Fictions of the Feminine: Puritan Doctrine and the Representation of Women (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 171 McDermott's discussion of Richardson is problematic. He claims diat "very little has been written about die elements of romance in die novels of Samuel Richardson, and perhaps dûs is understandable since die majority of students of eighteendi-century fiction are interested in what is new in his fiction radier dian what is borrowed or adapted" (p. 147). So few important Richardson critics are cited that it is no wonder that McDermott has dûs impression. Margaret Anne Doody, for one, is never mentioned in dûs or any regard. Nor are die "students" of die period who have for some time addressed die question of psychological romance in Richardson. When McDermott places Clarissa witìun die tradition of "passionate romance" and dien argues mat "Clarissa consistently refuses to accept die general view of herself as die heroine of a passionate romance" (p. 184), he suggests an interesting intertextual reading of die novel. I dûnk diat he could go far widi dûs approach, but die argument is never fully realized. In his section on "Henry Fielding's Comic Romances" he argues diat Joseph Andrews is a more complete parody of Pamela dian anyone has recognized and that Fielding saw bodi Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones as "comic romances" (p. 209). But dien McDermott usefully observes mat "an analysis of die word 'romance' as contained in Fielding's term 'comic romance' is not a simple matter, mostly because of Fielding's uncertain attitude towards die word" (p. 21 1). He ends widi a comment on die connection between Fielding and die Greeks: "Mention has already been made of the separation of lovers, die many journeys, die discovery of die true bird!—all of which are common to Fielding and die Greeks. Homer was die obvious writer of fiction widi which to begin a discussion of novel and romance, Fielding a fitting one widi which to end" (p. 223). There is again sometiûng appalling in die assumptions here; and if we were looking for a defence of die scope and technique of die volume, we are bound to be disappointed. It is hard to imagine an audience diat would be fully pleased widi this volume. Serious scholars in die field will be frustrated widi die lack of scholarly rigour in die research; theoretically inclined readers will be appalled at die refusal to take recent theoretical discussions of fiction seriously; and student readers may have problems widi die tone. McDermott raises some interesting questions here, but it will have to be someone else who answers them. George E. Haggerty University of California—Riverside Margaret Olofson Thickstun. Fictions ofthe Feminine: Puritan Doctrine and the Representation of Women. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. xi + 176pp. US$19.95. In Fictions ofthe Feminine Margaret Olofson Thickstun proposes a series of interrelated readings of five important Puritan fictions by Spenser, Milton, Bunyan, Richardson, and Hawthorne. She argues diat diese works are grounded in Pauline doctrine which defines the relationship of man to woman on the analogy of the hierarchy of head to body and spirit to flesh. Widi woman "ontologically and essentially identified widi 'body' " (p. 7) and body identified widi original sin, woman becomes diereby die insufficient sex. These equations in turn translate into a new rendering of heroism and die dramas of conscience, individual responsibility, sexual hierarchy, and marriage in Puritan literature, in which Spenser, Milton, and Bunyan displace female characters from tiieir traditional positive roles (as brides of Christ and representatives of virtue and chastity), and replace diem widi men. 172 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION 3:2 Chapter 1 examines The Faerie Queene, focusing chiefly on die depiction of Britomart, "the most aggressive, active good woman in die poem" (p. 57). Her quest for "companionate marriage" illustrates Spenser's female ideal. By dius defining her aim and hope, he directs and radically limits female power since companionate marriage includes, as its central tenet, woman's subordination. This subordination controls die inherent dangers of femaleness, namely, die original sinfulness of die flesh. Chapter 2 maps die complex routes by which Milton makes Eve die scapegoat of the Fall in Paradise Lost. Thus conceived, die Fall becomes essentially a temptation story...