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Feminism in american literature
Essays on gender roles in literature
Feminism in american literature
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In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery story, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Mr. Watson are tasked with helping a middle-aged woman, Helen Stoner, find the truth behind her sister’s untimely death. A theme of men being the subject, or the doer, and women being the object, or the observer, persisted throughout the course of the short story. I believe this shines a light into a broader picture of what the gender roles were in society in Victorian England, the period in which the story takes place. Womanliness in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” can be described as helpless, frightened, and not self-sufficient. That is, Helen, her murdered twin sister, Julia, and dead mother had no important plot role …show more content…
Whereas women are, for the most part, mitigated to be obedient and locked away until marriage, Rossetti advocates an entirely different path. The title of the poem refers to promises, presumably of monogamy and commitment while in love, like pie-crust in the sense that they are easy to forge, but also easy to break. Rossetti places an emphasis on liberty, advocating that both the man and woman “keep … both our liberties, … free to come as free to go.” This kind of thinking acknowledges that feelings are not static and love can and will die out in some cases. This laid back attitudes about the sexual empowerment, particularly of women was completely unheard of at the time, challenging the entire Victorian system. When she says, “If you promised, you might grieve / For lost liberty again”, she is referring to the fact that monogamous commitment can lead to unhappiness and feeling trapped. She goes on to say it is healthier for both friendships and relationships to have a bend-but-don’t-break air about …show more content…
He begins by cited the statistic that 30% of women and 25% of men remain unmarried and acknowledges that society ‘must frankly accept the new state of things and educate women and modify trade in accordance therewith, so as to make the condition of celibacy as little injurious as possible’. He goes on to call marriages of ‘interest’, ‘wealth’, ‘position’, ‘rank’, and/or ‘support’ to be “the sources of misery and sin, not of happiness and virtue.” By acknowledging that marriage is not the universal end-goal for all women, he is bucking restraints of tradition in favor of rational and pragmatic argument. Ultimately, it would be Cobbe’s general position on the role of women and marriage that would prominently prevail, as is seen around us in the world today. Women are being self-sufficient, independent, and pursuing their own happiness as they see fit. If that involves marriage and domestic duties at home, so be it. If that involves a following a career with little regard to marriage and family, so be it. The point is that women and men are equal now to choose their own path to happiness in life and not be confined to the societal oppression and stigmas about being single in Victorian
In the Victorian era, in New York City, men and women roles within the society were as different as night and day. A man regardless of his extra curricular activities could still maintain a very prevalent place in society. A woman’s worth was not only based family name which distinguished her class and worth, but also her profession if that was applicable.
The angry tone of Wollstonecraft’s “Vindication of the Rights of Women” significantly contrasts with the cautionary tone of Austen’s “On Making an Agreeable Marriage,” seeking to reform society rather than guide people to live in that society. When Austen describes the drawbacks of loveless marriage, she writes that “Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection” (Austen 72-73). Austen uses “preferred” and “endured” to warn her niece against marrying too quickly, creating a cautionary tone. Moreover, “anything” emphasizes the miserableness of a marriage without affection, beseeching Austen’s niece to verify her love before diving headfirst into a marriage. In contrast, when demonizing the education system, Wollstonecraft
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
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...
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, was written in 1916, reflects the author’s concern with stereotypical concepts of gender and sex roles of that time period. As the title of the play implies, the concerns of women are often considered to be nothing more than unimportant issues that have little or no value to the true work of society, which is being performed by men. The men who are in charge of investigating the crime are unable to solve the mystery through their supposed superior knowledge. Instead, two women are able decipher evidence that the men overlook because all of the clues are entrenched in household items that are familiar mainly to women during this era. Glaspell expertly uses gender characterization, setting, a great deal of symbolism and both dramatic and verbal irony, to expose social divisions created by strict gender roles, specifically, that women were limited to the household and that their contributions went disregarded and underappreciated.
The Roles of Women and the Differences in Lifestyles in A Scandal in Bohemia and The Speckled Band
This essay will examine both "The Speckled Band" by Conan Doyle and "Visitors" by Brian Moon and will look at how each one conforms to or diverges from the conventions of the detective story and also how each story is representative of the century it was written in by how it presents the woman, the hero and the villain.
The Canterbury Tales has many stories with multiple meaning and messages, but love is one subject that is argued throughout the book. There are two stories of the book that are discussed quite often on this subject “The Franklin’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. “The Franklin’s Tale” argues that a marriage where everyone is considered equal is superior while the “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” supports the idea that a marriage best works with a woman being in charge. These two stories argue the two dramatically different opinions of gender relations in marriage, with their own tales as examples to support their position. Since the Wife’s tale is based off of inequality in relationships while the Franklin’s tale is centered around equal gender relations. Due to this the Franklin’s tale is of course the ideal situation.
