Grant Allen’s Ambivalent Response to the New Woman

Shortly following Grant Allen’s problematic portrayal of the New Woman in The Woman Who Did (1895) , this emergent feminist figure reportedly “disappeared from the popular press”. 1 Although not solely responsible for its disappearance, Allen’s confusing portrayal of the New Woman was likely damaging to the iconic figure, being criticised heavily by both feminist and conservative readers. 2 The protagonist Herminia values independence above traditional conformity, electing not to marry her lover and living as a single mother following his death. She is well educated, progressive and hopeful about the change that the future may hold for women, claiming that her daughter Dolly is “born for the freeing of women”. 3 However, Herminia’s progressive qualities are undermined in the novel as she commits suicide to let Dolly live a traditional, married life without the shame of her nonconformist mother casting a shadow over her. As Dolly does not share her mother’s subversive views, the New Woman trope ends abruptly with Herminia. It is not clear that Allen himself was truly sympathetic to the feminist cause, rather than simply profiting from its recent prominence. In his view of an ideal society “women must become wives and mothers”. 4 Regardless of whether the novel was damaging to the New Woman trope, it made a significant contribution to feminist discussion in the late nineteenth century and provoked a body of reactionary literature.

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