Posts Tagged: morality

Thoughts on Sula In her essay, Stevenson presents a very clear, though complex, depiction of slave sexual and marital relations; sex was generally encouraged only between married couples and pre-marital pregnancy led to marriage, and, in terms of monogamous relationships, fidelity was highly valued.  Most important in her analysis is her assertion that “[Slave kin] […]

In Nancy F. Cott’s “Passionlessness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual Ideology, 1790-1850” she talks about how between 1777 and 1794, a study of nine New England magazines indicates that in nonfiction and fiction stories, regarding illicit sex, men were punished, while women were given sympathy.  This is interesting for two reasons: the first being that, […]

Womanhood as Duty (though not to be written about as such or otherwise by women, but only by Hawthorne). ‘Nathaniel Hawthorne is notorious for complaining in a letter to one of his publishers that a “damn’d mob of scribbling women” was stealing his audience. Elsewhere, he referred to women authors as “ink-stained Amazons” who were […]

Intellectual or Moral (But Never Both) William Alcott’s suggestions for young women to avoid ­­­­­nymphomania seemed to emphasize cooling – not surprising, since both sexual desire or passion and the Devil are associated with heat and fire. But he also quoted a writer who said “the reading of lascivious and impassioned works, viewing voluptuous painting, […]

Men and Women Both Think the Other is Evil, Society has Double Standards about Sex…. News at 11 Cott’s essay on Victorian sexual ideologies clarified some of the themes and terms presented by The Scarlet Letter.  As we discussed in last week’s class, adultery was only committed if the woman involved in the sexual activity […]