I’m up to chapter XV in the novel and here’s what I have found so far.
Vanity (specifically female vanity)
This is especially evident in the first chapter where Isabelle scolds Columbia for displaying vanity. Isabelle warns, “Sickness, misfortune, poverty, might deprive your eyes of their luster, your skin of its glossy hue, and steal the luxuriant tresses from your head” (Rowson 6).
Virtues
Faith and heresy
This seems to be an ongoing topic of discussion in the novel. Besides being not permitted to marry outside of the family’s faith, society had to be wary of challenging the faith of the queen. Isabelle and Columbia were seen as heretics in Queen Mary’s eyes and barely escaped severe punishment or death because of it.
Coquetry
Mina, Columbia’s companion, is labeled as a coquette. She is described as being “fond of admiration, and pleased with those who gave it” (Rowson 85). This quality later leads to her downfall.
Sensibility
One example I noted was the description of Isabelle’s eyes “glistening with the dew of sensibility” (Rowson 37).
Also, women were required to be sensible of the “insurmountable barrier” which marrying a man of a different faith would provide. (Rowson 65).
Seduction and villains
Howard seduces Mina into releasing confidential information. Later, he pursues Columbia. Talking about Howard’s trickery and deceitfulness, Isabelle tells her daughter that they are “in the power of a villain” (Rowson 112).
Compliance
Women were not allowed to marry outside of their faith as Isabelle did. Cora is telling her of the “fatal consequences that must result from such an indulgence” (Rowson 68).
Nobility
Beatina is advising Isabelle on choosing a proper husband. She warns Isabelle to be mindful of her fortune and to not “disgrace it by an ignoble alliance” (Rowson 39). She advises, “Seek courage, honour, good sense, and polished manners. These constitute true nobility” (Rowson 39).
Native Americans or Indians
So far, they are seen as docile creatures. When Columbus reached America, he says, “I found the inhabitants humane, social, and tractable; and left our little colony in a state of greater comfort than could have expected” (Rowson 19).
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Hey there... I finally got my issues worked out with yahoo so here's my Abstract, which I wasn't really sure where to post so let me know if you want me to do it again.
Eldred, Janet Carey and Mortenson, Peter. “Gender and Writing Instruction in Early
America: Lessons from Didactic Fiction.” Rhetoric Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 25-53.
Mortenson and Eldred focus much of their article on the distinction of gender and how it affects both the way in with women write and read. This article is therefore helpful because many of my ideas are concerned with the female gender and the scarcity of their involvement with literature at this time in the early eighteenth century. The success of Charlotte Temple pushed Rowson into the spotlight for her post story Reuben and Rachel, another tale concerned with the fairer of the two sexes. Rowson becomes a symbolic figure to the girls she is directing her writings, by not falling into the trap society had set up at the time for native women. Rowson has created her own identity through her writings, and not let Early American constraints hold her back from sharing and educating. Mortenson and Eldred’s articles deals with ideas like these, exploring the hardships for women writers at the time of Susanna Rowson.
The pair opens their article with a brief yet important discussion about the availability of literature to women at this time and what the determining factors were for women to receive texts. Reading and writing at this time for women was mainly shaped by geography, which is navigated in this article by stating that geography was the main deciding factor when it came to women and literature. Location became just as important as the sub factors of geography, like political, religious, economic and legal contingencies of the time and place. Since the political scene of the late eighteenth century was so controversial and in a state of motion, the subject became a major focus of literature of the time with women’s writings being no exception. There was a push for women to become more educated, yet coupled with this wish was the fear that educating a woman in turn makes her more masculine. Rowson attempts to blend femininity and education within her novels, and this article notes how important this was for women to do in the late eighteenth century during the shifting political and social views of the time.
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