"Mimic sorrows": masochism and the gendering of pain in Victorian melodrama.(Critical Essay) From: Studies in the Novel | Date: March 22, 2003| Author: Rosenman, Ellen Bayuk | COPYRIGHT 2003 University of North Texas. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Melodrama, Sally Mitchell says, is "a world of suffering" (45). Its intensified emotions and apparently simple moral scheme of vice and virtue seem to highlight, with special clarity, the pathos of the victim. And yet, melodramatic suffering is anything but simple. Often taken for passivity, it can be a potent, if encoded, form of agency; while popularly identified with women, it can serve the interests of masculinity as well. A complex psychic and cultural phenomenon, masochism pr...