Story Of The Stone Jia Analysis

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How did the position of women in a household affect the family as a whole? In an ideal household a woman's place is that of silence and subordination, loyal to the parents, husband and sons. In Position of Women in Early China, Meng Mu said, “Now the proper conduct of a woman is found in her skill in preparing the five foods, fermenting wine, caring for her husband’s parents and making clothes and that is all… This is proper etiquette”(O’hara 42). When the women act accordingly, the balance of the family household should be perfect: the daughters hardly seen, the wives toiling away at wifely duties, and the men all kept happy. But when the women in the household are too passionate, the balance of the family becomes skewed and problems tend to arise.
As seen in Shen Fu and The Story of the Stone, the women are quite unlike the ideal women described in the Position of Women in Early China. These …show more content…

Xifeng, who is one of the main characters in the story and the head of the house of Jia, is one such woman. An attractive woman, Xifeng is capable, clever, humorous, conversable and, at times, vicious and cruel. She is not an ideal woman, but she plays the role of a perfect filial daughter-in-law to Lady Wang and Grandmother Jia. As the leader of the household, she rules with an iron fist. She wields remarkable economy as well as political power within the family. In the story, she is a very compelling character, with a multi-faceted personality which can be generous and benevolent to those in need, contrastingly she can be vindictive and cruel. (Cao Xueqin) Xifeng is out of character for a woman of 18th century China. Ideally the head of the house position should have been run by a man, but in The Story of the Stone the men seem to be incapable of anything more than lust and idiocy. With Xifeng as the head of the house, the family is out of balance with the universe, descending into

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