Incarcerated souls: Women as individuals in Margaret Fuller's woman in the nineteenth century

This essay enhances understanding of the search for “self”; as a fundamental theme of nineteenth‐century feminist rhetoric by examining Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century. I examine how Fuller utilized transcendentalist philosophy to construct women as individuals and thus grant them some modicum of agency. After demonstrating how women lacked a sense of “self,”; Fuller constructed women as individuals capable of articulating their own needs and interests through a complex four‐part argument. Fuller's work is particularly important for demonstrating various means through which women could develop autonomy.

Key concepts:

• Margaret Fuller
• feminist rhetoric
• selfhood
• transcendentalism
• androgyny