Italian Men as Other

This issue of All The Year Round features an essay entitled Italian Men and Brothers that presents a viewpoint on otherness through its characterizations of Italian soldiers. The writer of the essay claims that while English people generally have the capacity to look down on Italian people, as shown through quotes from an English friend, they should be viewed as in no way inferior to English people themselves. The economic element of otherness is characterized here, which as Cindy Lacom states, is "a resistance to an economic and colonial enterprise" (Lacom 548), and emphasized most notably in the essay's discussion on tax-paying. The author's friend, with a worldview clearly focussed on English pride, claims that Italiens "hate this constitutional government, and grumbly terribly at the taxes" (Dickens 109), to which the author replies "What then?... They pay them" (Dickens 109). The remainder of the essay takes a sympathetic position towards Italian people, clearly opposing the dominant viewpoint of portraying them in a negative light as other.

Betteredge's feelings towards Roseanna, as shown in the first pages of chapter four, are comparable to the essay's propositions in the way that otherness is sympathized with. Similar to how the essay acts against widespread English prejudice towards Italian people, Betteredge acts against the prejudice of the other workers of the house who treat Roseanna and her illness in a negative light. All The Year Round, through this essay and the chapters of The Moonstone, seems to be pushing a more progressive view towards otherness and disability that regards it with sympathy.

Works Cited:

Dickens, Charles. "Italian Men and Brother's." All The Year Round 11 January 1868, pp. 109-112.

Lacom, Cindy. “‘The Time Is Sick and out of Joint’: Physical Disability in Victorian England.” PMLA, vol. 120, no. 2, 2005, pp. 547–552.