August Strindberg was undoubtedly a contemporary writer, but where gender issues were concerned, he preferred to support the past. His work reflected the cultural and societal environment around him in 1887; this suggests themes throughout Miss Julie, such as gender inequality and women’s’ rights, were inflicted by his own struggle between classes and promiscuous relationships with women. It becomes apparent in the play that Miss Julie, a self-portrait of Strindberg, typifies Strindberg’s creative energy and the close relationship between his writing and lifestyle. Miss Julie’s downfall can be associated with many aspects of her life, ranging from the masculine influence in her life, to her degenerated brain, thus making her a damaged, frail woman. Her on-going battle of the sexes and gender inequality are liable for her inevitable fate.
From the beginning of ‘Miss Julie’ it becomes evident that there is a sexualised struggle between the sexes to gain power. However, Strindberg was a keen naturalist, thus the movement for women’s emancipation scared and angered him, suggesting to the audience that the battle of the sexes is founded by both a battle of class, women’s rights and feminism. ‘Now what you do is: kiss my shoe’ enlightens the audience to the hypnotic atmosphere of desire in the play. Interestingly, ‘kiss’ and ‘shoe’ are juxtapositions are one another; whilst ‘kiss’ proposes a sensual act and is symbolic for the abuse of power, ‘shoe’ could be used as an attempt to lower Jean’s class, illustrating a simultaneous sense of authority and desire, hence the different battles in place. The dominance in place could be a direct result from first-wave feminism, where women defended their sex, while some also campaigned for sexua...
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...ubordinate to Jean, and the battle of sexes provides Jean with a more dominant characteristic.
Finally, throughout the play, gender inequality and the battle of sexes are explored to the degree that these were the responsible factors for Miss Julie’s naturalistic fate, even though the battle of classes is a recurring theme throughout the play. Leading up to Miss Julie’s downfall, Strindberg successfully manages to avoid the topic of suicide ‘it’s terrible, but there’s no other way. Go’ but instead subtly suggests it through Jeans subliminal messages. Miss Julie was first entitled ‘The First Naturalistic Tragedy’ providing evidence that Miss Julie’s fate was a direct result of the environment around her: a typical anti-feminist zone full of gender inequality. Miss Julie goes well beyond the naturalistic struggle between the sexes that Strindberg wanted to portray.
Nora and Mrs. Wright’s social standing when compared to the men in each play is inferior. Both works expose their respective male characters’ sexist view of women diminishing the women’s social standing. Each work features egotistical men who have a severely inflated view of their self-worth when compared to their female counterparts. The men’s actions and words indicate they believe women are not capable of thinking intelligently. This is demonstrated in “Trifles” when Mr. Hale makes the statement about women only worrying about mere trifles. It is also apparent in “A Dollhouse” when Torvalds thinks his wife is not capable of thinking with any complexity (Mazur 17). Another common attribute is of the women’s social standing is displayed as both women finally get tired of feeling like second class citizens and stand up to the repressive people in the women’s lives (Mulry 294). Although both women share much in common in their social standing there subtle differences. Torvald’s sexist view of Nora is more on a personal level in “A Dollhouse” while the male characters’ sexist views in “Trifles” seem to be more of a social view that women are not very smart and their opinions are of little value. This attitude is apparent in “Trifles” as Mr. Hale and Mr. Henderson’s comments about Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping (Mulry 293). As the women in both works reach their emotional
The heroine, Mrs. P, has some carries some characteristics parallel to Louise Mallard in “Hour.” The women of her time are limited by cultural convention. Yet, Mrs. P, (like Louise) begins to experience a new freedom of imagination, a zest for life , in the immediate absence of her husband. She realizes, through interior monologues, that she has been held back, that her station in life cannot and will not afford her the kind of freedom to explore freely and openly the emotions that are as much a part of her as they are not a part of Leonce. Here is a primary irony.
Throughout the plays, the reader can visualize how men dismiss women as trivial and treat them like property, even though the lifestyles they are living in are very much in contrast. The playwrights, each in their own way, are addressing the issues that have negatively impacted the identity of women in society.
...ly must complete with the dominance of men. “In acknowledging her personal desires and dreams, Edna realizes that double standards exist for men and women” (Telgen and Hile 53). Ignorant of her “awakening” to come, Edna tests and defies every accepted value in women during the late 1800s including but not limited to obedience, fidelity, and compliance. Ultimately Edna succeeds in determining who she, reaching her full “awakening,” but discovers that the price for having her own identity in the restrictions of society is more than she can handle emotionally (53). Chopin provided insight for the future generations through the evidence of the effect of gender roles and the process of finding one’s self through their individual “awakening” in the midst of controversy and “as she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself” (Chopin 49).
The women in Susan Glaspell's “Trifles” and Henrik Ibsen's “A Doll's House” creates a complex picture of male-female relationships and their effects on women's views about reality. Nora Helmer, the main character of Ibsen's play, seems totally happy with her family and social life: she is constantly pampered and patronized by her husband and plays the role of a trivial, small girl who cannot take pertinent choices. In a similar manner, Minnie Foster, the central character of Susan Glaspell's “Trifles”, spends her life in separation and rejection, banned by her husband from realizing her purpose and aspirations. Nora and Minnie are two strong females in a male-dominated world, who choose different ways to cope with gender inequalities and protest against gendered standards and expectations of female performance.
A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, both have central themes of search of self-identity within a social system. This is demonstrated by women characters from both plays breaking away from the social standards of their times and acting on their own terms. In most situations women are to be less dominant than men in society. These two plays are surprisingly different from the views of women in society and of the times and settings that they take place in.
