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The role of the woman in literature
The early 20th century and the condition of women
The role of the woman in literature
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Alexander Pereira da Silva
Kenneth Cotrell
English 102
A Dolls House and Triffles: The issue of Women Treatment in the 19th Century
In both plays the issue of women treatment during that period (end of the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century) is widely highlighted.
The “Anthology of American Literature” observes that Susan Glaspell “insisted that the truth about women lives and struggles for identity, equality, and power be seen and heard” (1259). In the Play “Trifles”, the men make a very big mistake by assuming that women’s identity is solely derived from the relationship with the dominant gender, men. Prosecutor Henderson tells Mrs. Peters that, the fact that she is married to a law enforcement officer implies that she is married
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Male dominance is also a major theme (Parker 2). They desire more freedom and personal advancement beyond marriage ties. The author prompts the reader to question both women’s and men’s perspectives on gender issues through tension-filled drama. For example, whereas the women are at the Wrights’ residence to collect some personal effects for Mrs. Wright who has been held in jail, the men are there to fulfill their legal obligations. The women are flexible enough to notice many faults and possible evidence of what may have transpired in the house. The men are too rigid to see anything beyond a disorderly kitchen. In addition, the manner in which the women and men approach the house is different. The women approach the house as a home, but the men approach it has a crime scene. The women’s approach does not only lead them to knowledge, but also enables them to use their knowledge to make decisions. The women do not share their astute impressions and observations because the men do not expect them to make any valuable contribution to the investigation. This is a failure that the women discover and motivates them even more to “find own path in …show more content…
The play questions the many in which husbands view and treat their wives, responds to male attitudes by women and the manner in which these factors shaped relationships in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Torvald wants to make his wife as comfortable as possible. However, in exchange he wishes his wife becomes his little “little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile” (Ibsen 78).
“A Doll’s House” revolves around two individuals living together as husband and wife-Trervold and Nora, but also focuses on family life, work and societal expectations. Because of these expectations, Nora had to give the borrowed money, as a secret for a long time”, even though the money was suppose to be spend to improve his own health. These were time when it was ethically wrong for a wife to borrow without the consent of her husband”. Nora, on the hand, desires to be appraised, not on her obedience, but on what she has done to improve the welfare of family
The women in the play are observant. For example when the men are looking for
In “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell and “A Dollhouse” by Henrik Ibsen, the authors use symbolism to shed light on the way woman were once looked down upon by men. In both plays the woman face similar derisive attitudes from the men in their lives. Women are treated as property, looked down upon and only useful in matters pertaining to cooking, taking care of children, housework and sexual objects. The women’s marriages, socioeconomic and social status are completely different, but both women reach their emotional breaking point, and grow so discontent with their situations they are willing to take drastic actions.
Social gender separations are displayed in the manner that men the view Wright house, where Mr. Wright has been found strangled, as a crime scene, while the women who accompany them clearly view the house as Mrs. Wright’s home. From the beginning the men and the women have are there for two separate reasons —the men, to fulfill their duties as law officials, the women, to prepare some personal items to take to the imprisoned Mrs. Wright. Glaspell exposes the men’s superior attitudes, in that they cannot fathom women to making a contribution to the investigation. They leave them unattended in a crime scene. One must question if this would be the same action if they were men. The county attorney dismisses Mrs. Hale’s defenses of Minnie as “l...
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s bodies of work, Gilman highlights scenarios exploring traditional interrelations between man and woman while subtexting the necessity for a reevaluation of the paradigms governing these relations. In both of Gilman’s short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Turned”, women are victimized, subjected and mistreated. Men controlled and enslaved their wives because they saw them as their property. A marriage was male-dominated and women’s lives were dedicated to welfare of home and family in perseverance of social stability. Women are expected to always be cheerful and good-humored. Respectively, the narrator and Mrs. Marroner are subjugated by their husbands in a society in which a relationship dominated by the male is expected.
In Act I, it seems evident that Nora does not understand the actual value of money but she has an infatuation with luxuries such as expensive Christmas gifts and she justifies this by buying less expensive clothes, which she has confided in Mrs. Linde, her friend. Helmer, immediately labels his wife as a “little spendthrift” (Ibsen, 660). She seems to think that money can be easily borrowed and paid back.
In conclusion, Even though both Ibsen and Glaspell are showing the responsible for giving women insight to what their lives could be as an independent person who is treated as an equal, their plays deals somewhat different sight to deals with the problems of the inequality between men and women. In other words, in A Doll’s House, Nora – like many others – begins to realize that she is more than capable of thinking and living for herself. Unlike Nora, however, in Trifles, Mrs. Wright chose to stay married to her unloving and murder her husband. Moreover, unlike what A Doll’s house portrayed, in Trifles, Glaspell shows the power of women can gain by sticking together and looking out for one another in order to improve their social positions from the behavior of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.
