Deviating from the norm within her time, Aphra Behn’s, “The Disappointment,” tackles the concept of sex from the female perspective, something still relatively taboo in the modern world. Behn offers readers a glimpse into the confusion and anxiety that accompany a woman’s loss of virginity, in addition to the heightened expectations of masculinity enforced on the man. By creating sympathetic and pitiable characters out of both Cloris and Lysander, Behn imagines a narrative in which there are no winners or beneficiaries in this uncomfortable exchange, directly resulting from societal expectations. During the specific instance in which Cloris gives into her desires only to discover that Lysander is unable to perform, the narrator illustrates …show more content…
Cloris forms a hyper-masculine, godlike image of Lysander which places an immense pressure on him to live up to her expectations. Although she is simply in accordance with the ideals of men that have previously been formulated by others, her compliance with such images only creates unrealistic expectations that will likely end in disappointment. The narrator states of Cloris’ discovery, “Finding that god of her desires disarmed of all his awful fires,” (112-113) which dramatizes Lysander’s downfall. The once fearsome thing is now characterized as, “cold as flowers bathed in the morning dew,” (114) becoming an altogether feminine portrait of something that is intended to be idealized as the epitome of manliness. His premature ejaculation is the ultimate sign of his descent into a non-masculine figure and a disappointment on both ends. Both Cloris and Lysander are similarly chastised only by society’s expectations, Cloris being a woman with lust and Lysander a man without his erection, and are unable to experience guiltless or unpressured pleasure,
In the first part of the play Egeus has asked the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to rule in favor of his parental rights to have his daughter Hermia marry the suitor he has chosen, Demetrius, or for her to be punished. Lysander, who is desperately in love with Hermia, pleads with Egeus and Theseus for the maiden’s hand, but Theseus’, who obviously believes that women do not have a choice in the matter of their own marriage, sides with Egeus, and tells Hermia she must either consent to marrying Demetrius, be killed, or enter a nunnery. In order to escape from the tragic dilemma facing Hermia, Lysander devises a plan for him and his love to meet the next evening and run-off to Lysander’s aunt’s home and be wed, and Hermia agrees to the plan. It is at this point in the story that the plot becomes intriguing, as the reader becomes somewhat emotionally “attached’’ to the young lovers and sympathetic of their plight. However, when the couple enters the forest, en route to Lysander’s aunt’s, it is other mischievous characters that take the story into a whole new realm of humorous entertainment...
Unsurprisingly, the novel is a classic coming of age story which centers on a young man who is confused about himself and his sexual identity in his early twenties. This confusion about himself and his sexual identity is the driving force of his interactions with his friends and lovers. Moreover, this confusion about himself and his sexual identity also facilitates the conflict and unforeseen consequences which occur during the novel.
That Lysander, the devil who stole Hermia’s heart with bewitched “knacks, trifles, nosegays” and “sweetmeats”
Lysander calls Demetrius a?spotted and inconsistent man?, indicating Demetrius? fickleness towards women, that he is flirtatious and flawed. Demetrius is willing to go to any extent to have Hermia marry him, even allowing Hermia to be subject to a life of a nun or death, if she does not marry him. Demetrius. infatuation with Hermia brings out the tyrannical and possessive part of his character, as can be seen when he says?and, Lysander, yield thy crazed title to my certain right?
