Duran, Gülcan2023-09-132023-09-132023DURAN, Gülcan. Gender Performativity in George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Master’s Thesis, Nevşehir, 2023.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12695/2214This thesis aims to examine the depiction and performance of gender roles in George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, using Judith Butler’s theory of performativity as the primary lens for analysis. The novels are analysed not only as Victorian texts reflecting the dominant gender ideologies of their time but also through the lens of contemporary gender theory, thus bridging the historical and the modern in a comprehensive discourse. Building on Butler’s argument that gender is a social construct that is repeatedly performed and reinforced through social norms, this study explores how the female characters in these novels challenge or reinforce gender norms through their performances. Therefore, the introduction discusses the representation of women and gender roles in the selected novels and contextualises them within the Victorian era. It also engages with the ongoing academic debates on sex and gender, bringing together various perspectives that emphasise the socially constructed nature of gender. The first chapter focuses on gender roles in George Eliot’s Middlemarch, showing how women are forced to conform to a predetermined model of femininity. It emphasises how limited opportunities and education are crucial to women's identities, lives, and destinies. The second chapter analyses the struggles of women oppressed and exploited by men and social structures in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Through an in-depth analysis of Tess’s life and the challenges she faces, this chapter shows how gender roles are imposed and maintained by social norms and how non-conforming women are marginalised as a result. This thesis reveals how writers of different genders reflect, with slight variations, the normative gender roles in the Victorian male-dominated society and portrays gender identity as unstable, artificially constructed and inseparable from historical context.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessGeorge EliotMiddlemarchThoms HardyTess of the D’UrbervillesJudith ButlerPerformativityPatriarchyMaster Thesis