Defining the qualities of femininity is fairly difficult because what is feminine is not determined by one individual or single characteristic, and the female identity is always changing. Feminine identity is formed according to many definitions and include factors such as personality, role, circumstance, and social class. We hope to condense the definition of what is conventionally female by analyzing reoccurring feminine behaviors within the context of their time. Femininity can be described as “the quality or nature of the female gender” (Merriam Webster). In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, we can connect the traits among several female perspectives to examine the roles and expectations of English women, who were living in a privileged social
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Part of a woman's existence was consistent with female silence and male servitude. “In marriage, the man is supposed to provide for the support of the woman; the woman to make the home agreeable to the man; he is to purvey, and she is to smile” (Austen 52). Often female characters only state the opinions of their fathers and husbands or express themselves in secrectly. While Catherine agrees with Thorpe to end the debate, it is still unlikely his skill of reigning in the horse is above all others. However perceived feminine inferiority makes Catherine doubt her own judgment and submits to Thorpe's reasoning whether it is right or wrong. She states “his knowledge and her ignorance of the subject, his rapidity of expression, and her diffidence of herself put that out of her power; she could strike out nothing new in commendation, but she readily echoed whatever he chose to assert, and it was finally settled between them without any difficulty” (43). This confirms that when women become defined by silence and male influence, both men and women are left with inaccurate perceptions in dishonest unsatisfying …show more content…
Isabella and Catherine often spend their afternoons reading novels, but their time spent together depicts how female novels and interests were not taken seriously during a time dominated by male writers. Catherine admits “now, had the same young lady been engaged with a volume of the Spectator, instead of such a work, how proudly would she have produced the book, and told its name” (23). Because women face discrimination against their gender, this causes embarrassment for their interest and recommendation of female literature. We could suggest good writing and literature is a masculine quality, considering that Catherine portrays women are praised for reading male literature. By only imposing masculine identity in literature and promoting masculinity as superior to femininity, female identity,writers, and literary choices as seen as inferior. In “Sense and Semantics” Donald Stone suggests Thorpe's correction of Catherine's reading deems her “inability to read at all is as bad as the tendency to read the wrong books-or rather to misread them, to confuse fictional conventions with real choices” (Sense and Semantics 37). Although male guidance seems to be necessary for Catherine to learn, her defense and awareness of this prejudice suggests feminine literary interests were increasing and changing. Perhaps women appease men due to necessity, but
Part of a woman's existence was consistent with female silence and male servitude. “In marriage, the man is supposed to provide for the support of the woman; the woman to make the home agreeable to the man; he is to purvey, and she is to smile” (Austen 52). Often female characters only state the opinions of their fathers and husbands or express themselves in secrectly. While Catherine agrees with Thorpe to end the debate, it is still unlikely his skill of reigning in the horse is above all others. However perceived feminine inferiority makes Catherine doubt her own judgment and submits to Thorpe's reasoning whether it is right or wrong. She states “his knowledge and her ignorance of the subject, his rapidity of expression, and her diffidence of herself put that out of her power; she could strike out nothing new in commendation, but she readily echoed whatever he chose to assert, and it was finally settled between them without any difficulty” (43). This confirms that when women become defined by silence and male influence, both men and women are left with inaccurate perceptions in dishonest unsatisfying …show more content…
Isabella and Catherine often spend their afternoons reading novels, but their time spent together depicts how female novels and interests were not taken seriously during a time dominated by male writers. Catherine admits “now, had the same young lady been engaged with a volume of the Spectator, instead of such a work, how proudly would she have produced the book, and told its name” (23). Because women face discrimination against their gender, this causes embarrassment for their interest and recommendation of female literature. We could suggest good writing and literature is a masculine quality, considering that Catherine portrays women are praised for reading male literature. By only imposing masculine identity in literature and promoting masculinity as superior to femininity, female identity,writers, and literary choices as seen as inferior. In “Sense and Semantics” Donald Stone suggests Thorpe's correction of Catherine's reading deems her “inability to read at all is as bad as the tendency to read the wrong books-or rather to misread them, to confuse fictional conventions with real choices” (Sense and Semantics 37). Although male guidance seems to be necessary for Catherine to learn, her defense and awareness of this prejudice suggests feminine literary interests were increasing and changing. Perhaps women appease men due to necessity, but