In Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, Haywood uses patriarchy to show that status creates tension between men and women, allowing men to have the advantage when engaging in relations. For example, in “Reworking Male Models: Aphra Behn’s Fair Vow-Breaker, Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina and Charlotte Lennox’s Female Quixote” Catherine Craft states that as Fantomina uses her different personas to “engineer multiple transformations in order to ‘remain on the market’” (829). Craft’s argument validates the will of Fantomina to continue in her relationship with her lover by adapting to his shifting desires. However, Fantomina is relenting to the will of the patriarchy which is the predominance of men in positions of power and influence in society. This patriarchal …show more content…
power becomes evident in the ways that Beauplasir exhorts control, mentally and physically, over the different personas adopted by Fantomina, as well as in the end where he is absolved of all guilt in the matter of Fantomina’s pregnancy.
In Fantomina, her first persona of a prostitute is a simple and naïve exploration of how men react to women of lower ranks than herself. Beauplasir establishes his power over the lowly Fantomina, who is a helpless prostitute, in their first sexual encounter by forcing himself onto her. “In fine, she was undone; and he gained a victory, so highly rapturous, that had he known over whom, scarce could he have triumphed more.” (2743). Beauplasir’s joy at his forcing himself upon Fantomina is a prime example of how men could take what they wanted without fear of consequence, even as she objects to the coupling. This interaction convinces Fantomina that she is in love with Beauplasir and grants him the power to manipulate her into becoming his mistress. Next, Fantomina assumed the role of a maid to regain his attention that had waned from his sexual satisfaction with the prostitute role, she then assumed a slightly higher ranking in society to create a new relationship with Beauplasir. “…as he had ordered, he catched her
by the pretty leg…” (2746). In order to bend her to his own desires, Beauplasir physically overpowers the facade of Celia; which reveals that the patriarchy not only holds status over women, but also physically controls them. Moreover, the only role that is not dominated by Beauplasir is the disguise of Incognita. It seems as if Incognita has conquered the patriarchy when she re-imagines herself as a woman of high rank and withholds her identity from Beauplasir, gaining the victory of him referring to himself as “Your everlasting slave, Beauplasir” (2754). However, when Fantomina finds herself with child, Beauplasir is absolved of his guilt in the matter by Fantomina’s own mother and he leaves without even a dent in his reputation. “The blame is wholly hers, and I have nothing to request further of you, than that you will not divulge the distracted folly she has been guilty of.” (2758). Thus, allowing the patriarchy to overpower Fantomina and control her both physically and mentally.
At the start of the novel, Eliza Haywood places her protagonist in a very interesting, unique position, with regards to society of the time. The nameless main character is first illustrated in a playhouse, observing the interactions of the strangers around her. She notices a prostitute, surrounded by a swarm of men. “She could not help testifying her contempt of men who...threw away their time in such a manner, to some Ladies...the greater was her wonder, that men, some of whom she knew were accounted to have wit, should have tastes for very depraved” (257-258.) “Fantomina”, as she later comes to be called, oversees all of this. Haywood seems to put her above this crowd of men and prostitutes, while she observes and makes judgments on the nature of their behaviors. She expresses that she is disgusted by the mindlessness of the men in this situation. One might argue that this depicts a reversal of gender roles. Typically, men would look at women in this way, and the male character wo...
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...
Realistically, when someone is more powerful, they have the ability to set the rules. Men have historically held power in society, which means that women did not have as much stance or freedoms as men have had in the past. For example, Canadian women did not have the right to vote until the year 1916. This factor has continued to trail into the present day, creating the ‘weak’ image towards women, overall forcing and pushing men to become the opposite of this factor. Thus, cultural ideals of masculinity rely on the ideas of femininity through patriarchy and gender binaries. The emphasis on characteristics of men are being exaggerated, as society is pressuring men with unattainable standards of masculinity such as being tough, muscular and buff. Men continue to conform to these characteristics, in the fear of being oppressed through exclusion, which only strengthens society’s standards even more. This leads to more societal pressures on men, thus leading men to experience more societal pressures in the fear of feeling excluded. These “systems of inclusion and exclusion are divisions or barriers that prevent people from joining and belonging.” (50). For example, if a man wears nail polish, they may be oppressed and excluded through facing ridicule and bullying, because wearing nail polish is considered “girly”, therefore this boy is rebelling against society’s socially
She then moves on to be a gracious host to all of these men, again showing success in her womanly duties. Later that night one of the visitors, Sextus Tarquinis, comes into her room, and forces himself upon her, telling her that if she does not comply he will make it look like she had an affair with one of the servants (Livy, 101). She yields to him because she does not want it to seem as if she had an affair and is not able to explain what occurred.... ... middle of paper ...
