Department/School of the Primary Author
English, Literature, and Modern Languages
Keywords
19th century woman writer, E. D. E. N. Southworth, feminist theory, restrained manhood, martial manhood, ideal man, True Womanhood
Abstract
Much of E. D. E. N. Southworth’s literature falls into Nina Baym’s category of “woman’s fiction,” a genre of 19th-century fiction written by women, about women, and for an audience of women. However, Southworth’s self-proclaimed favorite, Ishmael, breaks away from her past successes as she weaves a story about the male experience. From childhood to his successful career in the courtroom, Ishmael Worth navigates various discourses of manhood – restrained and martial, self-made, and sentimental – and redeems the best elements of each to provide a model for 19th-century men. With a male helming her book, Southworth tears down True Womanhood’s unfair moral divide between men and women and adds to the discourses of the day by putting forth the idea of mobile morality. She encourages men to take morality out of the home, the societally-appointed domain of the woman, and allow it to permeate every corner of their lives.
Recommended Citation
Mowery, Grace
(2023)
""A Guiding Star to the Youth of Every Land": Analyzing E. D. E. N. Southworth's Depiction of the 19th Century Ideal Man in Ishmael,"
Channels: Where Disciplines Meet: Vol. 8:
No.
1, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/channels/vol8/iss1/2