A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ is an early example of a feminist outlook; Wollstonecraft aims to define, establish and defend equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. In this extract, Wollstonecraft “speaks of passion”; she believes that women were not given the right choices; they were not educated to the full. This affects their choices and they don’t have the full knowledge that they should have been provided with. Jill tweedy was also a feminist writer, who had a balanced view of the relationships between men and women. She believed that women should be equal to men in relationships.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s literature is based on women’s issues. She wrote fiction mainly depicting her social ideas. In her works, she portrays women struggling to achieve personal autonomy, adapting to independence, and challenging accepted images of women. In her novel Women and Economics, Gilman argues that women need to change their identities in society in order to be equal to men and become part of the world’s evolution. In addition, her novel Herland depicts women at their true, full potential in roles equal to men.
Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a work that criticizes the limitations, status, and ability of 19th century women as effective second-class citizens through the narration of a woman’s psychological deterioration. Through the literal and metaphorical narration carried through the work, Gilman cries for a change in gender ideologies prevalent in the late 1800s and greater female empowerment beyond the domestic sphere of society. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” suffers irreparable mental damage arguably because of her gender and established gender roles and ideologies in the late 19th century. It is important to note that the narrator is not a woman who is struggling to make ends meet. Rather, she is depicted as a troubled middle class woman who is in an established, acceptable marriage with a respectable physician.
The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, takes place in The Republic of Gilead where reproduction rates are declining. To counteract this, the remaining women with viable ovaries, called Handmaids, are assigned to high class households with hopes of conceiving a child. Feminism, a topic that is central to the novel, is the ideology of equality for women. However, the society in the novel is depicted as the exact opposite of feminism. By utilizing the Handmaids as a representation of the females in the Gileadean society, the author exposes the flaws of an anti-feminist society through objectification and the absence of agency.
Jane Eyre voices strong opinions on; women’s rights, class and property, religious sincerity, love and justice. Brontë’s scrutiny of these topics relates flaws in each, despite the appearances of some. The novel is subtly humiliating towards males, displaying them a insincere. These flaws are demonstrated through…; consistent character action, The narration from a woman’s point of view establishes a strong voice for women rights, or lack thereof. At the commencement of the novel, Jane’s character is “… a picture of passion!” (pg7, Jane Eyre), when she rebels against harsh treatment at the hands of her cousin John.
Woolf interprets the contrast between the women in fiction and the real women of the period as evidence that the famous characters are nothing but impossibilities imagined upon by men. She argues that only a female writer could have created characters endowed with women’s hindered possibilities. But perhaps the women portrayed in Elizabethan fiction weren’t just men being conveniently portrayed as women like Woolf claims. Perhaps Shakespeare and other authors created these strong characters as symbols of what women could’ve been, barring the legal and social injustices they faced. Lady Macbeth is undoubtedly Shakespeare’s most vicious and cunning female character.
In this essay I will be discussing the representations of Sycorax and Miranda as embodiments of alternative versions of femininity in The Tempest. I will discuss how Sycorax is a representation of a strong, independent and feared woman, whose power and ugliness makes her an outcast to Elizabethan society and how it portrays its women, in that woman were seen as objects to possess and control, and I will also discuss how in contrast, Miranda is seen as an ideal woman of her time, through her beauty, obedience to her father, thus submissive to mans rule and through her naivety. Using the passage in The Tempest where Prospero reminds Ariel about Sycorax, we get an impression about Sycorax, who she is and how she looks to Prospero and Ariel. Prospero Describes Sycorax as a non-white, “Algiers” (1.2.261), who is an old and ugly woman whose outwards appearance seems to mirror her inner malevolence. He describes her by referring to her as a “Blue-eyed Hag”(1.2.269) which is seen supposedly as a mark of imperfection on a woman as at that time the eyes of beauty were most frequently seen as grey or brown, thus symbolically describing Sycorax herself as being an imperfection to society.
Girls Rule: “My Sassy Girl” as an Attempt to Promote Women’s Inequality By Olga Fedorenko “My Sassy Girl” is a hilarious comedy, which invites the audience to laugh at the misadventures of Gyeon-woo, who regularly gets beaten by his mother and by bossy girlfriend. Jae-young Kwak, the director of “My Sassy Girl,” seems to question the traditional gender roles; however, from another perspective, the movie can be interpreted as reinforcing the double standard for men and women and thus endorsing gender inequality. In this essay, I will argue that Kwak promotes gender inequality by portraying it as women’s secret weapon. While looking into how gender relations are presented in “My Sassy Girl,” it is important to keep in mind the social context of South Korea. Though the feminist movement took a strong hold and the ideas of gender equality are promoted within the educational system, women still have limited opportunities for self-realization outside the family (Cho, 2002; Janelli & Yim, 2002).
It was in the early 1800s when women began to question various issues such as their roles in society and their rights as a woman, or their lack of rights and unjust inequality in comparison to males. Interestingly though in 1792Marry Wollstonecraft, who was a significant driving force in the women’s right movement, wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). In her book she argued that women were rational beings who should be able to be educated, earn their own livings, and develop their characters “regardless of the distinction of sex” (pg 24 Alison M Parker). Then in 1820 the activist Frances Wright went on to further publicize her work. At the time Frances Wright was best known for being a early proponent of the notion that marriage was a form of cohesive bondage for women, who there thereby denied the right to inheritances, wages, and joint guardianship of their children.
Life Without Love or Independence? In Jane Eyre and Hard Times, women are portrayed in a negative light throughout their respected novels; females are represented as being second class citizens to their male counterparts, and are unable to have a thought of their own. The traditional views of Victorian era gender roles are both enforced through the outside portrayal of the women that do not fit the mold of the ideal Victorian women yet is also subverted by the feelings the women feel when they left their bonds, or the consequences of living in the suffering of the gender misogamy they endure over their lifestyle. By expressing the men through traditional Victorian masculine characteristics such as being powerful and dominant to their meek and loyal female counterparts, the novels establish early on the barrier that the protagonists struggle with merely being female. In the novels, women are treated like second class citizens when compared to men and are expected to be content with this Victorian idea of patriarchal domination.