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The role of women throughout English literature
The role of women throughout English literature
Gender roles of women in literature
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The two stories utilize the role of women very differently and that is where the main difference between “Bluebeard” and “The Bloody Chamber” occurs. In “Bluebeard” the role of women is traditional: the story ends in the main female character requiring aid from the “heroic” male (the young girl’s two brothers). Conversely, “The Bloody Chamber” goes against the norm and provides women with the task of heroism by having the young girl’s mother save her from death. This change vastly improves the quality of the story and empowers women at the same time. To take it one step further, the mother in “The Bloody Chamber” is not a traditional or “stock” mother either. She is capable of taking care of herself unlike the numerous female characters in
other stories. The young girl explains that her mother has “outfaced a junkful of Chinese pirates, nursed a village through a visitation of the plague, shot a man-eating tiger with her own hand and all before she was as old as [seventeen].” Upon reading a story, one would expect these feats accomplished by a male; however, Angela Carter empowers women in her story by giving them untraditional backstories and going against the norm. In doing so, she improves the quality of her story, since she modernizes the role of women and creates much needed equality between the genders.
Many people may say that the movie Simon Birch and the book The Scarlet Ibis are practically the same story. Both of the stories have many key point in common. And both stories have a similar lesson of how little actions can cause a big impact on someone's life. Some of the differences do give each story their own flair which in the end causes a different impact on the reader and viewer.
They are both strong willed characters. They both believe strongly enough in themselves that they will go to the extremes. Sarah moves out of her house. As does Edna, and they both do so against their husband’s wills. Neither of their husbands wants to have their wives move out of their houses, but they both do so and even go as far as to move their stuff with them. Edna only brings some of her things with while Sarah moves everything. She empties her and her families home and moves into the barn. The barn shows the wildness of her action because she did not just move her stuff out into another house she moved it to the barn, the barn where animals are supposed to be held. As it is in Sarah’s point of view, “ We’ve got jest as good a tight here as new horses an’ cows.”(Wilkins) This is quite the staement, still Edna’s move could be considered more devastating because when she moved out she moved out into another house with no intention of living with her husband. Whereas Sarah was going to continue living with her husband. Living with him in the barn, but never the less living with him.
Which is caused by the narrator having a male perspective. The narrator does not give the women and credit or redeeming qualities. All the women follow a general stereotype. If they tried to break away from the stereotype, they would me more important and influential characters. Paquette, a chambermaid in the Baron’s castle, is described as “a pretty and obedient brunette” (5). She is identified obedient not because of her job as a chambermaid, but because she is willing to exploit her soul and body to the men around the castle. In regards to the old woman, she doesn’t even have an actual name, which does not matter since is ugly and useless. The old woman has the mindset that she is; an object; a mistake; a disgrace. That her time has passed as a beautiful useful woman. All the rape and abuse has physically affected her and she is out of luck. In fact, she is lucky if men talk to her, or even look at her without
Some critics have argued that Richard Wright’s women are “flat, one dimensional stereotypes, portrayed primarily in terms of their relationship to the male character”. (Quote, p540) However, in Uncle Tom’s Children, Wright resents three very distinct types of female characters who did not fit this description. Wright portrays women as an Avenger, a Sufferer and a Mother figure whose actions propel the stories to their final conclusion. In the story “Bright and Morning Star” Wright places the protagonist, Aunt Sue, in a domestic environment. “Her hands followed a lifelong ritual of toil” (pg222) as she cleans and cooks. Interestingly, Aunt Sue is the only heroine in the stories, who shows a different type of bravery than perhaps shown by the male figures in other stories. She is brave in the face of the loss of her two sons; she is brave as she does not show weakness to the white men who attempt to control her and make her do their bidding. She does not allow herself to be bound by the conventions of society. She speaks her mind to the white men who invade her home and states “Ah don’t care who Ahm talking t!” (pg238). Aunt Sue is portrayed as a cunning woman, who hides behind men’s perception of her as weak and uses it to her advantage. Her final act of bravery in the story is to giver herself up to death, before the white men can take her life from her. Wright also portrays women as sufferers in his work. Sarah, in “Long Black Song” suffers from isolation and is stuck in a loveless marriage. The gap between men and women is very much evident in this story. Sarah is very much dependent on Silas for company, security and items of comfort. Silas is allowed to exceed from the isolation imposed on his wife. Even when Sarah flees from ...
Both stories show that the common view of marriage included an authoritative husband who exercised control over their spouse, thus leaving their wives in a role similar to that of a prisoner or slave. This rather traditional view of marriage regarded women as obedient subordinates who wouldn’t dare be non-compliant in fear of being mocked or punished. We can see this “powerless wife” stereotype in “The Story of an Hour” when Mrs. Mallard, who, after getting over the initial shock that her husband passed away, began to say “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin). This shows that, after being under her husband’s control for years, Mrs. Mallard was finally able to live the way that she saw fit, without having to listen to anyone. However, this freedom is short lived as Mr. Mallard returns home, obviously not deceased. This shock of having her newly-discovered freedom ripped away from her so quickly led Mrs. Mallard to die of what is presumably a heart attack, incorrectly described as one “of the joy that kills” (Chopin) by doctors. Likewise, “The Yellow Wallpaper” paints a similar marriage dynamic where the husband is in power (which is explored in detail in the response to question one). John, the narrator’s wife, makes
Like the men, the women have similarities and differences. For example, in the beginning of both stories, the women seem confident in themselves. Then, the men tell them otherwise. In “IND AFF,” Peter tells the woman she does not have a first-class mind (Weldon 202). In, “The Birthmark” Georgiana is accepting of her birthmark and in fact comes to think of it as a touch from an angel (Hawthorne page 417). Then, her husband tells her birthmark is nature’s slightest possible defect (Hawthorne page 417).
