Feminist Perspective on Eighteenth Century Literature Essay -- feminis

Feminist Perspective on Eighteenth Century Literature feminism during the 18th century has come to be defined by the belles-lettres of the time. Wo workforce, who did not have as many outlets as they do today, show their political opinions through literature itself. Although feminist texts existed before the end of the century, women writers in the final decade were seen as more threatening to the dominant paternal system. Following the overthrow of the government in France, women in Britain believed that a transmutation in sentiments, manners, and moral opinions was possible in their own country (5). Writers such(prenominal) as Mary Wollstonecraft reacted to the conservative patriarchal society by drawing par aloneels amongst the domesticated and the political, between the private and the public, in their fiction (155). While all women did not attempt to reconstruct the gender utilizations of her time, the women who sought to equalize the positions of men and women wer e labeled as monstrous or unsexed. Male authors of the late eighteenth century saw the patriarchal hereditary government as authoritative and viewed Kings as animals. Writers such as Tom Paine, William Godwin, Thomas Holcroft, and Robert Bage believed reason should answer issues of human affairs, not power based on money, age, rank, sex, or somatogenetic strength (10). Men also saw the possibility of a transformation but only in terms of class structure. Although most male person authors were sympathetic to the plight of women, they recognized the need to minimize class distinctions as more important than gender. Nevertheless, male appeals to humanity ironically inspired and became models for new women writers. Women writers later adopted this emphasis on individual abilities r... ...ewed women as course subordinate to men, women writers attempted to challenge this ideology and assert the need for change. The change in France, and the belief in the possibility of Britains own revolution, led close to women to adopt inappropriate outspoken tactics. However, these radical women were given derogatory labels which in conclusion prevented other writers from directly challenges the system. Nevertheless, women writers during the final decade of the eighteenth century politicized the domestic or sentimental novel in response to oppression and exclusion. In their fiction they challenged the roles of women in education and in the household. While they were not staggeringly successful, the women of this time made recognizable to the public the importance of changing the role of women in society, and provided an impetus for the entire feminist movement.