Lady Chudleighs’s “To the Ladies” exhibits a remorseful stance on the concept of joining holy matrimony. Chudleigh’s usage of metaphoric context and condescending tone discloses her negative attitude towards the roles of a wife once she is married. It is evident that Mary Chudleigh represents the speaker of the poem and her writing serves a purpose to warn single women not go get married and a regretful choice to women who are.
My interpretation is that Fuller feels if women are educated and skilled then they will be able to take care of themselves until the right man comes along. Their discretion will be tenfold, and they will be able to wait for the proverbial "Mr. Right". Fuller gives three wonderful examples of how equality gets broken down in a marriage. The first is the "household partnership"(42), where the man goes off to work and makes a living to support the family, and the woman stays home barefoot and pregnant, takes care of the children and tends to the house. There is a mutual admiration between the husband and wife because they both keep up their end of the bargain. But there is no love built into this relationship. Couples like this are merely supplementing each other’s existence, he by working to support her, and her by cooking and cleaning for him. When she states "this relation is good, as far as it goes"(42), Fuller implies that women are settling for the sake of settling. In the nineteenth century there was a stigma attached to any woman in her twenties who was not yet married. Fuller questions why two people would settle for each other when there are so many people with different things to offer each other.
The literary titles by Frances Power Cobbe, Sarah Stickney Ellis, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Sir Henry Newbolt, and Caroline Norton reveal society's view on women and men during the Victorian era. Throughout the Victorian era, women were treated as inferior and typically reduced to roles as mothers and wives. Some women, however, were fortunate to become governesses or schoolteachers. Nevertheless, these educated women were still at the mercy of men. Males dominated the opinions of women, and limited their influence in society. From an early age, young men were trained to be dominant figures and protectors over their home and country. Not until after World War I would women have some of these same opportunities as men.
The male ego and the fulfillment of a man's own image of himself can be strong motivating forces behind his actions and behaviors. Society has created parameters used to define a "real" man; failing to live up to these specifications threatens one's masculinity and standing amongst one's peers. These expectations and requirements for manhood are constantly reinforced by society. The prevailing stereotype of the classic "Marlboro Man" along with movie heroes such as James Bond, Indiana Jones, and John Wayne give the impression of the adventurous ladies' man who laughs in the face of danger and can do no wrong. Arthur Conan Doyle's tale of adventure, The Lost World, is an excellent example of the search for manhood and glorification of masculinity. What begins as a scientific expedition turns into a journey to satisfy the suppressed male instincts and desires for conquest. With the search for knowledge as an appropriate excuse, the explorers of Maple-White land are free to indulge in the arts of "real" men and live up to their idealized conceptions of their own greatness.
In an essay on feminist criticism, Linda Peterson of Yale University explains how literature can "reflect and shape the attitudes that have held women back" (330). From the viewpoint of a feminist critic, "The Lady of Shalott" provides its reader with an analysis of the Victorian woman's conflict between her place in the interior, domestic role of society and her desire to break into the exterior, public sphere which generally had been the domain of men. Read as a commentary on women's roles in Victorian society, "The Lady of Shalott" may be interpreted in different ways. Thus, the speaker's commentary is ambiguous: Does he seek to reinforce the institution of patriarchal society as he "punishes" the Lady with her death for her venture into the public world of men, or does he sympathize with her yearnings for a more colorful, active life? Close reading reveals more than one possible answer to this question, but the overriding theme seems sympathetic to the Lady. By applying "the feminist critique" (Peterson 333-334) to Tennyson's famous poem, one may begin to understand how "The Lady of Shalott" not only analyzes, but actually critiques the attitudes that held women back and, in the end, makes a hopeful, less patriarchal statement about the place of women in Victorian society.
Throughout the early 1800s, British women most often were relegated to a subordinate role in society by their institutionalized obligations, laws, and the more powerfully entrenched males. In that time, a young woman’s role was close to a life of servitude and slavery. Women were often controlled by the men in their lives, whether it was a father, brother or the eventual husband. Marriage during this time was often a gamble; one could either be in it for the right reasons, such as love, or for the wrong reasons, such as advancing social status. In 19th century Britain, laws were enacted to further suppress women and reflected the societal belief that women were supposed to do two things: marry and have children.
...he turn of the 20th century. This ideology shared in Paris gave individuals the right to not have to get married and settle down. Even the married couples within Paris didn’t really like to “settle down” as close to thirty six percent of married couples did not have children. This sense of individualism was even shared within the female realm as many females did not “need a man” during this era.