“… How I wish I might see him and his bride in utter ruin, house and all, for the wrongs they dare inflict on me who never did them harm!” (55) Medea resolves to avenge her self and make her husband Jason suffer more then she has in order to punish him. While Medea speaks to the Chorus of the role of women in their society and their great disadvantages she is seen as a heroine willing to avenge the wrongs done to women, which is a rarity during the given time period “Of all creatures that have life and reason we women are the most miserable of specimens! In the first place, at great expense we must buy a husband, taking a master to play the tyrant with our bodies…” (56) Medea is undoubtedly a feminist which emphasizes her strong and independent character. Her tendency to violence and ruthlessness however is evident at the start of the play when the nurse is prompted to predict that Medea may do harm to Jason’s new bride out of jealousy and harm her children because they remind her of Jason “I’ve already seen her glaring at them like a bull, as if she wanted to do something awful. I’m sure of one thing, that anger of hers won’t die down until someone’s felt the force of her thunderbolt.
The two texts present a woman from a disadvantaged point of view and how she struggles to establish a foothold in a male-dominated society. In Hamlet, analysis of the plight of women falls on Ophelia and Gertrude. The two women endure chauvinistic suffering and finally break loose. Gertrude transgresses the patriarchal bounds of femininity by marrying soon after her husband’s death, much to Hamlet’s chagrin. Consequently, he refers to her as “frail” (Act 1, Scene 2, line 146).
A scholar may read it that even though the man has given power to a woman it was given by a man who was feministic. King Lear soon chooses to banish his only loyal and loving daughter gives the power to his two eldest daughters. The eldest daughters are now powerful as well as being emotionless. This display of masculine characteristics by the two women also works to create multiply ways to read King Lear. Cordelia the best representation of “female”
Feminism in Othello Othello is a tragic play about an angry man, Iago, who does everything in his power to destroy the life of the hero, Othello, for promoting somebody else. In the play, there are only 2 major female characters and each of these characters embodies a completely different bias about women and feminism in the Elizabethan times. Desdemona, Othello’s wife and the more traditional character, believes in putting her husband first, and that love is all the matters. Emilia, on the other hand, is Iago’s wife and one of Desdemona’s dearest friends. She is the strong feminist in the play, and believes in women’s rights and the fact that women are physically no different to men.
In one scene, her husband accuses her of being a bad mother and Mrs. Leighton responds by saying, "They are the only reason I am here." The film offers a healthy mix of the women who existed in society at the time. The stereotypes of women set forth by a patriarchal society create images of submissive homemakers and mothers. A woman who falls under the control of men, whether he is her husband, father, powerful official, or the
In Euripides’ Medea, readers see Medea, the allegedly monstrous wife of Jason, hero of the Greek people. Many critics have since held up Euripides’ play as further proof of Medea’s monstrosity in her infanticide, labeling her a “Monstrous Mother”. However, throughout Medea’s interactions with other characters, her mistreatment by her husband Jason, and her interactions with her children, the reader sees Medea in a new light: she is no longer monstrous. In fact the ideas of mythic and monstrous mothers no longer apply to Medea; she falls between both realms. Euripides can arguably be a proto-feminist, as he intends Medea to be seen as a barbarian troubled by Greek culture, due to her outsider nature, she cannot survive in not only this Greek environment, but an environment ran by men.
A time when the banner of patriarchy flew over the bonnets of subjugated females. A time when you could choose either to conform, or face social rejection. Some women preferred to rebel in their own graceful ways, but most exacerbated their oppression with frivolous attitudes and behaviors. Beginning with the witty opening phrase, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 3), the author perpetuates a note on the status of the one track mind held by the female gender of this time. As exemplified in Pride and Prejudice with characters like Mrs. Bennet and her child, Lydia, many ladies put money above love when it came to the subject of marriage.
The male dominance within the Stepford community highlights the enforcement of patriarchal laws, creating a divide between genders. The lack of individuality represented through Carol Van Sant and the transformed ladies of Stepford reflect the want for female beauty and the characterisation of the Stepford families reflects the want for a nuclear family. Through the characterisation, The Stepford Wives intertwines the concerns of the 1970’s to create a fierce reminder of the freedom women have gained and is a critique of the world, which the author knew so well. Despite having gained the right to vote, during this time, women felt trapped within a domestic sphere. The women became wives and mothers without a voice.
A door that once kept her shut-off from the outside world, not shuts out society’s view of women and their place in the world. “Iv got out at last...in spite of you!” (70). The narrator of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' has been driven into psychological madness through the imprisonment of male dominance. Gilman's use of symbolism to portray patriarchal dominance, through locked doors and bared windows, has been an effective way to communicate the suffering and trapped feeling of women during the 19th century. While many women would be to afraid to question their role in society and in marriage, Gilman has created a strong female protagonist who overcomes her husbands authoritative
Courtney Dobronich Ms. McPherson English 1020 13 March 2012 The 19th Century’s Oppression of Women in “The Yellow Wallpaper” “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a skilful woman whose talents and thoughts are suppressed by the dominance of her husband and society. The husband’s efforts to oppress her in order to keep her within society’s standards of what a proper wife should be, only lead to her psychological destruction. The narrator in the story is a genuine symbol of all women in the mid to late nineteenth century. At the time, men and women were placed into two very separate “spheres” in which each included their own certain roles and expectations. Society’s demanding gender roles and domestic spheres influenced the women’s oppression, which gave rise to male dominance and the negligence of women’s health, happiness, and rights as individuals.