Women Writers 1

Women Writers 1 #1 Southworth comments on women's lives and societies views in the novel The Hidden Hand. Southworth's humor is what made her novel so popular in the early nineteenth century. If Southworth had not used humor many people would not have read what she had to say about women. Two characters that the author uses to depict feminine stereotypes are Capitola and Clara Day.Capitola, the young and adventurous spirit, crosses over many boundaries that many women did not have the chance to do in this certain time period. The first gender boundary that is crossed for the character of Capitola is when she dresses like a boy. "While all the ragged boys I know could get little jobs to earn bread, I, because I was a girl, was not allowed to carry a gentleman's parcel, or black his boots, or shovel the snow off a shopkeeper's pavement, or put in coal, or do anything I could just as well as they.English: Capitola, California