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TURNING MOURNING: TROLLOPE'S AMBIVALENT WIDOWS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2015

Kaelin B. C. Alexander
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Extract

Near the end of Anthony Trollope'sThe Small House at Allington (1864), the protagonist Lily Dale disagrees with her mother about the prospect of marrying Johnny Eames, an earnest, but perhaps too ardent graduate of hobbledehoyhood whom Lily finds herself both unwilling and unable to love. Having been jilted by Adolphus Crosbie, a social climber as naïve as he is disingenuous, Lily protests that marrying Johnny Eames would constitute a form of adultery. “In my heart I am married to that other man,” Lily contends, “I gave myself to him, and loved him, and rejoiced in his love” (630; ch. 57). Noting that the situation may have changed – Crosbie has since married a noble's daughter and run through her fortune – Lily nevertheless maintains that there “are things that will not have themselves buried and put out of sight, as though they had never been” (631; ch. 57).

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 607 - 620
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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