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Gender in literature
Victorian era views of women
Gender in literature
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Ruined Maid and To His Coy Mistress
Both the “Ruined Maid” and “To His Coy Mistress” provide us with
disturbing images / pictures of love, sex and relationships as I am
about to explain.
The “Ruined Maid” was written by Thomas Hardy in 1866, during the time
when women didn’t have sex before marriage and they were thrown out of
their village for being “ruined”. The public at that point in history
had a very strict view of sex and marriage. They thought that women in
particular should never have sex before marriage and they should have
everything taken off them for being “ruined”. They were looked upon as
a disgrace to society.
The “Ruined Maid” provides us with disturbing images and pictures of
love and relationships because the poem is about a woman who has
become “ruined” which means that she’s had sex before marriage. She’s
turned the meaning of this into a good thing while most people thought
that it was a bad thing because it meant that the woman had no
self-respect and that they were looked upon as prostitutes in a sense.
The poem starts with Melia and a...
In addition the fruit may also act as a disease; normally fruits are healthy, however in the poem it does the opposite by slowly killing the person who digests it. “Tender Lizzie could not bear to watch her sister's cankerous care”, a cankerous sore is one of the primary symptoms of syphilis a sexually transmitted disease. In the poem the men’s roots are in the soil, which is unclean, symbolizing the men having sexual relations with the prostitutes. Women reproductive organs are called “garden”, so prostitutes have mal nourishing soil because they have already been “ruined”. The parliament passed series of contagious diseases acts that provided examinations for prostitutes, since diseases were widespread by 1864. (Orchisse 4.)
31, “The Marriage of Sir Gawain.” At first sight, it seems to tell the story of the putative hero King Arthur and therefore, apparently provides the reader with a usual heroic tale; this, however, turns out to be a fallacy. In fact, the linchpin of the story is the enchanted maid. This plot line technically begins before the ballad actually starts, for the basis for the poem is established by the motif of transformation by a witch; when looking at the entire ballad, it becomes clear that both the maid and her brother's fate met their terrible fates on account of a witch: “[m]y father […] marryed a younge lady / That brought me to this woe. / Shee witched me, being a faire young lady / To the greene forrest to dwell, / And there I must walke in womans liknesse, / Most like a feend of hell. / She witched by brother” (“Sir Gawain” ll. 181-189). The core element of the ballad is obviously the common motif of the wicked stepmother who strives to punish or even get rid of her husband's children due to greed, negative feelings and jealousy towards them (cf. Francus 129). In this case, she does so by enchanting them: she transforms her stepdaughter into an ugly woman and casts a spell on her stepson which forces him to challenge men who cross his way to a duel or to solve his riddle (cf. Child 289): “'[a]nd bring me word what thing it is / That a woman [will] most desire; / This shalbe thy ransome, Arthur,' he sayes, / 'For Ile haue noe other hier.'” (“Sir Gawain” ll. 13-16). The appearance of an evil stepmother possibly represents the threat of being at the mercy of the father's new wife who the children must be subordinate to. This matches the concepts in traditional fairy tales, in which we can find several cases of witches or evil stepmothers: in Cinderella, the stepmother punishes her stepdaughter by treating her as a servant and giving her tasks to perform instead of going to the royal ball
In the tale that Geoffrey Chaucer had wrote, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, a man was described as a Knight. This Knight wasn’t like any normal Knight, he messed up and raped a girl. This is a big mistake, giving a lot of Knights a bad name, and having those that look up to them start to be disappointed in them. Usually the punishment that is given to those that rape, or in general any other crime, is death or time in the slammer, however, the Queen says no because he is a good looking guy. Instead of death, he had find out what women most desire from men. He is given a year and a day to find out, and on the last day, when he nearly had given up all hope, he sees an old woman in a field who makes a deal with him. The old lady gives the Knight a choice: to have an old, but faithful, wife, or to have a drop-dead gorgeous woman, but to have her never to be faithful, before she tells him what the Queen wants to know. The old lady and Knight get married and she wants him to sleep with her, like husbands are supposed to do with their wives. They argue and she gives him the two choices again; to have an ugly wife, but she is faithful. The other choice is to have a drop-dead gorgeous wife, but is never faithful. With this, he learns a lesson, and sufficient punishment.
