Thou Art the Man by Mary Elizabeth Braddon [1]: Scoundrel Fathers, Fugue States, and the Problematized Real in Victorian Sensation Novels | Chapter 5 | Selected Topics in Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. 8

 With Thou Art the Man [1], Victorian phenomenon novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon subverts gender boundaries and generic expectations by exposing the father as a dishonest scoundrel who resorts to murder and then conceals his secret to protect his position in society. This article looks at the storey surrounding the revelation of the father's true nature, as well as the female protagonist's growing knowledge of how reality isn't always what it seems, and how fugue states, which appear to be irrational, actually point to the truth. Braddon's storey inside a narrative, the protagonist's diaries, establishes a bedrock narrative of revelation, but the characters' narratives that surround it weave threads of deception, secrets, and falsehoods, implying that the Victorian world of appearances was not to be trusted.

Author(S) Details

Susan Smith Nash
The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma, USA.

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