In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles a man has been murdered by his wife, but the men of the town who are in charge of investigating the crime are unable solve the murder mystery through logic and standard criminal procedures. Instead, two women (Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters) who visit the home are able to read a series of clues that the men cannot see because all of the clues are embedded in domestic items that are specific to women. The play at first it seems to be about mystery, but it abruptly grows into a feminist perspective. The play Trifles written by Susan Glaspell can be considered a revolutionary writing in it its advocacy of the feminist movement.
Gender roles seem to be as old as time and have undergone constant, but sometime subtle, revisions throughout generations. Gender roles can be defined as the expectations for the behaviors, duties and attitudes of male and female members of a society, by that society. The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a great example of this. There are clear divisions between genders. The story takes place in the late nineteenth century where a rigid distinction between the domestic role of women and the active working role of men exists (“Sparknotes”). The protagonist and female antagonists of the story exemplify the women of their time; trapped in a submissive, controlled, and isolated domestic sphere, where they are treated as fragile and unstable children while the men dominate the public working sphere.
In today’s society, we generally view upon everyone as equal; however this view did not exist for decades. Throughout history, there were many instances showing that men dominated women and women were often seen as left with less important or treated as an inferior being. Women were often expected to be good mothers to their children as well as caretakers to their husband. After reading the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, I was able to grasp the important facts about social views of women and their domestic roles. Glaspell’s play depicts the gender inequality which exists in the society, drawing significant attention to the societal values of women at that time. Although women’s roles are treated as unimportant, she depicts women’s devotion that lies with each other and emphasizes how they survive the patriarchal society.
Women have lived for generations being treated as nothing more than simple-minded creatures who were able to do little more than take care of their husbands and maintain a home, but that idea is dangerous. The years of abusing women by withholding their rights, belittling them, and keeping them in the home was sometimes detrimental to not only the female sex, but to the males sex as well. Susan Glaspell is the author of the short play “Trifle” , in which Mrs. Wright, the housewife of a local farmer, is being investigated for the murder of her husband. As a local county attorney, sheriff, and male neighbor scour the house for motive and proof that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, the men spend much of their time criticizing the housekeeping skills of Mrs. Wright and belittling every woman in the play for their simplicity. Their assumptions about the female sex, prevents them from seeing the crime scene for what it really was. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, and Mrs. Hale, the neighbor man’s wife, are able to relate in many ways to the loneliness and loss of self that Mrs. Wright felt while spending her days alone tending to her home and husband.
After reading “The Doll House” and “Trifles”, the idea of females being inferior to men is portrayed. Both plays, are in a much older time period. But from a feminist view, females are still sometimes given the doubtful role in today’s society. Both plays, are very different, but much alike in the ways the females are treated, never taken seriously, nor are they appreciated.
According to the Merriam -Webster Online Dictionary an assumption is a belief that something is true or a fact or statement that is taken for granted. Susan Glaspell wrote "Trifles" to demonstrate the male assumption that women are insignificant members in a male dominated society. Because the men underestimate them, the women are able to prove they are not insignificant. The improper assumptions by men toward women can have dire consequences, as demonstrated in Glaspell's world. Combating these narcissistic assumptions displayed by men can result in a unity among women that can overcome any male caused disrespect and oppression.
As soon as the county attorney, the sheriff, his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Hale walk into the Wrights house there is a clear division of power between the men and the women. The men walked in with harsh faces ready to get the job done, while the women plan on just sitting in the kitchen by the fire so that they can stay warm. The men surpass the kitchen on the way to the bedroom which is where Mr. Hale found Mr. Wrights dead body. The sheriff even made a comment saying: “Nothing here but kitchen things” (1414). While he was disrespectfully kicking around pots and pans and making comments criticizing Mrs. Wrights housekeeping sills. These remarks set the stage for the rest of the story and introduce to the readers the roles that women in society at this time were supposed to live by.
Nora was extremely ecstatic when she brought up her loan of four thousand, eight hundred kroner. She even describes the loan as something she is “proud and happy about” (1.316). Not only was Torvald’s wish of having no debt defied by Nora’s own action, but she has a sense of pride and believes that her actions were justified without any input from Torvald. Nora taking out the loan was her first step in approaching maturity and independence, and it instilled in Nora’s mind a need for an identity different from Torvald’s.
Henrik Ibsen paints a sad picture of the sacrificial role of women throughout all social economical classes in his play “A Doll House”. The story is set in the late 19th century and all minor female characters had to overcome adversity to the expense of love, family and self-realization, in order to lead a comfortable life. While the main female protagonist Nora struggles with her increasingly troubled marriage, she soon realizes, she needs to change her life to be happy as the play climaxes. Her journey to self-discovery is achieved by the threat of her past crime and her oppressing husband, Torvald and the society he represents. The minor female characters exemplifying Nora’s ultimate sacrifice.