Cult Of Domesticity Slave Narratives English Literature Essay

Cult Of Domesticity buckle down Narratives English Literature EssaySlave narratives give an account of the physical brutality and deprivation that many knuckle downs were labored to endure striver narrators ultimately write his or her self into an existence recognized by dominant American society. The author illustrates the way he/she overcomes the thralldom societys continuing attempts to destroy his/her identity concurrently, the narrator also rewrites that identity to fit the dominant purifications norms, despite the fact that these norms tend to conflict with his/her own experiences during slavery. Male slave narratives get under ones skin ultimately highlighted on heroic manly slaves, not on their wives, daughters or sisters for a young-bearing(prenominal) her relationships as a daughter, sister, wife, receive, and friend would ultimately process her charliness and her shared roles with white women readers (who do not need to contest their womanliness). The many differ ent choices Linda has made throughout her life including her attempt to promiscuous herself from her master moral degradation, her relationship with Mr. Sands, her strategy for saving her children, and her concealment is how she illustrates to her reader the ways in which she has strived to live up to their standards. Ultimately, Linda Brent is caught betwixt the vile, abusive practices of slavery and the view cult of domesticity.By focusing almost entirely on the narratives of male slaves, critics have left out half the picture. Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is representative of African AmericanOrr 2womens literary tradition, or of a feminine model of identity formation. It is safe to say that both male and female slave narratives strove to counter racial stereotypes it is also safe to say that black men and women however faced very different stereotypes. Black slave men fought against the stereotype that were boys (transition to manhood as in Douglass) w hile black women struggled to defend the idea that they were either helpless victims or whores. For a male fugitive, cosmos discourse was a way in which he would declare his place and identity among men. The form in which Jacobs narrative is written is a direct precede of gender differences among men and women. Because women slave narrators were held hostages to the nineteenth-century ideal of the cult of domesticity which demanded a standard of feminine purity that slavery denied them, they were excluded from the public discourse of their stories in the dominant culture that publicly insisted on the cult of pure cleaning lady. Her primarily white readership at the time insisted that women should choose death before dishonor they would not recognize supposed mothers of children who were bastards. Harriet Jacobs could not demonstrate to her primarily white female readership how she had been the perfect wife or mother that the cult of domesticity demanded further she emphasizes the ways in which she strove to meet those selfsame(prenominal) demands given her peculiar position.Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl present the authors confession of what her readers might consider a sin-ridden past and a acknowledgment of her motives to a potentially disapproving readership. Northern white women could have possibly identified with the female slave in times of hardship and may have even made allowances for her behavior under duress, however, Jacobs appears to take for granted that her readers provide apply to Linda Brent the moral standards that were imposed upon them. She emphasizes, Slavery is terrible for men but it is far more terribleOrr 3for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.(119) She calls attention to that of female slaves who suffered horrible mental tortures and humiliation such as internal harassment and the loss of their children.Jacobs mentions numerous exam ples of Dr. Flints behavior as proof of the corrupting power of slavery and its negative effects especially on the female slaves maternal and womanly experiences. Dr. Flint batters Brents purity of mind with constant insinuations and harassment he built a cottage in the field for her to live in but she refused him. If she had accepted his offer, her life would have been spent undergoing more of his foul insults and sexual abuse. Her decision to become a mother was a direct ensue of Dr. Flints constant sexual advances. Linda admits that she accepted Mr. Sands advances toward her as, deliberate calculation. She statesBut, O, ye happy women, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the low desolate slave girl too severely If slavery had been abolished, I, also could have married the man of my choiceI wanted to keep myself pure and under the most adverse circumstances, I t ried hard to preserve my self respect but I was fight alone in the powerful grasp of the demon slavery and the monster proved too strong for me. (83-84)Since, Flint denied Brent marriage to a free black man and refused to sell her to anyone, Brent knew that she would never be allowed a traditional home and family therefore not achieving the proper standards of white women. If Linda had the choice to relish and tie whom she pleased then, she would gladly take it. But the fact remains she does not. Through her relationship with Mr. Sands she gains some control over her body if she cannot marry whom she pleases then at least she can choose with whom she will reproduce. By choosing Sands as a lover and father toOrr 4her children, Brent went against the ideal image of womanhood and instead dealt with the position she was in. Jacobs writes about Mr. SandsI felt grateful for his generosity, and encouraged by his kind words. It seemed to me a great subject to have such a friend. By degr ees, a more tender feeling crept into my heart. Of course I saw whither all this was tending, I knew the impassable disjuncture between us but to be an object of interest to a man who is not married, and who is not her master, is agreeable to the pride and feelings of a slave, if her miserable line