Essay on Female Sexual Agency In The Coquette and Secret History
This paper is dedicated to the discussion of two outstanding literary sources of 18th and 19th Centuries American Literature: Secret History by Leonora Sansay and The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster.
There is an interesting point mentioned by Samuels that the issues of political and national identity of 18th and 19th Centuries America somehow became attached to female bodies and sexual and familial accounts and it is reflected by the researched literary sources.
There is a connection between very intimately related issues, and Early American literature often creates links between ‘the reproduction of bodily state and the reproduction of nation states’
Samuels also indicates that 19th Century American Literature is characterized by emergent female sexuality. Those were the times when women’s political participation was fueled by the male hostility and thus it began to form into fully elaborated domestic ideology. In accordance to the domestic ideology in the US at that time, previous anxiety about women as revolutionary icons transformed into the proposal that ‘marriage prepares the government of the family and brings social order; therefore the process in the social policy was made on domesticity. This process is called historical and political gendering of the nation and it has been reflected in the literature of 19th Century.
The stories that were described by Leonora Sansay and Hannah Webster Foster could take place anywhere, not only in 19th Century America. It has to be pointed out that there is an immediately noticed similarity between these novels: they both are written in the form of women’s letters compilations.
Thesis statement: Both stories deal with the typical upper class female in the context of the middle to late 18th century’s. The novels are concentrated on the exploration of the realities of women’s lives at that time. But it needs to be mentioned that females in both novels undergo serious transformations that aren’t typical for American society at that time. The heroines face complex situation and suffer from domestic and socio-political pressure.
- The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster
The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster is one of the most remarkable examples of sentimental and “handkerchiefly” novels. It is actually based on the real life story of Elizabeth Whitman who was poet from Connecticut (she has a surname Wharton in the novel). It needs to be pointed out that this The Coquette is built upon the story of the seduction and death of this heroine, who died in childbirth. The most surprising element (and also a provocative one for the 19th century audience) is the compelling narrative of seduction of the Hannah Webster Foster’s heroine, Eliza Wharton.
So, The Coquette is formed by a series of letters, it is a correspondence between Elizabeth Wharton and Elizabeth’s friends and lovers. It’s curious that this story describes the courtship by two men Major Sanford who is known for his charming manners but who is clearly insincere and Reverend Boyer, quite boring man.
Finsethm explains that downfall of the heroine is expected, she is the one to blame as well as the her lover. It was Eliza’s own choice. She was warned by her friends and family about the danger of becoming involved with the man like Major Sanford. Despites these warnings, she falls under Peter Sanfor’s charm because of her foolish willfulness. That’s what Eliza wites to her lover: … ‘I will go even further, and offer you that heart which once you prized; that hand which you once ſolicited. The ſentiments of affection, which you then cultivated, though ſuppreſſed, I flatter myſelf are not wholly obliterated. Suffer me then to rekindle the latent flame; to revive that friendſhip and tenderneſs, which I have ſo fooliſhly neglected. The endeavor of my future life ſhall be to reward your benevolence, and perhaps we may yet be happy together.’
Additionally, Finsethm argues that The Coquette is a hint on the gender ideology of a nation whose women could play no sanctioned public role beyond that of the available maiden and have to live the unfulfilling lives in marriages.
My argument holds that Foster’s achievement in The Coquette involves more than her analysis of the relation between the public and private spheres, between men and women, between the nation and its individual citizens.
Unfortunately for Hannah Webster Foster’s heroine, both men marry other women and she feels herself abandoned and consequently starts to an adulterous affair with Major Sanford. Wharton demonstrates the women’s weak social status in the 18th century, the limitations that were put on them and women’s attempts of rebellion to break free from these limitations. So, Hannah Webster Foster’s heroine becomes pregnant but unfortunately she is rejected by everyone and she dies in childbirth at a roadside inn.
- Secret History by Leonora Sansay
Author of Secret History has managed to combine description of uneasy conditions set up by the Haitian Revolution, the elements of gothic literature, the history of the Americas and in addition another provocative description of the main heroine’s transformation which progresses from victim to liberated woman. The unusual thing about this novel is that colonial relations are mixed by the Leonora Sansay with marriage relations.
It has to be noted that Secret History by Leonora Sansay consists of thirty-two letters written by two sisters, Mary and Clara.
Burnham indicates that Secret History is a representation of ‘a woman in flight from both domestic and socio-political strife who finds resources of hope in independence and a series of female-bonding and class-blurring experiences. In addition this researcher notes that ‘the scholarship on Secret History has recognized its interwoven dynamics of gender relations and racial revolution, often by emphasizing how the politics of colonialism play themselves out in the domestic spaces and intimate relations within the book.’ So it’s not simply an analysis of several contexts such as the Haitian Revolution but it also a research dedicated to the intimate relations and therefore to female sexual agency.
It’s curious that two types of violence are the major focuses of Secret History: both marital and plantation intimacies. Burnham argues that ‘generals and plantation owners become midwives at the births of the very coquettes and revolutionaries who later plot against them.’
The private sexual intrigue and even the bodies of women were creatively used by Leonora Sansay as ‘transistors between economic and sexual circuits’. The pursuits of desire described by the author of Secret History are shown as inseparable elements of the motions of drive.
According to Burnham the novel is full with the acts of routine consumption (including sexual) in the combination with the acts of extreme violence which makes a kind of capitalist pornography for the 19th century America.
Conclusion
Taking into account the brief analysis of The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster and Secret History by Leonora Sansay, a conclusion could be made that both stories have very much in common because they are written in the accordance with the social and political trends of the late 18th century’s American society. The women in both novels face extremely difficult situations and the sexual elements in them place significant role. These women suffer from inequality but at the same time they undergo serious transformations of their lives. Additionally, both heroines explore relatively new roles for the women of that time. The roles of sexual objects because women’s bodies started to embody a national identity and this social change was described by both authors. In addition, Leonora Sansay’s Clara and Hannah Webster Foster’s Elizabeth face the extreme violence and problems are inevitable parts of their sexual experience. Apparently the attention to an eroticism and violence was influenced by the images and rhetoric of revolutionary time.
It is known that one of discussed stories, The Coquette, has received significant critical attention in the late twentieth century. It means that the gender conflict, the social conflict and the contrast between individualism vs. social conformity, and passion vs. reason are the subject that are important for the modern times as well as for the late 18th century’s American society.
