Elizabeth Stoddard and Margaret Fuller

    
    Elizabeth Stoddard writes about Margaret Huell, a woman who is attending her wealthy aunt in the midst of a law suit, in Lemorne versus Huell. During the short story, we watch Margaret, who is poor, live a life in upper class style and attract the attention of Mr. Uxbridge. Mr. Uxbridge is the lawyer for the client suing her Aunt Eliza. As the story progresses, Mr. Uxbridge falls in love with Margaret. She eventually grows fond of him as he dotes on her but in the end, she has a dream in which she realizes what a scoundrel her husband is. If Margaret’s aunt won the case, Margaret would be rich and therefore he would be as well. Elizabeth Stoddard writes about a woman who is practical and independent. As Margaret is a teacher of music, she hears it for what it is. When Mr. Uxbridge comments on her lack on interest in the music they are listening to, she says, “I teach music. I can not dream over ‘one, two, three.’”
    Margaret responds to Mr. Uxbridge briefly and matter-of-factly. Her character is not like most women who encourage the attention of a man. She states her opinions without any hesitation. Even when Mr. Uxbridge is clearly interested in her she does not help him in expressing himself.
    “If we understand the impression we make upon each other, what must be said?”
    I made no reply, but fanned myself, neither looking at the moon, nor upon the redowa, nor upon any thing.
    He took the fan from me.
    “Speak of yourself,” he said.
    “Speak you.”
    “I am what I seem, a man within your sphere. By all the accidents of position and circumstance suited to it. Have you no learned it?”
    “I am not what I seem. I never wore so splendid a dress as this till to-night, and shall not again.”
    Mr. Uxbridge goes on to declare his love for Margaret and she realizes that he doesn’t even ask whether she loves him. She knows that she should feel wonderful at the opportunity he was offering through marriage, and yet she couldn’t. She thinks to herself, ‘I was not allowed to give myself-- I was taken.’
    Elizabeth Stoddard shows the cold, non-romantic side of courtship. Margaret Huell was all but forced into his arms rather than seeking them out willingly.
    Margaret Fuller claims that if women were sure of what they wanted, they’d be more self-reliant. When the fictional Miranda states the argument that men are vain and want to be more important to women then they should be, she argues that men haven’t acted like that to her. Miranda says, “No, because the position I early enabled to take, was one of self-reliance. And were all women as sure of their wants as I was, the result would be the same. The difficulty is to get them to the point where they shall naturally develop self-respect, the question how it is to be done.”
     Margaret Fuller also describes a marriage that was based on friendship. “It was only friendship, whose basis was esteem; probably neither party knew love, except by name.” I believe the characters in Elizabeth Stoddard’s short story to be ignorant of love as well. They thought they knew it but both were blind.
     Elizabeth Stoddard wrote fiction and Margaret Fuller wrote about the differences between man and woman. While Elizabeth Stoddard’s style was simplistic and flowed smoothly, Margaret Fuller’s style was complicated and confusing. Fuller did make a few points that were both interesting and seemed rather pivotal for her time, but her wording slowed you down. I didn’t care for it. Elizabeth Stoddard weaved her opinions into the story, allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions rather than forcing her ideas on them.