"Machiavels in petticoats" : feminist messages in three didactic sentimenal novels: Susanna Rowson's Charlotte: A tale of truth, Hannah Foster's The Coquette, and Helena Wells' The Step-mother

The sentimental novels of late eighteenth-century America often have been overlooked by academia partly because of their morally didactic plots. These novels, mainly written by women, seem to uphold the patriarchal society which existed at the time. A tension exists, however, between the morally didactic plot of these novels and the characterizations of the female protagonists. Three novels, Susanna Rowson's Charlotte, A Tale of Truth, Hannah Foster's The Coquette, and Helena Wells' The Step-Mother, demonstrate this tension by presenting plots which seem to uphold the status quo while at the same time presenting characterizations of women that subtly suggest criticism of the ruling social heirarchy. The character of Charlotte Temple criticizes society by presenting a heroine who suffers mainly because of society's failure to adequately educate her. Wells' Caroline Wentworth is a strong, self-sufficient woman who demonstrates that women are as capable and intelligent as men. Finally, Eliza Wharton is a strong, spirited young woman who is victimized by a society which restricts her rights to make choices about her own future. These characterizations suggest that the female novelists of the era were not completely supportive of the male-dominated society of their era but may, in fact, have been subtly criticizing that very society through the covert feminist messages contained in their books.