The fallen/unfallen woman in Manzoni and Dickens

Abstract

Both I promessi sposi and Bleak House allude to, but do not fully respect, the well-established convention of doubling the good, usually fair, heroine with a dark counterpart. Although Manzoni's Lucia and Gertrude are thus constructed, according to Verina R. Jones, 'come antitetiche e identiche al tempo stesso,' the one being the specular negative image of the other, both are dark ladies. In Bleak House the corresponding figures are Esther Summerson and Lady Dedlock, who also share the same, probably dark, coloration along with the other features of their resemblance to one another. With regard to the convention, the good or unfallen woman may thereby emerge, paradoxically, as the more transgressive character. Describing the situation in Manzoni, Jones observes: 'e Gertrude, il personaggio ribelle, che si conforrna al canone, al quale invece trasgredisce Lucia, timida e sottomessa. ' But neither Lucia nor Esther is so entirely timid and submissive, and one of the effects of the association with her double is to enforce in each a guilty impression of her own aggressiveness.