보이는게 다가 아니다

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to utilize John Fowles, A.S. Byatt, and Sarah Waters’s astounding neo-Victorian works that invite us to explore the Victorian past and to awaken the arrogance of the modern contemporary, whose perception stays on the surface level of appearance. Here arrogance refers to the stubborn conceptions and understandings deeply rooted in us that are shaped by education, socio-economic statuses, relationships, and societal norms and obligations. Arrogance also includes established superiority; the belief that we, as moderns, are better than them, the Victorians. This study reminds individuals of the choice to free themselves from their limited as well as shallow depth of knowledge and understanding. The protagonists show us that this New World is only found through questioning the world and the self; they are invited by the antagonists, that is, the liberal or anachronistic Victorians, to challenge their core beliefs and values. This study touches upon two major themes: appearance and freedom. As the title states and quoted from Byatt’s Angels and Insects (1992), “things are not what they seem”, the texts reveal the focus on what is seen, that is, the appearance. The protagonists’ tendency to perceive the world as, “things are what they seem”, for instance, the fixed notion of pure and impure or hero and villain that is analyzed in chapters two and three, does not only apply to Victorians but also to us. We miss the other side of the “things” due to the one angle we deploy in viewing the world and ourselves. The first chapter guides us to see the arduous process to the new world of freedom, and challenges the individuals to be free from their limited understanding and knowledge solely shaped by societal influences. The objective of this study is to reveal how the three authors represent a retrospective view by providing the Victorian and the contemporary view that mirror each other about the two major themes.