The Function of Provisional Freedom in George Gissing’s The Nether World

The female characters in The Nether World are not only oppressed or marginalised, but also share moments when they are temporarily rescued. This seems contradictory to their difficult working-class lives, but there exist some critical points in which their miserable positions, ironically, give them provisional freedom. In this paper, I will focus on the female characters in the novel, and consider how they obtain provisional freedom in their lives and how it functions in the story