Introduction
The eighteenth century was full of restrictions and limitations for American women. A highly religious colonial society viewed women primarily as a productive force, their fertility being their highest virtue (Klepp 4). A woman’s role was limited to being a mother, a wife, and a hearth keeper, and their protesting voices were rarely heard. Being highly dependent on the will of their fathers, husbands, and brothers, American women of that time were bound by the religious and societal norms in ways they could express themselves. The lack of possibilities for education and training outside of housewife duties only reinforced the women’s oppressed status. As Klepp argues, “Men were simply human; women were the Sex'” (p. 4). This inequality of perception and possibilities led to the emergence of double standards regarding virtue for men and women.
However, this situation began to change in the later part of the eighteenth century, especially after the Revolution that questioned many traditional practices and opened the way for changes (Klepp 6). Women became more and more vocal about their anxieties and desires, particularly advocating for smaller families. Even though, on a broad scale, the actual changes would not arrive until World War I, new voices began to emerge, particularly in early American literature, presenting a new perspective on feminity, gender relations, and women’s societal role. The paper focuses on two prominent early American novels, The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster and Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson, both important examples of early Feminism. These novels present an alternative view on the idea of perfect womanhood, relying on the ideas of women’s right to self-determination, independence, and equal rights in a men-dominated religious society.
Discussion
Hannah Webster Foster begins her novel with the heroine, Eliza Wharton, expressing her wish “for no other connection than that of friendship” (Foster 6) after her fiancé’s death. This desire alone is a notable deviation from the accepted norms of the time when marriage was an essential part of a woman in society. By deciding to remain single, at least for the time being, Eliza deliberately marks herself as anomalous and going against traditional cultural values, jeopardizing her social reputation and financial security (Davis 385). More importantly, Eliza’s decision portrays her as independent and self-reliant, being a potent female empowerment symbol and associating her with the whole American nation that had recently gained independence (Davis 385).
The Coquette elaborations on gender expectations in the eighteenth century, however, determine the heroine’s fate. The main characters, Major Sanford and Eliza Wharton are examples of how deeply gender norms can be rooted in society. As Boyer mentions in the book: “a cheerful friend, much more a cheerful wife, is peculiarly necessary to a person of a studious and sedentary life” (Foster 12). Foster shows the different expectations for women and men regarding social roles, with the former expected to be homemakers or maids and the latter having freedom of choice and multiple options.
Eliza attempts to meet the standards by remaining faithful to one man, while the same is not expected of men. When Eliza has an affair with Sanford, a married man, and realizes that she is pregnant, she immediately recognizes the perspective of her family’s and friends’ disappointment (Foster 163). When Julia and Lucy discover that Eliza is pregnant without marriage, they judge her as she fails to meet the societal standards for females to be passive and excellent (Foster 262). At the same time, Sanford, engaging in extramarital sexual activities, is not seen to fear societal condemnation. Eliza’s failure and death in the finale indicate no space for an independent woman in eighteenth-century American culture. Foster’s attempted association of an American woman with the young nation is only possible when the material conditions of women’s lives have changed.
In Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple, the woman’s voice is obscured and muted by a male-controlled society (10). Rowson tries to share details about the pressure that females experience in the male-domineering society and demands to be heard by the reader (Rowson 10). She communicates about the amount of influence, socially, politically, and spiritually, that the minister has in society. She sees it fit to assume the role of a minister and tend the female readers to a spiritual mission to show that women can perform similar tasks to men. During the age of writing this work, it was expected that females in the country to adapt to the bidding and rigid social protocol given to them by the forbearers.
The heroines of late eighteenth-century British and American seduction stories were often between the ages of fifteen and seventeen, attractive and naive. Fifteen-year-old Charlotte acknowledges the likelihood of her subsequent social fall on the eve of her departure with Montraville Attention to Charlotte’s age references the 1753 Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage regulating the marital consent of minors in England and the state of New York (Hodgson 170). Charlotte’s unclear legal status at age sixteen, having the right to consent yet not being permitted to marry without her father’s approval, causes her sexual agency to emerge among competing patriarchal interests. The novel dramatizes Charlotte’s failed passage from daughter to wife, being entangled in the conflict of her father’s will, her partner’s sexual predation, and the inadequacy of laws regarding marriage and sexual violence. In practice, the girl’s legal and social rights were decided by men, either a father or a husband, with no place left for the female agency (Hodgson 171). The lack of critics’ attention to the legal aspects of Charlotte’s misfortunes has facilitated the public perception of her as an indecisive girl guilty of her subsequent demise.
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography gives a good illustration of the public perception of female sexuality at the time. Women in the book are mainly used to illustrate lessons for men. Illicit sexual activity for a man has no significant consequences, being discarded as just another mistake (Rust 106). However, an unintentional pregnancy for a woman means experiencing emotional, physical, and potential social shame via childbirth, miscarriage, or abortion. The ideology of redemption and self-correction applicable to men in the new moral system is thus unavailable for women like Charlotte (Rust 106). With their mistakes not so easily forgotten and forgiven, women faced disproportionally more societal pressure. Charlotte is a complete product of her culture, devoid of any real agency and independence, which poses a problem of creating an integrated model of new feminity using the available cultural lexicon.
Notably, both novels make it clear that not only the perfect lives deserve commemoration and representation. Both tragic heroines have a friend: Mrs. Beauchamp in Charlotte Temple and Lucy Freeman in The Coquette. The virtuous friends exist to highlight the actions and motives of the tragic heroine. In this way, the novels challenge the traditional sermon’s emphasis on strict compliance with the ideals of womanhood (Henderson 497). These early American novels sever this link between mourning and compliance. In The Coquette, Foster concludes: “From the melancholy story of Eliza Wharton, let the American fair learn to reject with disdain every insinuation derogatory to their true dignity and honor” (168). The moral of the stories is in the reader’s shared state of sinfulness with the heroines creating a connection between them. Due to the heroine’s imperfections, they can be and should be mourned (Henderson 499). The result is a revolutionary and profound challenge not only to the religious authority but to the very image of a perfect female in society, with its ultimate rejection.
Foster goes into further detail on gender norms in her novel The Coquette (78). Eliza and Sanford are the two protagonists who serve as illustrations of how rigidly society enforces gender inequalities. For instance, society immediately associates a young girl with the color pink and a young boy with the color blue from infancy. It demonstrates how socialization of both genders begins in early life. The work also examines the double standards between men and women (Foster 78). Men and women are held to inconsistent norms for gender stereotypes and interpersonal interactions by society. Due to the gendered role-playing in the community, gender expectations are quite rigid. Men have more options and freedom, while women are expected to be homemakers and have good morals, leading to gender inequality.
Even though Eliza does not always want to be masculine, she defies social norms for women in her day to get authority. According to Eliza’s thoughts, “Marriage is the tomb of friendship. All former acquaintances are neglected or forgotten and the tenderest ties between friends are weakened or dissolved” (Foster 19). She likes her freedom and connections with other women; thus, she has no interest in getting married. Males in today’s society frequently reject the cultural concept of marriage because they lack commitment, and men prefer to be with their fellow men. On the contrary, Eliza clarifies that she will not be a Republican wife or mother (Foster 186). While Sanford, who had fallen inadvertently in love with her, refused to wed a person of low financial worth, Boyer decided to put himself into the concept of falling in love and being married.
At the start of the book, Eliza is seen flirting with other couples. Society sets expectations about how women should behave, which forces them to maintain specific connections (Klepp 4). Women are under pressure to wear particular ties because of social norms regarding how they should think and behave. Society overlooks women if they do not surround themselves with individuals who conform to social norms. Eliza seeks the guidance of her married friend Lucy as she tries to conform to society’s expectations by only courting one man (Foster 133). Lucy provides Eliza with counsel to assist her in fitting into the present culture.
While society denigrates single women who are too alluring to several men, the perception of men is that they are coquettes, and society regards it as normal. Men’s social life is better because of their modest expectations. The courting that Sanford keeps doing with Eliza is normal to men. Men have a variety of women to choose from, but if a woman starts dating more than one man, she is a coquette, and as a result, her social life suffers. Lucy and Julia began to condemn Eliza since she did not live up to gender standards for women after having a pregnancy without a husband (Foster 7). It results from the societal expectation of a woman to be obedient and submissive by society.
A particular section in The Coquette was so captivating after reading it that it drew scholars’ attention. Mr. Shelby writes to Mr. Boyer, saying, “I am quite a convert to Pope’s assertion…the product of her education” (Foster 78). During the book, Mr. Shelby counsels Mr. Boyer on handling his present circumstance concerning his companion, Eliza. Mr. Shelby concurs with the pope’s assertion, “Every woman is at hearing, a rake” (Foster 78). Eliza practically sounds like a homeless and jobless woman engaging in sexual actions for pay, Mr. Shelby observes after Eliza has finished her testimony. Eliza has strong morals, but even though she has them, she might be a victim of these norms, which is why Mr. Shelby begins this sentence by praising her virtue. He pointed out Eliza’s virtue in warning Mr. Boyer because even if Mr. Shelby were describing a male, he would appear to be the case’s victim. This comment is another example of the double standards society has on women.
Lucy says, “No female, whose mind is uncorrupted, can be indifferent to reputation” (Foster 133). Eliza is a coquette for her behaviors since she is the victim, which is unfair because the basis is according to her gender. The moral standing of women in the 18th century is the subject of this statement. When getting married was the top priority for women at the time, Mr. Shelby talks about the things ladies should not do in private. The statement gives insight into how the characters view Eliza in the novel, where she undergoes slavery. Mr. Shelby asks, “How else shall we account for the existence of this disposition in your favorite fair? It cannot be the result of her education” (Foster 78). Since Eliza has coquette tendencies, Mr. Shelby wonders how they will treat her in this phrase (Foster 78). It is troubling because they perceive her tendencies as a crime—or at least that is how they came across her and Eliza’s tendencies remain unstigmatized because of her gender.
The novel Charlotte Temple covers gender inequality whereby the author, Susanna Rowson, uses the tragic life of a young girl to illustrate the point at the start of the novel:
“And may, I flatter myself, be of service to some who are so unfortunate as to have neither friends to advise, nor understanding to direct them, through the various and unexpected evils that attend young and unprotected woman in her first entrance into life” (Rowson 3).
In her book Charlotte Temple, Rowson went a step further in advising young women to use caution in a world with men like Montraville (84). She describes the tragedies that women and girls go through in the present era. Due to the prevalence of gender bias at the time, most women feared being betrayed and seduced. Charlotte is the finest illustration of a person who has been the victim of deception and seduction by Montraville and her companions. As Charlotte says:
“That I loved my seducer is but too true! yet powerful as that passion is when operating in a young heart glowing with sensibility, it never would have conquered my affection for you, my beloved parents, had I not been encouraged, nay, urged to take the fatally imprudent step, by one of my sex, who, under the mask of friendship, drew me on to ruin” (Rowson 84).
Charlotte lacks good judgment and lets her feelings guide her choices. She, too, disregards her worries and is humiliated by the male characters in the novel. It is hardly a ground-breaking discovery that most scholars have categorized the novel, Charlotte Temple as a contributor to sexual equality. The voices of American women were, in fact, generally silenced during the eighteenth century in favor of those of their male counterparts.
According to Marion Rust, Rowson is now seen more widely as a feminist author due to the recent criticism (Rust 103). Rust says that Rowson’s book is not a novel of seduction (103). Marion Rust asserts this after closely examining Charlotte’s character. She contends that indecision, not desire, ultimately led to Charlotte’s demise. Rust’s opinion originates from the fact that in the eighteenth century, men considered obedience a desirable trait in women. Feminists also claim that society during the period was built exclusively for the enjoyment and advantage of men. It, therefore, marked gender inequality practiced in society in the novel.
The dramatic end to Charlotte’s struggle is a metaphor for overcoming adversity. She is affected by the gender inequity in their society, but the pressure is not limited to simple influence. Instead, the inequality of the male characters and the existence of a critical community drastically alter the plot. By analyzing Charlotte’s humiliation and its effect on speeding up her eventual destruction, Rowson views women as pure (Rowson 84). The outcome of Charlotte’s misfortune portrays sexism’s involvement in Charlotte Temple. Rowson’s feminism does not, for the greatest part, seem to be characterized by concerns about the interconnections of gender, racism, and power (Rust 103). Concerns became increasingly prevalent as her career progressed despite her continued interest with gender, prominent in the abolitionist women’s movements of the nineteenth century, and which fundamentally altered twentieth-century feminisms. This type of feminism has several drawbacks, especially regarding issues of difference like race and class.
