Gathering ‘stray and benighted curs’: Pet-keeping and Masculinity in Lady Audley’s Secret

In this essay, I will argue that Robert’s relationship with his dogs is consistent with the development of pet-keeping in the Victorian period and that viewing Robert’s character in light of his humaneness toward animals offers an intermediate space between a binary approach to his feminization and/...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nineteenth-Century gender studies 2022-04, Vol.18 (1)
Main Author: Rick, Sarah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Animal welfare
Literary characters
Literature
Masculinity
Novels
Pets
Prostheses
Society
Victorian period
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Summary:In this essay, I will argue that Robert’s relationship with his dogs is consistent with the development of pet-keeping in the Victorian period and that viewing Robert’s character in light of his humaneness toward animals offers an intermediate space between a binary approach to his feminization and/or his development into a more traditional form of masculinity. [...]Braddon’s apparent preoccupation with humaneness contributes to her novel’s “Englishness.” [ 6 ] The animal welfare movement led to the rise of pet-keeping in all English classes, and scholarship has sought to understand the role that pets, especially dogs, took in Victorian society and literature. According to Chez, “Those who were identified as humane would feel appropriately sympathetic at the sight of another’s suffering and appalled by its intentional infliction on a helpless being; the inhumane, in contrast, exhibited a diminished capacity to feel certain feelings in the face of animal suffering and were no longer recognized as wholly human” (7).
ISSN:1556-7524