Gender roles and marriage the two short stories that I decided to compare and contrast is “Story of An Hour” by: Kate Chopin; and “The chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck. In “The Story of An Hour” the author talks about a woman who is married and finds out that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Her first reaction is devastation she starts crying historically then she goes into her room and thinks about her new found freedom. She looks out the window seeing all this new life and thinks about how hers is going to be, as this new independent woman she is now free. This feeling of freedom of marriage excites her but then she finds out that he still alive and all of her new found freedom is taken away from here this gives her a heart attack. In the story of “The Chrysanthemums” there is a married couple. Their marriage was a typical marriage for back in the day when women were expected to take care of the home and garden and men were expected to work all day to be the bread winner for the family. Elisa Allen, henry wife loves to work in the garden on her chrysanthemums she is a very strong and beautiful women. She wants to do more on the business side of the relationship but she knows that this is not for a women. Both of these stories are very similar in the ways that women were treated in the past. They were treated like they were not good enough to do a man’s job and they had less rights then men did in the past. The two women in the short stories I read have similar experiences of being oppressed by men but the overall outcome was different for both women. The reason why I thought this was because the authors of the stories differ in gender this plays a huge role on how the two main women characters stories ended.
Both works contain gothic elements, but there is a conscious effort on the part of both narrators to dispel the gothic tone with elements of realism. Gilman's narrator begins to describe her eerie summer lodgings, but notes "there was some legal trouble with the heirs and co-heirs... That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid" (11). Jane likewise is both affected by and resists the supernatural. For instance, she notes along with Grace Poole's fantastic laughter, her affinity for beer. However, the most notable similarity between the two works is the presence in each house of a "madwoman in the attic" (to borrow from Gilbert and Gubar). In the case of Gilman's narrator (unnamed, but with one ambiguous reference that it may be Jane) and Bertha, madness id the result of traditional Victorian marriages, from which both transgress. Clearly implied in Gilman's text and interpretable in Bronte's ...
For centauries, women have been forced to live life in the outskirts of a male dominated society. During the 1800’s, the opportunities for women were extremely limited and Mary Shelly does an excellent job in portraying this in her gothic novel, Frankenstein. Furthermore, in this novel, Mary Shelly shows how society considers women to be possessions rather than independent human beings. In addition, the female characters rely heavily on men for support and survival, thus proving their inability to do it on their own. Lastly, the female characters in this novel are in many ways victimized by the male characters. In conclusion, in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, the female characters always fulfill the limited and archetypical roles that are set for them by society.
While Louise Penny’s Still Life is a modern detective story, a “cozy” narrative with contemporary references and characters, it also contains the misogyny that is present in earlier detective novels. Still Life, set in the small Canadian village of Three Pines, investigates the murder of one of the townswomen, Jane Neil. The murderer is revealed to be Ben Hadley, a native of Three Pines and friend of Jane Neil. The murder in Penny’s Still Life reflects violence against women in the way that Ben Hadley inflicts physical and psychological violence onto women. Ben inflicts violence onto three women in the novel—his mother, Jane, and Clara. While the novel begins after the death of Ben’s mother, Timmer, his involvement in her murder plays an important role in how he chooses to later kill Jane and attempt to murder Clara.
Both William’s Amanda and Mastrosimone’s Marjorie were very strong and self-reliant women. In The Glass Menagerie Amanda was an extremely controlling mother. Her husband left the family and she was left to raise two children. The setting of the play was in the 1930s in the southern state. The challenge that a single mother faced at that time was much greater than today. However, she managed to endure the difficulties of life, taking care of her extremely shy daughter and determined son. In Extremeties Marjorie was an independent modern woman. She was an intelligent person who refused to let the rapist manipulate her and stood firm for justice. Both women stood firm even though they were confronted with extremely adversity. The continuous struggling to maintain their independence developed strong characters throughout both books.
Dan Brown illustrates through his novel that women are often oppressed throughout history in the Christian and Jewish cultures, yet he shows this oppression occurring still in modern times. In his novel, he uses his female characters to imitate the real world situation of how women are viewed; the characters Sir Leigh Teabing and Captain Fache are the archetypes for Brown’s perception of British and French attitudes towards women, respectively. Each man shows a disdain for a woman’s ability to do a “man’s job”.
Although both novels show the conceptions of manhood differently, the style of narration play an important role in constructing...
how it was but rather how it should be. Ibsen has set up an environment where women cannot decide on their own, but presents two female characters in the bok that go beyond this thinking
The writings of both the poets strictly tend to focus on the issues concerning racism, ethnicity, prejudice; slavery, inner struggles, and the pursuit of achieve freedom and equality in the society. Both Nadine Gordimer and Patricia Smith are regarded as two of the most renowned contributors to this field of literature. When reading both pieces of literature I noticed a few differences to the story as well. One of the differences was in the poem “what it’s like to be a black girl” the main character was coping with growing up and dealing with all the struggles that being a young black girl goes through. With