GISSING'S "DEMOS": LATE-VICTORIAN VALUES AND THE DISPLACEMENT OF CONJUGAL LOVE

How the economics, the class divisions, and the values of late-Victorian England affect women and marriage is one of Gissing's central themes in fiction. In Demos (1886), Gissing shows through his portrayal of three women: Emma, a working-class girl; Alice, a bourgeoise arriviste; and the heroine Adela, a young lady with close connections to the landed gentry, that women from all classes are victimized by a basically coercive society. The novel is additionally interesting because it suggests that the heroine, urged into marrying a man she does not love, mainly for reasons of money, is driven to a disturbed erotic experience. (PS)