Blog 1:"Anger in the House: Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall and The Redrawing of Emotional Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth Century America" by Linda Grassois and "Ruth Hall" by Fanny Fern

The article "Anger in the House: Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall and The Redrawing of Emotional Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth Century America" by Linda Grassois is an article written based on the reactions of the readers to the novel “Ruth Hall” by Fanny Fern. The article contains arguments and debates on whether it is acceptable for women to express their anger, for women during that time did not really have the “right” to portray or be angry simply because they are women and not men. There were gender roles in society in which women and men were expected to act accordingly to the standards that are set for them, that indicate the acceptable and the unacceptable acts. Grassois wrote:

“The fact that so many people seized the opportunity to pronounce whether Fern's vitriolic depiction of undemocratic men was a criminal breach of moral ethics indicates just how contested the ideal of "womanly" behavior had become by the mid-nineteenth-century.  For what was ultimately at stake in the debate over Ruth Hall was whether a woman had the right to publicly express anger at men and still be deemed “womanly," respectable, and capable of  rational au-thorship. The herculean efforts both male and female reviewers made to en- force the disjunction between anger and womanhood betrays a lurking fear that emotional boundaries were being redrawn. Indeed, it is clear from the review-ers' anxious response that the public expression of women's anger signified a direct challenge to the maintenance of unequal gender roles and privileges” (Grassois p.253-254).

Thus it is believed that the novel “Ruth Hall” posed a threat to the social norm during that time, because it helped women realize their oppression to express their anger publicly and to wish for freedom from this oppression. Women can then see that the angry feelings that they’ve hidden because society claim is the “proper” thing to do for women, are indeed just and that they should have the right to express them openly. They will be aware of the gender role imbalance in society, and seek action. Grassois also mentioned in the article that the oppression of women is similar to that of a slave. 

In the novel “Ruth Hall”, Ruth Hall’s mother-in-law disliked her and had an expected set of standards on how a woman and proper wife should act, and was disappointed that Ruth did not know how to some of the household chores and looked down on her. Ruth’s mother-in-law stated “"It is a great pity you were not brought up properly," said she."I learned all that a girl should learn, before I married” (Kindle Locations 189-190). Ruth's mother-in-law kept telling Ruth the things that women are supposed to do and the things that they should not do, like reading "frivolous" novels. She will continue to meddle between Ruth and Harry, and tried to find every little thing that Ruth has done “wrong” and tries to keep controlling their lives. The doctor stated, “Ruth never says anything when you vex her, but there's a look in her eye which—well, Mis. Hall, it tells the whole story" (Kindle Locations 414-415). I believe Ruth knows for a fact that her in-laws disliked her and the way her mother-in-law kept trying to trouble Ruth angers her, but Ruth did not show her anger towards them even during the time Daisy and Harry passed away partly caused by the old doctor failing to help them on time. 


Works Cited

Fern, Fanny. Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time. Girlebooks, 2008. Kindle. 26 June 2012.

Grasso, Linda. "Anger in the House: Fanny Fern's "Ruth Hall" and the Redrawing of Emotional Boundaries in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America" Studies in the American Renaissance , (1995), pp. 251-261. JSTOR. Web. 28 June 2012.