"No shadow of another parting": Unrequited Love, Stalking, and Dickens's Rejected Men

Abstract:Throughout his fiction, Dickens's work depicts predatory behavior that could be defined as stalking or obsessional following. Recurrent in the plots and subplots are disturbing instances of unwanted intrusion that interrogate the act of stalking by various individuals. Many such encounters focus on intimacy-seeking male suitors who not only pursue love interests but become fixated to an irreversible degree, even after being rejected. Dickens positions such men throughout his novels, initially caricaturing them as fools or hopeless romantics before developing their characters with greater complexity and critical emphasis. Ultimately such rejected men are foregrounded to the point that their passion, pathology, and violence play a central role in the author's narratives.