Women in the 18th century with an illustration on Richardson, Defoe and Jane Austen

Chapter I The Woman s Social Image from the Middle Ages to the Classical Period (18-century)………………………………………………………………………….…..6
1. Defining terms and concepts………………………………………………….6
2.Religious teaching …………………………………………………………….7
3. The law and its administration ……………………………………………….9
3.1. Marital status……………………………………………………………9
3.2. Marriage, separation, child custody……………………………………..10
3.3. Crimes by and against women ………………………………………….11
4. Stereotypes…………………………………………………………………….12
4.1. Maid, wife and widow…………………………………………………..12
4.2.The scold, the whore and the witch…………………………...................14
5. Adulthood …………………………………………………………………….15
5.1. Marriage…………………………………………………………………15
5.2. Maternity………………………………………………………………...17
5.3. Single women …………………………………………………………...20

Chapter II  Women in the century of the Enlightenment ………………………………22
1. The concept of the Enlightenment…………………………………………….22
2.1. Brief critical overview…………………………………………………..24
2.2. Men s glance……………………………………………………………28
2.2.1. The feminine nature……………………………………………….28
2.2.2. The woman s reason………………………………………………29
2.2.3. The role of women………………………………………………...29
2.3. Married women………………………………………………………….30
2.3.1. Marriage in contradiction………………………………………….31
2.3.2. The Enlightenment couple………………………………………...31
2.3.3. The folk couple……………………………………………………32
2.4. The women at work…………………………………………………….33
2.4.1. Workers……………………………………………………………33
2.4.2. Women with unequal status……………………………………….34
2.5. Education of the Enlightenment s daughters …………………………..34
2.6. The women of culture…………………………………………………..35
2.6.1. Reading……………………………………………………………35
2.6.2. Writing…………………………………………………………….36
2.7. Prostitution……………………………………………………………...36

Chapter III  Women and Eighteenth-Century English Literature....................................40
1. Moll Flanders  a woman s identity derived from the fight for life…........ 40
2. Pamela: the woman hero as a refusal of the objective realities of social rank and the symbol of virtue………………………………………………………………....53
3. Jane Austen s Emma: Independence vs Marriage…………………………...71
Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………...83
References……………………………………………………………………………….86