abstract

Abstract

Pettengill, Claire C. "Sisterhood in a Separate Sphere: Female Friendship in Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette and The Boarding School." Early American Literature 3 (1992): 185-203.

In “Sisterhood in a Separate Sphere: Female Friendship in Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette and The Boarding School," Pettengill addresses her claim that The Boarding School exemplifies how instructors and pupils of Harmony Grove“powerfully evoke the complex ideology of sisterhood that helped shape the daily lives of young American women at the turn of the eighteenth century” (Pettengill 187). She does this through explaining the significance of sisterhood and womanly friendship that pervade the book and lifestyle at Harmony Grove (The boarding School Foster’s book concentrates on). Pettengill further explores the idea of sisterhood that Foster so vigorously advocates, and expands on it to noting the significance of sisterhood in the era.
Throughout her article Pettengill compares Foster’s two literary works, The Coquette and The Boarding School. She explains that though Foster writes both in a similar fashion (by using letters) and to support the importance of sisterhood, she does so in different manners. The Coquette concludes tragically showing loss of friendship whereas The Boarding School shows the significance of sisterhood through the resulting boarding school graduate. Both of the books still portray a need for sisterhood, “The Boarding School’s presentation of the meaning and function of female friendship echoes and affirms that in The Coquette” (Pettengill 188). Furthermore, she argues that together the books “powerfully evoke the complex ideology of sisterhood that helped shape the daily lives of young American women at the turn of the eighteenth century” (Pettengill 187). Pettengill analyzes the importance of sisterhood in both books separately then compares them. She portrays both as enunciating “overlapping ideologies such as ‘separate spheres,’ ‘republican motherhood,’ ‘the cult of single blessedness,’ and ‘the cult of domesticity,’ all of which began to be formulated during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, attest to the culture’s anxious concern with inscribing ‘woman’s place’ during a period of great uncertainty” (Pettengill 185).
Though her article presents some outstanding points, Pettengill fails to include an interpretation of why women needed sisterhood so much then compared to now. If, in fact she feels it remains just as significant in the late 20th and early 21st centuries then she still fails to explain why, and how finishing schools such as Harmony Grove helped this idea of sisterhood flourish. She also fails to include an argument against the support of sisterhood. Surely there must have been women of the time who found success and status without attending a finishing school or having female companions.
Overall, Pettengill’s argument for sisterhood presents itself as persuasive and successful. She utilizes both of Foster’s works to explain how in two completely different plots Foster still finds portrays the essentialness of sisterhood. She further supports her claim through outside sources and goes as far to explain that “social historians have convincingly documented the importance to postrevolutionary American women of a network of sisters and friends” (Pettengill 187). Pettengill uses this as well as additional views to support her claim.
My project concerns the importance of the original New England boarding schools such as Harmony Grove. Prior to reading this article I wanted to concentrate largely on the reading system incorporated within the boarding school and how that influenced the pupils. However, after reading the article I definitely want to include the necessity for a strong sisterhood support system that Foster keenly portrays in The Boarding School. Pettengill explains The Boarding School as presenting “females friendship in terms of this intense, culturally significant sisterhood” (Pettengill 187). Pettengill analyzed Foster’s book with such a compelling argument toward the need for sisterhood during the time that I feel it could have been just as important, if not more so, for women of the era to have women companions than being well read. Pettengill even presents the point that “In The Boarding School the male world is shadowy and vague” showing the little necessity for men in the development and flourishing of young women (Pettengill 188). Pettengill’s article inspired me to include the obligation of sisterhood in a young woman’s life and how Foster utilizes Harmony Grove to enunciate this necessity.
The article successfully persuaded me to alter my project and incorporate sisterhood into the ideology of how the original New England finishing schools molded their young women. The article read easily and flowed nicely from the supporting views of The Coquette and The Boarding School. Anyone reading The Boarding School would find this article helpful regardless of their topic because it describes the overall lifestyle of the pupils. Projects concerning women and friendship would also find the article useful.