Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical by Mrs. Jameson
When asked to blog on Women鈥檚 History Month, my sights turned to the Rare Book Room in Miller Library full of historical narratives of famous women. A quick title search found the book Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical by Mrs. Jameson from 1854. Perfect, I thought.
When asked to blog on Women鈥檚 History Month, my sights turned to the Rare Book Room in Miller Library full of historical narratives of famous women. A quick title search found the book Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical by Mrs. Jameson from 1854. Perfect, I thought. Only the title was missing vital information such as 鈥渙f Shakespeare.鈥� The 19th century wasn鈥檛 known as a time for pithy titles. This is an age for titles spanning paragraphs. Titles from the 19th century make run-on sentences from elementary school students look like stubby pencils.
So, I was surprised when this portly book (described as 鈥渢his little work鈥� in the author鈥檚 preface) was an analysis of the women inhabiting the many worlds of Shakespeare.
In the quirky introduction, Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson writes a little play set 
in a library in a discussion between two fictional characters, Alda and Medon. Alda
justifies the importance of women in literature, and Medon does a fair amount of straw
man arguments. 鈥淚 presume you have written a book to maintain the superiority of your
sex over ours,鈥� he says on the third page of a dozen in the play within the introduction,
but Alda replies to this 鈥渘onsense鈥� as the thought is 鈥渜uite out of date.鈥�
From the fictional fantasy world of Lady Macbeth and Ophelia to the historically based
character of Cleopatra, Mrs. Jameson spares no syllables when discussing any of Shakespeare鈥檚
many heroines. She goes to great lengths to discuss Lady Macbeth鈥檚 role in the parade
of deaths throughout the Scottish play. Further, she describes Lady Macbeth as a 鈥渇ierce,
cruel woman, brandishing a couple of daggers, and inciting her husband to butcher
a poor old King.鈥� Simultaneously, Mrs. Jameson admires Lady Macbeth for being one
of Shakespeare鈥檚 most complex written characters, developing throughout the play.
Feel free to read the play within the introduction and all of Mrs. Jameson鈥檚 analysis
of Shakespearean Women from the available through Hathi Trust
