Objective:

This article aims to analyze the symbolic dimension of the gender tensions that took part in the United States in the period from 1870 to 1880 when the public and private spheres began to blur.

Methodology:

It compares the literary representations of marriage in the novels Their Wedding Journey (1872) writen by William Dean Howells and The Story of Avis (1877) writen by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, relating the female and male characters as well as their concerns about marriage with the historical context of the novels.

Originality:

These novels have not been studied in recent years, even though their content is valuable to examine both the sentimental structure of the time regarding gender and the symbolic struggles of the authors in a context of a crisis of femininity and masculinity

Conclusions:

This research shows that the sexual belonging of both authors determined their relationship with gender as a structure for the distribution of power and served as a principle of cultural separation, hence each one tried to influence the ordering of the social structure from their own form of being in the world: Dean Howells approached female identity as a complement of a specific notion of masculinity, while Stuart Phelps contributed in the process of creating feminist consciousness.