Rage and Rebellion in Louisa May Alcott’s “A Whisper in the Dark”

Abstract

This article discusses the feminist implications of Louisa May Alcott’s 1863 Gothic story “A Whisper in the Dark,” which not only expresses the anxieties that the author experienced in response to her upbringing and her social reality, but also provides an extensive critique of patriarchal culture. The essay explores the subversive nature of the story by presenting it as a dark double to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre as well as by showing how the author mocks nineteenth-century sentimentality throughout.