The man may be the head of the house, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants. --My Big Fat Greek Wedding
A common tread woven throughout the tapestry of Romanticism is that of gender inequality. Both male and female authors in some way address the ways that social construction of gender confines women to certain expectations, particularly in the institution of marriage. In “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness” which is primarily concerned with the French Revolution and the rights of man, William Godwin argues that the current marriage institution is a business dealing in which men treat women as commodities. Matthew Lewis’s ballad that showcases one of the various styles found in the history of romance,“Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene” tells in story form about what happens when women violate their marital expectations and serves as a warning for women to remain obedient and within their domestic sphere. Persuasion, the Jane Austen novel about Anne Elliot’s experience with memory, loss, and love as well as how she navigates her social circle and uses persuasive powers to coerce her own gains. Mary Wollstonecraft directly addresses women’s injustices in “Vindication and the Rights of Women” by observing the past history and records of women’s lives and demands a call to action in ending domestic subordination. The idea that social constructions limit women, therefore they must use manipulation within their cage to express their agency appears in all four works. Notice that two of the writers mentioned are women and two are men. By not exercising their virtues whether for lack of education or role conflict between being educated people and being a good wives, women in particular do not practice independent thinking of which they are capable and internalize that they are inferior to men and should submit to their expectations. Both men and women exacerbate the problem of gender inequality by not using reason to look beyond the traditional structures of society, thus perpetuating prejudice against women from both sides.
William Godwin acknowledges that the marriage institution contains flaws that does not allow either party to attain mutual felicity because of the way in which matrimony and courtship is treated as a business deal. David Collings recognizes Godwin’s concern with the systems of society: “William Godwin attacks every possible interference with the individual's private judgment of what best serves the universal good. Every positive law attempts to substitute a contingent and fallible version of justice for its absolute form” (Collings 847), thus confirming Godwin’s idea that the flaws of the system hinder people from acting logically and rationally. The woman largely plays the part of the good being exchanged; often families will arrange marriages that will breed financial stability for both parties. The beautiful woman often finds herself the “imaginary prize, men watch with perpetual jealousy” (Godwin 94) exchanged for monetary gain for herself, her new husband, or her family. Because of the focus of marriage being economic, both men and women shrewdly convince each other of the product they sell, whether it be money or good looks, making the transaction void of virtue of reason and capacity for the marriage to gratify each person. According to Godwin
“The method is for a thoughtless and romantic youth of each sex to come together, to see each other, for a few times and under circumstances full of delusion, and then vow eternal attachment....Thus the institution of marriage is made a system of fraud, and men who carefully mislead their judgements in the daily affair of their life must be expected to have a crippled judgement in every other concern.” (Godwin 94)
What then occurs is what Godwin refers to as a monopoly, with men usually holding the power. Rather, Godwin proposes that choosing partners on the basis of friendship, “perhaps one of the most improving exercises of a rational mind,” (95) will allow each to develop reason “by exciting every man to think for himself” (93). Contrary to Mary Wollstonecraft’s idea that men and women need to stand beside each other, Godwin asserts that “We ought to be able to do without one another,” (93), thus stating that “the temper of his [independent, reasoning] temper of his mind will prepare him for friendship and for love” (94). From his observations of men and women being unable to act independently from their partners, Godwin acknowledges that women, as well as men, should have some equality in the determination of their fates by virtue of the idea that a marriage should be the choice of both parties, not just one. The idea that women, too, can choose gives them agency and suggests that they possess faculties equal to those of men, though currently suffer oppression of a patriarchal system.
“Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene” in turn describes what happens when the traditional system of marriage results in prejudice towards women. The poem itself serves as a warning to women to stay faithful to their husbands and to not venture beyond the sphere of the home. Imogene breaks her vow to Alonzo after he has been gone for a year and “suffers the pain of her crime and mourns her deplorable doom” (Lewis 76-77).
The illustration above is companion to a parody of the poem that tells it in a more base and bawdy way. Even when I enlarged the image, it was difficult to read, though the drawing of the shock of everyone at the site of the ghost is amusing. The image intensifies and materializes the warning that Lewis makes and exaggerates it to the point of comedy, bringing the question of whether women realized they were being devalued as people through the poem. One may argue that had she remained faithful, she would not have met such a fate. While that statement is probably true, it is also important to notice how the institution of marriage limits women and forces them to exercise agency in deceitful ways. Already, the patriarchal structure confines Imogene to the home while Alonzo can go achieve glory and honor. Also, gathering from Godwin’s observation, neither party used reason to decide on a marriage partner, thus resulting in a marriage doomed to fail. Imogene then falls victim to a Baron who “dazzled her eyes; he bewildered her brain; He caught her affections so light and so vain,” (29-30) and takes advantage of her lack of opportunity to practice her reasoning and improve herself through mutual friendship. The fact that fair Imogene receives such a cruel punishment demonstrates men’s fear of women’s agency., especially if she realizes she has it. Alonzo expresses his apprehension of leaving: “Your tears for my absence soon leaving to flow, Some other will court you, and you will bestow On a wealthier suitor your hand,” (8-10). Alonzo recognizes that Imogene may betray him and ruin his name, but it is unlikely that she has realized her power that she could use to manipulate her beau. Because of the prejudiced system, however, many women remain blind to their ability to reason and gain for themselves and come to believe that men hold all power in their relationship.
