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Melville's The Apple-Tree Table.(Herman Melville)(Critical Essay)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 20050922
Author:Thompson, Corey Evan

Herman Melville's role as an activist for female emancipation in mid-nineteenth-century America has gone largely unnoted by critics. In fact, many have implied that he directly contributed to the subordination of women by insinuating, with limited evidence, that he was abusive toward his wife, Elizabeth (Renker 123-50; Robertson-Lorant xi-xiii; Hardwick 51-52), and by describing the portrayal of women in his works as misogynistic (Adamson 26; Brown 160; Rollyson and Paddock 219-20). Contrary to such frequent yet largely unsubstantiated claims, Melville, in his 1856 short story ...

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