Sympathy for a Villain? Suffering Men and Angelic Women in the Novels of Caroline Auguste Fischer (1764–1842)

Abstract

This article examines the effects that the socially preassigned gender roles had on both men and women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as depicted in Caroline Auguste Fischer's four novels: Gustavs Verirrungen (1801, Gustav's errors), Die Honigmonathe (1802, The honeymonths), Der Günstling (1809, The favorite), and Margarethe (1812). Although Fischer is well known for her radical critique of female oppression and women's limited possibilites, she also demonstrates in her work that men were not simply driven by self-interest and egoism but were themselves victims of a gender ideology that restricted both men and women in their search for happiness and love.