Two Opposite Models of Femininity: A Comparative Study of Ellen Glasgow’s Virginia and Barren Ground

Abstract

This work has the main objective of talking about women’s rights in the context of American post-civil war (1870s). Moreover, through the work of the feminist writer Ellen Glasgow, we are going to portray the two types of women we can find in the Southern states in this period: the Southern Lady and the modern women. The motive for centering my work on this topic is because feminism is a theme that has gained protagonism in the last years, and movements against sexual abuse, such the “MeToo Movement” contribute to give more visibility to a topic which had been always considered a taboo. That’s the reason why I find it important to go back to a past time, as it is the period of American post-civil war, to reflect the contraposition between these two types of women. On the one hand, we find the Southern Lady, an example of conservatism, obedience to her father or husband and female disempowerment. On the other hand, we have the new type of woman, a rebellious spirit which many feminist writers, such as Ellen Glasgow, portrayed in their works. We are going to see the opposition between these two types of women through two of the most significative works written by Ellen Glasgow: Virginia (1913) and Barren Ground (1925). While Virginia reflects the values and manners of the Old South, with a protagonist who has hardly any education and who achieves happiness only by serving her husband and sons, Barren Ground is the example of an opposite behavior: the liberation of the protagonist through intelligence, perseverance and hard work for becoming a prosperous farmer and an independent woman who takes her own revenge against a male-dominated world. To sum up, we could say that this work is going to make a revision on women’s rights and an opposition between the Southern Lady (a disempowered woman who reflects the sentimental and romantic ideas of the Old South) and the modern woman (a new type of woman who embodies the strong feminist opinions of Ellen Glasgow), and how men, family and religion influenced their behaviour