• Login
    • Submit
    View Item 
    •   Repository Home
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    • Repository Home
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    From Miss Delia Dainty to Diana Parker : bodily spinster stereotypes in Jane Austen’s works

    Icon
    View/Open
    JACOBS-MASTERSREPORT-2016.pdf (276.7Kb)
    Date
    2016-05
    Author
    Jacobs, Corrie Lynn
    0000-0002-4967-9312
    Share
     Facebook
     Twitter
     LinkedIn
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    As constant reminders of marital failure, spinsters are usually only minor characters in the marriage plot novel. Indeed, only four spinster characters show up throughout Jane Austen’s complete oeuvre: Miss Bates from Emma, Mrs. Percival from Catharine, or the Bower, and Diana and Susan Parker from Sanditon. Through a reading of William Hayley’s A Philosophical, Historical, and Moral Essay on Old Maids (1785) and a discussion of hypochondria and invalidism, this project explores how Austen works with late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century stereotypes surrounding the spinster body. I argue that Austen crafts her spinster figures’ bodies in a way that questions their status as “wasted goods” in a society so focused on marriage. While Austen does align her spinster characters with certain body stereotypes, she does so in ways that give power to these characters and undermine conservative ideology.
    Department
    English
    Subject
    Jane Austen
    Spinsters
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/2152/43749
    Collections
    • UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    University of Texas at Austin Libraries
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • youtube
    • CONTACT US
    • MAPS & DIRECTIONS
    • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
    • UT Austin Home
    • Emergency Information
    • Site Policies
    • Web Accessibility Policy
    • Web Privacy Policy
    • Adobe Reader
    Subscribe to our NewsletterGive to the Libraries

    © The University of Texas at Austin

    Browse

    Entire RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsDate IssuedAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartmentThis CollectionDate IssuedAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartment

    My Account

    Login

    Information

    AboutContactPoliciesGetting StartedGlossaryHelpFAQs

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics
    University of Texas at Austin Libraries
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • youtube
    • CONTACT US
    • MAPS & DIRECTIONS
    • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
    • UT Austin Home
    • Emergency Information
    • Site Policies
    • Web Accessibility Policy
    • Web Privacy Policy
    • Adobe Reader
    Subscribe to our NewsletterGive to the Libraries

    © The University of Texas at Austin