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The construction of gendered character in eighteenth-century British women's fiction
Abstract
This study is an examination of how gendered characters in eighteenth-century British women's fiction are constructed and challenged. The novels under study are Eliza Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751), Frances Sheridan's Memoirs of Sidney Bidulph (1761), Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story (1791), and Charlotte Smith's The Old Manor House (1793). Chapter one, "Theory, Gender, and Eighteenth-Century British Women Writers," discusses how eighteenth-century scholars often substitute a focus on women writers and their female characters for a more thorough examination of gender and gender issues. Using post-structuralist and feminist-materialist theory, I maintain that it is important to consider a process-oriented conception of male and female identity, and to understand that each sex is continually in dialogue with the other, and with society at large. My subsequent chapters apply this supposition on a practical level. "Negotiating Female Identity in The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless" argues that Trueworth constructs his masculine identity by associating with "virtuous" women and by avoiding any examination into his own sexual or moral conduct. He and society repeatedly and incorrectly judge the benevolent and high-spirited Betsy to be morally deficient and sexually permissive, and she comes to believe what everyone tells her: that she is a coquette and that it is her fault men sexually harass her. Consequently, Haywood offers no alternative way of perceiving women's gendered identity than by polarizing sexuality and ethics and by collapsing sexuality into gender. "Gender and Disguise in the Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph" also focuses on the social indoctrination of women into accepting conservative notions of womanhood. More specifically, it explores the manifestation of heterosexual desire during a time when women were taught to venerate their parents and keep a tight rein over their desires while men were allowed more latitude in expressing their sexuality. The two remaining novels are more progressive in their construction of gendered characters. "A Simple Story: The Complexity of Gender Realized" argues that in Inchbald's novel gendered identity is indeterminate and in flux. Gender is consciously foregrounded with the construction and dismantling of gendered stereotypes, and the repetition and extension of their intergenerational stories. Characters' identities (same sex and different-sex) merge and plotlines (romance, incest, and adultery) are fluid. Finally, "Domestic Ideology and the Delusion of Gendered Stability in The Old Manor House" contends that Orlando and Monimia are deluded about the makeup of their gendered identities and the relationship they have with each other. While they work hard to maintain that separation between the public and private upon which their identities are based, Smith shows us that these spheres are always already intertwined and that it is impossible for heterosexual romance to remain immune from societal forces.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature|Womens studies
Recommended Citation
Lieske, Pamela Jean, "The construction of gendered character in eighteenth-century British women's fiction" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9638990.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9638990