Contrary to Godwin’s and Lewis’s works, “A Vindication for the Rights of Women” is written from a woman’s perspective and provides insight into how women viewed their own place in society at the time. However, when she acknowledges the disparity, she uses biological essentialism, the notion that “the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature, and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favour of women. A degree of physical superiority cannot, therefore, be denied” (373). Wollstonecraft undermines her own call for women’s equality by mentioning the physical differences of males and females being “law of nature” because it implies that she acknowledges the contrast between the two. She even goes to almost justifies the disparity by suggesting that “the woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind will, by managing her family and practising various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband,” (385). Rather than being able to assert herself apart from her husband as Godwin suggests, Wollstonecraft sees, at best, women standing beside men in a non-subservient, but still somewhat dependent way. Wollstonecraft has internalized the idea of women’s inferiority because of the institution of gender in which she was socialized, whether she realizes it or not. Though she advocates for the advancement of women’s education and equality, she too falls victim to the effects of gender inequality.
Here is Mary Wollstonecraft’s first American published work from 1792. The fact that her writing about the topic about women’s inequality reached beyond her country demonstrates the universal problem with the social construction of Western societies when it comes to addressing equality. Mary Wollstonecraft acknowledges the disparity of education between men and women and the discouragement of women to pursue learning. because there was so much role conflict between being a good wife and acting as an independent, educated woman. The confinement to the domestic sphere limits women’s opportunity for interaction with others to create friendships that will promote an improvement of reasoning, especially with the husband out of the house. To occupy her time, a woman instead learns the “virtues” of womanhood instead of realizing her full cognitive potential. Arts such as sewing, painting, and music according to Wollstonecraft do not express virtue because they “do not result from the exercise of [her] own reason,” (Wollstonecraft 381), but “should they be ambitious, they must govern their tyrants [husbands] by sinister tricks, for without rights there cannot be any incumbent duties” (403). Women exercise their agency, then through the feminine wiles of persuasion that are usable within their sphere, such as flirting and showing they are beautiful.
Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot takes the agency she has within her immediate world to her advantage; she is very aware of her ability to manipulate. She understands how to use her situation and the expectation of prudence to learn romance and persuasion, such as when she uses the excuse of duty to care for her nephew to chance an encounter with Captain Wentworth (Austen 93) and convinces her father to quit Kellynich in addition to handling monetary affairs of the house. Arguably, Austen voices her advocation of women’s influence through the actions of her characters Anne and Lady Russell in her novel as reinforced by Arthur Walzer:
I maintain that Austen's treatment of persuasion in the novel contributes to our understanding of eigh- teenth-century rhetorical theory. The result is a reading that sees Persuasionas en- dorsing Anne's conventionally feminine values, her receptivity and sociality, over Wentworth's stereotypical masculine firmness and autonomy. Above all, Persuasion sanctions Anne's openness to persuasion, her persuadability,over Wentworth's aggressive resolve (689).
Also, unlike most of Austen’s heroine’s Anne Elliot develops as a character, mirroring the cultivation of reason in Austen herself as she advanced as a writer, thus proving that with an awareness of her agency within her social sphere, a woman can effectively exercise it and even challenge it. Anne converses with Captain Harville and acknowledges that men control history and literature, portraying women in a negative light and expresses her desire to more adequately represent women (243).
To conclude the argument, it is evident that women in the Romantic period were bound into a rigid social system. The male-dominated system limited women’s education and mobility and prevented women from developing their reasoning skills. What chaos would ensue if she were to challenge her husband’s authority? The men underestimated women, however, and the ladies learned to work within their realms to achieve personal gains. Equality would seem the next step, but from Wollstonecraft’s implicit devaluing of women in comparison to men, changing the system of marriage as Godwin suggests will not alleviate the oppression women feel. Before the internalized idea changes, the culture must change how it socializes women and allow them to run beyond the confines of their cages.
Austen, Jane. Persuasion. Broadview Texts. Peterborouh: 2004.
Collings, David. The Romance of the Impossible: William Godwin in the Empty Place of Reason.
ELH , Vol. 70, No. 3 (Fall, 2003), pp. 847-874. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Godwin, William. Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness. Mellor, Anne K. and Richard E. Matlak. British Literature 1780-1830. Heinle and Heinle. Boston: 1996.
Lewis, Matthew. London, K. Bell. The Monk, A Romance. pp. 63-66. 1796.
Walzer, Arthur E. “Rhetoric and Gender in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.” College English Vol. 57, No. 6, Oct., 1995. pp 688-707. National Council of Teachers of English. http:// www.jstor.org.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/stable/378572?seq=2
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Vindication of the Rights of Women. Mellor, Anne K. and Richard E. Matlak. British Literature 1780-1830. Heinle and Heinle. Boston: 1996.
Impossible Love and Commodity Culture in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/journals/elh/v075/75.4.garofalo.html
Dramatizing the sexual contract: Congreve and centlivre http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=STOM&userGroupName=tel_a_vanderbilt&tabID=T002&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA265895394&&docId=GALE|A265895394&docType=GALE&role=
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