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Females in 20th century literature
Women in a patriarchal society
Females in 20th century literature
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The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) and “The Chrysanthemums (1937) are two famous articles about feminist. The woman in both of two stories are trapped in their marriage and in male-donated society. However, the different ends of those stories reflect author’s point of view about woman’s role in society.
The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper was trapped in her marriage and her husband orders. Under the name “helping” her, John - her husband - control and treat her like a child. As a part of resting cure, she is forbidden to think about her condition: “I sometimes fancy…about the house.” Her thoughts are interrupted by John’s instructions, everything in her mind is her husband’s voice which telling her what she should think. And she is forced to hide
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The woman in this story is Elisa who is describe as an attractive, eager, powerful, energetic woman. She is professional in her job however her life is unsatisfying because she lives in a society which is gender roles prohibit women from their potential and full development. There is no chance for intelligent woman like. She really like her job “ Oh, those are…anybody around here”, she says with “the irritation and resistance melted” in her face. She is gifted at growing plants however she is not allowed to make business deals, only her husband can decide it. The only thing Elisa can do is “working in her flower garden, looked down across the yard and saw”. She stays far away from her husband and the strangers and receives the information of the business deal indirectly through her husband. Moreover, her husband also limit her ability to work. When Elisa suggests that she wants to “work out in the orchard” because she has a gift with planting, Henry recognizes this fact too but he denies her “Well, it sure works with flowers”. Again, the male donated society limits her development.
Not only lacking of chances in career, Elisa also lacking of sexual fulfillment. It leads her to act in irrational ways as “kneeling there,…like a fawning dog”. Because of her frustrated desires, her actions and her language when she talks to the tinker – a complete stranger - are nearly pornographic. It reveals the relationship
The narrator, a new mother, is revoked of her freedom to live a free life and denied the fact that she is “sick”, perhaps with postpartum depression, by her husband, a physician, who believes whatever sorrows she is feeling now will pass over soon. The problematic part of this narrative is that this woman is not only kept isolated in a room she wishes to have nothing to do with, but her creative expression is revoked by her husband as we can see when she writes: “there comes John, and I must put this away, - he hates to have me write a word (Gilman,
Her lionhearted clothes reflected her valiant and strong attitude. However – Elisa Allen hid her true feelings. She was deceitful in interpersonal communication. Her tongue spilled bittersweet black smut like that of industrialized coal engines. However – it was compassionate, her concern and subtle behavior. A girl screaming to escape maiden life, but only knew it was disrupt order. “Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. “The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.” Verily, she had the heart of a lion and the appearance of a virgin.
... The women had no choice but to go along with the men’s choices. Nineteenth century women did not have much of a role in society, and it was meant to stay that way. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is classified as a feminist text because it portrays the desire for women to escape the society that has neglected them for so many years. Works Cited Ford, Karen.
The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression. " In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
Restraints are set by parents on their children to aid with the developmental process and help with the maturity level. Restrictions and the ability to control exist in our society and our lives. We encounter restraints daily: job, doors, people, and the most frequently used and arduous become intangible. In the following stories tangible and intangible scenarios are presented. Autonomy, desires, and talents spurned by the husbands in John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums and Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The authors share views regarding a similar theme of male domination and imprisonment. “The Yellow Wallpaper” involves the treatment of a depressed woman who is driven insane in a male imposed detention in her own room. On the other hand, Elisa Allen in the “The Chrysanthemums” struggles internally to find her place in a fully male dominated society with definite gender roles. The mirror-like situations bring upon a different reaction for both the women in different ways. The importance of symbolism, control from their husbands, and the lack of a healthy marriage will be discussed in this paper in two stories.
Elisa Allen is a thirty-five-year-old woman who lives on a ranch in the Salinas Valley with her husband Henry. She is "lean and strong," and wears shapeless, functional clothes (Steinbeck 203). The couple has no children, no pets, no near neighbors, and Henry is busy doing chores on the ranch throughout the day. Elisa fills her hours by vigorously cleaning the ''hard-swept looking little house, with hard-polished windows,'' and by tending her flower garden (204). She has ''a gift'' for growing things, especially her chrysanthemums, and she is proud of it (204).
Women have been mistreated, enchained and dominated by men for most part of the human history. Until the second half of the twentieth century, there was great inequality between the social and economic conditions of men and women (Pearson Education). The battle for women's emancipation, however, had started in 1848 by the first women's rights convention, which was led by some remarkable and brave women (Pearson Education). One of the most notable feminists of that period was the writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was also one of the most influential feminists who felt strongly about and spoke frequently on the nineteenth-century lives for women. Her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" characterizes the condition of women of the nineteenth century through the main character’s life and actions in the text. It is considered to be one of the most influential pieces because of its realism and prime examples of treatment of women in that time. This essay analyzes issues the protagonist goes through while she is trying to break the element of barter from her marriage and love with her husband. This relationship status was very common between nineteenth-century women and their husbands.
