She is only addressed as “Curley’s Wife” – her real name is never said. This has strong suggestions that women at this time were men’s possessions, as if they were used merely as objects, part of their property and didn’t have the same rights as they did – women are inferior. The phrase “I don’t know why I can’t talk to you. I ain’t doin’ no harm to you” could me shadowing how women are simply seen as either virgins or whores. 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 feels wrong for shat she has done or the she doesn’t want him to leave her. The part where she puts HIS arm around HER waist gives the reader the impression that she is in control in the marriage and he no longer has any control over her, which is why she has soiled her gloves with another man. It suddenly clicks in her head that she worships him and that he could now do whatever he wants to her and she would let him because she feels so guilty. He ties her hair around her neck three times and starts to strangle her. In his mind she is not putting up a fight, we know this because he says: “No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain.” He then proceeds to open her eyelids, like she is still alive, and rest HER head on HIS shoulder, he now has the power in the marriage, though mainly because she is dead.
"In the words of the Wife of Bath, God has given women three talents- deceit, weeping, and spinning" (Power 118). The institution of marriage is revealed to have little to do with love, but a lot to do with getting what you want or sexual gratification. She showed us a rare glimpse of a woman with a position of authority in medieval society. She used sex to get what she wanted from her husbands, making her well practiced in the art of sexual manipulation. She presents herself as someone who craves sex, sees marriage as a way to experience the finer things in life and loves to be an instigator.
Due to Desdemona’s never ending, continuous love for Othello, she ultimately played a role in her own death. The love Desdemona feels for Othello is seen in the fact that she goes against her family and marries the man she loves, not the man that may necessarily be more suited for her. Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, believes that Othello lures Desdemona away with his witchcraft and that her life would be much better if they never married. However, Desdemona ignores her father’s instruction; despite the fact Brabantio believes their relationship is unnatural: “She [Desdemona] is abused, stol’n from me and corrupted by spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; for natures so preposterously to err, being not deficit, blind or lame of sense, sans witchcraft could not” (Othello, 1.3.60-64). At first, Brabantio believes that his daughter was tricked by Othello, that he stole her away with his magic spells and witchcraft.
Shakespeares portrayal of female characters in the play Hamlet mirrors the way in which women were perceived in his day. The actions of the characters Ophelia and Queen Gertrude are often heavily swayed by the words of the male characters. In the play, the male characters think of the women as archetypes, who do not make choices for themselves, and thus the female characters behave as though they are helplessly caught up in the plot and unable to change their situation’s. Hamlets lover, Ophelia, is by far the most piteous character in the play. Although it was Hamlet who wooed her, and with whom she was intimate it is Hamlet himself who later chastises her for her impious actions.
Gilman provides the point of views of these women who know nothing of marriage to allow us to see our own society’s faults in the way we think things should be. By denying the men’s proposition of name change, the women point out the idiocy of the concept we accept to be the norm in our society. This problem of possession and power shows up in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” as well. The husband in that piece has possession of his wife by controlling her every move. The men in “The Yellow Wallpaper” make the decisions and control their households.
The women's part: Shakespeare's feminist leanings I'm going to start with some disclaimers about my thesis. My basic argument is that because of the influence of his female audience, patrons, and personal relationships with women, Shakespeare wrote female characters that were independent, intelligent, and strong. I will even go so far as to suggest he was a proto-feminist, since he recognized the worth of the female mind. I know there are some objections to this idea, which I will address here. As brought up by Chris Welcker in a comment to one of my previous posts, Shakespeare wasn't always respectful to women.
Desdemona is Othello’s wife, and she has the biggest role of the women in the play. Roderigo is in love with her, but her father, Brabantio, does not allow Roderigo to marry her. We can conclude from this that at least Desdemona and Emilia are important characters, as they are the wives of the main characters, and Bianca seems to be just a minor character, but in order to find out more about the importance of women in Othello, we have to look at the roles of Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca in the play. Bianca receives Desdemona’s handkerchief from Cassio, and unknowingly makes Othello believe that Desdemona is cheating on him, when she gives the handkerchief back to Cassio, which was Iago’s plan, as he was trying to convince Othello that Desdemona was cheating on him, and this was the thing that made Othello believe him. (Bianca (Othello)) Emilia is the one who finds Desdemona’s handkerchief after she accidentally leaves it, and she gives it to Iago, because he has asked her before to steal the handkerchief.
They are driven by instincts which are not within their control” (R86). Woolf elucidates that the character of men is to take power and act more aggressively than women, and this has given them an advantage in their excursion to becoming the privileged sex. Betty Friedman addresses the reality that fulfilling their traditional maternal roles of raising the children and tending to the household doesn’t satisfy some women, however, they are ashamed of this personal problem, lacking the confidence to enter the male territory where these women feel they may find something more meaningful. Women are limited by the inferiority put upon them by society as well as themselves. Women are kept from growing and learning, “education for women has become so suspect that more drop out of high school and college to marry and have babies…women so insistently confine themselves to one role”(R89).
Back in the Lowman residence, Linda scolds her sons for abandoning her father back at the restaurant. Biff eventually talks with Willy, unable to keep to himself. He says that the Lomans are nothing but ordinary people, and may be replaced overnight. Biff cries in his father’s shoulder, and Willy takes this as a sign of love and respect. In another hallucination, Willy talks with Ben.