An Ecocritical Reading of Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil

Swagata Chowdhury

Published in Literary Oracle — Vol.8, Issue I, May 2024

Keywords: Victorian, Ecocriticism, Ecology, Toxic, Compassion, Mutuality.

Abstract:

The article reads Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil with the critical tool of ecocriticism. Victorian England witnessed the high rise of industrialism and mechanized culture that deeply affected the ecological balance and had a profound impact on the lives of the common masses. The article examines Benjamin Disraeli’s novel Sybil with the critical tool of ecocriticism to explore his concerns and criticisms over environmental depletion, toxic environment due to industrial pollution, the suffering of factory workers, and unhealthy living conditions. His description of the contaminated environment, depleted ecology, endangered human life, and exploitation due to the huge gap between the rich and the poor damaging mutual social relations reflect the novel’s deeper ecological mode. He kept his faith in humane qualities like compassion, mutuality, and a sense of responsibility in the characters to regain some positivity in ecology for a cohesive socialecological existence.

https://doi-ds.org/doilink/06.2024-42792685/LiteraryOracle/2024/V8/I1/A17