Education, Social Class and Self-Interest in Rebecca Rush's Novel Kelroy

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Education, Social Class and Self-Interest in Rebecca Rush's Novel Kelroy

Kelroy, by Rebecca Rush, was first published in 1812. Early American writers had a rough time writing "gothic" style writings because of the lack of history, which was not a problem faced by European writers. Kelroy is an extremely cynical view of American life and it was not well accepted by Americans, despite the fact that it is seen as "one of the best written [novels] in America before 1820"(231). Three themes from Kelroy, which demonstrate the focus of many early Americans, are Education, Social Class, and Self-Interest.

Education was beginning to become extremely important in the early 1800's, especially for women. Reading habits of the characters was often emphasized in literary works of this time period because it was an important issue that was being faced. For example, in Kelroy, Mrs. Hammond "applied herself sedulously to the education of her daughters, and engaged a person to reside with them in quality of governess, who was, in her estimation, fully adequate to the task, since to a variety of accomplishments, she enjoyed an infinity of that species of self-important pride, which teaches its owner instinctively to shun the approaches of the vulgar. She also had masters from the city, to attend them at stated times: thus uniting in her plan, to real benefit, an air of lofty superiority"(4-5). However, Mrs. Hammond's motive behind educating her daughters was not necessarily for their benefit, but her own. The appearance of being able to afford educating her daughters, which would lead others to believe that she was wealthy (and many did believe) was a key motivator for Mrs. Hammond. The ability to read was possessed by many women in the 1800's, but writing was not as common, which meant that Mrs. Hammond's daughters, as well as Mrs. Hammond, would have been considered better educated that most women because they could read and write. In contrast with the Hammond girls, we have Maria, from Royall Tyler's The Contrast, who reads the dreaded romantic novels, which is not considered to be a favored pastime. Speaking of Maria, Letitia says, "Why she read Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa Harlowe, Shenstone, and the Sentimental Journey, and between whiles, as I said, Billy's letters. But as her taste improved, her love declined"(1151).

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