Hints To Young House Wives Analysis

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In, “Hints to Young House Wives”, Sara Willis Parton, more commonly referred to as her pseudonym Fanny Fern, employs irony and expresses her desire to escape the domestic sphere. Fanny Fern employs irony by mimicking the works of Dr. Samuel Jennings with her title. Furthermore, Fanny Fern emphasizes the autonomy which women should strive for in their marriage. Fanny Fern instructs women not to submit to their husband because “just so long as a man isn’t quite as sure as if he knew [that you loved him] for certain . . . he is your humble servant” (Parton 839). Fanny Fern’s previous instruction directly contradicts Jennings’ statement in “The Married Lady’s Companion” which instructed “‘wives [to] submit [them]selves unto [their] husbands, as …show more content…
Fanny Fern expresses her dissatisfaction of not being able to “clap [her] hands at some public speaker”, an action which Grave’s might argue is outside of “the station which God and nature have assigned to her” (Parton 840; Graves 185). Similar to “Hints to Young House Wives”, “Independence” articulates actions which women desire, but are unable to perform due to societal restrictions to the domestic sphere. Later in “Independence”, Fanny Fern asks if “[she] can even be President?” which directly contradicts the expected roles of women of the 19th century that Dr. Warder’s expresses when he states, “womanhood, at least within the middle class, denoted moral authority” (Parton 841; Warder). Here, Fanny Fern is expressing that women should have more power than that of mere moral authority, which [wakes her neighbors up] as it causes them to realize their underrepresentation in society. With these ideas, and bold expressions, Fanny Fern gradually increases the severity of her requests, leading women to free their minds from the myopic roles which society has conditioned them to become accustomed