Sexual Violence and the Victorian Era: Oppressive Social Forces in Robert Browning’s Printable Version By Christine Utz Robert Browning’s poem “Porphyria’s Lover” is a social representation of the Victorian era, which supported the creation of dominant and sexually abusive men. During the nineteenth century, Victorian ideals determined the guidelines for social etiquette. A traditional regime of patriarchy flourished under the strict gender stratifications of the time period. However, tensions grew between the sexes in both the political and domestic realms and gender violence surfaced in response to the heightened conflicts. Robert Browning was born into this conservative time period, but was able to employ expressive freedom through literature.
“My boyfriend and all my relatives do not want me to become a stewardess,” repeats the girl and she does not even try to make her dream come true. Culture’s gender stereotypes imposed by the society girls live in, have an enormous influence on their lives. The conception of the Good Girl presented by Lucy Gilbert and Paula Webster in their essay “The Dangers of Femininity” clearly describes the proposed model of girls’ behavior. Good Girl should dedicate her life to other people, in particular to her husband. Being always ready to help she is obliged to forget about her own wealth.
When Lancelot is going to see the Lady of Shallot, she knows she is stepping into dangerous waters, but still goes along with it. Her image of herself turns so bad, that the basically kills herself and unhappy and lonely woman. After she is dead, Lancelot sees her and only says that “She has a lovely face,” demonstrating that he only cared about her looks and not really her inner beauty. The Lady of Shallot is a round character because she changes throughout the short story. At the beginning, she believes in herself and who she is as a person, but she is lonely.
In the attempt to save her husband s life and pride, she secretly borrowed money to use for his recovery from a deadly illness. She is then faced with the consequences of her dishonest practice, even though her intentions were always honorable. Feminist ideas are clearly presented all through the play, but are most easily seen in the dependence society put on women, Nora’s changing definitions of freedom, and Ibsen’s portrayal of women as self-sacrificial and cunning, using society s view of them as a foil. Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House uses Nora, the main character to portray how woman were treated in the 19th century. Nora’s husband, Torvald constantly talks down to her, as if she were his child, instead of wife, “HEL.
He does this by things such as calling her nicknames with negative characteristics, such as his little lark, spendthrift and featherhead. Both Nora and Torvald, put on a face for the rest of the world and each other. Surprisingly, these choices of façade complimented each other. We gradually see how it isn’t good enough for her, yet hides it anyways through most of the play. In this era, it is expected for a woman to go straight from her father’s hand to her husband’s and the sacrifices it meant.
. vanity” , and Hardy continually shows her to be rash and impulsive. However, not only is she independent in spirit, she is independent financially; this allows Hardy to use her character to explore the danger that such a woman faces of losing her identity and lifestyle through love and marriage. In the Merchant of Venice Portia could be stated as the heroine in the novel as she saves Antonio, Bassanios best friend at the end of the play and thus the play has a supposedly comedic ending, however We see how she is manipulated by men through her father, who though dead, still manages to control who she marries from his will therefore it can be stated that she is not so strong as first insinuated.It can also be suggested that Bassanio has
The very first descriptions illustrate her initial animus by describing it as “one of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Perkins 41-42). This is significant for it reflects the narrator’s own presence—she is committing an artistic sin during her marriage by having her engaging imagination and her need to compose. Her husband, John, dislikes this, and as a result, the narrator deliberately feels stifled and has to obscure her writing so that her husband will not know. The narrator is characterized as having a nervous state and is overly protected by her
The story starts off right away describing Madame Loisel beauty and charm but unfortunately she was born into the wrong class. She isn’t happy with the life that she has. She dreams of a life with parties and elegant dresses and jewels. Madame Loisel is so envious of a rich, old school friend who lives a different life that she actually refuses to go and visit because she feels worse about her life when she returns home. Her friend doesn’t appear to be proud of boastful in the story and doesn’t seem to care that Madame Loisel is poorer than her.
An old lady has just told me that I speak exactly like Queen Victoria. (Shaw67)” This is a key moment in the play, because the reader can see Eliza’s true desire to ultimately fit in with the elegant women of the higher social class . Before this moment, Eliza wanted to be compared to the queen, but now she realizes she sticks out for, in her mind, the wrong reasons. Prior to her metamorphosis Eliza was alienated by society for her barbaric nature, but after she learns the importance of phonetics she is once again alienated for being exceedingly eloquent. This is ironic because the once poor uneducated flower girl has surpassed the social status of the women she once envied.
She was married to Monsieur Loisel who could only provide her a not so comfortable lifestyle. She is unsatisfied of what she have that she became nearly unaware of almost everything around her but the wealth she does not have. She keeps on imagining an extravagant existence: an elaborate feast, fancy jewels and clothing. She has a wealthy friend Madame Forestier. Mathilde is jealous of her and she will do anything in her power to reverse the mistake of destiny that made her poor.