Surviving the century: “fallen women” and identity in the work of Guiomar Torresão and Camille Delaville

Abstract

The oppressive nineteenth-century morals determined the social marginalisation of women whose behaviour did not abide by the rules and was seen as transgressive and dangerous to the social order. Being marginalised also meant being erased from the family’s records and undergoing a process of expropriation of their identities as honourable women, in order to become “fallen women”. This article aims to analyse how guilt, identity and memory are linked in two female characters who are the protagonists of two nineteenth-century female authored novels: “A Dama das Violetas” by Guiomar Torresão and La loi qui tue by Camille Delaville. These novels approach the problem posed by slander against women and the effects this had over their reputations, especially in adultery accusations. Both works aim to expose the wrongs of nineteenth-century society, in which women occupied a place of subalternity, and were subject to male domination.