Gender Roles In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

948 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of women in literature

Firstly, gender roles is a prominent gothic element that can be seen throughout both novels. In the novel, The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, there is a Victorian era representation of the characters. This can be seen through the working women, social position of the characters and the dominance of men over women established in the novel. The characters that represent the working women in the novel are the Governess, Mrs. Grose, and the spirit, Miss Jessel. These women are good examples of the working woman in the Victorian era because they do the work and have the drive to earn money for themselves, all the while performing their jobs to the best of their abilities to secure their positions. The women in the Victorian era were starting …show more content…

The Governess and Mrs. Grose become worried that Quint may have influenced Miles, the oldest of the two children, and this is because of his social class. The social position of women in the Victorian era was that women of a higher class were not expected to work. There was not much else expected of women in the Victorian era, they were expected to stay home and care for the house and children, and not go out and find work for themselves. In this novel and the Victorian era, men were dominant over women. Women looked to men for guidance and approval. For example, when the governess was first brought to the estate in Bly, she was shocked that the master did not want to hear from her at all, regardless of this, she still thought that this was a way for the master to give her affection and approval. Another characteristic that shows the gothic elements of gender roles in The Turn of the Screw is the romance present in this novel. There is a forbidden romance that is displayed. This forbidden romance is between the Governess and the Master of …show more content…

Another characteristic of gender roles is the gothic heroine. A gothic heroine is a female character who somewhat defies the traditional ways of the people around her and fights the patriarchal culture. The heroine in this novel, the Governess, places herself in an imaginary world. She uses her imagination to escape and have her own freedom; as she does this she believes that she is not as innocent as she may appear. There are no “damsels in distress” that can be found throughout this novel. All the women know how to take care of themselves and rarely need the help of men. Although “An unknown man in a lonely place is a permitted object of fear to a young woman privately bred; and the figure that faced me was… as little anyone else I knew as it was the image I had in my mind”(James 310 - 311), this quote shows that the perspective on the relationship of men and women in this time period is that there is a threat of violence towards women at any moment. The Governess, after figuring out that there are ghosts pursuing the children, believes that she can save Miles and Flora from the destruction the spirits may cause

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Heroism In Walk Two Moon

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    A heroine's journey usually involves a female protagonist, however, the relationship with this story structure goes much deeper in this book.

    Read More

  • Right Of The Bat By Hannah Dustan Character Analysis

    1521 Words  | 4 Pages

    Whittier begins his story by writing, “Woman’s attributes are generally considered of a milder and purer character than those of man. ”(348) Right of the bat, the reader has a stereotypical idea in his or her mind about how a woman should act and what characteristics she should hold. Whittier does this to show how different and unique his main character, Hannah Dustan, will be seen throughout his piece of work. Whittier then goes on to say, “Yet, there have been astonishing manifestations of female fortitude and power in the ruder and sterner trials of humanity; manifestations of courage rising almost to sublimity; the revelation of all those dark and terrible passions, which madden and distract the heart of manhood.

    Read More

  • Isolation In Rebecca And The Bloody Chamber

    340 Words  | 1 Pages

    ‘Rebecca’ and ‘The Bloody Chamber’ convey the gothic theme of isolation by employing the embodiment of dominant male characters. The femme fatal persona in ‘Rebecca’ creates a stigma about how Mrs de Winter should act. The Fairy-tale form causes development of female power and causes a sense of resilience throughout the collection of short stories. The use of controversial issues of feminine empowerment exercises the idea that women should have more power within heterosexual relationships. There are several Gothic conventions within both texts, for example setting is vital because the authors use immense, reclusive places like Manderly and the Castles causing physical entrapment for the feminine roles. Violent characteristics from Maxim and

    Read More

  • Gender Criticism and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender Criticism and The Turn of the Screw The Turn of the Screw by Henry James continues to stir up an immense amount of controversy for such a short novel. Making a definite, educated decision on the actual truth considering the countless inquiries that develop while reading this story proves more difficult than winning a presidential election. That being said, taking one particular side on any argument from a close reading of the story seems impossible, because the counter argument appears just as conceivable. Any side of the controversy remains equally disputable, considerably supported by textual evidence from the novel.

    Read More

  • Trope In Frankenstein

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’

    Read More

  • The Thousand And One Nights Vs Medea Analysis

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to traditional stereotypes of women, literature around the world is heavily male-dominant, with few female characters outside of cliché tropes. Whenever a female character is introduced, however, the assumption is that she will be a strong lead that challenges the patriarchal values. The authors of The Thousand and One Nights and Medea use their female centered stories to prove their contrasting beliefs on the role of women not only in literature, but also in society. A story with a female main character can be seen as empowering, but this is not always the case, as seen when comparing and contrasting Medea and The Thousand and One Nights.

