Muted Group Theory and Amazon Utopia in Elizabeth Gaskell s Cranford

Elizabeth Gaskell starts her favorite and the most charming novel, Cranford, saying: In the first place, Cranford is in the possession of Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rate are women . The narrator represents a community of women, mainly widows and spinsters who are living in a country separate from men. These women are atypical of ordinary women in their society because they are in possession which is not an ordinary feature for women in the Victorian era. This kind of separateness has caused a longtime discussion between critics to either consider this novel as a representation of a Female Utopia which is devoid of men control and is only under the authority of women or just see it as a female community separate from the neighbor city of Drumble which is the residue of men where, according to the common ideology of separate spheres in the Victorian society, is superior to women community. This paper will first study Ardener s Muted Group Theory in comparison with Separate Spheres ideology, then it delineates the Amazon Utopia by scrutinizing Amazons in mythology and defining Utopia and the features of a female Utopia to see how this feminine society respond to these so called opposing theories

Muted Group Theory and Amazon Utopia in Elizabeth Gaskell s Cranford Keywords:

Muted Group Theory , Amazon Utopia , Cranford , society of women