ギャスケルの「乳母物語」における幻想

抄録

Gaskell's ‘The Old Nurse's Story’ appeared in the Christmas issue Household Words, which was edited by Charles Dickens. The end of this ghost story was criticized by Dickens. But despite his suggestions, Gaskell refused to rewrite it. No satisfactory explanation is given in two novelists' points of view. Perhaps, however, Gaskell is more concerned with a pressure placed upon women's sexuality, whileDickens pays more attention to the readers' reaction.
It is out of jealousy that Grace Furnivall reveals to her father the secret of her sister Maude's marriage to a foreign musician, and the existence of their daughter. Consequently, her father drives Maude and her baby on a snowy winter night. After their death, a ghost child tries to attract Rosamond, the descendant of the Furnivalls. Rosamond is saved by the strength of the nurse's love. At the climax, the ghosts of thechild, Maude and Lord Furnivall appear. Butold Gracedies paralyzed as the result of being obliged to watch the phantom in the terrible scene. It is in this scene hat Gaskell employs the term “phantom” instead of “ghost”.
Through the duality of the text which is organized around two oppositions, the real and the phantom, this novel involves a conflict between awoman's own impulses and male demands. Female characters are not regarded as passive objects of romantic ove.
The purpose of this paper is to reconsider The Old Nurse's Story in relation to Freudian psychoanalysis concept of libido. This reading leads us to find that Gaskell aises broader questions concerning the sexual rights of women.