Catherine, ignorant to politics, is dealt another contemporary element of the time. The struggles with modernity extend 200 years in to 1996, the year of publishment of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Bridget is influenced by what she reads, the same as Catherine; and her genre of literature is also contemporary for the age. The struggle with the contemporary for the female heroines can be thus considered universally relatable and a case for Austen’s work’s lasting popularity. Her first work, of course, being Northanger Abbey.
Iron Jawed Angels Women’s role in the early twentieth century began to transform from only a housewife, to housewives, nurses, politicians, soldiers, suffragists etc. Female suffragists in the 1900s began encouraging the spread of feminist ideas, all over the country. It was during this Third Great Awakening era that many social reforms took place due to campaigns by suffragists. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were suffragists who changed women’s role during the twentieth century by holding suffrage campaigns and forming organizations. Alice Paul was born on January 11, 1885, to a wealthy businessman, and the President of the Burlington County Trust Company in New Jersey.
Nicole McCray Dr. Davis POL-100 10/08/12 Alice Paul Alice Paul was one of the most significant figures in the movement to secure women’s rights in America. As educated, Paul used radical political strategies to produce favorable results for the Women’s Suffrage movement. Her militant actions eventually led to the ratification of the 19th amendment which secured women’s right to vote. Alice was born in Paulsdale on Jan 11, 1885 to William and Tacie Paul who eventually had two more children after Alice. Alice’s parents were Quakers, and instilled their religious beliefs into her.
The Life and Times of E.B.B. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) During the early nineteenth century, feminists were first coming out into the political forefront. Among them, Elizabeth Barrett Browning emerged as one the greatest woman writers of all time. She wrote of "social reform, for the rights of lower classes and women, and for the cause of Italian freedom (Lewis)." While many aspects and circumstances of life affected her work, she was also able to effect society in many ways.
A simple example of this is the fact that her mother’s name is Helen, the name of the famously beautiful woman who began the Trojan War. More allegoric references, such as Alison equating her life to that of Homer’s Odysseus, require more in-depth analysis. She thinks of her life as a journey. She specifically compares her procrastination in completing assigned reading to Odysseus’s delays in his journey. On the page prior to the last page of the book, Alison refers to her life as an “inverted oedipal complex”.
In regards to the franchise, women’s political status has changed the most - women have been granted the vote on an equal footing with men, making this the most extensive and indisputable change. In 1868, whilst the skilled working classes could vote, women were excluded until 1918 and gained political equality in 1928. Forster’s education Act of 1870 emancipated women by allowing them to vote in school board elections, allowing them an opportunity to quell rumors of their emotional states rendering them unable to vote rational, giving them a stimulus for pressure group campaigns. By 1918, women were partially involved in the franchise - an extremely significant change as it made Parliament more representative of the population and increased the proportion of society that politicians were accountable too. Ergo this reform led to women being a focal point in policy, providing legislation as early as 1919 - a Sex Disqualification act and later the 1970 Equal Pay act.
In the nineteenth century, in America, the role women would play in our society began to change dramatically. This was the beginning of a whole new world for women, and America in general. Women began to realize that there were opportunities for them outside of the home, and that they could have a place in the world as well as men. It was a time when the feministic view was being born and traditional views of women were changing. First, women would play a part in working to help slaves gain their freedom in the anti-slavery movement.
Meghan O’Brien Mrs. Richardson AP English 4 January 2013 Prompt C: Foil Every author has a purpose to his or her writing; the grammar, syntax, and diction are used throughout to portray a lasting impression. Charlotte Bronte does this in her well known novel, Jane Eyre; her ability to build characters such as Helen from Lowood Institution compels readers to fall in love with the tragic tale, the main character, Jane Eyre experiences. Helen highlights Jane’s weaknesses by emphasizing the differences they share, such as Helen’s inward spirit and outward submission when reprimanded. Once arriving at Lowood Institution, Jane Eyre soon finds a companion who, unlike her, seeks the goodness in everyone and never patronizes anyone for their
Looking deeper into the novel with an historical perspective, it becomes clear that Chopin uses the identity crisis Edna Pontellier was having as a wife, mother, and woman to symbolize the expressed views of millions of women during the Women’s Right Movement of the 1800’s. In the late 1800’s, women of a Victorian Society was expected to marry according to their father’s religious beliefs. Women of this era are believed “not in capacity to judge for themselves”. The Victorian Society felt it was a woman’s place to [“abide by the decisions of their fathers…as confidently as by that of the church”] (Wollstonecraft, 1975, p.87). In “The Awakening”, Chopin challenges society’s expectations of marriage when Edna marries Leonce Pontellier in “violent opposition of her father” (Chopin, 1899, p.35), for Leonce was a catholic and Edna’s father was Presbyterian.
Amy Heckerling’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma” has transformed a 19th century classic English novel into a teen flick romcom film of the 20th century entitled “Clueless”. Despite the vastly different historical settings and societal values of the two texts, Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless” still retains the essential values of the original text by adapting these values into a modern society of our time and a modern audience of our age. Comparatively through the themes of class and social structure and the attitudes towards love and marriage, a greater insight can be gained of the context in which it appropriates further enhanced by the use of satire and irony employed by both composers. “Emma” by Jane Austen was written in the Regency period of the 1800s; a time of inequality as it featured a wide gap between the rich and the poor while at the same time a rise in the merchant middle class. In response to this context, Austen tends to satirise the common source of power by creating a microcosmic world of a genteel community evolving round a “handsome, clever and rich” young woman who "seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence."