THE FEMALE MONSTERS OR THE MONSTROUS OTHERS: GEORGE ELIOT AND HER HETTY SORREL IN ADAM BEDE

In the Victorian society, the fallen woman was identified with the monstrous Other as in the case of George Eliot’s Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede as well as the author herself. Both Eliot and her Hetty were monsters of their society as they violated the Victorian norms. Through the tragic story of Hetty Sorrel, Eliot depicts how the victimized female becomes a monstrous Other. This paper asserts that Eliot creates Hetty as her double to reflect her own unrest and anger in the conservative Victorian society. The paper also examines how, as a product of Eliot’s complex mind, Hetty takes two polar opposite roles throughout the novel: a monster who contravenes the Victorian rules and a monstrous Other who is the victim of Victorian ethics and principles. Accordingly, Hetty becomes Eliot’s madwoman who mirrors her own wrath and dilemma between the traditional role attached to woman and her rebellion against patriarchy.