A Critique Of The Feminine Position Of Antebellum Society

Ruth Hall: A Critique of the Feminine Position in Antebellum Society In 1854 Fanny Fern published what was to become not only her most successful works, but one of the most popular and enduring works of English literature during the Antebellum period: Ruth Hall; A Domestic Tale of the Present Time. Though the title – especially to a modern reader – does little to convey the level of thoughtful and heady critique that Fern expounds through this book, it is actually is a strong indictment of the feminine position as the subordinate housewife, mother, and societal agent. However, despite this criticism, it does not seem that Fanny Fern is critical of the institutions of marriage or motherhood as a whole. Her critique is based on the limiting effects of the conventional roles into which wives and mothers fall, and the deleterious consequences these roles have on the personal development and self-actualization of the women who enter into them. Therefore, it is not the institution of marriage or motherhood that Fern is critical of, but rather the expectations and limitations that society assigns to the women who assume these roles. Throughout the novel, it is Old Mrs. Hall who represents (with a cold bitter insistence) the traditional representations of the wife and mother. While Ruth’s marriage was in no way a radical departure from tradition, it does not seem to have been based (entirely) on an old paradigm that was rapidly becoming antiquated in the wake of modernity. To