Feminist Lens - Critical Lens Experts (HF)

Text: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Critical Lens: Feminist lens

Recently, I read an article regarding the critical lens analysis of an excerpt of my particular interest called Reading Gender in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Myra Jehlen, a Board of Governors Professor of English at Rutgers University. In her article, she wrote an in-depth analysis of the excerpt that I did my own close reading of in the previous entry, so it was interesting to read a higher-level analysis of a scene that I already have existing opinions about.

In the excerpt from the book, Huck Finn goes into town disguised as a woman in order to learn what the town knows about his disappearance. The first house he happened across was occupied by a woman new to the area by the name Mrs. Loftus and after a short conversation and a series of trials, she was able to see right through Huck’s disguise. Afterwards, Mrs. Loftus proceeded to educate Huck on how to properly act like a girl, as to aid his disguise in the future.

Jehlen goes on to explain that the fact that Mrs. Loftus is able to recognise gender-specific stereotypes and then teach Huck the differences proves that said mannerisms are actually more of a concept of nurture rather than nature, and simply an act put on to fit in with the expectations of the society she lives in. She writes, “Femininity, as Judith Loftus has here defined it, is something that women do, as a composite activity made up certain acts they perform well and others they as skillfully perform badly, or perhaps most skillfully not at all. Masculinity is the equal and opposite condition.” (Jehlen, pg 513) Nobody is necessarily born good or bad at any given task; an individual must learn and practice a over time in order to become proficient in anything at all. For instance, Twain writes, “Why, I spotted you for a boy when you was threading the needle; and I contrived the other things just to make certain.” (Twain, pg 53) In this scene, Mrs. Loftus teaches Huck that women are expected to be good at threading needles, bad at throwing, and catch things in their skirt rather than between their knees, while men are expected to perform with the opposite amount of skill for each of the tasks. In Mrs. Loftus’s particular time, certain expectations existed in society which limited the activities each gender could actively participate in, which explains how women never got the opportunities to practice the same skills as men, and vice versa.

Furthermore, as Jehlen writes, “With Huck sitting in Mrs. Loftus’s kitchen got up like a girl, nothing any longer is given, anyone can be anything.” (Jehlen, pg 515) By introducing this new idea that gender belongs to the concept of nurture rather than nature through the voice of Mrs. Loftus, Twain may also be hinting at the possibility that the entire concept of gender itself is arbitrary. Just as I had brought up in my previous entry, the very fact that Mrs. Loftus is literally teaching Huck how to act feminine by telling him about a few of the stereotypical things that differentiates feminine and masculine mannerisms proves how gender stereotypes don’t actually come with your assigned sex at all. Rather, they are learned by living and growing in a society that expects these mannerisms out of its citizens, and anyone who may spot the ruse (such as in Mrs. Loftus’ case,) will have to act within these expectations despite their actual capabilities for the sake of fitting in.

While I was reading the scene myself, I could recognize the fact that women seem to be better equipped at recognizing heteronormativity and stereotypical mannerisms between gender, hence the line, “You do a girl tolerable poor, but you could fool a man maybe.” (Twain pg 52) Based on this text, I could assume that that Twain was trying to hint at the existence of heteronormativity and the enforcing of gender stereotypes in society, but I didn't quite grasp the concept of “acting” by these stereotypes until after the fact, as it just took reading Myra Jehlen’s work to actually be able to put the entire idea into words.