Overview
Some scholars argue that “Maria Lamas” is likely a pseudonym used by a female author in order to publish a work that would otherwise be seen as too transgressive or gruesome for a woman to write. The titular female protagonist, Helen More, is a woman born into a wealthy family and constrained by both patriarchal institutions and the influence of alcohol on herself and the men in her life. Rather than a stereotypical damsel in distress though, Helen attempts to regain control in her own life by using her status and beauty to encourage the men around her to drink to excess, which serves as a transgression of her role and is punished with a ruination of the entire family.
It was common for temperance novels to operate under a patriarchal framework even in its advocacy for improving the status of women. By leaning into preconceptions of women being the moral backbone that holds the family together, the argument was not so much that women have a separate-but-equal sphere of influence in domestic life, but that women have a role to play in supporting a patriarchy that allowed a family unit to prosper. By the end of the story, More is saved from a spiral into the abusive institution of an Alms House by a former suitor who has maintained a functional family unit without the presence of chronic drinking.
Notable Quotes
“I throve physically in spite of the neglect, but my moral culture, or rather lack of culture, implanted in my breast the seeds of a hundred foibles, which were to blossom and bear pernicious fruits in the after time.”