Search for inner peace : Louisa May Alcott and duty /
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| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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1991.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Abstract: | This dissertation explores the influences upon and enactments of Louisa May Alcott's concept of duty evident in selected adult fiction. Alcott's concept of duty can be traced to three powerful influences in her life: her mother, Abigail (Abba) May Alcott; her father, Bronson Alcott; and a family friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson. From her parents, Alcott learned to consider duty as any self-denying and/or self-sacrificing act, from the menial and trivial to the noble and significant. The performance of any degree of work demonstrated acceptance of responsibilities thrust upon her. By performing her duties, Alcott would attain personal satisfaction and spiritual compensation. From her father and Emerson--both well-known transcendentalists-- Alcott acquired belief in self-reliance and its application to duty. She ascertained that she could enhance her ability to perform duty by being self-reliant. Ultimately, she would secure a sense of power and control over her life. While Emerson provided a theory but not a method for being self-reliant, her parents offered a standard for living life--the dutiful acceptance of her obligations, which contradicted self reliance. Alcott recognized the incompatible nature of humble acceptance of life's burdens and of confident control of her autonomy. Moreover, she understood that neither system tolerated the expression of negative feelings. On one level, her fiction paints a picture of harmonious home life with each family member successfully and cheerfully doing his/her duty. On another level, her fiction illustrates the difficulty of being both dutiful and self-reliant. In her adult fiction, Alcott's treatment of duty and individualism varies from complete compliance with duty in her Civil War tales to persistent pursuit of self reliance in her transcendental novel Moods (1864) to the distortion of both duty and self reliance in her Gothic romances. However, in her autobiographically-based novel Work: A Storv of Experience (1873), Alcott balances action and speculation, joins duty and freedom, assimilates duty with self reliance. |
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| Item Description: | Typescript (photocopy). Vita. "Major subject: English." |
| Physical Description: | v, 204 leaves ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |