The Novel of Purpose and the Power of the Page: Breaking the Chains that Bind in 'Fettered for Life'

The Novel of Purpose and the Power of the Page: Breaking the Chains that Bind in 'Fettered for Life'

The intellectuals and reformers of the nineteenth century were well aware of ‘the power of the page,’ understanding the innate ability of fiction to change the way people think and thus its power to help bring about social reform. The novel of purpose – a novel that engaged with socially relevant issues within its narrative framework – was particularly influential in the United States in the late eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century. I will examine the ‘power of the page’ through an investigation of the novel of purpose, which was a flourishing, popular and lucrative literary category. This article will explore Fettered for Life; or, Lord and Master (1874), by Lillie Devereux Blake, a novel of purpose that has been largely neglected in contemporary scholarship. Often writing pseudonymously, Blake was a prolific writer of fiction and polemics and a Civil War correspondent who later became a prominent figure in the women’s rights movement. Fettered for Life was written to promote the ideologies of the nineteenth century women’s rights movement. This text, therefore, provides a literary window into the changing social, cultural and political forces that influenced the course of the women’s rights movement and its call for women’s suffrage. A focus on the pervasive use of the woman-slave analogy, as a rhetorical device and literary trope, will illuminate how Blake aimed to challenge existing power structures throughout this text and, thus, within the broader historical context. As a result, Fettered for Life proves a prime example of the effectiveness of the novel of purpose in terms of the ‘power of the page.’