Lydia is incapable of seeing the shame she brings on the family through running away to be married, as shown in her letter to Harriet; “I can hardly write for laughing.” Her thoughtless attitude to marriage is highlighted here – although she is motivated by love, she hasn’t thought about the consequences of what she’s doing. This again illustrates a difference between herself and Elizabeth, who tells Lydia later that “I do not particularly like your way of getting
Jane goes against many traditional female archetypes by developing great psychological, intellectual and moral behaviour that is not typical of a woman growing up during these times. Charlotte Bronte exhibits her understanding of the situations and hardships that everyday women as well as Jane, had to face living in the Victorian oppressive society. In the introductory setting of the novel, Jane Eyre resides in Gateshead; an estate now owned by her aunt and inhabited by Jane, and her spoiled cousins. It becomes clear within the first few pages of the book that she is residing in an incredibly hostile environment. Jane goes into great detail to describe her unfulfilled and discriminated life living with her relatives, and one altercation of many, is highlighted to great significance in the story.
In this time many modernist authors and artists sourced to change and challenge society’s expectations and their inflexible, harsh conventions that not only restricted free thinking but repressed the ideas of change in their beliefs. The idea of gender roles and the role of women in a patriarchal society are challenged and questioned in Hedda Gabler as Ibsen confronts the audience with the isolation and plight of women that was created out of extreme patriarchy during the Victorian period. The destructive consequences of society’s barriers and women turning away and escaping from established gender roles is also presented in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening with the two spheres of men and women being challenged with their desires. The rapidly changing world, socially and technologically, brought many people to a dilemma on choosing to stay in their traditional superficial world, or to welcome the new. The superficiality of life is constantly contrasted with the differing social structures within society in Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway with her continuing fear of aging and the new that constantly rocks her world.
He documents a complex woman’s struggle to cope, as she is suffocated by the male dominated society that she has been forced to subject herself to. The following essay will in particular discuss the relationships between the women of Hedda Gabler. Ibsen uses the themes explored in the play to examine and challenge the role of women in society. This is evident through the relationships that Hedda has not only with the male characters in the play but from those that she has with the two other prominent female characters in the play; Thea Elvsted, the delicate love interest of Ejlert Lövborg and Aunt Julie the benevolent aunt of Hedda’s new husband Jörgen Tessman. Both women are contrasting representations of Hedda.
Critics say that the main focus of Educating Rita is the English class system and the clash of cultures, however there are many other themes portrayed in the play that are of equal importance. As the title would suggest, one of the key themes in Educating Rita is indeed education. Rita strives to become educated after taking school for granted before. Frank asks her “what do you want to know?” and Rita replies “everything” showing her thirst for knowledge and her enthusiasm to learn. However, when Rita first meets Frank she is a working class, pop cultured hairdresser who knows nothing of English Literature, shown when asking Frank “what is assonance?” But, through education she learns more than just literature, which she exposes when, at the end, she reveals she can make her own choices, “I’ll make a decision.” This displays how education has a huge impact on both Rita and the play, making it a very important theme in the play.
The word carries a strong negative emotion and calls up vivid images of destruction, violence, suffering and horror. Since Harriet is the only person in this family who really cares for Ben, she and Ben are alienated together by those normal people. She is in a dilemma. As Ben and her other four children seem to be mutually exclusive of one another, she is torn into half by these two powerful forces. Being the minority in this discussion of Ben’s future, Harriet actually disagrees with David, Molly and Dorothy.
Their characters are similar in that they are both in love with wealthy young gentlemen of fortune and high circumstances, but their own fortune is of a lower class. The Bennet’s have no son in the family, thus the inheritance is passed onto a male relative, leaving the Bennets’ desolate and poor. The Dashwood’s also have no son in the family, but were left with a broken promise and a greedy woman kicking them out of their own home. The two female protagonist are unsure of their feelings for the young gentlemen: Elizabeth cynical towards true love and Elinor cautious of her feelings for another when it might impact her family. Their contrast occurs as Elinor is willing to undergo
F.R. Leavis described Hard Times as a “moral fable” that portrays the “inhumanities of Victorian civilization…as fostered and sanctioned by a hard philosophy, the aggressive formulation of an inhumane spirit.” (Leavis 234) Despite having been published in the same century, both the novels are situated in different social, economic and spatial contexts. Class distinctions and gender roles in the Regency and Victorian eras were centered on a very rigid social structure. This is the world that forms the basis of Austen’s novels. The daughter of an
When she introduces her siblings and immediately says that she is inferior to them. Bronte then says “Eliza, John and Georgiana Reed where clustered around there mamma” the “cl” sound has a very harsh acoustic texture. The sound is created at the back of the throat and creates the effect of disgust. “Clustered” also shows that John, Eliza, Georgiana and there mother are all very close, physically but also close as a family. As she doesn’t include her self in the group it shows Jane is outcast and rejected from the family.
The protagonist of The Outsider, Meursault, is estranged because he does not fit into the social norm. At the news of his mother’s demise, Meursault does not feel the agony that normal people do when hearing their parents’ deaths. His lack of emotion is further evinced by his sending his mother to the Senior’s House. In Meursault’s psyche, he feels that his mother is a burden to him. He thinks that the Senior House is a better choice for the both of them as his mother would be happier there.