| An Imperative Duty | |
| Title Orig: | An Imperative Duty: A Novel |
| Author: | William Dean Howells |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Literary realism |
| Release Date: | 1891 (First Edition) |
| Pages: | 150 |
An Imperative Duty is a short realist novel by William Dean Howells published in 1891. The novel explores the idea of "passing" through the racially mixed character of Rhoda Aldgate, a young woman whose aunt informs her that she is one-sixteenth African American. Rhoda lived her whole life "passing" as a white person.
The book is about Rhoda Aldgate, a young woman who discovers she is one-sixteenth African American, after living her whole life as a white person. Rhoda's father was Mrs. Meredith's brother, a white man, and Rhoda's mother was a southern woman of one-eighth black ancestry. In the nineteenth century, Rhoda's mother would have been referred to as an "octoroon."
The book is about a "Tragic Mulatta" character, a stereotype used by 19th-century American authors to explore racial miscegenation. [1] [2] [3]