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Constructing Roles in the Early Modern Novel: Contrasting Views on Women and Female Virtue in Richardson’s Pamela and Haywood’s Fantomina

Murgolo, Federica
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Abstract
This thesis investigates eighteenth-century novels and their role in shaping social expectations on women, particularly regarding the preservation of premarital chastity, which was widely considered a marker of moral excellence. To contextualize this analysis, primary sources such as conduct books are examined to illuminate the moral framework of the time, providing deeper insight into the cultural significance of the novels under consideration. The thesis also adopts a combined lens of New Historicism and feminist literary criticism to explore the construction of gender, the performative nature of femininity, and broader social concerns of the period. The core of the analysis focuses on two novels: Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina. While Richardson reinforces the period’s moral expectations and endorses societal pressures placed upon women, Haywood subverts and challenges them. Both novels are examined through the authors’ use of metatextual elements, characterization of their heroines, and the outcomes or rewards each heroine receives. Read in contrast, these texts reveal a more complex portrayal of eighteenth-century femininity, exposing the tensions between conformity and resistance. Furthermore, this comparison offers a reflection on contemporary understandings of gender roles and highlights literature’s enduring capacity not only to mirror societal norms but also to actively shape and challenge them.
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Thesis (B.A. in English Language and Literature, Minors in Creative Writing and Philosophy)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.
Date
2025
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Pamela (Samuel Richardson), Fantomina (Eliza Fowler Haywood)
Citation
Murgolo, Federica. "Constructing Roles in the Early Modern Novel: Contrasting Views on Women and Female Virtue in Richardson’s Pamela and Haywood’s Fantomina". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025.
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