ABSTRACT
In The Heart of Mid-Lothian there is a conservative critique of female sexual behaviour, but a radical critique of the laws and social customs that generate excessive penalties for normal human weaknesses. Helen conforms to a principle of female modesty that both forbids self-promotion and implies a contagion of shame through the sexual disgrace of near relatives, and Jeanie does the same. Michael Cohen's trench ant article 'Empowering the Sister' makes an irrefutable argument about the conservatism of Scott's sexual morality. Sisterhood as a general principle of sympathy between women is not a dominant factor in the novel. Scott's modern critics, interestingly, incline to Scott's own judgmental schizophrenia. As people have seen, Scott's own ideas about feminine sexual behaviour are some way short of Mrs Saddletree's tolerance. Scott's male character narrators do not establish narrative infallibility, and Scott plays with their peculiarities to destabilize male authority.
