Abstract
This chapter explores various forms of empathy, a vicarious sharing of affect, in Ellen Wood’s East Lynne (1861). It first shows that empathy is linked positively to femininity as women’s supposed ability to feel more easily than men makes them compassionate individuals in the world of the novel. Yet Wood also presents empathy in the form of masculine anger via a rowdy, working-class, and all-male mob. Rather than read this scene simply as a form of working-class revenge, MacDonald argues that the mob acts out the desires of the novel’s upper-class characters. Thus, in both cases, the sharing of affect leads to social cohesion—even if this cohesion comes about through the work demanded of female and working-class bodies.
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MacDonald, T. (2020). ‘Duck him!’: Private Feelings, Public Interests, and Ellen Wood’s East Lynne. In: Gavin, A., de la L. Oulton, C. (eds) British Women's Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, Volume 2. British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840-1940, vol 2. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38528-6_3
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