別紙様式５（第４条関係）
論 文 要 旨
氏 名 池田 裕子
論文題目（外国語の場合は、和訳を併記すること。）
Femininity and Feminism in Jane Austen’s Novels
（ジェイン・オースティンの小説に於ける女性らしさとフェミニズム）
論文要旨（別様に記載すること。）
（注）１．論文要旨は、A4版とする。
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３．「論文要旨」は、ＣＤ等の電子媒体（１枚）を併せて提出すること。
（氏名及びソフト名を記入したラベルを張付すること。）
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Summary
The aim of the present study is to explore Austen’s six major novels from the viewpoint of femininity and feminism, with special reference to conduct-book authors and Mary Wollstonecraft. In my analysis, I focus special attention on the social context from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, covering Austen’s life. What characterizes the period is the coexistence of these opposing principles. The basic argument of femininity was built on the assumption that women are physically and intellectually inferior to men by nature, and thus should be dependent on rational male authorities. The prevailing notion of femininity demanded such virtues as modesty, softness, silence and submission from women.
Meanwhile, the late eighteenth century is also marked by Enlightenment feminism which regards women as rational creatures with independence of mind. This trend was particularly brought to the fore by the social turmoil after the French Revolution, and the publication of Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). With careful regard to these conflicting social circumstances, this research is mainly concerned with how the opposing aspects of feminine conservative values and feministic radical implications are merged into the narrative structure of Austen’s novels.
From the 1970s onward, increasing numbers of critics have been involved in reading Austen in a feminist context. Many of them have pointed out the chameleon-like equivocality in her novels, the oscillation between traditional conservatism and feministic view close to Wollstonecraft. There are tensions between feminine stability and feministic subversiveness, subordination and mental independence. The conservative viewpoint, that identifies women as angel-like beings, leads to the construction of the concept of elegant feminine ladies. It may be significant to explore these contrastive views together in the same context with the concrete comparison between conduct-book authors’ and Wollstonecraft’s tenets, which may hopefully shed more light on how Austen, as a female novelist, incorporates this opposition into her novels. The argument I discuss can be summarized as follows:
In Chapter 1, I concentrate on the problem of femininity, the dominant conservative belief that women should take on such attributes as modesty, gentleness and self-denial in order to be the feminine ideal. The cultivation of femininity is closely interrelated to
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the proliferation of conduct books, which served as moral guidelines, especially for young women, instructing them how to behave in order to succeed through better marriage in the patriarchal society. In the first section, “Austen’s femininity and conduct books,” my primary interest is to illustrate what features of femininity Austen’s novels have in common with the principles of the conduct books and conservative treatises, and how these distinctive qualities are demonstrated in her fiction. In comparison, I mainly refer to James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women (1766) and John Gregory’s A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters (1744), with the occasional reference to the other conservative writings, including Thomas Gisborne’s An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex (1797); Hannah More’s Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education (1799) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Émile (1762). In the next section, “restraint, propriety and female duty,” I look at the attributes Austen’s novels especially share with these conduct and educational treatises. Some of Austen’s heroines place propriety at the center of their conduct, because they regard it as their duty to control their behavior for the benefit of social order. In the last section, “silence and delicate body,” such feminine traits are regarded as the embodiment of softness of nature, delicacy of mind and moral order, in contrast to noisiness and stoutness. These feminine features are closely interrelated to the maintenance of social tranquility and order, as the underlying principles of stability at the core of Austen’s novels as well as many conduct books. It is assumed that the world Austen represents, as well as which she lived in, was basically a patriarchal society in which it was essential for women to behave in accordance with the social requirements the authoritative men created. With the notion of the self as a constituent of society, personal pleasure was, to some extent, restrained for the benefit of social order. Especially the rural gentry class at the turn of the century basically depended on property, which was not just a piece of land but also included the embodiment of the traditional values and moral order which was to be handed by generation to generation. Therefore, it was of prime importance for women to contribute to the preservation of social stability and property through the maintenance of domestic tranquility with their proper conduct.
