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Article: Marketplace transactions and sentimental currencies in Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)
- Article date:
- March 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 University of Rhode Island. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It is almost a cliche to note that in mid-nineteenth-century America the ideology of separate spheres held significant cultural currency, whereby men dominated the marketplace, while women were protected in the home. This ideology was dependent upon a series of assumptions about gender and class: men were capable and benevolent patriarchs; women, following the Cult of True Womanhood as identified by Barbara Welter, were inherently pious, pure, submissive, and domestic. To ensure this innocent state, women must be protected by men from the outside world, as knowledge of the marketplace and its workings might corrupt them and thus render them unfit to perform their duty as ...