Elisa Allen embodies the image of a simple woman eager to escape the confines of a gender defined role in society. Readers are introduced to Elisa as a 35 year old, strong woman living with her husband, Henry, on a ranch in Salinas Valley (Steinbeck 460). Elisa’s masculinity is highlighted from the attire she is wearing to the strength in her hands. Henry affirms that Elisa is capable in her endeavors when he states, “you’ve got a gift with things,” in regards to her garden (Steinbeck 460). Even though Elisa is delighted at Henry’s suggestion that she work in the orchard, the idea does not seem to get a second thought (Steinbeck 460). The idea of a woman working in the orchard is dismissed on the premise that the orchard is not a woman’s place. In Elisa’s account with the man in the wagon, her sexuality exudes in her graphic explanation of picking off the flower buds and being under the stars, to the point that she almost physically touches the man (Steinbeck 463). Her desire would go unsatisfied, as it would not be appropriate for her to act on her impulse. Elisa is searching for fulfillment in life but finds her role to be trivial. Intrigued by the idea of traveling, as the gentleman in the wagon does, she states, “It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things.” She is shot down as the man replies, “It ain’t the right kind of a life for a woman” (Steinbeck 464). This conversation clearly depicts the prevalent inequality of the sexes. Furthermore, once the man leaves in the caravan Elisa cements her urge for something more, looking out at the horizon whispering, “That’s a bright direction. There’s a glowing there” (Steinbeck 464-465).
When Elisa’s husband Henry comes over and compliments her garden and ability to grow things, Elisa is smug with him and very proud of her skill with the flowers. Her "green thumb" makes her an equal in her own eyes. When Elisa’s husband asks her if she would like to go to dinner, her feminine side comes out. She is excited to go eat at a restaurant and states that she would much rather go to the movies than go see the fights, she "wouldn’t like the fight’s" at all (paragraph 21). Elisa is taken aback by her own submissiveness and quickly becomes preoccupied with her flowers as soon as her husband leaves.
The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening were two works written during the Age of Expression. The entire country was going through an era of Reconstruction; politically, socially, culturally and econmically . The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening are feminist works aimed at the psychological, social, and cultural injustices during the era. According to Mizruchi, “ Cosmopolitanism aroused dis-ease: depression and disaection were prevalent in a society whose pace and variety seemed relentless. Yet the same circumstances also instilled hope. For it was widely recognized that the burgeoning heterogeneity of a newly global America would be a source of enduring vitality.”(Mizruchi, 2008) The wives portrayed in these works defeated the attitudes of their husbands during this patriarchal culture.
Her tense mind is then further pushed towards insanity by her husband, John. As one of the few characters in the story, John plays a pivotal role in the regression of the narrator’s mind. Again, the narrator uses the wallpaper to convey her emotions. Just as the shapes in the wallpaper become clearer to the narrator, in her mind, she is having the epiphany that John is in control of her.
The author describes the chrysanthemums as “too small and easy for her energy” and Elisa herself boasts of her strength when Henry tries to compliment her before their outing. In fact, Steinbeck’s use of language is very important in “The Chrysanthemums”, and the constrained, repetitive diction parallels the constricted nature of Elisa’s life on the isolated ranch. Ironically, Elisa loses her new-found confidence after realizing that the tinker had taken advantage of her, and cries “weakly like an old woman”, in stark contrast to her oft-mentioned strength and vigour, which are traits rarely attributed to women. Throughout the story, Elisa veils her traditional femininity under masculine qualities and
The stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Trifle” both depict suppressed female roles in society during the late 19th century. While both contain strong symbols of feminism the authors chose to go about presenting them differently. Both hammered on the topics that once a woman was married they seemed to lose all freedom. As well as both showing that women had extremely set roles in society.
“The Chrysanthemums” is a short story about a woman named Elisa and her passion for her garden. As a woman, she is expected to be the caretaker of the home, the family garden, and her husband. Elisa John Steinbeck's story illustrates how the protagonist looks for fulfillment in others because of her lack of freedom in her own life. Elisa has many different hidden symbols portrayed in the story to symbolize her femininity and sexuality. One distinct example of symbolism is Elisa caring for the flowers as though they are her children show a portrayal of her femininity, but her masculine image is also shown by her "hard-swept and hard-polished" home.
Through the conversation between Elisa and her husband, I can also find the gender inequality. Her husband gives a compliment about Elisa’s ability that makes anything in the ground grow bigger. He suggests that Elisa should work out in the orchard, and make apples bigger. I feel that Elisa’s husband definitely does not care why she works so hard in raising chrysanthemums. In the plot, the chrysanthemum is described as Elisa’s beauty.