18th And 19th Century: A Literary Analysis

Women, in the late 18th and 19th century when the books Memoirs of Emma Courtney and Memoirs of Modern Philosophers were released, were meant to stay at home and take care of their families if they were married. Before they were wives they were meant to stay home, listen to their fathers or the eldest male figure in their lives and educate themselves. Men on the other hand were meant to go to school, be educated by the best professors available and then were going to run the country. Throughout the years women have started to stray from the ideal that was expected of them in the 18th and 19th century. Whether it was Hamilton, Hays, or even Austen writing about women in this time period, very few of the women portrayed in these novels completely …show more content…
Emma fell in love with a man she didn’t truly know, meaning she fell in love with the idea of a man. Since she had never met Augustus Harley Sr. it seems as though she fell in love with the idea of a man. Emma had been told basic information about this person and viewed a portrait of him and soon decided that she was going to work to be the person that spent the rest of her life with Augustus. After pursuing him, which was unheard of for a respectable woman to do, Emma finds out that Augustus is unable to marry her since he would lose his fortune unless he stayed unmarried. Although Emma accepts this she does not leave him alone or attempt to find somebody else to spend her life with until she finds out that, although he was not supposed to, Augustus got married to another woman. Once she realised that she had no chance of being with him Emma married the man who had been pursuing her Mr. Montague. Once Augustus passed away Emma takes in his son whom she raises as her own, this is to convey that after all of those years Emma still refused to get over the love that she had for a man who she never knew. Women are often portrayed as flighty and daydreamers in novels, whether it be about men or not. This can be seen in Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen which was written in the late 18th century. The leading character of this novel Catherine Morland would spend her time daydreaming about gothic novels and pretending that was …show more content…
Julia fell in love and acquired a husband, which is what women would do, since it is what they were told they needed out of life. Although she did pursue a man it was not someone who had nothing going for him, at least she thought he had a lot going for him since he had told her he was a philosopher. However we soon find out that he was lying regarding his profession, and truly had nothing. The reasons that this did not seem to work for Julia was that she did not get permission to marry this man, instead she ran off and did this with no one knowing and soon found herself pregnant and alone after her husband abandoned her. It seems as like Emma, and Catherine, Julia was living in a fantasy world where she thought everything would turn out the way it were meant to, when in reality life does not always turn out how we expect it. She ends the novel as one of the poor souls that did not get the happily ever after ending that she always desired. Similar to Julia, Brigetina did not conform to what was expected of her, she flirted and was fairly forward with the men in her life which was inappropriate for a woman to do. When her friend seems to be starting to get the ideal life Brigetina gets jelous meaning she was hoping