sisterhood articulates a new definition of moral female identity

176 Pages·2010·0.87 MB·English

SISTERHOOD ARTICULATES A NEW DEFINITION OF MORAL FEMALE
IDENTITY: JANE AUSTEN‘S ADAPTATION OF THE EIGHTEENTH-
CENTURY TRADITION

by

KATHERINE ELIZABETH CURTIS
B.A. Stetson University, 2007

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies
in the Department of English
in the College of Arts and Humanities
at the University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida

Summer Term
2010

Major Professor: Anna Maria Jones
© 2010 Katherine Elizabeth Curtis

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ABSTRACT

Writing at a moment of ideological crisis between individualism and hierarchical society,
Jane Austen asserts a definition of moral behavior and female identity that mediates the two
value systems. I argue that Austen most effectively articulates her belief in women‘s moral
autonomy and social responsibility in her novels through her portrayal of sisterhood. Austen
reshapes the stereotype of sisters and female friendships as dangerous found in her domestic
novel predecessors. While recognizing women‘s social vulnerability, which endangers female
friendship and turns it into a site of competition, Austen urges the morality of selflessly
embracing sisterhood anyway. An Austen heroine must overcome sisterly rivalry if she is to
achieve the moral strength Austen demands of her.
As Mansfield Park (1814) and Pride and Prejudice (1813) demonstrate, such rivalry
reveals the flawed morality of both individualism and patrilineal society. I further argue that in
these novels sisterhood articulates the internally motivated selflessness Austen makes her moral
standard. Sisterhood not only indicates female morality for Austen, it also enables this character.
Rejecting Rousseau‘s proposal of men shaping malleable female minds, Austen pronounces
sisters to be the best moral guides. In Northanger Abbey (1818), Austen shows the failure of the
man to educate our heroine and the success of his sister. In Sense and Sensibility (1811), Austen
pinpoints the source of sisterly education‘s success in its feminine context of nurture, affection,
intimacy, and subtlety.
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With this portrait of sisterhood, Austen adheres to the moral authority inherent in
Burkean philosophy while advocating individual responsibility, not external regulation, to
choose selfless behavior. Austen further promotes gender equality by expressing women‘s moral
autonomy, while supporting gender distinctions that privilege femininity. By offering such
powerful, complex sister relationships, Austen transforms eighteenth-century literary thought
about women, sisters, and morality.

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This thesis is dedicated with deepest love and sincerest gratitude to those precious women in my
life who have embodied the selflessness of sisterhood and the struggle for a moral identity that
Austen advocates.
To my mother, Meredith Ludwig Curtis, who, unlike an Austen mother, is wise, kind, and good.
You are the biggest human reason I pursue God‘s highest moral calling today and that I have a
picture of the lovely feminine identity I desire to attain. Without you, I never could have written
or even begun this thesis.
To my beautiful, beloved sisters, Julianna Sheree Curtis, Jennifer Rose Curtis, and Sarah Joy
Curtis, who taught me the value of sisterhood long before I ever discovered its advocate in Jane
Austen. No woman ever had better sisters than I have. You have supported me through every
heartache and pain, cheered me on in every joy and success, challenged me in every weakness.
You make me want to be the radiant, pure woman God wants me to be and you help make
becoming her possible.
To my precious sisters at heart and sisters in Christ, Sarah Nicole Holland, Aisha Nicole Palm,
Dara Ann Curtis, Marla Elizabeth Stevens, and Phoebe Renee Nolette, who demonstrate the truth
of Austen‘s suggestion that true sisterhood requires no genetic bond. You have all blessed me in
innumerable ways, bringing me a smile even during tears. You have given me the privilege of
teaching and guiding and being taught and guided.
I love you all unendingly.

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Most significantly of all, I wish to dedicate this to the Author of sisterhood, of intimate
relationships, and of Love itself, my God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You create and call us to a
selfless moral standard even higher than Austen‘s because You enable us to walk in that
character by Your salvation and grace. You created me and gave me life (and sisters!) and You
redeemed me, making true moral life possible for the very first time because only through You
can we become righteous.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Anna Maria Jones, my thesis advisor and chair, for
the months and months and hours and hours spent reading novels on sisterhood with me,
theorizing and brainstorming with me, and reading page after page of this thesis. All scholarly
faults in this week I own to be entirely mine, but all academic strengths were only possible with
her great support. I cannot distinguish at this point the concepts and terms I fully crafted on my
own and those she helped me articulate. Thank you, Dr. Jones.
I wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Karen Kaivola, Stetson University, who taught my
first undergraduate class on Austen and introduced me to scholarly approaches to my favorite
author. Many of the fully developed ideas in this thesis had their origins as germinating thoughts
in that class.
I also wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Ana Eire, Stetson University, along with Dr.
Kaivola, for reading my undergraduate research on Austen and sisterhood and encouraging me to
pursue this interest further one day.
I wish to acknowledge Dr. Kate Oliver, for introducing me to eighteenth-century
literature as a context for Austen in her graduate class, as well as for encouraging my scholarly
advancement to present and try to publish on Austen. Many thanks for the out-of-class
discussions of sisters in eighteenth-century literature and in Austen and for the profitable
feedback on my thesis draft.
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I wish to acknowledge and thank my thesis committee, Dr. Anna Jones, Dr. Kate Oliver,
and Dr. Fayeza Hasanat for the time spent reading my thesis and offering scholarly advice.
I wish to acknowledge and thank the entire interlibrary loan staff at the University of
Central Florida library for tracking down dozens and dozens of articles for me and getting them
to me so speedily. My research would have been impossible without all their hard work.
Many thanks to the multitude of scholars who have written and argued about Austen. I
have not and probably could not read you all, but I am grateful to join such a well-established
community of insightful scholarship.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge and thank my church family at Powerline Church. They
have prayed for my thesis and stress levels again and again, cheered me out of funks, made me
take breaks or made me start writing again. Every single one, child and adult, never forgot to ask
me how my thesis was coming along. They encouraged me when I knew I couldn‘t finish. From
the peanut butter M&Ms to the shoulder massages to the Thesis Completion party with my teen
girls, they made me smile and kept me sane. This thesis would never have been possible without
such an amazing family of God.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TRANSFORMING STEREOTYPES OF SISTERHOOD:
AUSTEN CASTS VISION FOR MORAL FEMALE IDENTITY IN HER CHANGING
SOCIETY ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Critical Conversation .................................................................................................................. 3
Literary and Cultural Contexts.................................................................................................. 11
Chapter Outline of Thesis ......................................................................................................... 35
CHAPTER TWO: ―SISTERLY AFFECTION‖ OR ―RIVALRY, TREACHERY BETWEEN
SISTERS!‖: OVERCOMING THE DANGERS OF SISTERHOOD IN AUSTEN .................... 38
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 38
Mansfield Park .......................................................................................................................... 50
Pride and Prejudice .................................................................................................................. 65
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 82
CHAPTER THREE: ―HAS MY SISTER A PLEASANT MODE OF INSTRUCTION?‖:
SISTERLY AFFECTION AS MORAL EDUCATION IN AUSTEN ......................................... 85
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 85
Northanger Abbey ................................................................................................................... 100
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Sense and Sensibility ............................................................................................................... 114
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 136
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION AUSTEN EVOKES NEW POSSIBILITIES:
REINTERPRETING FEMALE IDENTITY IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE THROUGH
SISTERHOOD ............................................................................................................................ 139
LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 156

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