Assess the representation of women in eighteenth-century literature Essay

Assess the representation of women in eighteenth-century literature - Essay ExampleWe might take issue with this, but it is easy to see why the novel has been such a keen topic for feminist criticism. In Sense and Sensibility, Austen draws on her own experiences as a young woman to visualise the position of women deprived of economic means. It is of course notable that Austen was herself a rarity at the time an independent female writer, and Sense and Sensibility, her first published novel, was earlier published under the pseudonym, A Lady. Defoes gun moll Flanders, like several of his other novels, is presented in the form of an autobiography. The character, in this case Moll, is looking book binding on her life and, as Pollak suggests, is attempting to make sense of it through the act of writing (p.139). There is some question over the position of Defoe in presenting the unfairness and deprivation of Molls past life. Through writing, is he attempting to discourage such immoral ity by exposing it to the light of day and public criticism, or is he taking advantage of the excitement readers feel for the forbidden, the lowlife, and the illicit. The latter is surely the case to some extent. There is even some question as to the sincerity of Molls conversion from immorality. Defoe writes that she is no longer so extraordinary a Penitent, as she was at first (p.5). ... a tool to make the story bulge more genuine and authentic for readers, it is possible that Defoe is leaving room for doubt as to his own opinions on women and the position they are given in the baseball club of his novels. As Pollak writes, this ploy works subtly and perhaps surprisingly to unsettle the very truths about gender that his plots seem to affirm (p.141). At this juncture, it is worth recalling the name in which Defoe, writing as the editor of Molls racy account, describes the severe thornyy faced in his task. He has had no little difficult to put it Molls account into a Dress fit t o be seen, and to make it speak language fit to be read. When a Woman debauchd from her Youth, nay, even being the Off-spring of Debauchery and Vice, comes to give an Account of all her vicious Practices...an Author must be hard put to wrap it up so clean (p.1). There is an air here of Moll being a fallen woman, and being tainted by all that she has engaged in. In this stimulant by the editor, there is an even a sense of his distaste at handling such material. However, as noted above, at many points Defoe continues to be dubious about his own opinion of Moll and her failings. We are left with the fundamental question is she an immoral soul, or a woman forced by the mountain of her gender to stoop to low acts in order to seek independence. Defoe adopts a similarly ambiguous position in his presentation of the prescribed roles for women in modern society. Moll recounts, in the course of her account, being mocked as a child for believing that she could one day become a gentlewoman by running(a) for an honest livelihood. In this instance, we must ask, as does Pollak, Is the older, more experienced Moll simply exposing her earlier childish ignorance