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Miss Milner's Return from the Crypt: Mourning in Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story
Author(s) -
O'CONNELL MICHELLE
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2011.00455.x
Subject(s) - sophistication , sensibility , psychoanalysis , reading (process) , simple (philosophy) , grief , masculinity , literature , art , history , art history , psychology , aesthetics , philosophy , epistemology , linguistics , psychotherapist
This article argues that focusing more closely on the character of Elmwood in Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story , particularly in volumes III and IV, offers new insights into the novel and demonstrates great sophistication on Inchbald's part in the creation of this figure. The article discloses Inchbald's complex exploration of Elmwood's frustrated grief, which is illuminated by reading it in the light of Freud's and Derrida's observations on the processes of mourning. This mourning is, in part, read in the light of recent critical investigations into eighteenth‐century masculinity and masculine sensibility.