Fielding, Dickens, Gosse, Iris Murdoch and Oedipal Hamlet

by Douglas Brooks-Davies

In this work, the author uses literary theory to offer re-readings of various major texts. "Hamlet" is used as the key to understanding the psychological and narrative structures in the works discussed which include "Tom Jones", "Great Expectations" and "Father and Son". The question, why do Fielding's "Tom Jones" and Dickens' Pip in "Great Expectations" watch performances of "Hamlet?", lead the author to re-examine these and the other texts. Combining insights drawn from neo-Freudian, feminist and post-structural critical practice with historical context, he reveals the extent to which Fielding and Dickens shaped these fictions in accordance with their perceptions of the Oedipal structure of "Hamlet". He also shows how Hamlet raises the level of feminist consciousness in Fielding and Gosse and shows that for them, as well as for Dickens, the Ophelia icon is a sign of the possible redemption of women from patriarchial tyranny. The redemption of Ophelia is also, the author demonstrates, the triumphant theme of Iris Murdoch's "The Black Prince", a study of sexual difference in which Murdoch impersonates the autobiographical voice of a middle-aged writer obsessed with Shakespeare's play in order to try to rescue not just Ophelia, but the world of words for the woman writer.

214 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989