Since time immemorial, women have borne the brunt of abuse in relationships. Katherine Minola’s monologue from act four, scene three of William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, as well as Brooke Axtell’s 2015 Grammy speech, explore this same topic in different ways. Although both are personal narratives about abusive relationships, the context of broader awareness of the narrators’ experiences, as well as a larger cultural context, inform the similarities as well as differences between these two speeches. Perhaps the most striking similarity between these narratives is their subject matter: that of a personal story about a toxic relationship experienced by the narrator. Both narrate their experiences and related emotions to the audience, specifically regarding abuse they’ve faced at the hands of their partner. Katherine talks about Petruchio’s manipulation of her by keeping her from eating and sleeping, a tactic meant to keep her weak and docile, and its effectiveness. Likewise, Axtell talks about the effectiveness of her partner’s abuse, and how his manipulations “used her empathy against her” by making her sympathise with him (Ward). …show more content…
Both women have different levels of distance from the situations; giving them different abilities to see the bigger picture. Katherine is experiencing the abuse in real time and expresses that in her confusion. She knows what is happening but doesn’t know why it is or how to deal with it. Axtell, on the other hand, is looking at her relationship in the past tense, and has had time to look at it from an analytical and self aware perspective. When Axtell says, “My compassion was incomplete because it did not include me,” this demonstrates the ability to recognize what she was feeling and why she reacted the way she did that results from time and distance from the situation
“Straining his eyes, he saw the lean figure of General Zaroff. Then... everything went dark. Maggie woke up in her bed. “Finally woke up from that nightmare. Man… I miss my brother. Who was that person that my brother wanted to kill?” she looks at the clock and its 9:15am “Crap I’m late for work!” Maggie got in her car and drove to the hospital for work.
I am the wife of an innocent dead man. I raised three without a father. People see us as less. We are the Robinson, and me I’m Helen Robinson. Living in the deep south in the 1930’s wineries. The Depression affected most everyone in Maycomb except for us. All of the blacks in the county live in one area outside of the landfill. I lived on the edge of farm which grows acres of cotton every year. We were a poor family that sharecropped. There weren't many people in Maycomb who treated us kindly except for Mr. Link Deas and the Finches. One year the white trash family accused my Tom for a serious crime that he never did. For months we never saw him due to the polices never let blacks and women in. The Finches and neighbours came and helped during
So what can go wrong with a long so strong, a hold you so tight, a night so calm
Far back, in the midst of a time when the world was very young, there lived a princess named Lucille and a bunny named Fluffy. Lucille was a beautiful girl with chocolate brown hair, and eyes as blue as the sweet summer sky. Fluffy was as white as snowflakes and as soft as clouds. He offered plenty of razzmatazz but little manners. They lived together in a tall castle, covered in green vines and grey cobblestone, hidden in the dense forest filled with animals and nature.
The response to abuse has metamorphosed drastically from Janie’s time to present day. During the days of the early 20th century in which the novel was set, spousal abuse was accepted and even promoted in some cases. Astonishingly, when Tea talks with the men about beating Janie the men respect Tea Cake and admire the way Janie stays quiet during the ordeal saying, “wouldn’t Ah love tuh whip a tender woman lak Janie” (Hurston 148). They ignore the fact that Tea Cake beats her just to show other people that he is in charge; he beats her because of his own insecurities. In Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple it is shown that the men as well as the women encouraged spousal abuse. When Harpo seeks advice on how to deal with Sophia it is Celie, another woman, who advises him to beat her. Although spousal abuse still occurs in many households today, it occurs in secrecy because there are laws that have been erected to protect against this type of abuse, and the punishment for this crime is harsh. Today, if a man hits a woman he is less of a man and a disgrace, not praised and admired as in the past.
In both of these stories there are certain characteristics of females that are the same, they are inner strength, obedience, honor and respect, the good of the family is better than the good of the individual.
I, Eliza Wishart am here today to respond to everyone’s confusion over my own house being alit on fire. Up until now I have felt no need at all to confirm or deny any of the accusations or rumours made. However, I am here today to clear my conscious and help the town of Corrigan understand what happened behind the scenes at the disastrous time my sister, Laura Wishart, was found dead and why my house was set a flame.
