Agency in Forugh Farrokhzad’s “Wind-Up Doll” Forugh Farrokhzad was an outspoken poet who had no qualms when it came to utilizing a pen to share her discord with readers and bring Iranian society to task. Farrokhzad’s “Wind-Up Doll” will be examined in light of her protestations against the feminine individual and her admonishment towards women who permit the ruin of their respective individualities by falling prey to Iranian norms for the purpose of a false sense of security. The second stanza sets the tone of her poem and gives her reader a glimpse of a troubled female soul staring aimlessly into veritable nothingness. one can stare at the smoke of a cigarette with a gaze like that of a corpse, fixed It is assumed that the person staring …show more content…
One can stay still there next to the curtain, but blind, but deaf Here the narrator scolds the lifeless women of Iran. Despite the activity of life outside their window, even in the “rain pouring down” (Farrokhzad, line 11), women refuse to acknowledge the invitation extended to them to partake in life outside of drab rooms, described as “… a faded flower in a carpet” (Farrokhzad, line 7). Furthermore, women are wont to be “but blind, but deaf” (Farrokhzad, line 17) out of their preference to languish in a lack of vigor. The setting and mood established, the narrator digs in with regard to women’s deprivation of self. One can cry out in a voice clearly false and alien, “I love…” In the dominating arms of a man, one can be a beautiful, healthy female. The narrator mocks women for allowing themselves to be dominated by men and lying to self that they are in love. In fact, these women are no more in love than the sun is shining outside the curtained windows of their homes. And in the next stanza, there is an accusation that Iranian women are frauds, since they are for all intents and purposes ethically
In a world where the vast majority of cultures are patriarchal, in response to traditional structures, women often find themselves at war in their minds, hearts and in their own actions. 'Yellow woman' and 'The story of an hour' are examples of how women struggle in a male domintaed society. In these two stories, the women fnd themselves wrestling with thoughts and emotions that our society consider unacceptable. The following statements ,ay be asked and considered of these women:
Like the Good Other Woman, the Evil Other Woman often spends much of her life hidden away in the castle, secret room, or whatever, a fact suggesting that even a virtuous woman’s lot is the same she would have merited had she been the worst of criminals. The heroine’s discovery of such Other Women is in the one case an encounter with women’s oppression-their confinement as wives, mothers, and daughters-and in the other with a related repression: the confinement of a Hidden Woman inside those genteel writers and readers who, in the idealization of the heroine’s virtues, displace their own rebellious
...mely carefully chosen rhetoric, she has demonstrated how women can break free of men. She has taken away the fear than many women feel when they want to stand up against the male figure in their life. When women are able to be strong, and use the power that they have always had, they are able to move mountains with that power. They can remove themselves from a man who takes advantage of them or objectifies them, and reduce them to nothing more than the coward that they are. Larcom’s poem painted a clear picture of progress that women have made against men, and how they are tackling the issues set before them. Because of Larcom and her ability to use her voice through writing to portray and strong vision of women, has empowered many others to do the same. They are able to break free from the chains of repression that so many men have restrained women by for so long.
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]
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.
As a result, women were stuck at home, usually alone, until their husbands got home. In the story, Jane is at home staring at the wallpaper in her room. The wallpaper’s color is described by Jane as being “repellent, almost revolting” (3) and the pattern is “torturing” and “like a bad dream” (10). The description of the wallpaper represents Jane’s and all women’s thoughts about the ideologies and rules upheld by men prior to the First World War. It is made evident that this wallpaper represents the screen made up of men’s ideologies at the time caging in women. Jane is subconsciously repelled by this screen and represents her discovering continuously figuring out what she wants. Metaphorically, Jane is trapped in that room by a culture established by men. Furthermore, Jane compares the wallpaper’s pattern to bars putting further emphasis on her feelings of being trapped and helpless. Later in the narrative, she catches Jennie staring at the wallpaper’s pattern and then decides to study the pattern and determine what it means herself. Her study of the pattern is representative of her trying to analyze the situation in which she’s in. By studying the pattern, she progressively discovers herself, especially when she sees the woman behind the
... and unjust environment drove the narrator insane. This story showed in depth how patriarchal our society was in the 1900’s. This story reveals the position under which society put women under. Women were expected by societal norms to fit the stereotypical ideal of what a woman should be. It points out the problem in a patriarchal society which is sexism and oppression towards women. This story demonstrates the struggle women had in terms of being heard and respected. Since this short stories publication, women have gained many of the rights that men have had for decades before, but there is still a long way to go before women and men are completely equal.
This creates a despair, of hopelessness and of downheartedness. The woman, on multiple occasions, wrote down, “And what can one do?” This lets the reader know that women as a whole were very oppressed in ...
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Elisa Allen of “The Crysanthemums” both have husbands who fancy the idea of knowing what their wives want and need. With such attitudes and beliefs, these men contribute to the feeling of confinement that ultimately leads to the loss of sanity of their wives. The narrator’s husband also assumes that he knows what is best for his wife. He thinks isolation and confinement will cure her “nervous depression.” Nevertheless, this “cure” makes her weak; it transforms her into a woman gone mad. On the way to dinner, Elisa asks her husband about the fights and his immediate reply is, “We can go if you want, but I don’t think you would like them much.” He cannot fathom the idea that she may actually enjoy this non-feminine event.
In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient woman, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty, emotionless shell. In men’s eyes, this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
Women play a key role in this novel in many ways. In the case of...
Through this brief anecdote, Hemingway presents the readers the social dilemma of male domination over his counterpart. The women's fight for equality changed some "old traditions" but there are still many Jigs in our society that shouldn't be treated as inferiors. Women are the most beautiful beings in life, but they are not to be possessed ,but loved and admired.
I am going to analyze this text using the intrinsic and feminist literary theory analysis. With the intrinsic analysis, I will brood mostly on the style and characterization of the text. According to Eaglestone, 2009, intrinsic analysis is a look into the text for meaning and understanding, assuming it has no connection, whatsoever, to the outside world. “Style is said to be the way one writes as opposed to what one writes about and is that voice that your readers hear when they read your work” (Wiehardt, n.d). The text uses mostly colors, poems and songs to deliver its messages. The main characters in the...
The human perspective of staring, whether it is directly or aversely, is a phenomenon that psychologists have been trying to figure out for decades. Do we notice if someone else is staring at us from a far? What emotions run through our minds if we do feel someone else’s presence among us? Does our behavior change if we figure out someone is staring at us from a distance? The reactions and behaviors of the human mind change with each given circumstance, with each different scenario shedding light on our perceptions. In some cases, there won’t be any change in their behavior. In other cases, a person will behave differently than they normal would, possibly moving faster or even adverting their behavior to reflect or even mask their emotions. This means that a person will consciously change their behavior because of the staring. Numerous variables in which a person is staring, i.e. how far away they are, the intensity of their stare, is directly correlated to how a person will behavior to the staring (Argyle and Dean, 1973). This correlation is seen clearly when the person in the study knows they are being stared at, especially when the person/experimenter is staring directly into their eyes. A person in this situation will more than likely engage in behavior that will gauge how someone else perceives them and then this person will adjust to their other according to that analysis.
In “The Marvelous Women”, Kahf praises women who have a strong desire to fight in order to have their rights and eliminate the patriarchal system. She also describes how women’s stories and experiences help her to write poetry, which is her way to confront the stereotypes against women.