"They Simply Act": Muscular Christian and Domestic Soldiers in Charles Dickens's and Wilkie Collins's The Perils of Certain English Prisoners

Authors

Kathryn SumsionFollow

Keywords

Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, colonial government, military, domestic soldier, muscular Christian

Abstract

This paper discussion of Charles Dickens's and Wilkie Collins's use of domestic soldiers and muscular Christian soldiers in the 1857 Christmas novella,The Perils of Certain English Prisoners. It covers the frustration among Victorian society and especially the two authors regarding colonial government after the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. They bring the military forward as an alternative source of governing colonial power. Dickens characterizes ideal military power in the form of muscular Christian soldiers, while Collins favors domestic soldiers. In the end, both military roles are proved to be necessary in colonial governance.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Sumsion, Kathryn, ""They Simply Act": Muscular Christian and Domestic Soldiers in Charles Dickens's and Wilkie Collins's The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" (2019). Student Works. 268.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub/268

Document Type

Class Project or Paper

Publication Date

2019-06-17

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

English

University Standing at Time of Publication

Senior

Course

295

Copyright Status

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright