The Stereotypical Portrayal of Gender in Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood
A large number of Margaret Atwood’s works convey images of women who are portrayed as inferior. Atwood specifically focused on images of women in terms of their relationships with men as well as their representation in the society. One of Atwood’s short stories, Lusus Naturae, one of nine tales in the collection The Stone Mattress, holds a stereotypical portrayal of women being rejected by their surrounding environment in addition to their inferiority in economical and societal matters. The main protagonist of Atwood’s Lusus Naturae clearly experiences the problem of gender inequality in both direct and indirect encounters.
In the opening scenes of Lusus Naturae, the
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protagonist is introduced as an unfortunate existence of her family. It is clear to the readers that she is going through the process of metamorphosis by the descriptions of “[her] yellow eyes, [her] pink teeth, [her] red fingernails,” as well as her “long dark hair that was sprouting on [her] chest and arms” (Atwood 118). As the members of the protagonist’s family try to come up with a solution that will do the best for the family as a whole, each and every one of them contribute their opinions to the conclusion which “decided that [the protagonist] should die” (Atwood 119). This death of the protagonist denotes her psychological death in her neighborhood. To result in such conclusion, first, the female characters introduce ideas that are immensely subjective and emotional. The grandmother’s action is very superstitious in the way that she put the protagonist’s head “under the water in which the dirty clothes were soaking, praying while she did it” (Atwood 118). This specific scene illustrates the irrational and mythical judgment of the grandmother that would help the protagonist get rid of “the demon” (Atwood 118). Adding on, the protagonist’s sister scapegoats the protagonist in relation to the delayal in her marriage. In fact, her sister believes that the protagonist is the main drawback that make men avoid her family in general. “No one will marry me if they find out,” she thought (Atwood 119). Again, this female character also indicates emotional feelings towards the protagonist. Finally, the mother seems to be putting in a lot of effort for the recovery of the protagonist. The mother “would bring [the protagonist her] potatoes and bread, and [her] cup of blood” after the fake death of the protagonist (Atwood 121). However, as time goes, the protagonist realizes that the mother was only doing her favors as a duty but not with her heart. But on the outside, the mother still pretended to care for the protagonist just because she was her mother. In such perspective, all the female characters behaved extremely emotionally towards the existence of the protagonist. On the other hand, the father and the doctor, the male characters, maintain their image of “rational” men being manly at all times.
While the female characters put up a conclusion based on their emotions and sentiments, the doctor informs that the protagonist is going through “a disease” “which had some Ps and Rs in it and meant nothing to [the female characters]” (Atwood 118). The father adds on to note that “it was after at case of measles, when she was seven” to “claim he was a rational man” (Atwood 118). Over the female characters, the male characters are displayed as more knowledgeable, logical, and reasonable through their words and …show more content…
actions. Moreover, the specific sex scene that the protagonist witnesses clearly discusses the unequal features of women and men found in daily lives. While the protagonist strays in the dusk, she encounters “two people approaching, from opposite sides” (Atwood 123). The first description that the protagonist mentions is about the the man’s “clothing [that] was better than hers” (Atwood 123). The overall representation of the man having shoes and the woman without it obviously signifies the financial as well as the materialistic gap between gender. After their affair, “the young man [falls] asleep” in the open area where “the meadow meets the trees (Atwood 123, 124). While the man is relaxed in his zone, the woman “carefully” walks away (Atwood 124). This scene indirectly represents how the woman is more careful about others' attention and are bearing more risks, while the man is comfortable that he can fall asleep even in the most public area. Furthermore, other stories of Atwood also illustrate women as those who are subordinate to men and have to follow men’s orders.
Stone Mattress, discusses the inferiority of women again. The protagonist Verna had "been followed home from school by groups of leering boys, hotting and calling out to her" (Atwood 223). The female character is constantly full of anxiety and fear against the dreadful psychological pain that the male character Bob had given her in the past. Verna’s childhood trauma regarding her undesired sexual relationship with Bob led Verna into an unrecoverable wound. Consequently, Verna is also aware of how women should look behave as well as how they might be consumed in the eyes of
men. Finally, in another piece by Atwood, Torching The Dusties, Wilma is represented as a typical feminine character that is dependent on the male character, Tobias. Tobias mentions that “it is more difficult to seduce a stupid woman than an intelligent one because stupid women could not understand innuendo or even connect cause with effect” (Atwood, 243). Wilma challenges his words by saying “is he saying that she’s intelligent, and therefore a quick lay? (Atwood 243). The description of women being consumed as a sexual image in Torching The Dusties also contribute to the stereotypical image of women in the society in relation to the young woman that appears in Lusus Naturae. Thus, most of the male characters that appear in Margaret Atwood’s short stories are described to be more reasonable and justified as “rational” and superior men. In contrast to these characters in authorities, female characters are viewed as dependent and emotional. This representation of women and men are visible very repetitively in Atwood’s works, almost to the point that all the male characters seem like different forms of the same character. Concerning the fact that the main protagonist of Lusus Naturae does not even have her own name to be called at, she is persistently being ignored and disregarded as her existence as a non-male character. The “rational” men and “careful” women should both be recognized as independent individuals but not one as superior and the other as the inferior (Atwood 118,124).
Nora and Mrs. Wright’s social standing when compared to the men in each play is inferior. Both works expose their respective male characters’ sexist view of women diminishing the women’s social standing. Each work features egotistical men who have a severely inflated view of their self-worth when compared to their female counterparts. The men’s actions and words indicate they believe women are not capable of thinking intelligently. This is demonstrated in “Trifles” when Mr. Hale makes the statement about women only worrying about mere trifles. It is also apparent in “A Dollhouse” when Torvalds thinks his wife is not capable of thinking with any complexity (Mazur 17). Another common attribute is of the women’s social standing is displayed as both women finally get tired of feeling like second class citizens and stand up to the repressive people in the women’s lives (Mulry 294). Although both women share much in common in their social standing there subtle differences. Torvald’s sexist view of Nora is more on a personal level in “A Dollhouse” while the male characters’ sexist views in “Trifles” seem to be more of a social view that women are not very smart and their opinions are of little value. This attitude is apparent in “Trifles” as Mr. Hale and Mr. Henderson’s comments about Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping (Mulry 293). As the women in both works reach their emotional
How does one compare the life of women to men in late nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century America? In this time the rights of women were progressing in the United States and there were two important authors, Kate Chopin and John Steinbeck. These authors may have shown the readers a glimpse of the inner sentiments of women in that time. They both wrote a fictitious story about women’s restraints by a masculine driven society that may have some realism to what women’s inequities may have been. The trials of the protagonists in both narratives are distinctive in many ways, only similar when it totals the macho goaded culture of that time. Even so, In Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing we hold two unlike fictional characters in two very different short stories similar to Elisa Allen in the “Chrysanthemums” and Mrs. Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour”, that have unusual struggles that came from the same sort of antagonist.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.
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.
Unrealistically, the narrator believes that she would be of use to her father more and more as she got older. However, as she grows older, the difference between boys and girls becomes more clear and conflicting to her.
The dialogue a narrator uses with characters in a short story reflects on how the story is being understood by the reader. A character’s dialogue is assumed to be controlled by the author, and then the reader comprehends the dialogue through different points of view in which is told by a narrator. Which point of view the author uses can change how the reader may understand the story. Understanding a story is not just based off the ability to comprehend the plot, setting, characters, and theme. But importantly, understanding what point of view the narrator is in and whether the narrator has dialogue with characters within the story is important. The short story “Lusus Naturae”, written by Margaret Atwood, it’s a short story told by a first person narrator who is a main character in the story but has very minimum dialogue with the other characters. Another short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin, is
...ith her charismatic brother who constantly looks out for her, supports her and believes in her when no one else does. This affects her attitude towards men positively. Years later, however, her mother’s boyfriend molests and rapes her thus changing her perspective of men or rather widening her understanding of them. She sees Mr. Freeman as a pedophile that he actually is. Nonetheless, while on the verge of adulthood, she develops curiosity towards men and at some point considers them as objects for her pleasure. She also grows to love and respect her mother’s husband to the point of trusting him while her mother is away on business.
Margaret Atwood’s novel, Alias Grace, nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel, depicts a young 16 year old girl who is found guilty of murdering her employer and his lover in conspiracy with James McDerrmott. James McDermott is put to death by hanging, but Grace is brought to prison because she is of the “weaker sex.” This is a reflection of the construction of femininity and masculinity of the mid and late nineteenth century. A social issue of the Victorian age was women being treated as subordinate to men. Queen Victoria says, “Victorian ideology of gender rested on the belief that women were both physically and intellectually the inferior sex”(YILDIRIM). Women were seen as highly susceptible to becoming mentally ill because of this belief. Women were subject to only be “housewives.” The novel, Alias Grace, accurately shows the construction of this gender identity through society, sexuality, and emotion while challenging it through Grace’s mother and Mrs. Humphrey.
The Handmaid's Tale presents an extreme example of sexism and misogyny by featuring the complete objectification of women in the society of Gilead. Yet by also highlighting the mistreatment of women in the cultures that precede and follow the Gileadean era, Margaret Atwood is suggesting that sexism and misogyny are deeply embedded in any society and that serious and deliberate attention must be given to these forms of discrimination in order to eliminate them.
In order for us to deal with how a consideration of femininity can effect our understanding of a literary text, we must also be able to grasp the notion of `feminism' and `Feminist Literary Theory'. A dictionary definition of `feminism' is: `the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes.' Although this leans towards feminism in the historical sense of the word, it still provides the grounds, or foundations, from which feminist literary theories were created. Feminists argue against the stereotyping and social construction of female norms, seeing them as created by men in order to establish their own sense of power. It is thought that while males suggest that gender is sex and not actually a construct, the female role will become much more passive, stereotyped and controlled.
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
Traditionally, women have been subservient to men; they are still often subjugated, treated as objects, and are valued for their ability to reproduce. Since the beginning of society dating back to the Paleolithic age, in the hunter-gatherer societal system, men generally hunted and provided for the family, while the women gathered fruit and raised children at home. This brand of society has in a way persisted even until today; often women will stay at home and raise children while the man would be the one to “hunt,” or in today’s context, work and provide for the family. This puts the woman in a subordinate position as they are dependent on the man, often leading to women being treated as objects. These stereotypes contribute to the development of Lispector’s works.
Katherine Mansfield belongs to a group of female authors that have used their financial resources and social standing to critique the patriarchal status quo. Like Virginia Woolf, Mansfield was socioeconomically privileged enough to write influential texts that have been deemed as ‘proto-feminist’ before the initial feminist movements. The progressive era in which Mansfield writes proves to be especially problematic because, “[w]hile the Modernist tradition typically undermined middle-class values, women … did not have the recognized rights necessary to fully embrace the liberation from the[se] values” (Martin 69). Her short stories emphasized particular facets of female oppression, ranging from gendered social inequality to economic classism, and it is apparent that “[p]oor or rich, single or married, Mansfield’s women characters are all victims of their society” (Aihong 101). Mansfield’s short stories, “The Garden Party” and “Miss Brill”, represent the feminist struggle to identify traditional patriarchy as an inherent caste system in modernity. This notion is exemplified through the social bonds women create, the naïve innocence associated with the upper classes, and the purposeful dehumanization of women through oppressive patriarchal methods. By examining the female characters in “The Garden Party” and “Miss Brill”, it is evident that their relationships with other characters and themselves notify the reader of their encultured classist preconceptions, which is beneficial to analyze before discussing the sources of oppression.
She then talks about great men such as Mussolini, Pope, Napoleon and Goethe and how they viewed women. After discovering their opinions, the narrator is bewildered at her findings. These men are praised for their philosophies and wisdom, yet they all view women as being inferior. The narrator is pointing towards the fact that these men in reality are quite ignorant. During th...
“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.