As a young aspiring author, I am thrilled to be reporting over the short story Torn Lace by Emilia Pardo Bazán. Bazán was born in Galicia, Spain; there she was well trained in the art of womanhood. She is also well-known for her feminist views and eminence writing. She published over twenty novels, twenty-one novellas, seven plays, six-hundred short stories, and hundreds of essays. Yet, Torn Lace is about a woman who defied the cultural and societal standard during the 19th century Spain. At the alter she refused to marry a man and no one knew the reason why till a few years later. The narrator bumps into the once bride and ask the reason why and she reveals that her fiancé became angry due to her ripping lace on her dress he gave her. Similar to her other novels the theme represents the relationship between opposite sexes, love, and feminist movement.
To begin Bazán theme on the relationship between male and female, it similar to millennial ideas of a relationship. She expresses that women have
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Bazán enforced the idea that a woman should viewed as equal to man and not as a “domestic property”. Her view about love is feministic for she expresses that a woman should be able to choose to love whoever. However, during the 19th century women were usually married off to a wealthier man who could provide her with comfortable living. Bazán also provided he idea that friendship is always reliable, for Miss Aránguiz confided in the narrator to provide the readers with closure and peace similar to the main character. The short novel convinces the reader that there is more to life than a marriage. However, marriage is beneficial if it is with the correct person, who equally love each other. Bazán shows off her exquisite writing skills in the short story Torn Lace confront uncommon and dangerous subjects during the 19th century
“From Lieutenant Nun,” a memoir written by doña Catalina de Erauso, tells an intriguing story of a young Spanish female and her advantageous journey through Spain and the New World. Her family intends for her to become a nun but, that is not the life she seeks for herself. Therefore, she breaks away from the convent in hopes of finding somewhere to make her fortune by passing as a male. Catalina’s story is noteworthy because it gives readers another perspective of exploration focusing on self-discovery during the seventeenth century emphasizing how passing as a male is the only thing that secured her ability to explore. In the memoir, Catalina repeatedly reminisces about clothing and, whether she consciously or unconsciously does so, she allows the reader to see that this is an important aspect of her exploration. Throughout Catalina’s journey, clothing plays an increasingly important role not only in her travels but, also her personal life because it symbolized ones status, role, gender and privileges.
Finally, even though, for a long time, the roles of woman in a relationship have been established to be what I already explained, we see that these two protagonists broke that conception and established new ways of behaving in them. One did it by having an affair with another man and expressing freely her sexuality and the other by breaking free from the prison her marriage represented and discovering her true self. The idea that unites the both is that, in their own way, they defied many beliefs and started a new way of thinking and a new perception of life, love and relationships.
“The Awakening” is a courageous piece of literature work that demonstrates how civilization forced tremendously elevated expectancies for females and their hypothetical roles. Kate Chopin uses this novel to bring those “expected roles” to light. Edith Wharton also shows how this epidemic has restricted and impaired two of the protagonist in her story “Roman Fever”. During the time period that this book was written, in the early nineteenth century, this epidemic of forcing roles on women was widespread, and this altered the lives of these women in an abysmal way incessantly.
Fatima Mernissi is a superb writer who introduces the reader into a harem through the mind of a nine-year-old girl. In this autobiographical novel young Mernissi talks uncensored about the contradictions of life in a harem, surrounded by the extraordinary women in her family who are restrained from leaving the family courtyard. These women’s is a struggle of complete lack of freedom. They are not allowed to leave the courtyard except on very few occasions, and escorted by men (Mernissi 39). Their lack of mobility is also accentuated by lack of other freedoms such as education and financial freedom, although they have a voice in the decision making of the crucial changes in the harem life.
Time had changed, the housekeeper was not the symbol of the woman anymore. Some women put down their responsibility for the family to look for so-called “passion,” which caused potential risk for family. In the article “What’s Hidden in Kate Chopin’s ‘the Storm,’” Bartee, professor at Strayer University, stated, “One can be free to make a choice if you want to be with a person and not have to be stuck in an unwanted relationship.” She explains that the selective right was not just for men but also for women; they were not affected by the feudal ideology. On the other hand, Readers were able to substitute into woman’s inner thought and sense through the effective tone and third person narration; it allowed us to understand the desire of modern women who pursued the excitement outside of their marriage. Even though it was a good phenomenon that woman had the freedom of choice, was everyone happy as the storm
The concept how woman are treated in modern times have changed drastically compared to woman who lived in the conservative period. That period was the time where the perception of individuals in general dealt with countless restraints. The women were the ones who were affected the most because these values had strongly influenced them. Woman behaved in a way how their husband’s wanted because they were living their lives by the controlled ways of the man. The story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the story of “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin are two stories that show accurately the way how women were treated at that time; exactly Edna and the other women. I want to discuss that the main characters of these two stories; Edna and the other women’s liberty were interdicted by their husbands. Finally, the way how both stories end; Edna’s suicide, and the other women’s insanity; demonstrates their inability to escape from the unhappy reality. None of them found the real strength, to outdo the restriction and effects of society, to attain their independence and freedom that they continuously wanted to achieve.
