Female Victorian Novelists and the Prodigal Son

The novels of three female Victorian novelists are compared in this chapter: George Eliot’s Adam Bede; Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South; and Margaret Oliphant’s Kirsteen. From different religious perspectives (agnosticism, Unitarianism, and a broad orthodoxy) each connects to the Prodigal Son in different ways as they seek to explore the conflict in their characters between family responsibilities and the drive for independence. The role of the Bible, and of parables in particular, in each novel is discussed, before the identification of characters with figures in the parable of the Prodigal Son is compared. It is argued that each novelist reads the motivation behind the Prodigal’s leaving differently, and raises the question of whether or not his departure was justified.