There was a time (not so long ago) when a man's superiority and authority wasn't a question, but an accepted truth. In the two short stories, "Desiree's Baby", and "The Yellow Wallpaper", women are portrayed as weak creatures of vanity with shallow or absent personalities, who are dependent on men for their livelihood, and even their sanity. Without men, these women were absolutely helpless and useless. Their very existence hinged on absolute and unquestioning submission…alone, a woman is nothing.
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.
Over time, the image of men has changed. This is due mostly to the relaxation of rigid stereotypical roles of the two genders. In different pieces of literature, however, men have been presented as the traditional dominate figure, the provider and rule maker or non-traditional figure that is almost useless and unimportant unless needed for sexual intercourse. This dramatic difference can either perpetuate the already existing stereotype or challenge it. Regardless of the differences, both seem to put men into a negative connotation.
Society is constructed of people living together, were many ideas and stereotypical ideas are laid out. Based on the norms that were created, men and women try to act and perform the duties, where others who don’t seem different from that society. People’s ideas and concepts allow work and other activities to be placed into categories based on whether it is feminine or if it is masculine and only men can perform that task. Similarly, in the short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston the protagonist Delia Jones, is both masculine and feminine because of the roles she has taken as a worker and a wife in her marriage relationship explaining how a women can possess both qualities that traditional men and women have.
Eupriedes, Medea and Sappho’s writing focus on women to expose the relationships between a variety of themes and the general ideal that women are property. The main characters in both pieces of literature demonstrate similar situations where love and sex result in a serious troll. These themes affected their relationship with themselves and others, as well as, incapability to make decisions which even today in society still affects humans. Headstrong actions made on their conquest for everlasting love connects to sacrifices they made to achieve their goal which ultimately ended in pain. Love and sex interferes with development of human emotions and character throughout the course
Here, Herodotus accounts the story of Candaules’s fond passion for his wife’s beauty, thinking her the “fairest women in the whole world” and he wants to show off his wife to his trusted bodyguard. Herodotus explains how Candaules has respect for the beauty of his wife, but does not respect any of her wishes or desires upon showing herself to a stranger bodyguard.
The story begins with the Marquise de Merteuil corresponding with Vicomte de Valmont regarding a luscious new act of ‘revenge’, as she describes it, against the Comte de Gercourt. The young Cecile de Volanges has just come home from the convent and her marriage to Gercourt has been arranged. However, before he can wed the innocent child, Merteuil proposes Valmont ‘educate’ her, thus spoiling Gercourt’s fancy for untarnished convent girls. Valmont is uninterested in such an easy seduction and is far more aroused by the thought of lulling The Presidente’ de Tourvel, the very epitome of virtue, into submission. And so the tale unfolds.
In James Thurber’s short stories, the women dominate over the men (La Blanc, Michael and Ira 40). Women no longer want to be inferior to men. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, Mitty’s wife bosses him around. This suggests she does not respect her husband. Mitty fails to meet his own idea of masculinity, which in return allows the wife to take power (“Men and Masculinity”).
Though set in the underworld of thievery, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera codifies a set of Marxist sexual politics in which marriage stands as the great equalizer of desire and power. An often aphoristic overview of the traditional power struggle between men and women frames a world in which marriage reduces the wooer's desire but raises his power by an equal degree through ownership as a husband. This commodity fetishism of the wife spurs, in turn, the external desire of potential suitors, restoring equilibrium to the scales of eros. I will argue that Macheath's eventual capture (disregarding his brief escape and ironically crowd-pleasing twist-ending) stems from the complications his insatiable desire, at the expense of an all-consuming greed, introduces to a capitalistic society based on indirectly equitable gender relations.
In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the period. Instead it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and cuckoldry. The first idealizes women as a catalyst to male virtue, insisting on their absolute purity. The second fears and mistrusts them for their (usually fantasized) infidelity, an infidelity that requires their actual or temporary elimination from the world of men, which then re-forms [sic] itself around the certainty of men’s shared victimization (Neely 127).
In ‘My Last Duchess,’ the speaker is conveyed as being controlling, arrogant, malicious, and capricious. The Duke shows signs of jealousy and over-protection towards his first wife. On the other hand, the narrator in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is portrayed as who has lost touch with reality, someone clearly insane. There a few hints that this character may be lonely and withdrawn. After Porphyria enters the room he is in, the tension immediately drops and the mood warms.