Novels of compromise: Mary Arnold Ward's response to the conflict of faith and doubt.
Item
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Title
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Novels of compromise: Mary Arnold Ward's response to the conflict of faith and doubt.
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Identifier
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AAI9530913
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identifier
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9530913
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Creator
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Rackmales, Carol Nelson.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michael Timko
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English | Religion, General
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Abstract
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Mary Arnold Ward's works offer much in the way of insight into the Victorian spiritual mind. In her novels she demonstrated that compromise was an answer to the late nineteenth century's great conflict: faith and doubt. She began her exploration of this conflict through her nonfiction writings of essays and pamphlets, moving on rather quickly into fiction. She continued to write essays, articles, and critical reviews throughout her career, and her expertise was confined not only to religion, although religion continued to be of vast interest to her and proved to be the source from which she drew many of her ideas. Her interest in, discussions of, and innovative explorations of religious subjects are the focus of this study.;Mary Ward wrote her novels in order to come to grips with the crisis of faith and doubt that was a significant feature of Victorian religious life. A liberal religionist herself, she began to examine this crisis by way of lectures and essays and later moved on to the novel because of the freedom that literary form allows. She came to view Christianity as a "literary" problem to be analyzed in the manner of literary text, and her first efforts were through nonfiction. Thus, an accurate discussion of her novels on religious themes must be grounded in her nonfiction, especially in the pamphlet "Unbelief and Sin." Ideas set forth in there are elaborated on not only in her first successful novel, Robert Elsmere, but also in The History of David Grieve and Helbeck of Bannisdale. Through these works, she gained status as an authority on religious matters. Her early essays serve as a gateway to understanding her other religious and philosophical writings and lead to better understanding of the ideas she presented in such novels as The Story of Bessie Costrell and Eleanor. Her deep interest was in defining religion for herself and for her readers, generally as a positive force for human good.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
