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The portrayal of women in 19th century literature
The role of women throughout English literature
The role of women throughout English literature
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Dubril Ciyombo
Eva Foster
CRN: 74000
11/01/2015
“Goblin Market”, “The Lady of Shallot”, and “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
The poems “Goblin Market”, “The Lady of Shallot” and the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” explore a lot of similarities. The poets and narrator are using the structure of allegory to reveal and denounce something that consume their souls. The two poets and the narrator are using allegory by describing how the four different women, in these poems and short story, are denying the framework that is proper and required for their health and comfort in order to follow their wants and needs.
Christina Rossetti in the poem “Goblin Market” uses a religious allegory. The poem is about two women,
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Lizzie and Laura, who perceive the cry and call coming from “Goblin Market”, the men are crying “Come buy, come buy”. Just like Adam and Eve, the two sisters at first are trying to not pay attention to the cries of the goblin men, the cries are representing temptation. Finally, one of the sisters, Laura, decides to go outside to see what is really happening with the Goblin men who are crying. The other sister Lizzie, who represents the strong woman, tries to hold her sister Laura and prevent her about the action she is about to take, but Laura, because of her curiosity can't ignore the calls coming from the outside and stay at home. The Goblin men offer her the fruit, which symbolizing the sin. Despite the fact that she doesn’t have any money on her, Laura accepts to deal with the Goblin men and give them some of her hair in exchange of the fruit. Right after tasting the fruit, Laura got sick because she did something she was forbidden to. Lizzie started worrying about her sister's health and decides to go to see the Goblin men and solve the matter. Like a devil the Goblin men also try to tempt Lizzie as they did with Laura, but Lizzie stayed firm, even when they turned violent and tried to stuff the fruit into her mouth. She gets her face full of Goblin juice and goes back home, Laura licks the juice in her sister’s face and recovers suddenly and miraculously, and that recovering is symbolizing the freedom Laura and Lizzie earn after a long way of imprisonment, and also like a redemption for Laura. The allegory used in this poem is more religious and release a biblical story through the main characters and the symbol of the fruit. The goblin men are more representing those men who abused unmarried women during the Victorian Era. Just like a snake the goblin men try to harm the women by seducing them with their malices. The fruit illustrates in this poem simply represents the sin. The desire to eat the fruit is like the temptation of tasting any sexual act which would make the women lose their purity before marriage. In the same way, the second poem “The Lady of Shallot” contains the same structure of allegory. The “four gray walls and four gray towers.”, are representing the rules and protection for the women. By using allegory, the poet tries to reveal the madness of the Victoria Era. How the men, who are rulers, are using single women for their profits and personal desires. The society and men are the ones who decide on how women are supposed to act and conduct their lives, what makes them as prisoners and belongings. The imprisonment of the lady is representing the family and society who are paying attention on every move women are making in the society in order to keep them pure and sacred. The lady of Shallot is captured for no reason and it describes also how women are treated during the Victorian Era without any consideration. The three ladies in the two poems, who are the main characters, are living a life with a lot of restrictions and prohibitions they cannot cross, this situation is similar to the Victorian era, during that era women were seen by the middle class as belonging to the domestic duties. The stereotype men had during the Victorian Era about women required women to provide to their husbands food, children and a clean home and nothing more. The two poems are guilty the society and men to abuse of women, to tempting them, and also the poems show how women fall into the men's bait naively. The poets of the two poems above are using allegory poetry which gives a deeper meaning to a text. Christina Rossetti in "Goblin Market" uses the structure of fairytale to hide a strong sense of allegory through the Biblical language and sexual references. The poem “Goblin Market” is portraying what Christians are living everyday of their lives, which are “temptation”, “sin” and “redemption”. The restricted fruit in the poem is matching with the fruit in the story of the Garden of Eden. The temptation is symbolized by the cry and the sin is symbolized by the fruit. In the other hand, Tennyson in "The Lady of Shallot" makes an allegorical symbol of a woman who is jailed to portray his thoughts on the treatment and social position of women in the Victorian era. Comparing to “Goblin Market”, "The Lady of Shallot" is using a physical aspect to represent the social and moral constrictions placed upon her as a woman in society. The former poem suggests the explanation behind these codes, the poem of “Goblin Market” is representing sin and temptation by the fruit of “Goblin Market”. However, these two poems are blaming the attitude of men, and representing women as the category of human who is most of the time appealing to ignore the rules settled by men and society. "The Lady of Shallot" uses allegory to overgeneralize women more than Rossetti does in "Goblin Market". The author of "The Lady of Shallot" supports that all women need protection and freedom. Similarly to the two others poems "Goblin Market", and "The Lady of Shallot", allegory is also used in the short story “The Yellow wallpaper”. The allegory in this short story implies the lady who escapes through the wallpaper. The lady in this short story is representing how women used to be deleted during that time, even though some of them were skilled as the woman in the wallpaper was in writing, she really wanted to write but she couldn’t because of her husband who was manipulating her like a marionette. Women didn't have the rights they deserved during the Victorian Era. The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is becoming tender to that wallpaper because she is jailed in that same piece with it, and she doesn’t have any alternative but get linked with the paper. The paper is basting into the woman and she finally becomes defensive in regards to it. The woman locked in the room wants to be free from her husband who is making things hard for her by keeping her inside a room all day long. The narrator is fighting until her last strength in order to conquer her freedom from this man and that corrupted society. The desire the narrator has for the woman and wallpaper emerged from the want of breaking out, but instead, she succumbs into the pattern herself. In conclusion, in the poems "Goblin Market", "The Lady of Shallot" and the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", have several connections and similarities between them in term of the allegory applied in the different texts.
