Voices of disobedience in the fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Nella Larsen, and Mary Austin

In this dissertation, I study the depiction of female protagonists' aggressive behaviors in the fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Nella Larsen, and Mary Austin written in the United States between 1892--1929. I examine culture, ideology, and feminist consciousness in the process of analyzing the woman writer's depiction of female protagonists' aggressive behavior. My dissertation focuses on the depiction of madness, suicide, and murder as viable ways to convey the protagonists' defiance. My argument demonstrates that female protagonists' aggressive behaviors have translated women's silence into a language of actions. An analysis of voices of disobedience reveals how these women writers depict aggressiveness as a viable way to defy social convention.; In examining the representation of madness, suicide, and criminal acts, the introductory chapter sets up my paradigm to read how turn-of-the-century women writers have altered their depiction of women. By comparing and contrasting the works chosen with earlier domestic novels, my study looks at the representation of madness, suicide, and criminal acts as one way to challenge patriarchal dominance.; In the body of the dissertation, I start with an analysis of Gilman's language of a madwoman to challenge patriarchal power in marriage. Focusing on the female protagonist's madness, I argue that voices of disobedience are no longer subversive or hidden but direct and obvious. Then each chapter examines a different representation of voices of disobedience and develops the depiction of female protagonists' aggressive behaviors as viable writing strategies to criticize social convention. Chapter three focuses on Kate Chopin's depiction of Edna's suicide. Chapter Four looks at Lily's death as a symbolic way to defy social convention. Chapter Five explores Nella Larsen's inconclusive ending concerning who is responsible for Clare's fall. Chapter Six analyzes Mary Austin's depiction of Dulcie's crime of stabbing her lover to death.; I show in my argument that these women writers resist patriarchal dominance by depicting the female protagonists' aggressive behaviors. Important to the discussion of voices of disobedience, I critically discuss how the women writers have undermined the cult of domesticity by creating rebellious and unruly female protagonists. I emphasize the struggle to voice their feminist consciousness in public. I examine in each chapter how an oppressive situation has prompted each woman character to step out from the depressive environment, creating her voice to fight.