The Roles of Women and the Differences in Lifestyles in A Scandal in Bohemia and The Speckled Band
‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ are two short detective
stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They are set in England in
the mid 19th century. Both of the stories are narrated by Dr Watson,
who is one of the main characters. The other main character is
Sherlock Holmes and he is an amateur detective. Both stories have a
main female character and I am going to compare these female
characters by looking at their personalities and the circumstances in
which they live in. In ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, Irene Alder is the
female character and she is a retired Opera singer. Helen Stoner, a
landowner’s daughter, is the female character in ‘The Speckled Band’.
‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ is a story about the King of Bohemia. He asks
Sherlock Holmes to help him to get a photograph back from the clever
Irene Adler who is threatening to blackmail him with it.
‘The Speckled Band’ is a short story in which Helen Stoner, who lives
with her cruel stepfather, comes to Sherlock Holmes to ask him to help
her to solve a mystery regarding a ‘speckled band’.
We do not meet Irene Adler until quite far into the story. However, we
find out a lot about her before this. Firstly, the King of Bohemia
tells Sherlock Holmes that she is ‘a well-known adventuress’. This
shows us that she has a bad reputation. In addition, Sherlock Holmes
refers to her as ‘the woman’ which is slightly derogatory but also
shows that he has some respect for her.
Secondly, Irene Adler is a beautiful woman who ‘turned all mens’
heads’ and even Sherlock Holmes himself adm...
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... firework displays.
In conclusion, Helen Stoner is a typical Victorian woman. She does not
work and is about to get married. The only work she has done is when
she had to do the work around the house because no servants would
stay. Conversely, Irene Adler is unusual. She is a retired opera
singer, but she does get married in the story.
Helen Stoner lives with her stepfather, which is what Victorian woman
normally did until they got married. However, Irene Adler lives by
herself in her well furnished house.
Irene Adler has full control over her income. She can spend it on what
she wants and can choose what she does with her money. Helen Stoner
cannot do this because her stepfather, and then her husband, has
control over her money. We know this because she tells Holmes that she
cannot pay him for his services.
Judith R. Walkowitz is a Professor Emeritus at John Hopkins University, specializing in modern British history and women’s history. In her book City of Dreadful Delight, she explores nineteenth century England’s development of sexual politics and danger by examining the hype of Jack the Ripper and other tales of sensational nature. By investigating social and cultural history she reveals the complexity of sexuality, and its influence on the public sphere and vice versa. Victorian London had upheld traditional notions of class and gender, that is until they were challenged by forces of different institutions.
Could one trip across the Atlantic ocean change all the gender roles? How could that happen? In “The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle,” you will see how many different gender roles change in the book. In the first place Charlotte changed more into a sailer instead of a young lady. Next Charlotte wore boy clothes. Finally, Charlotte did some of the crews jobs that usually do and joined the crew. To conclude you can see Charlotte’s gender role changed throughout the book multiple times.
In Tartuffe and The Country Wife, women are largely portrayed as rational and wise in contrast to the illogical patriarchy that oppress them. Female sexuality was viewed as a tool that could be employed by both men and women for economic, social and personal advantage.
One example of gender criticism Chopin accounts in her writing is the love between the women in the novel which has been suppressed throughout history as “lesbian” encounters in order to uphold male power and privilege (LeBlanc 2). Edna’ friendships with Mademoiselle Reisz and Adele Ratignolle both act as different buffers into Edna’s sexual and personal “awakening.” Edna’s a...
Before reaching this moment, the reader can discern that Louise is struggling between the thoughts of how she “should” be reacting to the news of her husband’s death against the feeling of elation of being free from her perceived marital constraint. Louise is living in the late 19th century where society believed women belonged in a domestic realm where they “manned” the house (cooking, cleaning, raising the children) binding them to their home and husband. A time when a woman is to be the social moral compass and live by a strict social code of conduct. Even in the description of Louise it is clear she upholds these values: “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 306). It is also when the reader gets the first glimpse of Louise’s repressed life.
As a young medical student, Anton frequented the red light districts. He once wrote to a friend “I love people who go there, although, I go as rarely as you do” (Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, xix). During one of his visits he realized how the women were being degraded and began writing letters to his editor, Suvorin; also the editor of the local newspaper. In one he noted “Why do they write nothing about prostitution in your paper?
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assign gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolves around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom of women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dream and impose their will on their wives (149).
going to college and she comes home once in awhile. When she goes home she expects her mom
Showing her options: Showing her resources, to help her provide for her family, finding her a safe place live, obtaining a job and going to back to school
...lass and sexuality by including papers like Stead's which brought middle-class readers in touch with the events of working-class London and provided workers with middle-class representations of themselves. City of Dreadful Delight is an assortment of cross-cultural contact and negotiation between class and sexuality in Victorian era London. Walkowitz's analysis emphasizes distinct “classes,” and the impact of events on each group. Through close social and cultural analysis of the explosion of discourses proceeding and surrounding Jack the Ripper, Walkowitz has demonstrated the historical importance of narratives of sexual danger particularly in the lens of sexuality and class. She explicitly demonstrated the conflicted nature of these discourses, outright showing the women marginalized by male discursive dominance, whose struggles continue to even generations later.
to balance her relationship troubles, with her work life, and her social life while trying to
During the nineteenth century, Chopin’s era, women were not allowed to vote, attend school or even hold some jobs. A woman’s role was to get married, have children
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” female heroine Louise Mallard’s judgment is questioned after her inability to show emotion following her husband’s death. Instead of feeling desperate and hopeless, Louise feels a sense of freedom and liberation. This depiction of an independent woman prevails in The Awakening as Chopin discusses a woman who battles to fulfill traditional Victorian female ethics in the midst of undergoing a physical and emotional awakening. Edna and Louise are similar because neither woman is happy with accepting conventional gender roles. In The Awakening, Chopin discusses the different female roles that Edna Pontellier, Adele Ratignolle, and Mademoiselle Reiz’s represent to emphasize the different ideas that women
In the past, literature for women strove to reinforce the culturally approved ideas of femininity. Tremendous volumes of literature were written to reinforce appropriate female behaviour. By the mid-eighteenth century, the ideological division of women into two classes, the virtuous and the fallen, was well developed (Armstrong, 18). Literature often portrayed both of these women, with the virtuous triumphing at the end and the fallen receiving her appropriate punishment. Chopin followe...