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This dissertation attempts to trace hereditary motifs in the novels of Charles Dickens and to relate these motifs to broader concerns--specifically Dickens's depiction of the formation of the self, his understanding of history and of the role of time Towards this end, I offer an historical overview of scientific and popular thinking on heredity, and suggest how some of these notions were translated into Dickens's fiction. The discussion of hereditary themes in the novels falls into two broad categories--the private and the public. / In the first of these, I argue that Dickens tended to define positive moral qualities, such as goodness, as hereditable. At the same time, he was reluctant to portray negative characteristics, such as criminality or insanity as being amenable to hereditary transmission. This assumption of a moral basis to heredity had ramifications for Dickens's understanding of human nature which, in turn spill over into his depiction of the broader public issues associated with heredity--its relationship to class, to race, and to history. / The very last section of the thesis focuses on the Darwinian revolution. There I argue that Dickens's attitude towards the importance of hereditary endowment changed after the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859. I suggest that Darwin's book prompted Dickens to rethink his earlier deterministic approach to the problem of human identity. After 1859, Dickens jettisons heredity entirely as a factor in the formation of the self and replaces it with environment and experience. The last novels displace the Dickensian metaphors of hidden kinship and universal connection--both of which are related to heredity--and put in their place, the thematics of dispersal and disintegration.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1955. / Typescript. Vita. Title from PDF title page (viewed Nov. 6, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-288). Online version of the print original.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1955. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 275-288).

Eugenic discourse is apparent in the work of many writers in the early 20th century, but is especially explicit in D.H. Lawrence's novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover, as well as his private letters. A close reading of these works illustrates Lawrence's attempts to grapple with his advocacy of eugenic.