The Murderess Sparknotes

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Alexandros Papadiamantis’ tale, The Murderess, is a riveting probe unto the juxtaposition of gender roles and a woman’s place as the matriarch of the family. Set in the Greek island of Skiathos during the 1900s, the community has manipulated typical societal standards in order to create a very androcentric ideal. Frankojannou, the decrepit soul that heads her family, is a woman bound by religion and her own suffering as a woman of society. Papadiamantis exposes the rigidity of gender roles through Frankojannou, or Hadoula, by allowing the reader the insight into her thoughts. Though Hadoula is bound by the same gender roles as any other woman in her society, her actions contradiction that of which are set by the community she resides in.
In essence, typical gender roles fall into two realms, male and female. In a neurotypical society, much like the one Hadoula finds herself a part of, males are given the roles of the provider while women are given the role of the nurturer. Primal actions and savagery are characteristic of males and delicacy and composure are characteristic of females. …show more content…

As a female who is to be subservient to her parents and her husband, Hadoula was vocal from the start about the injustice imparted on her. When her parents promised her husband-to-be, Iannis' family a dowry consisting of a house and a field, Hadoula implored them to ask for a house in town and an olive grove; however, her ministrations were to no avail. Iannis and his sister paid no heed to her. As the marriage went on, Hadoula became crafty and began to do things in order to support herself as well as her five children, such as steal from her parents and eventually force her way into accepting Iannis' wages, for he was unable to discern deception from his employers. Hadoula took on the role of breadwinner in order to take matters into her own

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