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The Southern Heroine in the Fiction of Representative Southern Women Writers, 1850-1960

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The Southern Heroine in the Fiction of Representative Southern Women Writers, 1850-1960 Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1963 The outheS rn Heroine in the Fiction of Representative Southern Women Writers, 1850-1960. Marie Fletcher Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Fletcher, Marie, "The outheS rn Heroine in the Fiction of Representative Southern Women Writers, 1850-1960." (1963). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 813. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/813 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been 63-6217 microfilmed exactly as received FLETCHER, Marie, 1913- THE SOUTHERN HEROINE IN THE FICTION OF REPRESENTATIVE SOUTHERN WOMEN WRITERS, 1850-1960. Louisiana State University, Ph.D., 1963 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE SOUTHERN HEROINE IN THE FICTION OF REPRESENTATIVE SOUTHERN WOMEN WRITERS, 1850-1960 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Marie Fletcher B.A., Northwestern State College, 1938 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1944 January, 1963 ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Lewis P. Simpson for his help in the preparation of this dissertation and to the other members of the Department of English, Dr. T. A. Kirby in particular, for their encourage­ ment during the writing. I should also like to thank my employers at Francis T. Nicholls State College for their interest in my work and for their confidence in me. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE ............................................ 1 I. THE SOUTHERN DOMESTIC NOVEL ... ............... 3 II. LOCAL COLOR FICTION OF THE S O U T H ............ 58 III. THE SOUTHERN REALISTIC N O V E L ................ 103 IV. FICTION OF THE SOUTHERN RENAISSANCE .......... 191 V. CONCLUSION: FROM THE MADONNA TO THE MAGDALEN . 256 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................ 274 VITA ................................................ 282 iii ABSTRACT This study of the development of the Southern heroine in the fiction of Southern women writers from about 1850 to the present shows that the pure and beautiful lady who comes from a wealthy, aristocratic background is no longer domi­ nant. An independent, capable, yet pretty woman who attains her status not by birth or wealth but by her inner worth has taken her place. In contemporary fiction the Magdalen has almost replaced the Madonna. The changing character of the Southern heroine is developed in a series of essays which include detailed dis­ cussions of Southern heroines as delineated in the short stories and novels of representative writers. The first essay treatB the sentimental heroine in the domestic novels of Caroline lee Hentz, Mary Jane Holmes, Eliza Dupuy, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, and Augusta Evans, highly popular during the sentimental vogue of the 1850's and i860's. The heroine in the local color fiction of Mary Noailles Murfree, Kate Chopin, and Grace King, who dealt with three areas of the South, is considered in the second section. This is followed by an essay on :the Southern woman in the realistic novels of Mary Johnston and Ellen Glasgow, whose attitudes were foreshadowed by those of the local colorists. The iv V series is completed "by a study of the heroines in the novels and short fiction of several women writers of the Southern Literary Renaissance. Among those most concerned with the change in Southern womanhood are Caroline Gordon, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Shirley Ann Grau. Although the women in the novels and stories that are considered secure economic and political independence, it is the opportunity to develop their inner resources that they value most. There is less and less emphasis upon beauty and elaborate dress, until finally the fragile, often sickly blonde angel with golden curls, blue eyes fringed with jet, pure white complexion, and dainty hands and feet gives way to a larger, healthier, simply dressed young woman more often brunette than blonde. The "innocence and purity" symbolized by the white and gold heroine dressed in pure white loses significance. Love and marriage, still the greatest hope for happiness, are no longer to be depended upon for lasting bliss. Through the entire period Southern women writers express dissatisfaction with the double stan­ dard of sexual morality and begin to speak out against it; only in very recent fiction, however, do any of the heroines follow the same code as men. Though violating the ideal of chastity shows the spirit of independence in modern women, it does not bring them happiness and satisfaction; it merely vi increases their problems and frustrations. The qualifica­ tions of purity, idleness, fragility, beauty, aristocracy, wealth, dependence, happiness, pride, and religious faith have all declined in importance during the past century. In 1850 the invariable quality for all Southern heroines was purity. Now there is no constant characteristic unless it is the endurance or fortitude which Ellen Glasgow has designated "the vein of iron"; it does not bring happiness or success but prevents defeat by life and helps women live gallantly, if without delight. PREFACE My intention in this dissertation is to present a series of essays on the fictional representation of the Southern heroine by Southern women writers from about 1850 to the present— that is, from the time when the traditional Southern lady dominated the literary scene through the period of the development of the woman sometimes called the "lady of worth" or the "democratic lady," who gradually replaoes most of the "born ladies" in fiction. As far as I can determine this study is the first attempt to trace step- by-step the change that has taken place in the delineation of the Southern woman over a long period of time. It is also the only work on the Southern heroine in the fiction of women writers only. The investigation begins with the sentimental heroine of the domestic novels which flourished in the South in the 1850's and i860's. Local color fiction, which developed in almost every section of the country in the 1880's and 1890's, is the topic for discussion in the second essay. This is followed by a study of the Southern woman in the works of realistic novelists whose attitudes were foreshadowed by those of the local colorists. The series is completed by an 2 essay on the women characters in the fiction of the women writers of the Southern Literary Renaissance. In each essay there is rather detailed study of Southern heroines as pre­ sented in the short stories and novels of representative Southern women authors. The purpose is to show how these writers developed their fictional women and to indicate the changes in the concept of the Southern heroine by following the chronological development of Southern fiction and by studying the fictional heroines in the sentimental novel, local color fiction, the realistic novel, and the natural­ istic fiction of the period of disillusionment following the World Wars, when William Faulkner's picture of the South influenced most of his contemporaries, including the women writers of the South. The authors considered in this study are representa­ tive of the large number of Southern women who have written about the South or its people. The main interest is in their reaction as women, and as Southern women, to the Southern ideal of womanhood. Because of the intensity of her interest in the improvement of the position of woman and because of the comprehensiveness of her gallery of women characters, in nineteen novels written between 1897 and 1941i Ellen Glasgow is considered in greater detail than any other writer. CHAPTER I THE SOUTHERN DOMESTIC NOVEL The American novel, which came into being shortly before the end of the eighteenth century, was rooted in the sentimentalism of Samuel Richardson and the sensibility of Laurence Sterne. Since the first novels were written for a female bourgeois audience, it is perhaps only natural that they deal with love and marriage. The leading characters are girls with whom the readers can identify. They weep over the misfortunes and glory in the triumphs of the long- suffering heroines. Prom Richardson's Pamela (1740) and even more from his Clarissa Harlowe (1748) comes the ideal of the pure young girl who is pious, generous, and, above all, virtuous. She must resist evil in the form of a male seducer in order to find lasting happiness in marriage. In Pamela the vir­ tuous servant girl, through letter after letter, tells how she resists the advances of Lord B______ and finally induces him to marry her. The thousands of middle-class women readers who have suffered through her struggles with her rejoice in her marriage. It is her reward for virtue. They see no stain on her honor in her marrying the man who 4 tried to mislead her. Clarissa is the account of another pious, modest, beautiful heroine, but the story has a tragic outcome. Clarissa becomes the victim of the hand­ some, charming, but villainous Lovelace. After his other attempts at seduction have failed, he gives her drugs and then rapes her. Lovelace is aware that he has achieved a doubtful victory at best, because he has won only her body, not her heart and soul. Although Clarissa still loves him and can by marriage be redeemed in society, she refuses.
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