Gender Expectations In The House On Mango Street By William Shakespeare

In the novels, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros, and the play, The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare, all had protagonists who were affected by gender expectations in their novel or play. Dante lacks the gender expectation of being physically strong in your society, while Ari does not, which proves to be a benefit for Ari, showing the men in his society that he is capable of becoming one. Esperanza is given the expectation of becoming a housewife in her society, as this is the only job a woman has. For Katherine, by the end of her play she has been tamed by Petruchio, her husband, and has become kind and obedient.

Her friend Rachel is also grown up believing this. When Rachel and Esperanza are outside playing jump rope and discussing the reasons for hips, Rachel makes a comment which is common for women of the household. “Hips are good for holding a baby when you 're cooking, Rachel says, turning the jump rope a little quicker. She has no imagination” (20.3). Esperanza scoffs Rachel for having a one sided mind, thinking that woman and supposed to take on the responsibilities of a mother and a housewife This task Rachel brings up fits the personality of a housewife, one that we see is not the ideal role for Esperanza. Esperanza sees the use for hips differently, she says hips have a musical quality to them. Esperanza, as seen above does not want the life society is expected of her. She want the life where she can use her hips for dancing, instead of to her husband’s advantage of becoming a housewife; cleaning, cooking, and raising her children. This ultimately limits her sense of self identity by making her feel trapped in a situation which she does not want for

This piece of the monologue contribute to the fact that men are in charge of a woman’s life, and the man works hard everyday to provide for the wife, while she is at home safe. Katherine is basically saying a wife owns her husband everything and the husbands repay their wives by protecting them. Katherine then goes on to compare a husband and his wife to a king and his people:

Such duty as the subject owes the prince

Even such a woman oweth to her husband;

And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,

And not obedient to his honest will,

What is she but a foul contending rebel (V.ii.171-175).

In this piece, it can be translated that women would be considered a rebel if she is rude and shrewish to her husband. In all, wives are objects to their husbands, and must do all that her husband says. This limited Katherine’s identity because it took away her personality of being a shrew, and turned her into something she wasn’t; kind and