Sarah Orne Jewett and Feminism Thesis

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Throughout her novels and short stories, Jewett uses the weakness or malicious of the male characters to allow her female characters more power and therefore independence. Many scholars also believe that Jewett was also commenting on the decreased importance of the old New England male image of fisherman and provider of the household. As New England itself became industrialized, the role of the sole provider as the male failed to keep its significance which would then increase the separation between male and females. Therefore, Jewett sometimes intentionally paralyzes the male characters within New England contexts, and then places more social and economic power within the hands of the women of New England; who she portrays as much more adaptable then their male counterparts.

In the midst of this failing male patriarchal system, Jewett presents a myriad of strong female characters who are more than amble to handle life without such a strong male presence. When the men fail to provide the type of life so romanticized within modern literature and other media facets, Jewett answers this void with strong female characters to make up for such a male absence. This creates an aristocratic female character within the novel that actually controls most of the events within the fictional story. This is seem in the image of Sylvia in "The White Heron" as well as Mrs. Todd in the Country of the Pointed Furs. And so, Sylvia was allowed to keep the secret of the white heron and enjoy it herself without harming the natural environment which presented her with such beauty to begin with.

Thus the image of the majority of female characters within Jewett's works becomes a reconstructed image of a gender stereotype.

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Sylvia in "The White Heron" represents a much stronger female character than most other female roles within American Victorian literature. The empowerment of women within Jewett's novels and stories represents a much different view of women than most Victorian facets would present to the modern reader. Jewett provided the strength in her female characters to persevere and make concrete decisions on their own rather than being too heavily influenced by their male counterparts.

Another major element of Jewett's feminism is the idea that the context of the natural world revolves around the female presence. In many of her works, Jewett presents nature as the female playground, for the female role to be in charge of decisions within a natural context. This is seen in both works, the Country of Pointed Furs and "The White Heron," the strong female roles are greatly associated with the natural role. In her narratives, female characters live within the harshest elements all by themselves, and climb the highest treetop in order to defy the requests of their male counterparts. And so, nature becomes a female realm; with male counterparts finding little within the natural world while the female characters continually use this natural existence to their own personal benefit.

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