“A woman wearing furs, then,” cried Wanda, “is nothing else than a large cat…” (35).
Wanda then, in Sacher-Masoch’s “Venus in Furs”, does remarkably well in becoming a domesticated cat. Readers are presented with a sadomasochistic relationship. Yet this is not a relationship in which the narrator is dominated and mistreated by a powerful widow. By peeling off the masculine voice in the novella, the reader realizes that it is not Severin who is victimized, but Wanda herself. She is subjugated and oppressed by a highly patriarchal world, she is controlled by three men; her dead husband, her lover, and most of all, by her slave.
Like the Venus Severin dreams of, Wanda is slowly sculpted and molded into a statuette. Her primary use is similar to that of a domestic cat, namely, to please her owner. This is strikingly depicted through Sacher-Masoch’s association of women with light and greenery. The statue of Venus’ natural surroundings is described as a “wilderness”, a “meadow” where “deer graze peacefully”, and Wanda herself resides in a private sphere of “overgrown”, “green-climbing plants”(11). The use of adjectives which suggest calm, implies a sense of freedom, bountifulness and growth. Yet Severin sees Venus come alive at night, in “moonlight”(15); a type of light which distorts perceptions of people, a surrealistic atmosphere of deception and disguise, an oppressive light that forces Wanda to conceal her true self in order to become the dominatrix Severin desires.
Similarly, Wanda’s “light morning gown”(16), (a garment which suggests fluidity of movement) is replaced, at the suggestion of Severin, with furs. The furs become a metaphor of Severin’s expectations of women and they become a repressive force in Wanda’s life tha...
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...tive presents a pure, confessional tone, similar to that of the woman at the beginning of the narrative. “I loved you deeply” she says, a love that was “stifled…by your fantastic devotion and your insane passion” (120). Her language is powerful as she expresses her subjugation, and her choice of adjectives when describing Severin’s love conveys her imprisonment in a fantasy that conflicted with her internal self.
Thus through Sacher-Masoch’s presentation and style, it is easy for readers to ignore Wanda’s fight against the ideal forced on her by her ‘slave’, it is easy to ignore the fact that in order to express her love for Severin she must become the goddess he idealizes. Indeed, it is easy for her lines, “have you finished with your ideal now? Are you satisfied with me?” (112) to dissipate under the prejudiced, masculine voice of the self-interested narrator.
The readers are apt to feel confused in the contrasting ways the woman in this poem has been depicted. The lady described in the poem leads to contrasting lives during the day and night. She is a normal girl in her Cadillac in the day while in her pink Mustang she is a prostitute driving on highways in the night. In the poem the imagery of body recurs frequently as “moving in the dust” and “every time she is touched”. The reference to woman’s body could possibly be the metaphor for the derogatory ways women’s labor, especially the physical labor is represented. The contrast between day and night possibly highlights the two contrasting ways the women are represented in society.
The submission of women is demonstrated in the text through the symbolic colors of the couple’s bedroom. Indeed, as the young woman’s husband is asleep, the wife remains wide-awake, trying her best to provide the man with comfort, while enjoying her newlywed life. As she opens her eyes to contemplate “the blue of the brand-new curtains, instead of the apricot-pink through which the first light of day [filters] into the room where she [has]
The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
Syke taunts her with his bullwhip, rolls around laughing in mirth at her fear, and continuously kicks the piles of clothing she is working on. Syke, overbearing and dominating, paints a startling portrait of sexist masculinity. He stands in clear contrast to the ways in which Delia is described in his presence: her “thin, stooped shoulders” sag deeper and deeper. In all his masculine, angry bravado, Delia is painted as his opposite, a portrait of meek servitude.
The influential roles of women in the story also have important effects on the whole poem. It is them that press the senses of love, family care, devotion, and other ethical attitudes on the progression of the story. In this poem the Poet has created a sort of “catalogue of women” in which he accurately creates and disting...
Many readers feel the tendency to compare Aphra Behn's Oroonoko to William Shakespeare's Othello. Indeed they have many features in common, such as wives executed by husbands, conflicts between white and black characters, deceived heroes, the absolute vulnerability of women, etc. Both works stage male characters at both ends of their conflicts. In Othello, the tragic hero is Othello, and the villain is Iago. In Oroonoko, the hero is Oroonoko, the vice of the first part is the old king, and the second part white men in the colony. In contrast to their husbands, both heroines—Desdemona and Imoinda—seem more like "function characters" who are merely trapped in their husband's fates, occasionally becoming some motivation of their husbands (like Desdemona is Othello's motivation to rage, Imoinda's pregnancy drives Oroonoko restless to escape). While Shakespeare and Behn put much effort in moulding them, to many readers they are merely "perfect wives". This paper aims to argue that, Desdemona and Imoinda's perfect wifehood may be the product of compliance to male-dominated societies, where women are
This novel is set in a time 300 years after a convulsion, a great war that was brought upon by men. It was men who were the diplomats and men who made the speeches about national pride and defenseand we died (pg. 301). The beginning of the novel starts out as a reflection and continues to be a reflection until the end, although the ways in which Tepper words happenings, put the reader in the moment so that he/she forgets they are reflecting and thinks that each happening is going on as you read, giving much more meaning to the piece. The reader is taken on a journey through the experiences of one girl from adolescence to adulthood, and as she comes to understand the way of life in Womens Country so do we the reader. Stavia (the main character) is reflecting everything that has made her who she is up to that point in her life. When Stavia was young the only worry she had to deal with was the coming and going of the male counterpart.
Saikaku, Ihara. Life of a Sensuous Woman. The Longman Anthology of World Literature. (Vol. D) Ed. Damrosch. New York: Pearson, 2004. 604-621. [Excerpt.]
At the outset, an insightful reader needs to draft the general boundaries of allegory and symbolism in the story. To put it most simple, the problem of distinguishing between good and evil undergoes a discussion. It is not difficult to notice that the Grandmother stands for good and the Misfit for evil. But such a division would be a sweeping and superficial generalisation, for both the characters epitomize good and evil traits. Moral evaluation is a very complex process and it is not the human who is to decide on that. There are rather various degrees of goodness and evil, both interwoven, also in their religiousness. Th...
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.
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
In the age of industrialization when rural life gradually was destroyed, the author as a girl who spent most of her life in countryside could not help writing about it and what she focuses on in her story - femininity and masculinity, which themselves contain the symbolic meanings - come as no surprise.
Una, one of the most crucial figures of the first book, is a perfect expression of Spenser's hesitance towards depicting women in a single confining manner. At times Una seems strong and confident, at other times she is shown as weak and helpless. Before their separation, and after their rapprochement, Una is the one who often rescues Redcr...
When first reading this short story the character of an older woman comes to mind only to find later in an important passage “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength (Clugston, 2010, sec 2.1). This passage finally gives the reader a detailing idea of the woman in this story and defines her as a younger woman rather than an older one. This may l...
In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.