For thousands of years in patriarchal cultures women were looked down upon and thought to be the weaker gender. While men were the protectors and providers, women were expected to focus on child bearing and rearing. Although women as a whole have more freedom of choice and a more equal social status today, as well as even by the Victorian Era, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote stories giving women the role of damsel in distress, with the exception of Irene Adler. Cassandra Poole, in her article discussing women in the Sherlock Holmes canon, writes, “She is ‘the woman,’ Irene Adler, whose strength, intelligence, and independence have made her a recurring star in extra-canonical books, television shows, film adaptations, and Sherlock fan fiction” …show more content…
In “A Scandal in Belgravia,” Irene Adler sends Sherlock her most prized possession and he immediately realizes she is in trouble and, his brother, Mycroft, is going to find her dead. He goes through a period where he does not eat or sleep, instead he somberly composes music and plays the violin. In both the original canon novel and the Sherlock episode adaptation “A Scandal in Belgravia,” Sherlock Holmes refers to Irene Adler as “The Woman.” Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Scandal in Bohemia begins with John Watson saying, “To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.” In many of the adaptations that have been written since the original story, each character develops individual interpretations of the meaning behind the nickname he gives her. In “A Scandal in Belgravia,” The very nosey and powerful Mycroft Holmes shares with John Watson that Irene was captured by a terror cell and killed and they discuss what to tell Sherlock. John says Sherlock “despised her at the end” because she used him and “won’t even mention her name, just The Woman.” Mycroft says, “Is [calling her ‘The Woman’] loathing or a salute? One of a kind, the one woman who matters?” John disagrees and says, “He’s not like that. He doesn’t feel things that way.” However, throughout the episode Sherlock sees …show more content…
When we first see Irene and Sherlock in the same room, Sherlock goes into her home and tries to retrieve the compromising pictures. She walks into the room completely naked which keeps Sherlock from being able to deduce anything about her from clothing. She also uses their first meeting to give Sherlock the password to her safe, which is her measurements. This act shows what a cunning person she is and further develops her character into this impressive intellectual equal. It also establishes how comfortable and powerful she is because although Irene is completely vulnerable physically she controlled and owned the room intellectually. In a Baker Street Babes podcast, Curly asks Laura Pulver, the woman who plays Irene Adler in Sherlock, “What was the most important thing you wanted to get across about her character when it was your turn to play her?” to which she replies, “The mischief and the game aspect and the match between the two of them psychologically that really intrigued me because I think in 2012 we get really caught up in the physical aspect of things.” Since there is not a physical relationship between Sherlock and Irene, it is important for her character to be an intellectual equal to the consulting detective. Without her brilliant mind, he would not have this great respect for her. Sherlock beats all criminals, even Moriarty, the greatest consulting criminal in
In “The Sandman”, Clara and Olympia are symbols of the enlightenment and the industrial movement respectively (Hoffmann). Clara can be viewed as the “voice of reason”; she has her own ideas pertaining to the well being of her fiancé, Nathaniel. Olympia on the other hand is an automaton that agrees with everything Nathaniel does. With the exception of Olympia, Clara and the rest of the women and Frankenstein share a small relevance to their respective stories. All of these women are seen as individual thinkers, but have not reached a full understanding of being independent. This means that the importance of women was small, but the size of their role was increasing during the early 19th century.
...When Clare talks to the maid and cook, Irene feels this is “an exasperating childlike lack of perception” because you are not supposed to be friends or associate with servants. She wants to feel superior to the help she has hired, even though they claim the same racial identity. Irene, being only half white lives in a community where everyone identifies as black, however she desperately wants the white half of her to hold some sort of weight in her life. Although she identifies as black, Irene’s actions display nothing but her wanting to assimilate into white culture. She tries to fuse both races together in an attempt to attain some sort of racial identity, but fails to do so. Ironically, throughout the whole book, Irene tries her best to stay loyal to one race, but the actions she takes constantly clashes with the identity she claims in her black community.
In summary, the account for a woman’s femininity is primarily encouraged by man. Wollstonecraft inspires readers as she debates the right for woman equality to man, with most, if not all females agreeing with her argument and powerful ideas. Thus it is possible to conclude that the influence of academic literature does complicate everyday contemporary understanding, as reality of the day has differing points of view in writing. According to the referenced literature, woman in contemporary society are considered are flaw of nature however observed by women unreasonably.
The role of women in The Heart of Darkness is at first seen as one that is very much a backseat role to that of a man’s in the empirical
Watson than there is in the short story. In the case of Helen Stoner, the movie allows you to see aspects of her character that you do not see in the written story such as her relationship with her sister and stepfather. While it does say in the book that the sisters were “chatting about her approaching wedding,” more development is present in the movie because it shows the sisters together reminding the audience that they were close companions and that the loss of Julia was devastating to Helen. Another example of this character development is with Dr. Watson. In the movie adaptation, a short clip was added while Holmes and Watson investigated the house in which Julia had died. In the clip, Dr. Watson is shown examining foot prints on the lawn and explains to Holmes that he is trying to be as observant as he is. Though this clip may not seem like an important part of the story, it adds to Watson’s character by showing him as a student of Sherlock Holmes. While the movie does make the characters more dynamic, it also removed some of the suspense that the written version created.