The firsts two poems are using a fairytale structure to create a hidden meaning about the disappointment of the women vis-a-vis to the society where there are imprisoned. The author of the "Goblin Market" is matching his poem to the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden and the christian figures. In this poem the allegory is used to portray temptation and sin by the consummation of the fruit. In the other hand, the author of the poem "The Lady of Shallot", is representing the social constrictions during the Victorian Era in terms of their sexuality. Finally the author of the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is using allegory by representing the woman locked in the room, who wants to be free from her husband who is making things hard for her by keeping her inside a room with the wallpaper. The two poets and the narrator are arguing about the fragile and naive women who where tempted in their different era and trapped into the sin, death and freedom because of their curiosity. The two poems and the short story have similarities in their hidden meaning, thanks to the allegorical structure used by the
authors. Works Cited - Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 778-9. Print. Arguing about Literature: A brief Guide. - Rossetti, Christina Georgina. Goblin Market. New York: E.P Dutton, 1970. Learning Web. - Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson. The Lady of Shallot. Toronto: Kids Can, 2005. Learning Web
In conclusion, these stories have similarities in terms of the victimizations and subordination of women. Black and yellow color was used to symbolize the overall surroundings of the situation. However, both of these stories had difference. As mentioned, “The Lottery” was a very violent and cruel event and “The Yellow Wallpaper” was towards self-expression. Thus the difference and similarities in both of these stories can be compared and contrasted.
...he wall, he thinks about his rejected opportunities and his unbearable regret. As he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his life is ending in his catacombs dying with his finest wine. The catacombs, in which he dies, set the theme, and relate well with the story. Without the yellow wallpaper in the short story, the significance of the wallpaper would not mater, nor would it set the theme or plot. At night the wallpaper becomes bars, and the wallpaper lets her see herself as a women and her desire to free herself. She needs to free herself from the difficulties of her husband, and from her sickness. The settings in both, set up the elements of the stories and ads to the effect in both of the short stories.
The windows are barred, symbolizing the restrictive nature of the narrator’s mental condition. She is imprisoned within her mind. Her room was once a nursery, symbolizing that she is helpless and dependent on her husband’s care, similar to how a parent is reliant on the care of it’s parents, “… for the windows are barred for little children,” (Gilman 2). The narrator is not only trapped by her own mind and mental condition, but her husband’s wishes and expectations as well. The most significant symbol within the story is the yellow wallpaper. Initially, the narrator only views the wallpaper as something unpleasant, but over time she becomes fascinated with it’s formless pattern and tries to figure out how it’s organized. She discovers a sub-pattern within in it in which she distinguishes as a barred change with the heads of women that have attempted to escape the wallpaper like the woman she has been “seeing” moving within the wallpaper, “And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern - it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads” (Gilman 8). The yellow wallpaper is symbolic of a women’s place in society within the nineteenth century. It was not commonplace, or deemed acceptable, for women to be financially independent and/or engage in intellectual activity. The wallpaper is symbolic of those economic, intellectual, and social restrictions women were held to, as well as the domestic lives they were expected to lead. The narrator is so restricted by these social norms that her proper name is never given within the story, her only identity is “John’s wife”. At the climax of the story, the narrator identifies completely with the woman in the wallpaper and believes that by tearing the wallpaper, both she and the woman would be freed of their domestic prisons, “…there are so many of those
The wallpaper symbolizes the trapped narrator and the structure of the tradition. Also, Elisa’s chrysanthemums are discarded and the narrator’s feelings are disowned which portrays the rejection of women. Elisa ends up “crying weakly like an old woman” and settles for wine (233). The narrator’s actions lead to her husband fainting “but he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time” (447). The narrator is insane and causes faintness in her husband, hoping that she now has an escape. To conclude, John Steinbecks “The Chrysanthemums” and Charloette Perkins “The Yellow Wallpaper” show two different outcomes mainly arisen due to being trapped inside an isolated house or a garden and having a limited life under a husband's control.
