Limitations of female agency in the female quixote.

Abstract

Trapped within societal expectations along with its rigid gender and class distinctions, the representation of women from past till present in literature remain constricted between what a woman desires for herself against societal expectations of what it means to be a virtuous woman. Charlotte Lennox’s novel The Female Quixote thus reveal the struggles which women in the 18th century of England face in navigating between the stereotypes which society helped create.

With this in mind, I wish to delve deeper into the understanding of what a woman faces in her struggle to assert her identity by analyzing the multiple facades which a woman presents to society vs her individuality and the voice that arises in order to provide women with empowerment.