| Abstrakt: |
According to the eighteenth-century writer Edward Young, we are all born originals, but apelike imitation soon destroys our “mental Individuality” and reduces us to copies. Mary Robinson explores Young's original/copy dichotomy in several of her works, and she often portrays the figure of the imitative self as conflicted and unnatural. Gertrude St. Leger, the protagonist of Robinson's epistolary novel The False Friend (1799), becomes an eighteenth-century copy of the heartbroken and suicidal Sappho of Ovid's Heroides and compulsively reenacts her mother's tragic life. Protean characters like the villainous Mr Treville become consumed by the parts they perform and at moments of crisis are forced to confront their inner emptiness and lack of authenticity. In The False Friend, Robinson suggests that in order for individuals to retain at least some control over their lives and avert despair, they must develop selfhoods strong enough to resist the pressure of social conformity and the manipulations of chameleonic tricksters. The novel's most viably authentic character is Miss Stanley, whose imitativeness is tempered by an enlightened contrarianism and a refusal to be dominated by others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