Louise Mallard is a woman who enjoys freedom and independence. She feels soaring relief and fiery triumph upon realizing that, yes, she is finally free. She is free of the weighted ropes of marriage. She fantasizes of her days ahead, living for herself and only herself. “A kind intention or cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination” (Chopin 234). She views the imposing of one’s will on another person as a crime, no matter the intention behind it. She has a taste of freedom after Mr. Mallard’s death and can finally see days without stress ahead of her. Prior to her husband’s death, young Mrs. Mallard feels tied down and even oppressed. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 233). Despite the typical oppression of women throughout the centuries prior to the 1920s, Mrs. Mallard possesses a free spirit.
In Miss Julie, August Strindberg depicts a tormented, sadomasochistic woman held captive by ingrained and inherent restrictions posed onto her by her aristocratic class. As she attempts to break free, her escapist tendencies cause various consequences to ensue, such as her eventual death. Other characters present also engage in the same escapist desires, especially present in Jean’s longing to advance his level in society. Such ideas end in disaster for any party involved. Strindberg manifests various character’s nonconformist ideas towards exaggerated barriers between social classes, such as those of Jean and Julie, to create themes on conformity and consequence.
In the early twentieth century, the issue of gender inequality and lack of feminism was prevalent throughout society. Susan Gladspell’s play, Trifles, contains various instances of gender discrimination within the characters’ actions in the plot. Females in that society were subjected to great discrimination due to their sexuality and were viewed as insubordinate and only capable of obtaining menial jobs. This resulted in men constantly demeaning women in the form of mental and emotional abuse. Occasionally, this abuse gradually worsened and finally accumulated into some major disaster. In order to better the lives of women, the feminism movement was on the brink of starting a major revolution to restore equality in society. Throughout Susan Gladspell’s play, Trifles, the author incorporated elements of gender inequality and discrimination in hopes of bringing about the feminist movement.
In the 19th Century, women had different roles and treated differently compared to today’s women in American society. In the past, men expected women to carry out the duties of a homemaker, which consisted of cleaning and cooking. In earlier years, men did not allow women to have opinions or carry on a job outside of the household. As today’s societies, women leave the house to carry on jobs that allow them to speak their minds and carry on roles that men carried out in earlier years. In the 19th Century, men stereotyped women to be insignificant, not think with their minds about issues outside of the kitchen or home. In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, the writer portrays how women in earlier years have no rights and men treat women like dirt. Trifles is based on real life events of a murder that Susan Glaspell covered during her work as a newspaper reporter in Des Moines and the play is based off of Susan Glaspell’s earlier writing, “A Jury of Her Peers”. The play is about a wife of a farmer that appears to be cold and filled with silence. After many years of the husband treating the wife terrible, the farmer’s wife snaps and murders her husband. In addition, the play portrays how men and women may stick together in same sex roles in certain situations. The men in the play are busy looking for evidence of proof to show Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. As for the women in the play, they stick together by hiding evidence to prove Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. Although men felt they were smarter than women in the earlier days, the play describes how women are expected of too much in their roles, which could cause a woman to emotionally snap, but leads to women banding together to prove that women can be...
On the surface, Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night may seem like to the run of the mill Shakespearean comedy. It has loads of the ingredients you would typically see in a Shakespeare play; love being the be all end all, revenge, and yes, cross-dressing. Aside from dramatics, this comedy embodies the fundaments of the battle of the sexes; the age-old conflict is reminiscent to how gender roles are to this day. Man vs. Woman, or the main ingredient as it is, sets the ball rolling for the tone and the social construct of the comedy. Viola, disguised as Cesario, says, “Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness wherein the pregnant enemy does much. How easy it is for the proper-false in women 's waxen hearts to set their forms!” (Twelfth Night, II.ii 27-30.) This quote alone expresses not only the ambiguity of gender through identity, but also the way men portray female’s inferiority and deceitfulness. Despite the male protagonists ' view on women 's incapability to love, Viola 's
After reading “The Doll House” and “Trifles”, the idea of females being inferior to men is portrayed. Both plays, are in a much older time period. But from a feminist view, females are still sometimes given the doubtful role in today’s society. Both plays, are very different, but much alike in the ways the females are treated, never taken seriously, nor are they appreciated.
Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing is, on the surface, a typical romantic comedy with a love-plot that ends in reconciliation and marriage. This surface level conformity to the conventions of the genre, however, conceals a deeper difference that sets Much Ado apart. Unlike Shakespeare’s other romantic comedies, Much Ado about Nothing does not mask class divisions by incorporating them into an idealized community. Instead of concealing or obscuring the problem of social status, the play brings it up explicitly through a minor but important character, Margaret, Hero’s “waiting gentlewoman.” Shakespeare suggests that Margaret is an embodiment of the realistic nature of social class. Despite her ambition, she is unable to move up in hierarchy due to her identity as a maid. Her status, foiling Hero’s rich, protected upbringing, reveals that characters in the play, as well as global citizens, are ultimately oppressed by social relations and social norms despite any ambition to get out.
I shall endeavour to explore and analyse how women are presented in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and Duffy’s “Human Interest”.
`Plays and Poetry by early modern women are primarily concerned with negotiating a position from which women could speak. A concern for ideas of gender, language and silence is, therefore, central, though its expression is sometimes open, sometimes covert.' Discuss with reference to Aemilia Lanyer and / or Elizabeth Cary.