Janice Abrams Instructor: Kyle Long English Composition 271-Section 506 28 October 2009 The Wife Of Bath’s Prologue and Tale: Feminist versus Anti-Feminist Chaucer’s Wife of Bath is a fictional text that identifies factual ideas supporting feminism and the position of women. Though being aware, the text is written in a much earlier time period, the Wife of Bath’s ideas still reflect and describe how women are perceive in the 21st century today. The Wife herself, gives us her experience on her authority and power over her husband which she is very proud of, during the prologue. Which then ties into her Tale about the Knight and receiving the answer of what women most desire. I think Chaucer was trying to voice his opinion about feministic ways through a female speaker, hence Alisoun (the Wife), though contradicted his ideas in both the Prologue and Tale.
Choose two marriage proposals to analyse and compare, and base your response on these. The role of women plays a key component in the plot of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The novel is about a family consisting of five daughters, the Bennetts, who live in the regency period. The main topic of most significance is marriage, as in those days the most thought about thing was marriage as women were not allowed to earn an income and therefore needed someone to provide for them when their parents died. Because of this, it seems appropriate that Austen's novel follows the lives of the five Bennett daughters on their search to find the ideal husband.
Analysis of the Awakening by Kate Chopin March 21, 2012 Introduction The novel awakening by Kate Chopin narrates the story of a woman who is in an effort of seeking freedom in the society. The novel highly focuses on the era during which the author lived. The story starts with the main character Edna who is married to a husband who treats her like a hopeless child. This novel can be viewed in three perspectives; the historical, psychoanalytical and feminist perspectives. The historical perspective mainly focuses on the setting of the novel.
Parents would predetermine their childrens partners many years in advance. Many times the couple would not even know each other beforehand. Lady Bracknell believed this as she said, “I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible young men, although I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has” (39-40; Act 1). This was the way it should be, which was what led her to make a list of potential companions for her daughter.
Alisoun uses scripture, certainly the most influential and anti-feminist literature of the Middle Ages, to justify her own feminist philosophy; which is evidence of Chaucer making a medieval attempt at feminist writing. To this point, Patricia Clare Ingham (2002) argues, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath is arguably among the most ingenious readers in the history of literature. Critical reception of the Wife’s prologue stresses the agency of her aggressive re-reading of scripture as a means for displaying and resisting the medieval anti-feminist tradition. (p. 41) To Ingham’s argument, in the Prologue to The Wife of Bath, the Wife compares having five husbands of her own to the life of King Solomon, who, according to the King James version of the Bible, had seven-hundred wives and three-hundred concubines (1 Kings 11:3). According to the Wife’s logic, if holy men of the Bible can marry more than once, it
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” represents a stereotypical women’s role and so called “life” in the nineteenth century. The sample text involves a mother ranting to her daughter about what her responsibilities in life are and what it takes to be a proper woman instead of a “slut”. This literary work is a great example when perceiving the nineteenth century woman by establishing a set image and role that each women should follow in order to be accepted in society. The feminist criticism allows one to analyze the text to co-inside with this theory because it “seeks to restify sexist discrimination and inequalities.”(25) We can see that this female writer incorporated personal experience and historical context when writing this literary piece. There are distinct economic, political and professional realities displayed in the text.
Abstract A Doll’s House is regarded as a kind of ”canon”. There are so many critics seem to try to find a way out for Nora. Her 8 years marriage with Torvald Helmer was so good until she realize that Torvald Helmer was not really love her , until she know that she has always been treated as a doll in her family even by her husband, and found out she wasn’t in the real home. Nora has become the most courageous women, who fighting for an equal place in family. However this paper focus on Nora’s feeling to her husband, her great hope to her Torvald Helmer, hope for understanding and prove of his love, which is end with disappointment.
One of the main points that Wollstonecraft touches upon in A Vindication of the Rights of Women is the issue regarding women and education. I believe this to be one of Wollstonecraft’s strongest points in the book. According to Wollstonecraft, individual education is extremely important and women should be allowed to pursue an education equal to that of men. This statement is extremely important because during the 18th century, many people believed that women were incapable of rational thought. Wollstonecraft states that education for women "will slowly sharpen the senses, form the temper, regulate the passions as they begin to ferment, and set the understanding to work before the body arrives at maturity; so that the man may only have to proceed, not to begin, the important task of learning to think and reason."
In these two periods women around the world expressed their frustration with inequality and sexual frustration. Two of the most prolific writers of first and second wave feminism were Kate Chopin and Margaret Atwood, respectively. Chopin was the true bridge between first wave and second wave feminism. She not only dealt with issues of suffrage but also female sexuality. In her short story entitled “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin addresses issues of grief and repression.
This essay will discuss how women's roles have changed within the family. It will analyse these changes and draw conclusion as to whether this has adversely affected the family in Great Britain today. The discussion will compare how women were traditionally placed within the family institution over one hundred years ago and how liberation and legislation have played their part in the changing role of women within modern day families. Women were once, social and economic dependants of men. A professional career was almost impossible, and despite Britain’s ruler being female for most of the nineteenth century until 1901 when Queen Elizabeth died, women were second class citizens.