As the narrator’s mental state changes so does the way she perceives things around the house. The most prominent example of this is the imagery of the wallpaper and the way the narrator’s opinion on the wallpaper slowly changes throughout the story; this directly reflects what is happening within the narrator’s mind. At the beginning of the story the narrator describes the wallpaper as “Repellent...revolting... a smoldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 377). As the story continues the narrator starts to become obsessed with the wallpaper and her opinion of it has completely changed than that of hers from the beginning. Symbolism plays a big part in “The Yellow Wallpaper” too. This short story has a multitude of symbols hidden in it but there are specific ones that stand out the most. The recurrence of the wallpaper definitely makes it a symbol. An interesting interpretation is that the wallpaper represents women, in the sense that the 18th century woman was considered almost decorative and that is exactly what the purpose of wallpaper is. Another prominent symbol that runs parallel with the wallpaper, are the women the narrator would see in the wallpaper. The women appear trapped behind bars in the paper and one could argue that the women the narrator sees represents all women of her time, continuously trapped in their gender
Also, the paper will discuss how ignoring oneself and one’s desires is self-destructive, as seen throughout the story as the woman’s condition worsens while she is in isolation, in the room with the yellow wallpaper, and at the same time as her thoughts are being oppressed by her husband and brother. In the story, the narrator is forced to tell her story through a secret correspondence with the reader since her husband forbids her to write and would “meet [her] with heavy opposition” should he find her doing so (390). The woman’s secret correspondence with the reader is yet another example of the limited viewpoint, for no one else is ever around to comment or give their thoughts on what is occurring. The limited perspective the reader sees through her narration plays an essential role in helping the reader understand the theme by showing the woman’s place in the world. At the time the story was written, women were looked down upon as being subservient beings compared to men....
“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a woman who is trapped in a room covered in yellow wallpaper. The story is one that is perplexing in that the narrator is arguably both the protagonist as well as the antagonist. In the story, the woman, who is the main character, struggles with herself indirectly which results in her descent into madness. The main conflicts transpires between the narrator and her husband John who uses his power as a highly recognize male physician to control his wife by placing limitations on her, forcing her to behave as a sick woman. Hence he forced himself as the superior in their marriage and relationship being the sole decision make. Therefore it can be said what occurred externally resulted in the central conflict of” “The Yellow Wallpaper being internal. The narrator uses the wallpaper as a symbol of authenticy. Hence she internalizes her frustrations rather then openly discussing them.
...chniques that Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses in "The Yellow Wallpaper" to suggest that a type of loneliness (in women) caused by imprisoning oppression can lead to the deadliest form of insanity. By using setting, Gilman shows how the barred windows intensifies the young woman's imprisoning oppression, the isolated summer home represents the loneliness the young woman feels, and her hallucinations of the wallpaper pattern indicates her transition to insanity. Wallpaper symbolism is used throughout the story the pattern representing the strangling nature of the imprisoning oppression, the fading yellow color showing the fading away of the young woman, and the hovering smell representing the deadly insanity to which she succumbs. Like the darkness that quickly consumes, the imprisoning loneliness of oppression swallows its victim down into the abyss of insanity.
The aim of this essay is analyse women´s images in The Yellow Wallpaper and in The Awakening, since the two readings have become the focus of feminist controversy.
In Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, the narrator represents how women were treated in this time period by the theme and symbolism presented in the story. This is shown in three distinct ways: stereotypical social conventions displayed by each major character, dialogue, and the symbolism of the wallpaper.
Christina Rossetti was born in London on December 5, 1930. She is regarded by many as “one of the most important women poets in writing” in England during the nineteenth-century (Everett). Rossetti’s best known for writing a collection of pieces known as Goblin Market and Other Poems that was published in 1862 (Christina Rossetti). Many have argued that her most notable poem of the collection, “Goblin Market,” has a strong biblical undertone. By analyzing the characters and symbolisms of “Goblin market” against their biblical counterparts, we will attempt to find the stories true message.
...Also in, "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator gets so loneley and so freaked out about what is happening in the wallpaper in her room that she actually goes insane. She tears everything down and she even bites it. She thinks that there are other people that have smudged the wallpaper when in reality it was her and now she is actually the trapped woman. This is how these two stories relate by the characteization of the authors by them both making their stories disturbing in different ways.
No one literary theory is specific enough to explain a literary body of work, but various approaches are needed to truly analyze and evaluate the structured themes in literature. The Feminist Approach is the most common literary device used in theorizing Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper ; the story is a tale of a Victorian Age woman controlled by a patriarchal society, which is not in question. The second most common approach is the Psychoanalyze criticism, our protagonist Jane is most likely suffering from post-partum depression as theorized by Beate Schöpp-Schilling.
...demonstrates the oppression that women had to face in society during the nineteenth century. The nursery room, the yellow wallpaper, and the windows, all symbolize in some way the oppression of women done by men. She bases the story on one of her life experiences. Charlotte Gilman wrote the story because she believed that men and women should be treated equally.
Many literary critics agree that overall, Christina Rossetti’s works can be best interpreted as religious texts (Humphries 391). One critic interprets the poem by breaking its theme into four sections; the sections follow the chronology of the poem – temptation, fall, redemption, and restoration (Christensen). This division of themes is an excellent way to explore the religious interpretation of