has left her any pride or sentiment. It seems less degrading to give ones self, than to submit to compulsion. There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment. (Jacobs 84)She made the choice to willingly give up her virginity outside of marriage an action that is completely against traditional moral codes. Brent recognizes that it is through her right to choose that a woman gains moral integrity, not through the physical virginity with which the choice is associated. She chooses Sands to apprehensive Dr. Flint in hopes of being free from his sexual advances and to also possibly secure her freedom an d that of future children Of a man who was not my master I could ask to have my children well supported and in this case, I felt confident I should obtain the boon. I also felt quite sure that they would be made free. (85-86)While attempting to embrace the ideals of womanhood, Brent is able to recognize and disregard the standards that cannot be applied and established for her. She saysPity me, and pardon me, O chaste reader You never knew what it is to be a slave to be entirely unprotected by law or custom to have the laws reduce you to the retainer of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another. You never exhausted your ingenuity in avoiding the snares, and eluding the power of a hated tyrant you never shuddered at the sound of his footsteps, and trembled within hearing of his voice. I know I did wrong.Still, in looking back calmly, on the events of my life, I feel that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others. (Jacobs 86)This statement decla res that other women have no right to criticize Brent for revealing her sexual history unless they have walked in her shoes and been witness to all she has endured.Orr 5Furthermore, Jacobs argues, that the sense of hearing cannot possibly understand what she has been through. The quote is directed to the white female audience and suggests that particularly female slaves should not be judged according to the moral standards of everyone else.Nevertheless, Brent is constantly trying to live up to the cult of true womanhood by attempting to find ways to secure the freedom of her two children. Jacobs emphasizes her narrators maternal emotions towards her children motherliness depicted in the narrative is significant because it is a strong connection between herself and her readers and, most importantly, one that goes above race and social status. In presenting the life of the slave mother as one of constant misery and pain, Jacobs earn the sympathy of her readers and motivates them to focus on her maternal experience as the reason behind her desire to be free. Lindas actions are mostly determined by the effect they will have on her children and their future liberation. Many female slaves were incapable of keeping their families together but Brent converted her body from a position of growth to a vehicle of resistance when she challenged the authority of the slave master and worked to liberate her children. Jacobs writes, My thoughts wandered through the dark past, and over the uncertain future. Alone in my cell, where no inwardness but Gods could see me, I wept bitter tears. How earnestly I prayed to him to restore me to my children, and enable me to be a useful woman and a good mother (202). Lindas calculated advantage of being with Mr. Sands was not enough to secure the liberation of her children and her escape from Flints pursuit. Significantly, Linda takes actions that promote the well-being of her children constantly throughout the narrative. She devises a blueprint to hide in the garret to protect the love she has for her children she removes her physical body in order to safeguard them. Most importantly, Linda never seriously takes into consideration foot race away to the North without her children. HerOrr 6flight is always understood as a necessary precaution for the betterment of their lives and sacrificing her physical and emotional intimacy with them is significant in order to achieve her ultimate goal their emancipation.The ending of the narrative was startling. Freedom was gained from none other than Mrs. Bruce who bought the freedom of the children and Linda. Mrs. Bruce is a very significant fount in the narrative and stands as a role model of courage and political activism for the audience. She is also an example of a white woman who uses her own motherhood to help that of a slave. The narrative ends with the quoteReader, my story ends with freedom not in the usual way, with marriage. I and my children are now free We a re as free from the power of slave holders as are the white people of the north and though that, according to my ideas, is not saying a great deal, it is a vast improvement in my condition. (Jacobs 302)By stating this, she is explicitly referring to the ideal of the cult of true womanhood. Even though Brent succumbs to the values of her readers she, however, resists their authority to judge her by those values. She makes a significant point about values and life situations that is, not everyone can be judged by the same standards and points out the ways in which womanhood and motherhood are corrupted by slavery itself. Brents story does not end in the conventional feminine way the narrative ends, not with a solitary speaker, but with a woman gratefully acknowledging her bonds to her children and friends, bonds that were freely chosen.Jacobs primarily female white readership may have been sympathetic to her pseudonym Lindas struggles to secure the oneness of her family, to show exte nsive sexual encounters between slave and master, and to display the inhumane institution of slavery itself but instead the narrative was written in a trial by jury format (white women being the jury, and Brents lifeOrr 7being the trial). By calling upon her fellow women and mothers to be witnesses to her life as a, poor desolate slave girl she challenges them to understand that she could not emulate the standards that were imposed upon white women at the time in her own way she proved herself to be a worthy woman and mother even if it did not end with marriage.