Glorification of the Lowly in Felicia Hemans' Sonnets "Female Characters of Scripture" (Critical Essay‪)‬

Felicia Hemans' religious poetry reaches its apex in Scenes and Hymns of Life, with Other Religious Poems (1834), the last book she published during her lifetime. Although rarely studied, (2) this volume's sonnet sequence "Female Characters of Scripture" clarifies contemporary debates concerning Hemans' attitude toward domesticity, revealing her as a spokesperson for the ambivalence she and many of her contemporaries held toward the position of women in society and religion. Uncomfortable with large-scale social change, Hemans uses these sonnets to reveal the price of separate-sphere ideology without completely rejecting its values. She accomplishes this through poetic depictions of biblical women, providing nineteenth-century readers with role models who broadened standard definitions of domestic and spiritual roles. As "poetess of the hearth" or unofficial spokeswoman of the religiously charged domestic sphere, Hemans always showed concern for spiritual themes. However, her treatment of religion defies the assumptions of current scholarship, which often depicts nineteenth-century religion as either compensatory or promoting revolutionary social change, ignoring the vast array of intermediate options. Hemans' approach falls m this middle ground, as she consistently depicts religion as a source of mediated agency. Through these sonnets, Hemans claims the power of biblical women for herself, her writing, and the position of nineteenth-century women. Scenes and Hymns of Life, with Other Religious Poems