Feminism in Drama, Fiction and Poetry

989 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Treatment of women in literature

Literature is a part of human culture and values because humans are social animals that communicate through speech, music and writing. Literature comes in three forms; Drama, Fiction and Poetry. By using these forms of literature, we are able to send and receive messages in a creative and imaginative way. We are able to receive a deeper meaning from its content by reading and understanding literature. People write creative works to express their opinions or feelings from a particular subject or issue. An example of this subject is feminism. The issue of feminism has surfaced on the literature community since the beginning of time. Poets and novelist have been inspired to write about females because a woman is a symbol of passion and fertility. However, one part of human history has a grim example of woman discrimination. Writers of this particular subject have made their works in different ways.

In drama, conversations between characters are used instead of describing the things and emotions of the characters. Emotions are usually expressed through the characters’ dialogs and how they progress throughout the play. An example of feminism in drama is Susan Glaspell’s Trifles. Susan Glaspell used female characters to portray or symbolize feminism. According to Suzy Clarkson Holstein, women’s responsibilities like cooking, cleaning and knitting are clearly separate from the men’s duties during the twentieth century (Holstein 2003). Today, Women’s duties are still detached from men’s (Holstein 2003). Due to this, Glaspell showed how females are treated as a low-class citizen in her play. In Trifles, feminism is showed interactions between men and women through an act of dramatic speech. The powerful drama in Trifles, exemplifies the ...

... middle of paper ...

...ers feel romantic especially towards a woman. Finally, every drama, fiction and poetry uses symbols to represent feminism. The women characters in Trifles, the rose in A Rose for Emily and the eye of a woman in Unrealities are all examples of feminist symbolism.

Works Cited

Fang, Du. “Who makes a devil out of a fair lady?—an analysis of social causes of Emily’s

tragedy in A Rose for Emily/ Qui fait d’une demoiselle driote un monstre?—Une analyse des causes sociales de la tragedie D’Emily dans Une Rose pour Emily.(Report).” Candian Social Sciences 3.4 (2007): 18+. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Apr. 2011

Hans, James S. The Value(s) of Literature. EBSCO publishing, 1990. NetLibrary.

Web. 27 Apr 2011

Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. “Silent justice in a different key: Glasspell’s ‘Trifles’.” The Midwest

Quarterly 44.3 (2003): 282+. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.

Show More
Related

  • Oh Who Will Protect Poor Emily?

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    5. Roberts, Edgar V., and Henry E. Jacobs. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/ Prentice Hall, 2008. 76-81. Print.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In Trifles And A Doll's House

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gender roles and inequality are still evolving and continue to change. It has only been not that long ago that women started to break out their outlined roles and looked at about the same or- almost the same level- as men on a wide scale basis. Indeed, some women in certain parts of the world are still represented in the same way as in both plays that will be compared in this essay. The characters in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House highlight the challenges of gender roles. The attention focused on points of comparison and contrast of men vs women's reactions in the course of both plays, which, allow the audience to think about gender identity and role conflicts. The other common shared view in both plays is that they are both showcased from a female perspective.

    Read More

  • Isolation in “Yellow Wallpaper”

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    The “A Rose for Emily”. Literature: Prentice Hall Pocket Reader. Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005. 1-9.

    Read More

  • The Deception of Trifles: Gender Roles in the Play by Glaspell

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 19th Century, women had different roles and treated differently compared to today’s women in American society. In the past, men expected women to carry out the duties of a homemaker, which consisted of cleaning and cooking. In earlier years, men did not allow women to have opinions or carry on a job outside of the household. As today’s societies, women leave the house to carry on jobs that allow them to speak their minds and carry on roles that men carried out in earlier years. In the 19th Century, men stereotyped women to be insignificant, not think with their minds about issues outside of the kitchen or home. In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, the writer portrays how women in earlier years have no rights and men treat women like dirt. Trifles is based on real life events of a murder that Susan Glaspell covered during her work as a newspaper reporter in Des Moines and the play is based off of Susan Glaspell’s earlier writing, “A Jury of Her Peers”. The play is about a wife of a farmer that appears to be cold and filled with silence. After many years of the husband treating the wife terrible, the farmer’s wife snaps and murders her husband. In addition, the play portrays how men and women may stick together in same sex roles in certain situations. The men in the play are busy looking for evidence of proof to show Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. As for the women in the play, they stick together by hiding evidence to prove Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. Although men felt they were smarter than women in the earlier days, the play describes how women are expected of too much in their roles, which could cause a woman to emotionally snap, but leads to women banding together to prove that women can be...

    Read More

  • Trifling Justice

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...mpletely dependent upon men. Playwright Susan Glaspell cleverly causes the reader to question the way that women and men are viewed in society. The women in Trifles, though they were overlooked by the men, solved this case while the men failed to do so when they were supposedly in charge. In failing to recognize the women’s ability to contribute to their work the men succeed in causing the women to unite, giving them the real power and knowledge to solve this mystery. All the while the women are moving a little closer together and moving forward toward their rights.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Feminism in Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    Feminism in Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers As a strong feminist, Susan Glaspell wrote “Trifles” and then translated it into a story called “A Jury of Her Peers.” These works express Glaspell’s view of the way women were treated at the turn of the century. Even though Glaspell is an acclaimed feminist, her story does not contain the traditional feminist views of equal rights for both sexes. The short story and the play written by Susan Glaspell are very much alike. The story takes place in an old country town in the early 1900’s.

