Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch

This thesis explores identical twins as a type of doppelganger in Victorian sensation fiction, by focusing on the identical twin characters in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Trail of the Serpent (1861) and Wilkie Collins’s Poor Miss Finch (1872). The thesis investigates how nineteenth-century theories...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ng, Kai Xin
Other Authors: Tamara Silvia Wagner
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68583
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author Ng, Kai Xin
author2 Tamara Silvia Wagner
author_facet Tamara Silvia Wagner
Ng, Kai Xin
author_sort Ng, Kai Xin
collection NTU
description This thesis explores identical twins as a type of doppelganger in Victorian sensation fiction, by focusing on the identical twin characters in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Trail of the Serpent (1861) and Wilkie Collins’s Poor Miss Finch (1872). The thesis investigates how nineteenth-century theories of physiognomy affect the classification of identical twins as doppelgangers, the overturning of common beliefs about identical twins, as well as the significance of the death of one or both of the twins in each novel. Building up on these arguments, the thesis will further illustrate that, although Collins’s and Braddon’s portrayals of identical twins in their novels differ, their ultimate aim is the same – to criticise the lack of appreciation for the unique individual in Victorian society, as well as to emphasise that the power to change Victorian society should begin at the level of the individual.
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spelling ntu-10356/685832019-12-10T11:28:04Z Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch Ng, Kai Xin Tamara Silvia Wagner School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Humanities This thesis explores identical twins as a type of doppelganger in Victorian sensation fiction, by focusing on the identical twin characters in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Trail of the Serpent (1861) and Wilkie Collins’s Poor Miss Finch (1872). The thesis investigates how nineteenth-century theories of physiognomy affect the classification of identical twins as doppelgangers, the overturning of common beliefs about identical twins, as well as the significance of the death of one or both of the twins in each novel. Building up on these arguments, the thesis will further illustrate that, although Collins’s and Braddon’s portrayals of identical twins in their novels differ, their ultimate aim is the same – to criticise the lack of appreciation for the unique individual in Victorian society, as well as to emphasise that the power to change Victorian society should begin at the level of the individual. Master of Arts 2016-05-27T05:06:08Z 2016-05-27T05:06:08Z 2016 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68583 en 102 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Humanities
Ng, Kai Xin
Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch
title Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch
title_full Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch
title_fullStr Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch
title_full_unstemmed Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch
title_short Identical twins as doppelgangers: braddon's the trail of the serpent and collins's poor miss finch
title_sort identical twins as doppelgangers braddon s the trail of the serpent and collins s poor miss finch
topic DRNTU::Humanities
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68583
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