Sanctimonious or Sensational?
Ellen Wood, the “Good” Woman, and Maternity in East Lynne
Christine Choi
Abstract
This article considers Mrs Henry (Ellen) Wood’s public persona as a morally conservative author to be a calculated strategy designed to align with Victorian ideals of virtue and respectability, thereby ensuring the commercial success of her works. This is demonstrated through an analysis of East Lynne, where Wood’s narrative strategy of blending sanctimony with sensationalism both conforms to and subtly critiques the era’s moral expectations, particularly those related to gender roles and maternal ideals. Through this lens, East Lynne emerges not merely as a moral tale but as an exploration of how the idealised feminine and maternal roles contribute to the emotional, physical, and psychological burdens placed on women. By focusing on the victimisation of women under the weight of these expectations, Wood invites readers to critically engage with and question the rigid and often oppressive ideologies of womanhood and maternity that defined female identity and motherhood, including childbirth and childrearing, during the period.
Keywords
Mrs Henry (Ellen) Wood; East Lynne; sensation fiction; womanhood; maternity; childrearing
Date of Acceptance: 7 July 2025
Date of Publication: 10 July 2025
Double Blind Peer Reviewed
Recommended Citation:
Choi, Christine. 2025. “Sanctimonious or Sensational? Ellen Wood, the ‘Good’ Woman, and Maternity in East Lynne.” Victorian Popular Fictions, 7.1: 23-37. ISSN: 2632-4253 (online) DOI: https://doi.org/10.46911/DLLI4651
Return to Contents page of VPFJ 7.1
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