    Read More

  • Power In Trifles

    2135 Words  | 5 Pages

    One striking characteristic of the 20th century was the women's movement, which brought women to the forefront in a variety of societal arenas. As women won the right to vote, achieved reproductive freedom through birth control and legalized abortion, and gained access to education and employment, Western culture began to examine its long-held views about women. However, before the women’s movement of the 20th century, women’s roles were primarily of a domestic nature. Trifles by Susan Glaspell indicates that a man’s perspective is entirely different from a woman’s. The one-act play, Trifles, is a murder mystery which examines the lives of rural, middle-aged, married, women characters through gender relationships, power between the sexes, and

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Play Trifles

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles Mr. Wright’s murder is never solved because the two women in the story unite against of the arrogance of men to hide evidence that would prove Mrs. Wright as the murderer. The play Trifles is about the death of farmer Mr. Wright and how the town sheriff and attorney try to find evidence that his wife Mrs. Wright killed him. As the play progresses the men’s wives who had come along were discovering important pieces of evidence that prove the men’s theory but chose to hide from them to illustrate the point that their ideas should have been valued and not something to be trifled. The very irony of the play comes from its title trifles and is defined as something that isn’t very important or has no relevance to the situation that it is presented to. In this play the irony of the title comes from the fact that the men find the women’s opinions on the case trifling even though the women solve the crime which ends up being the downfall of the men as they would have been able to prosecute Mrs. Wright if they had listened which made the women’s opinions not trifling. Glaspell was born in an age where women were still considered the property of men and they had no real value in society in the eyes of men except for procreation and motherhood. This attitude towards women was what inspired Glaspell to write the play Trifles and to illustrate the point that women’s attitudes should be just as valued as men’s and to let women have a sense of fulfillment in life and break the shackles that were holding them only as obedient housewives. Trifles was also inspired by a real murder trial that Glaspell had been covering when she was a reporter in the year 1900. Glaspell is a major symbol of the feminist movement of l...

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Gilman And Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    2277 Words  | 5 Pages

    What is Feminism? How does feminism affect the world we live in today? Was feminism always present in history, and if so why was it such a struggle for women to gain the respect they rightly deserve? Many authors are able to express their feelings and passions about this subject within their writing. When reading literary works, one can sense the different feminist stages depending on the timeframe that the writing takes place. Two such works are ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by, Charlotte Gilman and ‘Everyday Use’ by, Alice Walker; the feminist views within each story are very apparent by the era each author lives in. It is evident that a matter of fifty years can change the stance of an author’s writing; in one story the main character is a confident and strong willed young woman looking to voice her feminist views on the world, while the other story’s main character is a woman trying to hold on to her voice in a man’s world which is driving her insane.

    Read More

  • The Female Role in A Rose for Emily, Miss Brill, and The Storm

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.

    Read More

  • Gender Differences in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    Susan Glaspell's play, "Trifles", attempts to define one of the main behavioral differences between man and woman. For most of the story, the two genders are not only geographically separated, but also separated in thought processes and motive, so that the reader might readily make comparisons between the two genders. Glaspell not only verbally acknowledges this behavioral difference in the play, but also demonstrates it through the characters' actions and the turns of the plot. The timid and overlooked women who appear in the beginning of the play eventually become the delicate detectives who, discounted by the men, discover all of the clues that display a female to be the disillusioned murderer of her (not so dearly) departed husband. Meanwhile, the men in the play not only arrogantly overlook the "trifling" clues that the women find that point to the murderer, but also underestimate the murderer herself. "These were trifles to the men but in reality they told the story and only the women could see that (Erin Williams)". The women seem to be the insightful unsung heroes while the men remain outwardly in charge, but sadly ignorant.

    Read More

  • Women in Life and Literature

    1837 Words  | 4 Pages

    When one thinks about women, the same basic thoughts always cross through men's mind. Too many men fit women into the same standard roles of cooking, cleaning, and catering to men. Historically throughout time the role of a woman has been lesser than that of man. Those thoughts have progressively changed with time, but have yet to reach the equality sought out by every woman. Thoughts such as those mentioned above are prevalent in literature, with most female characters following the same mold of traits and intelligence in every novel. Women historically have had to conform to specific stereotypical roles, which are often reflected in literature.

    Read More

  • Loneliness to Insanity and Madness in A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wall-Paper

    1546 Words  | 4 Pages

    ---. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 3rd ed. Orlando: Harcourt, 1997. 80-87.

    Read More

  • A Victim of Society in A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, Emily, the protagonist, is shown as someone who’s life is falling apart and brought down by society. Emily in this story could be described as a victim to society and her father. Emily Grierson’s confinement, loss of her father and Homer, and constant criticism caused her, her insanity.

    Read More

  • Roses For Emily Analysis

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Miss Emily’s bad luck caused her to separate herself from reality and into her figment of her imagination. She was perceived as personnel who had fallen into a steep mental depression. She sealed herself away from reality and turned down making acquaintances. No one requested for her and she did not try to alternate her lifestyle. Eventually she was buried deeper and deeper into her figment of imagination. She desired to find a stand-in for her father and was drawn to an authoritarian personality in the men that she adored and this may be the explanation why she stored their carcass around after their deaths to preserve the same atmosphere to which she had been used to and to reduce the feeling of seclusion. The power of death in “Roses for Emily” may well be a reflection of the loss that American’s faced during the great depression.

    Read More

More about Feminism in Drama, Fiction and Poetry

Open Document