Although Philips was a married woman, she vehemently opposed marriage, even dedicating several of her poems to this hatred. In “A Married State,” Philips praises the single life, commenting that a married woman “affords but little ease” due to all the burdens she must endure (Philips, line 1). She refers to marriage as a “misfortune,” a disappointment and not everything women had dreamed of (Philips, “A Married State,” line 4). As a royalist, Philips adopts an Elizabethan stance on marriage, believing in female sexual autonomy and independence, instead complying to Puritan beliefs by submitting to marriage. However, marriage is not only a moral obstacle. A footnote from “To Mrs. M.A. at Parting” tells the reader that Mary Aubrey (who the poem is dedicated to) was Philips’ dearest friend from her “Society of Friendship” until she married. Their friendship seems to have suffered because of her marriage, for she was no longer Philips dearest friend. Although the poem does not specifically mention why Aubrey is “parting,” one could infer from the footnote that she parts from the “Society of Friendship” due to her marriage. Philips writes, “There’s none I grieve to leave behind but only only thee,” referring to the pain she feels because of her marriage (Philips, “To Mrs. M.A at Parting,” lines 3-4). Although marriage can lead to the end of friendships, she acknowledges that Aubrey’s “leiger soul in [her] shall lie” until the end of time (Philips, “To Mrs. M.A. at Parting,” line 43). Thus, marriages may physically end friendships, but, as Philips states, the spiritual and emotional connection between two women can never be
In the Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer illustrates the different perspective between men and women on the concept of marriage and love. In The Wife of Bath’s tale, it is shown the woman appreciating marriage and wanting to be able to love a man unconditionally as where in The Miller’s Tale, love isn’t anything, but sex with the man in the story. In accordance with Chaucer, the complication with marriage is that men are consumed by sexual desire and are easily abused by women like The Wife of Bath. As noticed, The Miller’s Tale is all about adultery. “Just like men, the wives have secrets, as does God”, says the Miller. Both have information that the other do not know about that are sacred and better left unsaid.
The female characters are from various social classes and each of them has her own attitudes towards life and love. Lily, the caretaker's daughter is the first character to be introduced to us. In the story she is a representative from the labouring class. Comparily, Gabriel is a well-educated young man who seems to have a bright future. When he arrogantly greets her, "I suppose we'll be going to your wedding one of these fine days with your young man, eh?" (Joyce 123). The girl answers bitterly "The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you" (124). Then Gabriel "color" as if he has made a mistake when Lily becomes upset about the subject of men. This is because he never expects his self-conceited good intention will hurt her feelings so much. Instead of comforting Lily, he "without looking at her", kicks off his goloshes and flicks actively with his muffler at his patent-leather shoes. From this we can see he first chooes to avoid difficulty when the conflict between he and the ...
over his wife as he refers to her as a belonging; it also shows that
She asks him if she was unworthy of having him as a husband, or if she was not mother material. The speaker is disagreeing with modern society’s idea of innocence equalling beauty, as she “counted rosiest apples on the earth / Of far less worth than love” (19-20), meaning that she had met other women that we less equipped to become wives and mothers than she, disagreeing with the fact that simply because she was impure does not mean she could be a bad mother. Again, in “Cousin Kate”, the speaker is ridiculed by society but the man she was once romantically involved with is not. Since she is wooed by him, her master, she indulges in her sexual desires and engages in premarital sex. Due to this, the man deemed the woman a whore as the rest of society did, and cast her aside. Instead of seeking love in this now “unclean thing” (15), he goes to her cousin, who is “good and pure” (25) and “bounds [her] with his ring” (26). The speaker suggests that her “love was true” and cousin Kate’s love “was writ in sand”, implying that her love could be washed away as easily as sand on a beach, therefore it was illegitimate. According to society and the lord, a woman who pretends to love a man is better than a woman who lacks sexual
Returning from Europe, Ann learns she is to marry a man of her father's choosing once they arrive in New York. Refusing, she runs away, although she can't go far on a steam ship. Only as far as the stateroom of a very handsome soldier.
