十九世紀中期，美國發展出「家務的意識形態」。當時有很多女性作家開始撰寫有關家的價值、女人操持家務以及孩子教育的小說。芬妮芬的《露絲‧霍爾：當代家務故事》中，也描述了當時美國白人中產階級的家庭主婦。根據自身的經驗，芬在小說中呈現各種不同類型的家庭主婦，用以揭開中產階級父權社會中家庭主婦的問題。
本論文試圖以昂黎‧列斐伏爾的空間概念，檢視美國家庭主婦的角色與空間，來探討《露絲‧霍爾》在十九世紀的重要性。作為一位主婦及女性作家，芬扮演著雙重角色，出入在家的私領域與出版業公領域之間。她筆下的女主人翁露絲‧霍爾在小說的一開始也是一位家庭主婦，但在丈夫去世後，為了討生活，同樣也扮演著像芬一樣的角色。
列斐伏爾的空間概念包含了空間實踐(生活空間)與空間再現(概念化的空間)，因此第一章探討家務空間與中產階級的家庭主婦，包括埃利特夫人、霍爾夫人、以及露絲，同時也分析當代的家務意識形態。第二章討論兩位截然不同的家庭主婦，萊昂夫人與思姬蒂夫人，以及她們與寡婦露絲的比較，進而研究芬是如何重繪私領域與公領域之間的界限，以及她如何重新定位家庭主婦的社會地位。透過研究露絲成功的意義，第三章探討芬建立的列斐伏爾的再現空間(象徵性空間)，賦予她的讀者新女性形象。透過書中各種家庭主婦的呈現，芬妮芬為她的讀者展現出在十九世紀美國，家庭主婦邁向經濟獨立的可能性。

When American domestic ideology developed in the mid-nineteenth-century, many women writers started to write about values of home, women’s domestic practices, and children’s education. Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time also portrayed the white middle-class American housewives during the time. Writing the novel from her own experience, Fern presents various types of housewives to unveil housewives problems in the middle-class patriarchal society.
This thesis uses Henri Lefebvre’s notion of space to examine the role and space of the American housewife so as to explore Ruth Hall’s significance in the nineteenth century. As a housewife and woman writer, Fern plays the double role in-between the private space of home and the public space of publishing industry. Likewise, her heroine, Ruth Hall, is a housewife at first and plays the double role as well to make a living after her husband’s death. Since Lefebvre’s spatial concepts involve the spatial practice (the lived space) and representations of space (the conceptualized space), Chapter One investigates the domestic space and role of the middle-class housewives, including Mrs. Ellet, Mrs. Hall, and Ruth along with the analysis of domestic ideology of the time. Chapter Two discusses two different housewives, Mrs. Leon and Mrs. Skiddy, in comparison with the widow Ruth to examine how Fern remaps the boundary between the private and public space to relocate a housewife’s social position. By exploring the significance of Ruth’s success, Chapter Three argues that Fern in fact builds Lefebvre’s representational space (the symbolic space) to empower her readers with a new woman image. By the presentation of various housewives in her book, Fanny Fern demonstrates a new possibility of a housewife’s success for her readers in the nineteenth century United States.

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