TY - JOUR T1 - The Fall of Victorian Heavenly Family: Female Villains in Wilkie Collins’s Armadale (1866) and Louisa May Alcott’s Behind A Mask (1866) TT - Viktorya Dönemi Aile Yuvasının Çöküşü: Wilkie Collins’in Armadale (1866) ve Louisa May Alcott’un Behind A Mask (1866) Romanlarındaki Kadın Kötüler AU - Canlı, Mustafa PY - 2025 DA - August Y2 - 2025 DO - 10.29110/soylemdergi.1695963 JF - Söylem Filoloji Dergisi JO - Söylem PB - Yusuf ÇETİN WT - DergiPark SN - 2548-0502 SP - 1028 EP - 1045 VL - 10 IS - 2 LA - en AB - The Victorian era in the history of English culture is primarily famous for emphasizing happiness in family life and women as angels in the house. This paradisiacal vision of the family was apparent in literature, without a doubt, as it was portrayed, encouraged, and polished in novels by the authors of the earlier and middle parts of the Victorian era. However, by the end of the middle of the century, Wilkie Collins’s novels started a tradition in literature called the “sensation novels.” This genre collapsed the view of angelic women in the house: Intrigues, murders, poisoning, ambition, and all the evil were unleashed in the society. Scandals revealed the darkest sides of the “heavenly” Victorian family. This article compares the novels Armadale by Collins and Behind A Mask by Alcott regarding their creation of evil women villains, style, and attitude toward the corruption in the Victorian family, marriage, and class issues. In sensation novels, the transgressive nature of self-assertive heroines challenged the conventional portrayal of women; sensation heroines were criminals, madwomen, and domestic fiends. Therefore, the core of the family, the woman, was portrayed as evil, and the families of Victorian society were in danger. KW - Wilkie Collins KW - Louisa May Alcott KW - Victorian era KW - sensation novel KW - female villains. N2 - İngiliz kültür tarihinde Viktorya dönemi, aile yaşamındaki mutluluğun önemsendiği ve kadınların evdeki melekler olduğunun vurgulanması ile meşhurdur. Bu aile vizyonu, Viktorya döneminin ilk zamanlarındaki yazarların romanlarında tasvir edildiği, teşvik edildiği ve parlatıldığı için şüphesiz edebiyatta da belirgindi. Ancak yüzyılın ortalarında Wilkie Collins’in romanları edebiyatta “sansasyon romanları” olarak adlandırılan bir geleneği başlattı. Bu türün romanlarının içerdiği entrikalar, cinayetler, zehirlenmeler, hırs ve tüm kötülükler romanlar ile anlatıldı ve evdeki melek kadın idolü yıkıldı. Skandallar, Viktorya döneminin “cennetvari” ailesinin en karanlık yönlerini ortaya çıkardı. Bu makalenin amacı, Collins’in Armadale ve Alcott’un Behind A Mask romanlarını, yarattıkları kötü kadın karakterler, üsluplarını ve Viktorya dönemi ailesindeki yozlaşma, evlilik ve sınıf meselelerine yaklaşımları açısından karşılaştırmaktır. Sansasyon romanlarında, kendine güvenen kadın kahramanların sınırları zorlayan doğası, geleneksel kadın tasvirlerine meydan okumuş; suçlular, deli kadınlar ve aile içi şeytanlar olarak tasvir edilmişlerdir. Bu nedenle, ailenin çekirdeği olan kadın kötü olarak tasvir edilmiş ve Viktorya dönemi cennetvari ailesi artık dağılma tehdidi altındadır. CR - Alcott, Louise May (2004). Behind a Mask, or A Woman’s Power. London: Hesperus. CR - Armstrong, Nancy (1987). Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CR - Bachman, Maria and Don Richard Cox (2002). “Wilkie Collins’s Villainous Miss Gwilt, Criminality, and the Unspeakable Truth”. 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