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The Enlightenment and the Englishwoman

The present study investigates the failure of the Enlightenment to liberate Englishwomen from the prejudices society and law imposed upon them. Classifying social classes by lifestyle, the roles of noble, middleclass, and criminal women, as well as the attitudes of contemporary writers of both sexes, are analyzed. This investigation concludes that social mores limited noblewomen to ornamental roles and condemned them to exist in luxurious boredom; forced middle-class women to emulate shining domestic images which contrasted sharply with the reality of their lives; subjected women of desperate circumstances to a criminal code rendered erratic and inconsistent by contemporary attitudes, and impelled the Enlightenment to invent new defenses for old attitudes toward women.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc503984
Date12 1900
CreatorsMorris, Jan Jenkins
ContributorsNichols, Irby Coghill, 1926-, Stephens, A. Ray
PublisherNorth Texas State University
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatviii, 87 leaves, Text
RightsPublic, Morris, Jan Jenkins, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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