Sarah Waters: Victorian Novel Fingersmith Final Paper

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Fingersmith
In the past few years, Sarah Waters has received so much attention due to her construction of a historical narrative. Her Victorian novel Fingersmith deconstructs patriarchal norms with the characters struggle to establish their gender identities in a society where heterosexist codes are the norm. Analyzing Sarah Water’s novel Fingersmith, this paper attempts to explore how neo-Victorian genre paves way for the re-imagination of norms about gender and sexual identities. Utilizing the subversion and class-queerness, the paper demonstrates how the protagonists, Sue and Maud have ignored the patriarchal heterosexual norms to identify their own identities. Sarah Waters’ novel initiates a research on the same sex desires in the neo-Victorian society due to the intimacy and crises of identity portrayed by the protagonists. Fingersmith has inspired significant explorations n class-queerness and subversion in the society. Despite addressing critical issues during the neo-Victorian era, Waters’ story reflects the perceptions we have about ourselves through some of the imposed narratives. It also demonstrates the homosexual relationships and the struggle the victims undergo to have a position in the society. Homosexual has been used as a catalyst that deconstructs some of the patriarchal structures in the society.
The novel Fingersmith features the protagonists Sue and Maud. Sue is described as an orphan girl who was brought up by a family of criminals in London. Her family had a frequent visitor, Gentleman, whom Sue pronounced as “Ge’mun” who made an offer to her that she would not have refused. Gentleman, set up a scheme that brought Sue and Maud Lilly, the second protagonist in the novel together. Maud as a rich heiress who lived with her uncle in a mansion at the countryside. The objective of the scheme was to set Sue s Maud’s maid as one of the attempts of Gentleman gaining her fortune by marrying her. Maud’s fortune is only available when she gets married. The plan was to place Maud in an asylum so that Gentleman can get the inheritance and pay Sue two thousand pounds. However, the plan did not unveil as it was laid out, Sue gets double-crossed and ends up in the asylum with Gentleman and Maud on the run.
Through the exploration of the recurring themes such as subversion and class-queerness, it is evident that the protagonists have been forced to follow specific identities in the society that favors heterosexuality, which is built on the idea of gender binary. After realizing that their identities are not stable and that their history is fabricated, is when they decide to overcome the patriarchal oppression and construct their own identities. Sarah Waters succeeds in un-constructing the female sexuality from the patrichal norms without tagging the protagonists to the feminine requirements as provided by the gender binary notion.
We are produced within the available discourses of our society. However, in the novel, one is not but one becomes. The protagonists construct their identities from their fabricated histories and “become” the truth of the stories. However, after identifying their true identities, the protagonists li...