    Read More

  • Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

    1338 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ng it through Grace’s mother and Mrs. Humphrey. The novel depicts this construct of gender identity through society by molding Grace to believe women are subordinate and need to get married and be good housewives to be successful. This construct is seen through emotion as women who are emotional are seen as “abnormal” and sent to asylums, while men had to power to do so. The societal construct of gender identity was seen as men were to bask in their sexuality and be assertive, while women were to be passive and suppress their sexuality. Mrs. Humphrey challenged this construct as she was assertive and the instigator. Lastly, the societal construct of gender identity was challenged through Grace’s mother as she took over the males position of being the provider. Overall, women were looked at as subordinate to men in the Victorian age and Atwood challenged this belief.

    Read More

  • Sexism In The Great Gatsby

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout time women have been written as the lesser sex, weaker, secondary characters. They are portrayed as dumb, stupid, and nothing more than their fading beauty. They are written as if they need to be saved or helped because they cannot help themselves. Women, such as Daisy Buchanan who believes all a woman can be is a “beautiful little fool”, Mrs Mallard who quite died when she lost her freedom from her husband, Eliza Perkins who rights the main character a woman who is a mental health patient who happens to be a woman being locked up by her husband, and then Carlos Andres Gomez who recognizes the sexism problem and wants to change it. Women in The Great Gatsby, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wall Paper” and the poem “When” are oppressed because the fundamental concept of equality that America is based on undermines gender equality.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Great Gatsby

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender Roles: In some respects, Fitzgerald writes about gender roles in a quite conservative manner. In his novel, men work to earn money for the maintenance of the women. Men are dominant over women, especially in the case of Tom, who asserts his physical strength to subdue them. The only hint of a role reversal is in the pair of Nick and Jordan. Jordan's androgynous name and cool, collected style masculinize her more than any other female character. However, in the end, Nick does exert his dominance over her by ending the relationship. The women in the novel are an interesting group, because they do not divide into the traditional groups of Mary Magdalene and Madonna figures, instead, none of them are pure. Myrtle is the most obviously sensual, but the fact that Jordan and Daisy wear white dresses only highlights their corruption.

    Read More

  • Treatment of Women in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road

    2339 Words  | 5 Pages

    Women play a key role in this novel in many ways. In the case of...

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Scarlet Letter

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, it is my belief that the religious setting of this novel in the Puritan society allowed further emphasis of the profound differences between the character’s gender roles, thereby creating deeper contrast and revealing the flaws of the Puritan’s preconceived notions of patriarchal societal norms.

    Read More

  • Nineteenth Century Literature Heroines and Conformity

    1654 Words  | 4 Pages

    By definition, a heroine is a woman who would typically encompass the qualities of nobility, courage, independence and strength. Nineteenth century English women would have struggled to accomplish any of these particular acts of heroism within their social environment as ultimately, their roles within civilisation saw them becoming a good wives and mothers and before that, obliging and caring daughters. Within this ubiquitous discourse of separate spheres, Kathryn Gleadle suggests that women were ‘encouraged to see themselves as ‘relative creatures', whose path in life was to nurture the family and to provide unstinting support for the head of the household' In this respect, the nineteenth century British woman conforming to this ‘path' would prove to be the heroine of that time as a free-spirited independent individual would have been cast aside as socially unacceptable. Essentially, although it would appear that many women wished to lead active, working lives and so make an important contribution, either to their families or to social welfare, ‘the woman's position [was] to preside over a loving home whilst men were to brave the vicissitude and demands of public and business life' Novelists Thomas Hardy and Emily Brontë present us with two strong and independent females Tess Durbeyfield and Catherine Earnshaw. These women are far from the idealistic view of nineteenth century females; Tess, intelligent and strikingly attractive, strives to uphold the values expected of her but outside forces beyond her control determine her fate. Catherine on the other hand begins her life free-spirited, rebellious and of a wild nature. However, her inner desire craves social ambition which, in turn, shows her slowly representing culture and civilisation.

    Read More

  • Feminism in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    In total, the female characters are always victimized because of their qualities and gender. In conclusion, by destroying the female characters, Mary Shelly alludes to the idea that women are always in victimized positions in society. In conclusion, most of the female characters are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited.

    Read More

  • Little Red Riding Hood

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of the Role of Women in British and American Literature

    1818 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.

    Read More

More about Gender Roles In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

Open Document