Curley’s wife is portrayed as being a whore – but this is only due to the way she dresses, her provocative ways and the way she acts around men, as if she is aware of her femininity. This could suggest that she is only like this because she is bored, like it is something to do – something interesting for a change. She is constantly trying to get people to notice her. But, because of Lennie’s purity and innocence, he doesn’t see her in the way other men do – a sexual object. When Steinbeck quotes “And because she had confided in him, she moved closer to Lennie and sat beside him”, it is clear to the audience that Curley’s Wife is using her sexuality as an object to create some sort of excitement for herself.
In the times John Steinbeck lived in women were not held in high regard but they were just present to serve men. However, they still tried to yearn for a better future by exploiting men. The character Curley's wife in the novel is a victim of society and her dream. She is married to Curley who neglects her and so because of her loneliness she is always seeking attention. She wears too much makeup and dresses like a "whore"
In Oedipus the King, the role of Jocasta would have been performed by a man wearing a mask to discern he was a female. Having men play the roles of women demonstrates that women were either not trusted, because of their emotional instability, or were thought not to have the mental capacity to fulfill the demands of a performance. Because of their insignificance, Greek playwrights seldom used female characters. Only those women
Description In Siren Songs: Gender, Audiences, and Narrators in the Odyssey, Lillian Eileen Doherty shows us that the attitude of Odysseus, as well as of the Odyssey, is highly ambivalent toward women. Odysseus rewards supportive female characters by treating them as privileged members of the audience for his own tales. At the same time, dangerous female narrators--who threaten to disrupt or revise the hero's story--are discredited by the narrative framework in which their stories appear. Siren Songs synthesizes audience-oriented and narratological approaches, and examines the relationships among three kinds of audiences: internal, implied, and actual. The author prefaces her own reading of the Odyssey with an analysis of the issues posed by the earlier feminist readings on which she builds.
Thus a woman’s existence and recognition is dependent on a man’s acknowledgement. De Beauvoir argued that men and women approach love differently due to social and economical inequalities. Because man is the Subject and women is the Other (De Beauvoir 1983, p. 16), women’s freedom is socially forbidden, “but women, not being able to fulfil herself through projects and objectives, is forced to find her reality in the immanence of her person” (641). Thus if the woman is denied the
This is best encapsulated in the debate as to whether Annabella can claim to be part of a “wretched, woeful woman’s tragedy” if her mistreatment was indeed her own fault. The question of love and its moralities is a large one in the play, considering the taboo nature of incest. However, what causes an even bigger discussion is perhaps the representation of women in light of love. Despite preconceptions of incest, it is undeniable that at one point or another, we as an audience sympathise with the lovers Giovanni and Annabella. Though, upon closer analysis of their interactions, it becomes obvious that their filial ties are not the only issue with their relationship; Giovanni makes it clear to Annabella that she has limited choice in their union as he declares “that you must either love, or I must die.” Previously to such a statement, Annabella had not expressed her love to such a degree, but it’s almost as if he blackmails her into believing she loves him, as her sisterly love for him would mean she would do anything for him not to kill himself.
Anna was drowning in the misery of her marriage and in guilt from seeing another man on one side but is happy to be with Gurov. Anna states that, “for years now they had not been comfortable together, in their intimacy and at a distance… It was something they might have known once” (Oates 449), which explains that her unhappy marriage forced her to search for a person to fulfill the lost emotions at home. Committing adultery is more of an emotional fulfillment that it is a physical need but it derives from the want to find someone who means something more. If couple who married shows that they do not love each other mutually, it should be acceptable for the two to be involved in an affair because neither of them truly gets hurt, providing act of cheating to be meaningless and
The struggle is being penetrably described in the play in a woman point of view. If fact, the playwright choose the 1900's period on purpose. That period had been well characterized by the opposition position between men and women. In that period, the women had been classified at the lowest class and where lacked of influence. Whereas oppositely, men where aggressive and did not compromise with their women.
This blatant sexism at the start of a woman’s life leads to nothing but a life under a man’s thumb, from her father to later on, her husband. Being from a culture where traditionally there are subtle influences of male dominance, I immediately found this issue to be quite relatable. The way Euripides handles gender inequality in 431 BC, with sarcastic humour and cunningness is something that provided, for me, the spark in Medea, both as a play and as a character. Also, I believe that ancient Greek culture was only by that time beginning to fathom the inner workings of a woman’s mind. I feel inspired to see how open-minded Euripides was about a controversial topic that still causes problems in the 21st century.
The Roles of Men and Women in The Oresteia In The Oresteia, Aeschylus encourages the importance of the male role in society over that of the female. The entire trilogy can be seen as a subtle assertion of the superiority of men over women. Yet, the women create the real interest in the plays. Their characters are the incentive that makes everything occur. The characters of Clytaemnestra, Cassandra, and the goddess Athena can demonstrate this.