Though they were written thousands of years apart, Sappho’s “Fragment 16” and Edgar Allen Poe’s “Bridal Ballad” each show how infatuation can often be mistaken for true love. In order to do this, each author depicts a character who is tormented by regret. In “Fragment 16”, Sappho points out that power can often become synonymous with beauty. Sappho is quick to disagree with this notion, instead arguing that love trumps power every time when it comes to beauty. To prove her point, Sappho uses the story of Helen to show how a desire for true love can lead Helen to abandon all that she knows. Similarly, “Bridal Ballad” depicts a woman who has made the fatal mistake of assuming that love should come with marriage, not the other way around. By contrasting this woman’s husband with the man she
This genre of sexist ideals can be traced back to ancient biblical eras where it was believed that men were superior to women. By commencing in certain heroic quests, and proving their bravery medieval men were able to reinforce their dominance and masculinity. Women on the other hand seem to play a different role within society. Their roles consist in being adulterers, manipulators and deceivers, whose ultimate goal in life is to bring pleasure to men. Throughout the story there are several meanings concealed within the characters that allude to this male dominant culture. The Gawain poet slyly demonstrates what the consequences are of giving females too much power, by setting up The Lady’s and Morgan La Fay’s image to be that of a malevolent person. He explores several portrayals and roles of women in this male-oriented society, but fails to recognize the roles these men have played and how exactly they shape women. While all of the female characters are objectified and oppressed in one way or another, the author’s depiction is not to blame but overall society’s beliefs of the cultural views of women is. The women within this poem and women throughout the history of our time have been forced to live in a world where society tries to control them. This story is the first of many to try and depict women as men’s demise, and though it gives us insight to the medieval time
Keen found his father in the main pallor were they all hung out. He walked over and sat next to him. “I have a problem, I met someone that is both and neither my Servant or Mate.” River laid down his newspaper coughed and replied. “Could you be any more ambiguous?” Keen glanced down worried. “Her name is Shaylin Madiso, and when I look at her I feel a slight Servant bond, however I also feel some elation, but my heart does not skip a beat when I gaze into her eyes.” Shadow come walking in with two glasses of blood, and almost dropped them upon hearing of a possible female Servant. Shadow quickly handed the glasses to River and Keen then asked. “Did I hear you right? A female Servant” Keen nodded his head, “I hope not because I am very fascinated with her, and her father is coming this weekend to speak with you, Father.” River sat his glass down, “I can only imagine his concerns, we shall welcome them, and until then do not try to mark her as a Mate or claim her as a Servant.”
I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing. I abandoned it and framed a humbler supplication; for change, stimulus: that petition too seemed swept off into vague space; "Then" I cried, half desperate, "Grant me at least a new servitude." ( Bronte 93; ch. 10)
Poem 13 depicts a middle-aged man who steps out on his wife of many years to visit a young prostitute. The poem uses the man's actions to illustrate the internal conflict people face in regards to infidelity, and presents both sides of the conflict without bias. It goes on to provide the consequences of the man's actions, the examples being dying alone and being remembered only for your mistakes, in a gloomy and forlorn tone. The best evidence that the girl is a prostitute, stems from the fact that the age gap between the subjects appears to be very large; the man is described as middle aged, and the girl is “half his age”. Another, less obvious piece of evidence for her being a prostitute is the reference to the girl’s private parts as “darkness”,
My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning and it describes a story of a Duke in Renaissance Italy. The Duke requests to have his ex-duchess painted on a wall in his home and he is taking his time remembering all of traits and as it seems that she was pleasant towards everyone and the duke attempts to seem like he is complementing. On a quick glance through the poem you may think that the duke is a generous and caring person, but reading through it thoroughly, it show how insecure and selfish the duke really is. The duke says “I choose