Lysander is a prideful, arrogant and controlling lover for two women. The words Behn chooses instantly gives the impression of unnatural. Commerce is business, and business is serious. Behn feels like a victim of a love that she gave but never received in return. With the help of deductive reasoning, it’s easy to see why she does what she does. By allowing him to at least want her for her body, she receives some form of attention and that for a few, “silent hours,” she gets to be the important one to him, even if that makes her a slave to his
In the 17th and 18th centuries it was known for men to have complete power over everything and most writings from that time gave evidence to that. It was also quite common for a man to speak in vulgar language about sexual encounters but it was considered scandalous and wrong if a woman was to do the same. In Aphra Behn’s The Disappointment, she challenges all of that by using romance and sexuality to modify the differing views of power in relation to gender roles. At the end of the first stanza Behn says, “And left no light to guide the world, But what from Cloris ' brighter eyes was hurled” (Stanza 1, Line 9-10), what Behn is illustrating is that even though it seems that Lysander has all the control because he is a male, Cloris is actually
Pride and Prejudice is a classic novel about love and the role of women. Though times have changed, there is still a struggle for female independence and respect, in both relationships and the work place, despite the past desperate efforts of the suffragettes in the early 1900s and the present work of feminists and strong female characters today. However, Jane Austen’s novel has forever been the dream world of women all over the world because it’s a real story of the hardships in romance and the oppression of the ‘weaker sex’. In contrast, Liz Lochhead’s modern poem Rapunzstiltskin is less impressed with these romantic notions and looks unkindly on fairytales and the like, with their clichéd characters and false intentions. But on closer inspection, the two pieces may not be as different as they first appear.
Shakespeare creates a situation in which two pairs of young lovers, Lysander and Hermia, are forced to elope from the oppressive authority of their Elders, here we see Lysander asking Hermia to flee to the woods, “there gentle Hermia may I marry thee; and to that place the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue us” Freedom is not permitted in Athens, therefore the two lovers plan to escape into the woods. Hermia has two options given from her oppressive father, ‘either to die the death, or to abjure for ever in society of men’. She disobeys his commands. Shakespeare uses images to reflect Athens, and to magnify and to solidify Lysander and Hermia’s love for each other, which is strong and cannot be broken, without the use of magic. ‘Withering on a virgin thorn, grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness’.
...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.
The relationship between Demetrius and Hermia is problematic, in that Demetrius is seeking the affections of Hermia, while she is in love with Lysander. However, Hermia’s father approves of Demetrius and tries to force her to marry him, but Hermia refuses because of her love for Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.22-82). Lysander points out the flaw in the situation through this comment, “You have her father 's love, Demetrius –/Let me have Hermia 's. Do you marry him,” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.93-94). The second flawed relationship is between Lysander and Helena, as a result of an enchantment put on Lysander that made him fall in love with Helena. Helena does not want the affections of Lysander, but rather the love of Demetrius, and believes that Lysander is taunting her. In addition, this relationship creates tensions because Hermia is in love with Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.2.109-140). Both relationships are not desirable due to a lack of mutual admiration and the creation of non-peaceful and unsatisfying
...for giving birth, her obedient stay after being caught, and her sudden yet unsurprising death describes, in Lispector’s viewpoints, the natural course of an average female’s life. Although Lispector wrote these stories in the 1940’s, reflecting on the then current gender inequalities and
...the helplessness of a beautiful woman like her in a society of men like the Baron. At times we are given the impression that the mistake was indeed hers when Belinda cites examples of things she could have done and should have done to prevent the rape of her lock. Such a reaction from Belinda reinforces the notion of the rape serving as a metaphor for a sexual rape. The reaction of many women in our time to sexual rape is almost exactly like Belinda's reaction to the rape of her lock. However, it becomes clear that Belinda is only over exaggerating after she goes on and on speaking of radical changes that would have prevented her loss. It is evident that she is attempting to convey the idea that it was not herself who was at fault but men in general, particularly the Baron.
On the other hand Brantenberg’s novel exploits the real worlds views of sexuality and applies them in th...
By placing an emphasis on the man who uses women as sex objects by titling her play after him; by having almost all the female characters in the play treated horribly, used, and manipulated; and having the female characters barely putting up a fight, Aphra Behn suggests the heavily patriarchic society that exists is too extensive and is dangerous for the women in it.
In Aphra Behn’s “The Rover”, between the categories of virgin and whore lies a void rather than a spectrum. The three leading ladies of the play Hellena, Florinda and Angellica most certainly fall into these categories; Hellena and Florinda being virginal ladies of quality and Angellica being a famous courtesan. These three women attempt to challenge these roles throughout the play. Aphra Behn uses the domination of the men over the women, the objectification of the women and the double standards that exist between men and women to illustrate the impossibility of taking one’s sexuality into one’s own hands, and challenging the assigned roles of the patriarchal society for the female characters in the play.