마크 트웨인과 젠더

Mark Twain and Gender: A Critique of Patriarchy in The Gilded Age

This paper aims to recapitulate Mark Twain's attitude toward gender by discussing whether he advocates of criticizes patriarchy of the gilded age in America, by analyzing Laura Hawkins and Ruth Bolton, "New Women" characters in his The Gilded Age(1873) In spite of his first novel, Twain's The Gilded Age has been excluded from Twain studies and Laura and Ruth also alienated from critical concerns because they have been treated as exceptional female characters who can't be categorized as Twain's typical "humorous old ladies and silly little girls" Critics have not considered "the old ladies and little girls" to be "women of any substance", of "women as people" But Laura and Ruth, not "the old ladies and little girls" but marriageable adults, are "women of substance" and thus "women as people" who experience repression, anger and frustration living in the patriarchal gilded age Susan Harris, in her article "Four Ways to Inscribe a Mackeral Mark Twain and Laura Hawkins," analyzes only Laura and regards Twain as a writer who advocates patriarchy Harris insists that Twain finishes the novel with Laura's death because it's "a legitimate penalty for women who trespassed on the male sphere" However, unlike Harris' approach, if we analyze both Laura and Ruth together, the novel is interpreted differently In this paper, I attempt not only to revaluate Laura, but also to rehabilitate Ruth who has never been discussed among the discourses about female cahracters of Twain For that purpose I focus on tow elements First, whether Twain's perspective toward Laura is sympathetic of hostile Second, what the significance of the dual plot the novel is In addition, a discussion of other biographical materials show that Twain supported women's suffrage in various ways and gave financial support to the movement Consequently, this paper will reveal the fact that Twain is a critic of patriarchy and thus a writer with feminist tendencies