Author: Norris Cara
Publisher: Routledge Ltd
ISSN: 1050-9585
Source: European Romantic Review, Vol.17, Iss.2, 2006-04, pp. : 197-203
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Abstract
On May 23, 1794, the bill to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act became law; its suspension was one of the measures championed by Pitt to give the government more power to combat the dangers they saw posed by organizations like the London Corresponding Society. This particular reaction to fears about the contagiousness of French revolutionary consciousness plays a structural role in the plot of The Borderers: the suspension of habeas corpus in Wordsworth's tragedy produces a proliferation of narratives that speak around the suspect, without addressing their accusations to him or her directly. This essay investigates Wordsworth's representation of the social paranoia arising from the suspension of habeas corpus and its manifestation in the proliferation of narratives that transform what should be a direct interaction (question and answer between judge and accused) into an explosion of doublings that repeat the first misuse of power in the play's backstory.
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