Chapter 2 is concerned with Austen’s feministic aspects at the opposite pole of femininity. In the first section, “Wollstonecraft and Austen’s feminism,” I focus on their general relationship in the social context of the Feminist Controversy in England after the turbulence of French Revolution. Unlike Wollstonecraft’s interest in social and political
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revolution, Austen does not require any social reformation nor women’s financial equality with men. Yet, Austen has a close affinity with Wollstonecraft’s belief in her insistence on reason and mental equality between men and women. In the next section,
“independence of mind as a rational creature,” I look into the specific features that Austen’s novels accord with Wollstonecraft’s feminist statement. Austen is closer to Wollstonecraft in regarding women as “rational creatures” instead of “elegant ladies.” In the last section, “physical strength,” I deal with the strength of body as another feminist element. Improving physical strength, as well as mental, is significant for both Wollstonecraft and Austen, in that health and energy are linked with women’s rationality, liveliness and independence of mind.
In Chapter 3, I turn to the tension between femininity and feminism. It is acknowledged that both elements coexist in Austen’s novels, with feminine conservative values on one hand, and feministic rational implications on the other. Now that essential qualities of both readings are explored, I place them together in the same context so as to investigate their relationship more comprehensively. Examination laying particular emphasis on the oscillation between the two contrastive ideas may lead to the illumination of the characteristic features of Austen’s novels.
Because female education and marriage are principal indicators of women’s position in society, examination from such perspectives may place the tension of feminine and feminist views in the foreground. The conduct-book authors have essentially different views on marriage from Wollstonecraft, which naturally affects the way girls should be educated. The former regards matrimony as a woman’s subordination and conformity to a husband as a mentor, so female education should be directed to cultivate feminine virtues such as modesty, meekness and dependency in order to satisfy men’s preferences.
In contrast, the latter asserts an egalitarian relationship between a husband and a wife in marriage and encourages a woman’s improvement of mind as a rational companion.
Because marriage is almost exclusive option for women in this period to secure their fortune and social rank, we can read in Austen’s novels the undercurrent of tension between individual preference and the social conformity, an oscillation between the self and society, individual feministic ideas and feminine conventions.
First, I concentrate on the problem of “accomplishments for female education.” In
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Austen’s era, female education was mainly directed to the attainment of accomplishments: music, dancing, drawing, and embroidery, personal deportment and manners, together with basic academic skills and knowledge of fashionable modern languages. Through my research, it has been disclosed that Austen’s involvement in accomplishments can be rather complicated. Like the conduct-book authors, Austen, criticizes ornamental accomplishments and surface manners, and would agree with Wollstonecraft’s argument that accomplishments promote female dependence and deprive women of reason, though Austen does not deny all accomplishments. Austen’s heroines are not so interested in the attainment of accomplishments, but instead are rather deficient in them. To the contrary, more attention is placed on how the error-prone heroines are to modify their mistakes in manners and judgment through reasonable observation based on their experiences and spontaneous reading.
As for female education, my next concern is with female “manners and morals.” It is assumed that Austen and conduct-book authors show more interest in attaining good manners rather than ornamental accomplishments. Austen’s novels present a vivid picture of manners. Though manners ideally reflect the inner moral condition, we more often than not see superficial politeness and decorum without moral rightness. With the rapid increase of fashionable boarding-schools for young ladies by the end of the eighteenth century, more interest was shown in the attainment of superficial “surface manners,”
instead of “deep manners” accompanied with morality. It may be essential for us to distinguish between them, because Austen’s reference to manners implies the usage both a surface and a deep sense, depending on the situation.
Thirdly, I discuss the problem of “female ignorance and wit.” The conduct-book authors, placing high esteem on female modesty as the essential virtue for women, denounce female wit as a dangerous and subversive element, threatening social stability.
