plight for equality in the twentieth
century, and know that there is potential to research defeats that women
suffer, such as Julia’s loss in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Partnered together
with this dissertation there would be substance to argue whether women
ultimately win the battle against modernity in the twentieth century.

40
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