It is amazing that nearly all critics of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland focused solely on the character and adventures of the female protagonist/hero. A somewhat right-wing and didactic critique at Decent Films writes, “Alice embodies the gender feminist narrative of vibrant young girls losing their mojo as they come of age in patriarchal society.” The woman’s magazine, Jezebel, while praising the movie as “refreshingly feminist” seemed to notice only that the hero who fights against the forces of evil is a woman. Jezebel mentions other characters, but does not take the time to catalogue their relationship to feminism. In an Associated Content piece by Adriana Tanese-Nogueria which does, commendably, explore the feminist theme much more richly than many other reviews, still, the main focus is on Alice’s journey of feminist liberation. But Lewis Carroll also takes a look at the men in this story. Men during the Victorian era were known to have the control over the household and have a job. Their lives were around getting the perfect wife and making a lot of money. So when one reads some of the characters in Alice in Wonderland, one can see some difference in how he portrays some of the characters.
Although Irene appears to be satisfied with her life, prior to the arrival of the radio, the outside lives of others, prompt her to question her personal satisfaction. After eavesdropping on the radio, Irene starts to question things, “Life is too terrible, too sordid and awful. But we've never been like that, have we, darling? Have we? I mean we've always been good and decent and loving to one another, haven't we? And we have two children, two beautiful children. Our lives aren't sordid, are they, darling? Are they?" (189) This quote proves that the trouble in other people’s lives begins to impact Irene and ultimately influences her to question her love towards her husband and the overall quality of her children. Eventually, Irene would go on to ask the demoralizing question, "We're happy, aren't we, darling?” (189) These external difficulties she’s hearing about on the radio have driven her into a state where she actually needs to question her own happiness! Clearly the radio has persuaded Irene to question the satisfaction of her own life, and ultimately, it drives her into a rocky mental
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
The short story of “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Conan Doyle relates to the BBC crime drama series Sherlock episode “A Scandal in Belgravia”. BBC crime drama was filmed based on the short story that Conan Doyle wrote. The film and the text is based on a similar concept, but contains different details of information. There are three comparisons that is easily identified such as theme, characters and setting. These differences make the text and the film different.
When posed with the question “What is woman?” it seems a daunting task to lay an umbrella statement to describe an entire gender. Upon further reflection, however, it seems that this overwhelming inability to answer the question, may in fact, be the answer to the question itself. Within the past two decades Maria Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman, Caroline Whitbeck, Geraldine Finn, and Helene Cixous have addressed the meaning of woman. There is not a concrete answer to “What is woman?” either produced by women or produced through men’s perceptions of women.
In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the women are portrayed as inferior to men in several different ways. Of the few female characters in this book, very few of them are mentioned throughout the entire book and none of them are considered main characters. The ideals of Romanticism emphasize the secondary nature of women to men. In addition, Shelley’s portrayal of the inferiority of women parallels Romantic ideals and some of today’s values but also contrasts some values of today’s society. Shelley uses these Romantic ideals in Frankenstein because all of the female characters are clearly subordinate and secondary to the male characters throughout the story.
In Arcadia, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Look Back in Anger, the women characters play distinct roles in the dramas. However, the type of roles, the type of characters portrayed, and the purpose the women’s roles have in developing the plot and themes vary in each play. As demonstrated by The Importance of Being Earnest and Look Back in Anger, the majority of women’s roles ultimately reflect that women in British society were viewed to be unequal to men in love and in relationships and generally the weaker sex, emotionally, physically and intellectually. However, I have found an exception to this standard in the play Arcadia, in which Thomasina Coverly plays the role of a young genius.
Conan Doyle decided to kill off Sherlock Holmes. This made the public furious, and they let him know. When he figured out he had to bring Sherlock Holmes back, he did in one of his most famous short stories ever, called “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Doyle introduces Holmes when the King comes to him for “the purpose of consulting you” (Doyle 6). In “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes battles a formidable foe named Irene Adler. Still, Adler is a victim in this story as evidenced by, how the King manipulates her, how
I don't know why some people calling Irene is fake. I dont think she's fake, she just shy or have timid personality, Irene is beautiful and she's bae , so please stop calling her fake.
In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, the idea of patriarchy ruled the many societies all over the world. Particularly in Britain, its “overarching patriarchal model” (Marsh) had “reserved power and privilege for men” (Marsh). Also during this time period feminist literature began to arise and was invaded by, “the complex social, ethical, and economic roots of sexual politics… as testimony to gender bias and the double standard” (“Sexual Politics and Feminist Literature”). In Jane Austen’s writing, readers have been aware of her constant themes of female independence and gender equality. However, many have criticized the author for the fact that many of her “individualistic” female characters have ended up