A full measure of affliction: Failures of authority and the underside of redemption in Mary White Rowlandson's captivity narrative

In this study, I use an examination of structures of Puritan authority found in David Leverenz's The Language of Puritan Feeling to explain ambiguity towards authority in Mary White Rowlandson's captivity narrative, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson or The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. By examining Rowlandson's text in this light, I elucidate a particularly feminine view of Puritan authority and the ways in which she must situate herself in relation to that authority. When Rowlandson journeys into the wilderness, her view of authority and her relationship to English authority becomes destabilized as a result of her experiences with the Narrhaganset Indians. My second chapter examines her destabilized identity by analyzing the cultural signifiers of food, language, and clothing. My third chapter delves into the way that Rowlandson redeems herself from a perceived "heathen taint" in order to re-enter the Puritan society from which she had been torn.