“It was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mourning notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro, down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
How does one compare the life of women to men in late nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century America? In this time the rights of women were progressing in the United States and there were two important authors, Kate Chopin and John Steinbeck. These authors may have shown the readers a glimpse of the inner sentiments of women in that time. They both wrote a fictitious story about women’s restraints by a masculine driven society that may have some realism to what women’s inequities may have been. The trials of the protagonists in both narratives are distinctive in many ways, only similar when it totals the macho goaded culture of that time. Even so, In Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing we hold two unlike fictional characters in two very different short stories similar to Elisa Allen in the “Chrysanthemums” and Mrs. Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour”, that have unusual struggles that came from the same sort of antagonist.
The situation of women in our society has always been a source of debate. The term feminism is required at the end of the 19th century to serve the collective aspiration of women to gender equality in a society hitherto subject to the rule of man. Historically, there are prejudices and acts about women that led to discrimination of these. In legal terms, as in the world of work and family, it is in the second half of the twentieth century that is affirmed and implemented new rights for women. From then on, it is not only in term of legal equality, but also equality of opportunity that raises itself the question of relations between men and women. I will be comparing and contrasting “You Leave Them” written by Mona Simpson with the short story composed by Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour.” Throughout these stories, both authors clearly express a common theme of feminism. By focusing my essay on the theme of feminism, I will first analyze the authors’ past experience and then associate how it contributes in both of their short stories. I will finish my essay by describing how authors respond to the absence of men’s vision.
“The Story of an Hour” is a short story in which Kate Chopin, the Victorian writer; whose writing illustrates her life experience. Chopin presents an often unheard of view of marriage. During the 1800’s women had limited freedom, fewer rights and, were not considered equal to men. Chopin despise the oppressive nature of marriage, she had been a victim of this institution. Kate Chopin often used the original names of people who inspires her stories (Toth 10). In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Louise Mallard, Chopin’s main character, experiences the exhilaration of freedom rather than the desolation of loneliness after she learns of her husband’s death. In “The Story of an Hour” do you think her reaction says something about women’s lack of freedom at the time? Kate Chopin’s provides a powerful message using irony, conflict, and symbolism to show that in order to have a satisfying marriage, freedom is required for both partners.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
...the story he is inviting the reader to condemn the mistreatment of women and lack of freedom in the family particularly under the institution of marriage. The attitude of the author gives the story a condemning tone. The tone is appropriate for the theme which is a strained relations in the family and specifically in marriage relations.
Through the use of a concise plot, symbolism, descriptive setting, point of view, and dramatic irony, readers are left with a strong feeling of empathy for the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard. Through each paragraph of the story, readers continue to feel empathetic for the woman who grieves the loss of her husband, gains a new feeling of freedom outside of the restrictions of marriage, then loses that freedom when she discovers that her husband is not dead, all within an hour’s time. While women’s independence and freedom within marriage could still be a topic reflected in today’s literature, it would be a much different story than that of Chopin’s time. At the time this story was written, women were expected to do whatever it took to please and cater to their husbands. This story seems to draw from the changes of that time as women were beginning to gain more independence in their lives as in the suffrage movement, marriage, and employment outside the home. Much has changed in women’s rights since the end of the nineteenth century, which is a result of the work of women like Kate
I read a story, after I finished reading it my mind was still reeling over what I had just read. Stories like this are quite impressive magnificent; they draw the reader into the story and leave them with a strong impact. How we interpret a text is in itself impressive, as every person is different, every interpretation is too. As I read “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, I could not help but notice that Kate Chopin uses the window to symbolize the future that Mrs. Mallard has been pinning for all her life. Chopin also uses Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition as a symbol of Mrs. Mallard’s marriage. The short story is consequentially the story of an oppressed woman who had to confine herself to the social norms of marriage. Through Formalism Criticism, we will explore the various symbols that Chopin uses to describe how Mrs. Mallard yearns for freedom, and through the Feminist Criticism, we will explore how the institution of marriage oppresses our heroin.