Ellen Ellis

Everything Is Possible To Will Illustrated Ellen Ellis

A semi-autobiographical novel by an early feminist New Zealand author, Ellen E. Ellis. The character Wrax is a debased version of the author's husband Oliver, and Zee a weaker version of Ellen. Ellis uses this novel as a vehicle for her views about education, marriage, birth control, prohibition, religion, and female and Maori rights. All these issues are linked to her central concern, the emancipation of women, the novel pre-empting all the central early feminist arguments. Ellis' broad contention is that women need to be emancipated in order to do their 'God-given work' which is to 'bless mankind' and 'fulfil the divine plan of the universe'. She is specific as to the three areas in which emancipation is required, protesting against the spiritual and intellectual oppression of women, the legal oppression of women, and the physical oppression of women. The novel also offers practical solutions to improve the situation of women. One of the most radical of Ellis' recommendations to women is the need to exercise birth control. She stresses that women have the right to control their own bodies and should 'refuse to be sacrificed to [male] lust'. Another forward-thinking aspect of Everything is Possible to Will is the connection Ellis makes between the plight of women and the oppression of Maori. She is the only early feminist writer to broaden the struggle for emancipation beyond the central preoccupation of female oppression.