The Stigma on “the Tigress-Cub”: Late-Victorian Psychiatric Genetics and Wilkie Collins’ The Legacy of Cain

Abstract

This article explores the intersections of Victorian medicine and literature by examining medical treatises on hereditary psychosis and criminal instincts and Wilkie Collins’ The Legacy of Cain (1888). It first considers the ideas of Prosper Lucas, Bénédict A. Morel, and Henry Maudsley, focusing on the supposed role of women in perpetuating the phenomenon of human degeneration, as claimed by many Victorian physicians. Second, it analyses The Legacy of Cain as a fascinating example of the reciprocal relationship between literature and medicine. Through clinical rhetoric, the novel critiques theories of hereditary degeneration and infectious motherhood, challenging prevailing beliefs about biological determinism.

Keywords

• degeneration
• heredity
• maternity
• psychosis
• women