Merely Teasing Charlotte Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” both demonstrate how society, at the turn of the century, seemed to make women feel enclosed or trapped. The narrator in “Yellow Wallpaper” and the main character in Chopin’s story, Louise Mallard share many of the same desires and characteristics. Their desire to get out and be independent eventually gets them punished. In both stories, it is clear that the narrator or character is a female. From the way the narrator talks in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” describing her husband and house and the decorations, it is obvious she is a female.
She does this in order to show how the obsession that the girlchild has with her own body was one of the largest factors in the suicide. Another one of the stereotypes that Piercy draws upon is their behavior. Piercy describes how the girlchild was told to “play coy.” This describes the societal pressure of what is stereotypically “lady-like.” She was “advised” to act as other ladies would act, and she tried to the furthest extent she could manage. She attempted to act demure and sweet, which was the only thing society allowed for. The term
Margaret Atwood’s speech “Spotty Handed Villainesses” explores Patriarchy, feminism and “bad” women in literature. She uses wit and humour to disarm the audience and often uses anti-climatic statements to grab the audience’s attention. Margaret Atwood’s speech resonates through time with her critical study of feminism in a social context and the impact that feminism has had on literature. In the speech Atwood explores the moral dichotomy that exists in Women at the time. She shows how women can only be categorised as either an angel or a whore.
Therefore, Maria was an innocent victim of the French corruption that nicknamed her Madame Deficit despite she often gave examples of almsgiving. As Campan observed in her Memoirs of Maria Antoinette, when she married the dauphin, Maria Antoinette was a frightened adolescence who had to defend herself from the enemies of the court. And it was exactly “the mistreatment undergo everyday that made her decide to enjoy life, organize parties, look beautiful and avoid the senseless rule of the French etiquette.”12 Those logical wishes for a 19 year old were used by pamphlets as a way to damage even more the reputation of Maria Antoinette. In fact they exaggerated by assuring that “in one day Maria was able to spend more money than a thousand peasants living in Paris.”13 This was a pure calumny. Though it must be admitted that when Maria Antoinette became queen she refused to understand the privileges that came with the position, she was not the responsible for the poverty and the high inflation of France.
In Eudora Welty’s “Why I live at P.O.”, Sister, the narrator, tries to alter the viewpoints of the reader to shape their interpretations to match the bias and the animosity towards the family. People often allow their perceptions to be influenced by a self-serving bias that can jade the depth of reality. In her reality, Sister is the victim that gets ridiculed by her family especially her sister Stella-Rondo whom she harbors a jealousy. Sister claims her life was “fine” before Stella-Rondo shows up and interrupts everything. She describes Stella-Rondo be inconsistent and unstable based on her being spoiled when they were children.
The workers speak of her, basically, as Curley’s problem that needs to stay at home away from the other workers. She opens herself up to Crooks and Lennie because they possess equal amounts of powerlessness as she does. Curley’s wife feeds off of character’s insecurities, so she can strengthen herself against harm. At the end Curley’s wife’s powerlessness shows greatly when she is strangled at the hands of Lennie who she tries to seduce. This just shows how women then were little to any powerful.
In this famous novel, Blanche Dubois goes to live with her sister Stella Kowalski. She has to tell her sister the bad news that she lost their family home, Belle Reve, and also took off from her teaching job due to her bad nerves. This is the first indication of Blanche’s insanity. She is clearly unaware because she says, “Is there something wrong with me?” Another sign is Blanche’s horrible drinking habit, which research shows can lead to making horrible decisions and can alter ones life. “Both Blanche’s drinking and her endless hot baths suggest that she is attempting to wash away her past and emerge through a sort of watery purgatory.” Stanley, Stella’s husband, does not really like Blanche and accuses her of being crazy, which is an accurate description.
She desperately clings to the ideal vision of a youthful, romantic life at Belle Reve when faced with the reality of New Orleans. Upon entering the “horrible place” where her sister lives, Blanche insists that Stella immediately “turn that over-light off” (19). The “merciless glare” of reality shocks Blanche; she would not dare allow her true body and character “to be looked at” in open light (19). Blanche fabricates a lustful, desiring character during her date with Mitch. With “the lights off,” Blanche successfully makes sexual innuendos under the pretext of an “old-fashioned,” high-class lady (87, 91).
Hopefully the audience will understand that Steinbeck's social criticism implies that he is using the book as a metaphor in order to make a point. For instance, he shows the way Curley's wife was treated in order to how show badly women were treated in many circumstances at that time. Throughout the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays women in a horrible manner; he shows them as unintelligent and unimportant figures. All of the women, including Curley's wife, Lennies Aunt Clara, Clara, Suzy and the women at Clara's bar are shown in this unintelligent and un respectful way. There are many quotes that show this in the book and also information that is understood from the book but not actually written by John Steinbeck.
This theme is found in The Glass Menagerie by the mother, Amanda. She constantly criticized Tom and Laura and treated them like little kids. An example of this was found in the beginning of the play when she consistently critiqued the way Tom was eating. He eventually abandoned his dinner and left the table. In The Life You Save May Be Your Own, the old Lucynell Crater desires so much to rid herself from her daughter that she is desperate enough to throw her on a random man that does not love her.