ISSN:
2181-3906
2025
International scientific journal
«MODERN SCIENCE АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 4 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
945
THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN SHAPING FEMALE IDENTITY
Isomova Manzura Baxriddinovna
Master's student at Asian International University
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14931100
Abstract.
In this article
by drawing partial parallels to Becky Sharp, we can see how
Catherine Hayes is also an intelligent woman in her own unschooled, “streetwise” manner,
navigating a world that offers few legal or respectable avenues for female self-determination.
Unlike Becky, Catherine never had the limited but real educational training that might elevate her
rhetorical skills or allow her to pass among the polite classes. Instead, her cunning emerges from
raw survival instincts.
Keywords:
draw, partial, parallel, Becky Sharp, Catherine Hay, intelligent, woman,
unschooled, manner, navigating, world, few legal, respectable, avenues, female self-determination,
never, real, educational, might, rhetorical, skills, allow, emerges, survival instincts.
РОЛЬ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ В ФОРМИРОВАНИИ ЖЕНСКОЙ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ
Аннотация.
В этой статье, проводя частичные параллели с Бекки Шарп, мы
можем увидеть, что Кэтрин Хейз также является умной женщиной в своей собственной
необразованной, «уличной» манере, ориентирующейся в мире, который предлагает мало
законных или респектабельных путей для женского самоопределения. В отличие от Бекки,
Кэтрин никогда не имела ограниченного, но реального образовательного образования,
которое могло бы повысить ее риторические навыки или позволить ей пройти среди
вежливых классов. Вместо этого ее хитрость возникает из сырых инстинктов
выживания.
Ключевые слова:
рисовать, частичный, параллель, Бекки Шарп, Кэтрин Хей, умная,
женщина, необразованная, манера, ориентирующаяся, мир, мало законных,
респектабельных, путей, женское самоопределение, никогда, реальный, образовательный,
может, риторический, навыки, позволять, возникает, инстинкты выживания.
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was celebrated for his detailed and satirical
portrayals of British society in the mid-nineteenth century. His best-known novels, including
Vanity Fair
(1847–1848) and
Pendennis
(1848–1850), examine the manners, morals, and
ambitions of various social classes, often centering on the precarious position of women.
Catherine
ISSN:
2181-3906
2025
International scientific journal
«MODERN SCIENCE АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 4 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
946
(1839–1840), an earlier work published in serialized form in
Fraser’s Magazine
, occupies a unique
place in Thackeray’s canon. While it has sometimes been dismissed by critics as a parody of the
so-called “Newgate novels,” more recent scholarship has underscored its importance in
understanding Thackeray’s evolving attitude toward female characters and social issues.[1; 195-
210]
In
Vanity Fair
, Thackeray presents two major female protagonists, Becky Sharp and Amelia
Sedley, each with contrasting approaches to life, ambition, and virtue. Becky Sharp, famously
witty and opportunistic, epitomizes the resourceful woman who uses her intellect, charm, and
cunning to climb socially, often ignoring moral constraints. Amelia Sedley, by contrast,
exemplifies a more conventional Victorian ideal of feminine softness, nurturing, and moral
sentiment, though she lacks the agency or penetrating insight that Becky wields so effectively. This
tension—between the cunning, educated or semi-educated female on one hand, and the docile,
tradition-bound female on the other—runs throughout Thackeray’s oeuvre.
If we look back at
Catherine
, which takes place in the early eighteenth century, we notice
that Catherine Hayes’s portrayal as a criminal, a seductress, and, at times, a pitiable figure
highlights Thackeray’s interest in understanding the deeper motivations and limitations of women
in a society with rigid structures.
Catherine
has often been read as a far darker and more direct exploration of the
consequences of limited opportunities for women—especially women of lower social standing.
Thackeray’s irony and moral commentary in
Catherine
foreshadow the complexities he would
later develop more subtly in
Vanity Fair
.
By drawing partial parallels to Becky Sharp, we can see how Catherine Hayes is also an
intelligent woman in her own unschooled, “streetwise” manner, navigating a world that offers few
legal or respectable avenues for female self-determination.
Unlike Becky, Catherine never had the limited but real educational training that might
elevate her rhetorical skills or allow her to pass among the polite classes.
