Dynes - Abstract

Justine Dynes

The Boarding School

October 20, 2008

Biographical Information

Pettengill, Claire C. "Sisterhood in a Separate Sphere: Female Friendship in Hannah Webster Foster's the Coquette and the Boarding School." Early American Literature 27.3 (1992): 185-203.

Abstract

One idea that runs itself through Hannah Webster Foster’s The Boarding School is that of female companionship. This friendship, created through rituals among peers, grew to what could be called a family between the young women. This family sticks together, just as biological families are to stick together through tough trials. When the young women enter into the real world, becoming true women in their own rights, their rituals they gained in school become letter writing, sharing their lives with their friends any way they can.

Pettengill uses Foster’s The Coquette and The Boarding School to argue a point on friendships and the affect they have on the life of a woman. Though The Coquette uses better examples on what happens when the friendships, or the connections through letters and other communications, fail, The Boarding School offers a look at how they may have begun between young women in the first place. While within a school and seeming to have no central plot, The Boarding School was written to further explore how young females gained their relationships that stayed with them through their lives, if they so chose to keep it. For Eliza in The Coquette, it is clear exactly what happens when the woman disconnects herself from her circle of friends gained at her own school.

In order to make her point more worthwhile, Pettingill uses quotes from various other articles about Foster and her two novels. She relies on summaries of both books to make her point as well. The Boarding School and The Coquette take place in a young woman’s life, but in different time periods of that life. While The Coquette focuses on the last part of a young woman’s innocence, The Boarding School instead views when that innocence is created among the young women. This friendship between groups of females can be defined as a social function, as it is part of their everyday life so much that it becomes a part of them and part of their social structure.

Within this friendship between young women, there are certain unwritten rules. The girls in The Boarding School never criticize anyone outside of their circle. They may mention others that were not part of their group in a negative way, but never themselves. However, The Coquette brings about change within that rule; Eliza’s friends are constantly being unsupportive of her decisions. Another rules seems to be that the girls must share notes with another. The girls in The Boarding School mention what another girl has done and even go so far as to attach a letter that had been sent to them. This can be pulled into The Coquette as well, since the end was told through letters not from Eliza, but explaining what she did. Most of all, there is a rule to always keep in contact, as that will keep the circle together and unbroken. Again, Eliza breaks this and, thus, breaks her circle of friends through her actions.

This essay has added a lot to my thinking as well as my idea on how to approach the topic. It brings both of Foster’s novels as a whole into the conversation, something I had never thought of before. If one of the girls in the school had been named “Eliza,” The Boarding School could very well be a prequel to The Coquette. In fact, it almost seems as if it should be a prequel. Foster does explore more female companionship in her second novel, and that allows a clearer picture into how deep her first novel proceeded. As a whole, these two novels together make a great point on people, mainly women, and how they live and interact with another.

One point that caught me was that openness and criticism (to girls outside the circle) mean a true female friendship. This was odd and it got me thinking of my own relationships with my close female friends. We are open to another and we do tend to harshly criticize those not within our close circle; I have been friends with them for eight years now. As Pettingill said, our routines help to hold ourselves together, no matter how small or slightly insane those routines are. This helped me gain more insights to both of Foster’s novels and how they can affect life today.

The argument, while focusing on The Coquette more than The Boarding School was helpful in gaining more information on how young women interact with each other. It helped guide my thinking to where it should be, not where it was, as well as brought forth new ideas that had not even crossed my mind. It brought the idea of family and how young women specifically find their true family, not just their biological one.

I would recommend this article to anyone who has a book dealing with a young woman as a main character. It will add insight to her and to the way she may or may not act around her friends and supporters in the novel.