“The Woman Question”
“The Woman Question” is a phrase invented to comprehensively describe the patriarchal response to the question of how to deal with the revolutionary march toward equal rights for women. This topic covered such demands for social change as the right to vote, property rights, legal protections, and bodily autonomy, among other issues. The Bostonians tells a story which individualizes the broader social context of this them which essentially is realized as a conflict between traditional views toward the role of women in society and progressive views which insisted that these “traditional” roles were really just manifestations of patriarchal control and misogyny. Critical debate still exists over whether the pursuit of this theme is supportive of the traditionalist or progressivist argument.
Boston Marriages
The term “Boston Marriage” arose as a way to refer to two women living together without benefit of a man in ways suggesting the possibility of a lesbian relationship without offending delicate sensibilities. The relationship between Olive and Verena is equally presented in a way that seeks to avoid explicit acknowledgement of such a relationship while also working hard to obliquely hint that this is the circumstances under discussion. The ambiguity about the exact nature of their relationship that is stimulated by issues of censorship at the time is an example of how such censorship issues can actually enhance storytelling. The inability to determine the full extent of Olive’s feelings to Verena serves to raise questions about the true nature of her motivations throughout the story.
The Civil War
The novel is set twenty years after the conclusion of the Civil War. Over the course of that bloody conflict pitting Americans against Americans, more than half a million men lost their lives. This diminution of the male population created opportunities for progress within the push for women’s rights that would not have existed otherwise. In addition, the success of the radical abolitionist movement inspired many more women to believe their mission could one day be realized just as the eventual abolishment of slavery had become a reality. The novel is peopled with a cast of characters who are representatives of the growth of radical and reformist policies in the wake of the consequences of the Civil War. At the same time, it also reveals how opponents to reform can become even more stubbornly ingrained in their traditionalist beliefs as well as their desire to maintain those traditions as the status quo.
