The independence of Jane Austin and Emily Dickenson

In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, the world was a much different place than today. There was not much thought to one's civil rights and societal responsibility for the well being of children. A common right, in current perspective, a public education, was unheard of. In that day, there was no centrally-organized system of state-supported education. Instead, upper-class children might be educated at home by their parents, particularly when young; by live-in …

…and the Austin's satire of genteel society in the novel, Emma. Both authors had gone against the forced role of women, of the time, by not marrying. There revolutionary works of literature illustrated their opposition and disgust at the limitations of women at the time. Neither woman knew it at the time, but their thoughts would forever be studied as the beginnings of feminism and a women's right for more control of their own destiny.