夏洛特‧達絲《洛佛羅雅》中主角維多利亞的性格塑成與瓦解

Charlotte Dacre’s Zofloya depicts Victoria’s progress from a spoiled girl to a relentless murderess, who finally sells her soul to the Devil. This thesis explores the reasons why Victoria has such a downfall. Chapter Two uses John Locke’s and Mary Wollstonecraft’s educational ideas to investigate the process and the problems of Victoria’s upbringing. It will be argued that Victoria’s education has a direct effect on her character formation, which leads to her moral defects and emotional insecurity. Chapter Three traces how Victoria’s soul is given over to the Devil. Victoria is gradually snared by Zofloya because of her own moral defects which Zofloya also caters to. Additionally, Victoria gradually regards Zofloya as her lover; therefore, she values what Zofloya suggests and practices what he advises like a submissive wife. Chapter Four compares and contrasts the character developments of Victoria and her brother Leonardo to discuss whether Victoria’s mother should be fully held accountable for Victoria’s depravity. Since Victoria gradually relinquishes her inborn good quality in her character and her criminal acts mostly come from her own exercise of free will, her perdition should not be wholly ascribed to her mother‘s imprudent example; instead, Victoria should take responsibility for the crimes she has voluntarily committed. In this sense, Dacre suggests that a person falls into evil due to a combination of many factors rather than one single cause.