Why the 19th Century Was a Turning Point for Women

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Cooking, cleaning, taking care of children and being the submissive was the role of the women in the late 19th Century, but was this all beginning to change? According to history this was a turning point for women in the 19th century. These changes had to do with things happening around them such as the economy as well as wartime, but some believe it had something to do with the actions of women themselves. They were ready to become independent and break out of the social norms. (Loyola University New Orleans, 2009) As looking deep into the literature of the time it is evident the difference between male and females descriptions and reactions to this turning point in history. Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets proclaims a mans view of women in the late 19th century a view that destiny will always conquer, yet The Awakening by Kate Chopin declares the turning point in history where women found themselves as individuals and became independent. In the late 19th century women traditions started to shift. In the 19th century men and even women of that time would have said that women were and are born with the God-given role of solely being a wife and a mother. Women were also known as the caretaker of the house and everything and everyone who lived inside. About half way down his passage Hartman writes, the Victorian home was to be a place of comfort and quiet, as to shelter from all the realities of the world. Housework was to be taken seriously and important to the full dynamic of the household. Children were to be cherished and nurtured from birth up into adulthood. (Hartman, 2nd paragraph) Women of the household main priority and life goal was to make all these things happen and make the home run as smooth as possib... ... middle of paper ... ...e, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. Irving, Katrina. "Gendered space, racialized space: nativism, the immigrant woman and Stephen Crane's 'Maggie.' (novel 'Maggie: a Girl of the Streets')." College Literature 20.3 (1993): 30+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. Mainland, Catherine. "Chopin's Bildungsroman: Male Role Models In The Awakening." Mississippi Quarterly 64.1/2 (2011): 75-85. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 May 2014. Novotny, George T. "Crane's Maggie, A Girl Of The Streets." Explicator 50.4 (1992): 225. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 May 2014. Pizer, Donald. "A Note on Kate Chopin's The Awakening as Naturalistic Fiction." The Southern Literary Journal 33.2 (2001): 5. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. "The Role of the Wife and Mother." Kate Chopin. Loyola University New Orleans, 2009. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

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