Lastly, Rowson’s analogy of sexual relationships to business dealings highlights how males objectify women (6). Without understanding Charlotte’s personality, Montraville falls for her and treats her like a product. When attempting to determine the financial benefit of his son marrying Lucy, Mr. Temple’s father similarly performs this. Mr. Temple witnessed, as it is written in the novel, “Mr. Temple saw his elder brother made completely wretched by marrying a disagreeable woman, whose fortune helped to prop the sinking dignity of the house” (Rowson 6). Rowson says that excellent men will look at a woman’s character rather than her money and beauty (6). Therefore, gender inequality is explored in the novel whereby men expect women to possess perfect behavior, not considering their characters.
Conclusion
The paper analyzes two early Acan novels exposing and discussing gender inequality in the eighteenth century. Foster uses The Coquette to illustrate how societal expectations and requirements differed for men and women through the affair between a young girl and a married man (78). The author emphasizes the double standards in societal judgment and concludes that only profound cultural and religious changes can satisfy women’s desire for equal rights. Similar expectations are seen in Charlotte Temple, where the traditional views on female sexuality are challenged. The inadequacy of the legal system surrounding the institute of marriage, where women have no right to decide on their fate, is criticized. Both novels ultimately present a view of imperfect women as victims of the heavily gender-biased society deserving of compassion, commemoration, and representation beyond the strict cultural and religious paradigm of perfect womanhood.
Works Cited
Davis, Lauren E. “Entangling Alliances: The Coquette and Allegories of Independence in Transatlantic Context.” Early American Literature, vol. 50, no. 2, 2015, pp. 385–414, Web.
Davis discussed the allegory of American seduction novels like The Coquette. Eliza fails and dies because there is no place in eighteenth-century American culture for an independent woman. This article would help connect The Coquette to the historical background of the 18th century.
Foster, Hannah Webster. The Coquette. Edited by Cathy N. Davidson. Oxford University Press, 1986.
In this novel, the author has written about different expectations that existed of men and women in the eighteenth century. This is done to illustrate the discrimination and gender inequality in society at the time.
Henderson, Desirée. “The Imperfect Dead: Mourning Women in Eighteenth-Century Oratory and Fiction.” Early American Literature, vol. 39, no. 3, 2004, pp. 487–509, Web.
Henderson discusses the evolution of the early American funeral sermon over the eighteenth century, focusing on how it contributed to constructing an image of virtuous womanhood that condemned defective women and left them unfit for mourning. This insight can be used in my research paper because Henderson stated that the absence of sorrow is especially noticeable in women. In contrast, men with personal flaws may be lauded for their political achievements or social standing.
Hodgson, Lucia. (2019). “Age and Consent in Charlotte Temple.” Studies in American Fiction, vol. 46, no. 2, 2019, pp. 169–194, Web.
This article is focused on the cultural, political, and historical context of the novel Charlotte Temple. Particularly, the author analyzes how the heroine’s sexuality is developed and handled in the novel, revealing the religious and cultural barriers that eighteenth-century women had to face in society. For that, it uses several analytic works and cultural studies on the matter.
Klepp, Susan E. Revolutionary Conceptions: Women, Fertility, and Family Limitation in America, 1760-1820. UNC Press Books, 2017.
By examining the attitudes and behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family, contraception, abortion, sexuality, beauty, and identity, the author demonstrates how women in the eighteenth century began to radically redefine motherhood.
Rowson, Susanna. Charlotte Temple. Project Gutenberg, 1994.
In this novel, the author expresses how double standards in society resulted in the downfall of a young woman named Charlotte Temple.
Rust, Marion. “What is Wrong with ‘Charlotte Temple?’” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 60, no. 1, 2003, pp. 99–118, Web.
Marion Rust discusses how women’s experiments were incredibly terrifying because they did not have the corollary privilege of having their mistakes erased from history by the fatal consequences of illicit sexuality through Charlotte Temple, who provides an example of virtue fallen through seduction and sexuality.