Wollstonecraft, with her special emphasis on reason and understanding, directly attacks the conduct-book writers for their sacrificing women’s rationality for the sake of artificial decorum, while Austen rather indirectly criticizes the conduct-book ideas, in the form of ridicule.
The last section on female education is about the “importance of reading” as self- education. Austen, as well as Wollstonecraft, emphasizes a substantial education for the acquisition of rational judgment and improvement of mind. To study characters through
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close observation leads to correct judgment and a rational mind.
For the problem of marriage, I first consider “women’s roles in courtship.” Despite the relative freedom allowed to women with the increase of companionate marriage during the latter half of the eighteenth century, it was still the man who was awarded the privilege to start courtship. Austen again ridicules this view with reference to the conduct- book authors.
The second point to examine is the problem of “marriage for stability or affection.” In contrast to the conduct-book views that regard matrimony as a woman’s subordination and conformity to a husband, Austen’s heroines establish egalitarian relationships in matrimonial ties, based on mutual understanding and rationality, just as Wollstonecraft demonstrated. However, it is also true that marriage always accompanies a specific financial explanation. Underneath the heroines’ companionate marriages, based on affection, marriage for stability for fear of future prospects, and anxiety of becoming an old-maid are also alluded to.
In the last section, “marriage as an index of maturity,” I argue that in Austen’s novels marriage does not imply a woman’s dependence on her husband, but rather serves as an index to show their improvement of mind and character, after modifying their errors and misjudgment.
From the above-mentioned summery, I can further suggest what measures Austen adopts to present the opposing ideas of femininity and feminism in her novels. Not so pedagogically, like the conduct-book authors, nor so directly and severely as Wollstonecraft, Austen, as a female novelist, covertly dramatizes her views in order to integrate them into the plots of the novels. Austen’s uniqueness can be found in her scheme of maintaining an adequate balance between the opposing ideas. Elizabeth is one of the most distinguished feminist characters, with rational judgment and liveliness of mind, who is counterbalanced by the quiet and delicate Fanny in the following novel.
Interestingly, Fanny, as a feminine ideal, is also attributed with Elizabeth-like feministic strength of mind. Similarly, Elinor’s sense of feminine self-restraint and Anne’s elegance and accomplishments also accompany feministic rationality and understanding. Minor characters contrastively underline the heroines’ merits, by their own deficiencies such as
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in understanding and morality. In addition, they serve to illustrate the possible danger heroines might cause, just as Elizabeth’s liveliness and physicality are epitomized by Lydia as a decoy. When such feministic features as liveliness, playfulness, wit, laugh and physical strength are shown with irony and in a mocking way through the characters’
speech, behavior and narrative voice, we are at the same time warned against the negative effects of these attributes. Reference to the runaway and the elopement of minor characters in the margin functions as a warning of the tragedy that could happen to the heroines if they transgress from the moral code or ignore social duties. Marriage with affection is demonstrated side by side with marriage for stability and the anxiety for future, with a tension between personal preference and social requirements, self and society. This sense of balance is not only limited to the representation of characters within a work, but also seen in the shift in themes between the novels. The brightness of Pride and Prejudice is counterpoised by tranquility of Mansfield Park: in which, with central theme of tranquility, the quality Elizabeth is commended for, is taken over by Mary Crawford to be denounced because it is not accompanied by morality. Accordingly, Austen’s primary characteristic can be manifested in her sense of balance and harmony with which she dexterously interweaves opposing ideas to be knitted into the narrative. Sometime the author’s view on an issue is too subtle and too complicated, submerged beneath irony and ridicule, to discern the true intentions.
In terms of future directions, more detailed individual analyses may be required for the problems which were revealed through this research, such as female reading, manners and propriety. This study is chiefly confined to Austen’s six major novels, but further research focusing on her relationship with her predecessors, especially with the women novelists in the late eighteenth century who had a great impact on her, including Fanny Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, Elizabeth Inchbald and Maria Edgeworth to whom I made occasional reference, might highlight their common conflict between femininity and feminism. (2,248 words)
