The Daughter

About the show

It is set on the coast of Cornwall where 'wreckers' stereotypically rob the corpses of those washed ashore in shipwrecks and steal remaining cargo. The heroine is horrified to discover her father is involved in these activities, particularly when his accomplices falsely accuses him of murdering one of the victims of shipwreck. The play typifies the Whiggish representation of wreckers in the mid-nineteenth century and the moral panic over the cultural practice of 'wrecking'.