Rebellious Eliza: The Ingenious Schemer’s Veiled Subversion of Passions and Emotions in The Female Spectator

Abstract

Eliza Haywood was an acclaimed eighteenth-century writer, actress, translator, publisher, bookseller, journalist and the editor of The Female Spectator (1744– 1746). Being aware of the difficulties females had to endure at the time, she challenged them, exploring other alternatives in her newspaper. This article will explore the different literary techniques Eliza Haywood employs in her periodical to be able to offer her own common-sense and astute moral instruction to her readers, teaching them to turn the hardly appealing fates that their families had arranged for them into ones they could benefit from.