Conclusion: The Limits of Oppositionality through Victorian Representations of Intimate Violence

Abstract

This book has made three primary claims about the representation of intimate violence against women during the Victorian period. First, it was inherently contradictory in nature; there is a discernible tension between exposure and concealment when it comes to depictions of brutality in intimate relationships. Second, this tension at times facilitates a level of subversion inasmuch as it calls attention to the culturally unspeakable aspects of intimacy, undermining the notion that the intimate or the private exists discretely from public life and blurring the boundaries related to class, gender, and race via the suffering woman’s body. That is, vulnerable female corporeality points beyond the woman question to hierarchies of class, narrative/authorial status, and institutional authority. Third, this phenomenon is pervasive; it occurs across genres intended for varied reading demographics and produces incredibly diverse meanings related to women and violence as a result.