Scribbling Women and the Feminine Ideal

Ann D. Wood explores, among other topics, the role of women as writers in 19th century society’s constraints in “The “Scribbling Women” and Fanny Fern: Why Women Wrote.” Using a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne as a jumping off point, she maps the complexities of women writing in a man’s world. There are acknowledged parameters in the society and then more hidden, nuanced rules for expression that affect the way women wrote. Connecting this to “The Female Woman: Fanny Fern and the Form of Sentiment” by Lauren Berlant shows the gender stereotypes women were laboring under and what effect these stereotypes had on their writing and their ability to capitalize on that endeavor. I found the many undercurrents in sentiment of the time fascinating, and attempt to show their interplay through the various ways in which they surface in Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present.