The Female Agency

In Nancy Armstrong’s “The Politics of Domesticating Culture, Then and Now” she discusses the female agency and how it was shaped through the novel. The female agency is the way the female has resisted the male dominated structure of society and instead their femininity has changed and shaped the composition of literature. Two examples of the female agency in literature are Daniel Defoe’s “Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress” and Samuel Richardson’s “Pamela or Virtue Reward”. These two novels have female protagonist, who are very different, but, but both display the key elements of female agency.

In Armstrong essay she states, “This power emerged with the rise of the domestic woman and established its hold over British culture through her dominance over all those objects and practices with associate with private life.” (Armstrong, 3) In both Defoe’s and Richardson’s writing we see evidence of Armstrong’s statement helping to further along the female agency. In “Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress” the unnamed protagonist has initially lost her power because her husband has left her and her children destitute escaping the situation he has created in the middle of the night. This is the turning point in Defoe’s novel. Roxana’s action shapes the novel and gives clear evidence of the change in the voice of literature. Had Roxana lain down and died, starving to death, then the feminine idea would have been not present in the novel. But the idea that Roxana took matters in to her own hands and made the sought after idea of dominance over all objects her only goal. When Roxana is trying to sell the Jewelers gems she states, “There was one kind Chance in this Affair, which indeed, was my Deliverance…” (Defoe, 115) She threw aside her morality an...

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... have situation where the protagonist, Pamela, acts how she believes society would desire her to be. This is a perfect character of strong moral high ground, but she is also a inferior class servant and a woman so her place in the social order is actually insignificant. The female agency does illustrate, in this instance, that because she was able to use her femininity to help further her place in society while maintaining a strong moral standing. This is the opposite of what happened in “Roxana The Fortunate Mistress” because Roxana had to abandon her morality in order for Defoe to be able to have her fight against the constraints of society. “Pamela or Virtue Rewarded” was published sixteen years after “Roxana” and shows that society was gradually conforming to the idea that female is able to change her situation without with need for an excuse for her to do so.