American Literature II

In class when we discussed The Revolt of Mother, the question was raised as to whether or not Sarah could be considered a feminist character. Several members of our class, including myself, did not consider Sarah to be a feminist character, because of her dedication to her traditional gender role as homemaker. In fact, the genre of regionalism seemed to merely be a nostalgic glorification of old traditions. Nevertheless, after discussing it in class, I realized that Sarah had many feminist characteristics, as she did challenge the patriarchal hierarchy, even if it was within her traditional gender role. This prompted me to think about feminism and how sometimes our modern perspective of feminism can compromise the way we view female characters in earlier literature. This is because conventional wisdom has it that feminism is the strong advocacy of female empowerment, and we very much associate it with modern American feminist movements, like the movement led by Gloria Steinham in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, by focusing on our modern notion of feminism, it becomes easy to overlook earlier instances of feminism, which seem to be more subtle than today’s. In the early twentieth century novel The Custom of the Country, there are instances in which we see women being highly restricted by the customs of their society. In the letter Mrs Fairford writes to Mrs Spragg, for example, she requests Mrs Spragg’s permission to ‘allow’ her daughter to attend dinner, as girls need their mother’s permission to do anything until they get married, and then that responsibility is passed down to the girl’s husband. Although this tradition adopted by high-society has elements that are evidently sexist, Undine and Mrs Heeny respond to this aspect of the letter in an empowering fashion.

Undine was brooding over the note. ‘It is written to mother – Mrs Abner E Spragg – I never saw anything so funny! “Will you allow your daughter to dine with me?” Allow! Is Mrs Fariford peculiar?’

‘No – you are,’ said Mrs Heeny bluntly. ‘Don’t you know it’s the thing in the best society to pretend that girls can’t do anything without their mother’s permission? You just remember that, Undine. You mustn’t accept invitations from gentlemen without you say you’ve got to ask your mother first.’ (Wharton 7)

In Undine making this comment, she is acknowledging the absurdity of this aspect of her traditional gender role. This comment blatantly conveys a sense of independence and female empowerment embedded in Undine and although she eventually abides by this sexist tradition, she is only doing to advance herself. As Ms. Heeny commented, a girl has to ‘pretend’ that she isn’t independent and that she can’t do anything on her own. The word ‘pretend’ here has important implications for the way we look at feminism and how it applies to this novel. In the first part of the novel, Undine’s obsession with finding a high-status husband may seem to go against the principles of feminism, nevertheless, Undine’s determination to reach the pinnacle of high-society is quite bold, unlike the meekness attributed to conventional notions of women. Similarly to Sarah in The Revolt of Mother, Undine does not rebel against the patriarchal hierarchy of her society, but instead, uses her beauty, wit, and diabolical ways to advance herself within her conventional gender role. Thus, like Sarah, we can also consider Undine to be a feminist. Undine’s determination to obtain the best husband reads as an early twentieth century way of achieving female independence and empowerment, as marrying into the pinnacle of society will buy that for her.