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Abstract

The Nemesis of Neglect by John Tenniel is one of the most well-known images of East London in the 1880s. The cartoon is a response to the Whitechapel murders of 1888, and much of the poem which accompanies the image is concerned not with the murders, but with miasma, dirt and pollution within the slum. The Nemesis is a reminder that, despite the clear skies during the murders, many associate the figure of Jack the Ripper, and of Whitechapel with fog. Not only that, but behind the very gothic image of the phantom stalking the slum lies another figure, that of Old King Coal and the Fog Demon, drawn by Tenniel in 1880. In asking what connects these two cultural images: the cartoon phantom and the fog-bound murderer, this dissertation researches Victorian ideas about miasma, air pollution, and the deadly London fogs.
Using a variety of texts, including newspapers, novels and short stories, this dissertation will make use of ecocritical work on Victorian fog fiction, and other commentary on historical ideas of pollution. Research will be done into reactions to London smog, including apocalyptic fog fictions which relate to ecophobia and the fear of nature as expressed in these works.
This dissertation demonstrates that the Nemesis was tied into conversations about bad air, immorality and criminality that eventually became associated with industrial pollution. It also reveals that London fogs in the 1880s were devastating, with a high mortality rate that caused anxiety to Londoners, and found expression in apocalyptic fiction that was also connected to volcanic disaster narratives. As the new century dawned, many Victorians started to see the fog as a killer, and deadly ally of the murderer represented by the Nemesis.

Course: Victorian Gothic - MA - P2927FTD

Date Deposited: 2024-01-31

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14343.html