SOURCE: Hovet, Grace Ann, and Theodore R. Hovet. “Identity Development in Susan Warner's The Wide, Wide World: Relationship, Performance and Construction.” Legacy 8, no. 1 (spring 1991): 3-16.

In the following essay, the critics read The Wide, Wide World as a sophisticated rendering of feminine identity construction that has been falsely dismissed by many as mere sentimental fiction.

I. Reading the Sentimental

Recent critical readings of the 1850 bestseller The Wide, Wide World disagree on whether Susan Warner's frequent depictions of tears of grief, rage, helplessness or joy—scenes which seem so emotionally excessive to many readers today—convey a critique of patriarchal domination or a justification for feminine submission to it. But these readings agree in that they all treat such sentimental scenes as Warner's attempt at a direct or transparent transcription of feminine behavior. Ellen's character, in short, is seen primarily in terms of emotional responses to events or circumstances...