CALM AND BLEAKNESS MAKES FALLEN WOMEN: SPECIAL REFERENCE WITH GASKELL’S LIZZIE LEIGH

Gaskell’s fiction was an outgrowth of her philanthropy. Through her social work and personal experiences, Gaskell became cognizant of the many problems in society, and she determined to resolve those problems. In fact, Gaskell judged her own fiction not on artistic or literary merits, but on the social message it relayed. While the plots of “Lizzie Leigh” (1850) and Ruth (1853) focused upon the fallen woman, other works such as Mary Barton (1848) also covered issues of fallenness to a lesser degree. Gaskell kept revisiting the theme, and continued to revise her understanding of fallenness with each new work. Using the traditional fallen woman trope but embedding it with new meaning, Gaskell forwarded a new understanding of fallenness and social blame. This paper takes Gaskell’s “Lizzie Leigh” and various critics’ view on this work. This paper also attempts to ensure that calm and bleakness play a major factor in the initial or continued fall of the women.