Bodies in Service: Representations of the Servant’s Body in Two Victorian Novels

Abstract

The article discusses the representation of the servant’s body in George Moore’s Esther Waters and the Mayhew brothers’ The Greatest Plague of Life: Or, The Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant. It considers the various uses that the servant’s body is put to, focusing in particular on the figures of the wetnurse (Esther Waters) and the footman (The Greatest Plague of Life). The article explores the numerous acts of appropriation and commodification of the servant’s body – including its costing – and its peculiar vulnerability. It also considers instances of the body’s intransigence: its refusal to abide by class boundaries and its subversion of the purposes it is required to fulfil. By addressing these issues, the article demonstrates the intimate connections which Victorian fiction traced between problems of class and social identity and problems of the body.