Instead, her cunning emerges from raw survival instincts. This divergence underscores the
thematic significance of education in shaping the trajectories and moral frameworks of
Thackeray’s women. Becky’s partial success and partial downfall are intimately tied to her mastery
of language and social etiquette, while Catherine’s fate is more brutal and abrupt, shaped by an
even starker lack of moral and intellectual guidance. [2; 124]
ISSN:
2181-3906
2025
International scientific journal
«MODERN SCIENCE АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 4 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
947
The following hierarchical chart illustrates the eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century
notions of “separate spheres,” where women were primarily confined to the domestic domain
(child-rearing, household management, and moral support), while men dominated the public
realm. This bifurcation significantly influenced women’s educational opportunities, with
aristocratic and bourgeois women enjoying somewhat structured learning (e.g., private
governesses or small boarding schools), whereas those of lower social strata frequently had
minimal, if any, formal education. By laying out these tiers of educational access, the chart
underscores the broader social constraints that shaped female identity and informed literary
depictions, including those in Thackeray’s
Catherine
.
This chart highlights how the ideology of separate spheres firmly placed women within
domestic roles, restricting their access to genuine intellectual development.
Even among the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, education tended toward finishing-school
polish or governess-led instruction, rather than thorough academic grounding. Lower-class women
received barely any formal schooling, leaving them even more disadvantaged. By visualizing these
structural limitations, one can better grasp the social and literary context within which Thackeray’s
Catherine
operates—and how the novel reflects and critiques the inequitable distribution of
knowledge and opportunity for women of different ranks.
The table below outlines the prevailing social ideologies surrounding women’s education
in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, as reflected in William Makepeace
Thackeray’s novel
Catherine
. By comparing aristocratic and bourgeois approaches to female
instruction with the plight of lower-class women—such as Thackeray’s protagonist—this chart
illustrates how restrictive cultural norms, limited curricula, and widespread prejudices curtailed
women’s opportunities for intellectual development. Thackeray’s narrative thus emerges as both a
satire of superficial educational practices and an implicit critique of a society that denies
substantive learning to half its populace.
As this table illustrates, the cultural insistence on separate spheres, reinforced by limited or
superficial modes of instruction, profoundly shaped women’s roles and aspirations in Thackeray’s
era. Aristocratic and bourgeois women often received shallow training for social polish, while
lower-class women like Catherine had scant opportunities to cultivate moral or intellectual
strength. The result, as
Catherine
suggests, is a tragic shortfall: women’s potential is stifled,
leaving them ill-equipped to meet life’s challenges or to achieve agency in a social system that
severely restricts their learning.
ISSN:
2181-3906
2025
International scientific journal
«MODERN SCIENCE АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 4 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
948
During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, British society was deeply invested
in delineating what constituted “proper” education for girls. It was generally accepted that women
required only those skills that would make them dutiful wives, manageable companions, or
decorative ornaments in the domestic sphere (Vickery, 1998). Consequently, many believed that
advanced learning would render women “unfeminine.” Instead, proficiency in sewing, embroidery,
dancing, simple musical performance, and the reading of scripture or sentimental literature were
prized, reinforcing the notion that women’s primary function was ornamental or supportive rather
than intellectual. Although some upper-class families prided themselves on producing more
educated daughters, the depth of that education often did not extend beyond language acquisition
(French, perhaps Italian) and enough history or geography to sustain polite conversation. [3; 34]
This was also an era steeped in patriarchal assumptions about mental capacity, in which
mainstream scientific or philosophical circles questioned women’s capacity for abstract reasoning.
Such biases, still prevalent in the nineteenth century, had roots in Enlightenment discourses that
often saw women as physically and mentally weaker or more prone to emotionalism (Spencer,
1986). Only in rare cases—typically among radical intellectuals or nonconformist groups—did the
idea of systematically educating women in the same manner as men gain traction.
Given these stereotypes, many families channeled daughters into learning that augmented
their marriage prospects: a woman who could sing, play pianoforte, sketch, and speak a little
French was deemed infinitely more marriageable than one who delved into mathematics,
philosophy, or the classics. Such was the widely accepted code of gentility. Critics of the time,
including some proto-feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft in her
A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman
(1792), decried the superficial nature of this “accomplishment-centered” education. They
argued that denying women rigorous intellectual training effectively rendered them perpetual
minors, dependent on husbands or male relatives, and incapable of genuine self-determination.
Thackeray’s own ambivalence toward women’s education—evident in both
Vanity Fair
and
Catherine
—reflects the tension between endorsing a broader, moral-intellectual cultivation for
women and satirizing the empty refinements many late-Georgian and Victorian women were
compelled to adopt.
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«MODERN SCIENCE АND RESEARCH»
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