In Queen’s “Being Emotionally Abuse: A Phenomenological Study of Adult Women’s Experience of Emotionally Abusive Intimate Partner Relationship”, she focused on a total of 15 women, who have been emotionally abused from an intimate partner relationship and wanted the women to describe, “What is it like to live the life of a woman who is emotionally abused by her intimate partner?” When experiencing emotional abuse, it can be expressed as “not easily detected; it is non-transparent in that there are no physical markers.” (Bornstein 2007, Campbell 2000). The. The emotional abuse can be very hurtful towards the women at times because while in the cycle of the relationship, the woman cannot tell when something bad or good will happen.
Spousal Abuse in today’s society is extremely prevalent. All across the world, cases of spousal and domestic abuse are happening. In Khaled Hosseni’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, Spousal abuse plays an imperative role as development to the character’s emotions.
“But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything seem—unimportant” (Williams 70). These words, spoken by Stella Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's 1940s, American play, A Streetcar Named Desire, demonstrate Stella’s case of abused woman syndrome. Williams carefully constructs Stella’s character to reflect the idea of male dominance which was especially prevalent during the time period. Scientifically, battered woman syndrome is defined as a pattern of psychological and behavioral symptoms found in women living in abusive relationships as a result of cumulative abuse: physically, emotionally, sexual, or otherwise. Throughout the play, Stella and Stanley’s marriage proves incredibly toxic and
I’m Freda Josephine Baker born to Carrie McDonald and Eddie Carson on June 3rd, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri, but most of you may know me as Josephine Baker. At the age of 12 I dropped out of school to become an entertainer, yes yes, I remember it like it was yesterday, I was young and ready to become a star. I grew up cleaning houses and babysitting for white families, and they always reminded me “be sure not to kiss the baby”. When I was 13, I got a waitressing job at the Chauffeur’s Club, which was where I met my first husband, our marriage was very brief; I had never hesitated to leave anyone, never depended on any man for anything, that’s for sure.
In “Briar Rose,” Anne Sexton utilizes a classic fairy tale to inform the reader of her own childhood experiences with sexual abuse. Instead of simply retelling the story, she puts a new twist on it and transforms it into an elaborate metaphor: Sexton is the Briar Rose from her own story. Not so much a cry for help as a plea for awareness, Sexton uses carefully crafted words to depict Briar Rose’s and her own struggle to expose the perpetrator of sexual abuse. She also uses her adaptation of the story to address how cultures view claims of sexual violence (particularly incest), marriage, and the relationship between genders.
Throughout centuries, countries, and cultures women have experienced a form of domestic abuse. Whether it be verbal or physical doesn't make one any less harmful, abhorrent, or excusable than the other. My inquisitiveness about domestic abuse branches from A Streetcar Named Desire, a playwright written by Tennessee Williams, which depicts the abusive relationship of that of Stella Kowalski and Stanley Kowalski's marriage. Although the playwright was published in 1947 and women didn't have equal rights to men during that time period, it doesn't change the fact that women in today's society are still treated less than equal to their dangerous and abusive partners. Women all around the world experience domestic abuse similar to that of Stella
In Alice Wallace’s novel characters, such as Celie, Nettie, or Sofia, along with others deal with phycological, physical, and emotional abuse in their marriage lives or lives in general contributing to their negative or aloof outlook of life. For example, Celie’s accustomed reaction to abuse leads her to suggest to Harpo that he should beat Nettie, however, this from of behaviour is condemned in society and can lead to legality issues. The societal general consensus view of domestic abuse in marriage is condemned yet Alice Wallace challenges our notions of this form of behaviour by reflecting its occurrence in peoples’ lives in her novel. The constant occurrence of abuse in characters lives in “The Colour Purple” goes against our concept of marriage life, however, is important to understand that it occurs more so then taboo or criminal activity and is an existing issue that people may deal with commonly today.
There are many different forms of abuse and many people do not realize. Verbal abuse is the use of words to attack, hurt or injure someone, or to gain power and control over them, or to persuade someone to believe something that is untrue and harmful. Abuse does not just occur with men to women, though this paper is going to focus on it. Abuse is about control and the fear of losing it. The abuser may fear not being “good enough” and or meeting others expectations. He/she may attempt to make their victim feel and believe similar things about him/her self. Abusers exploit, lie, insult, demean, ignore (the "silent treatment"), manipulate, and control. There are a million ways to abuse, directly and indirectly.