Victoria motherhood is about making sacrifices and a strict adherence to morality. How far do you agree with the view that both Nora in Ibsen’s a dolls house and Mrs Arbuthnot in Wildes a woman of no importance are victims of a society biased in favour of men. In both “A Woman Of no Importance” and “A Doll’s House” Ibsen and Wilde present the victimisation of women in Victorian society, who were biased to men, in different ways. The Victorian ideologies that women were expected to follow where very restrictive in comparison to the twenty-first century views. The ideologies focus on domestic roles that a woman should partake in.
To what extent does Lady Windermere’s Fan offer serious criticism of contemporary social and sexual conventions? In Lady Windermere’s Fan, Oscar Wilde bitingly satirizes and ridicules the morals of Victorian London High Society and focuses particularly on the aspects of marriage. The play is a juxtaposition both comical and serious subject matters. Wilde examines sexual morality and gender politics throughout the play, especially through both of the characters of Cecil Graham, a typical caricature of the upper class and Mrs Erlynne, a lost character who is no longer accepted into society due to her reputation. Wilde criticizes the society he lives in during the time he wrote the play and uses characters to emphasize the inequalities of double standards mainly between the gender roles and how London High Society during that particular era was hard to get in to but easy to become an outcast.
Although, highly engrossed in medieval concepts of patriarchy, Romantic poets like S.T Coleridge, John Keats’ fraction of work silhouettes range in the attributes of Feminism. They are; liberty of thought, freedom of expression and equality in social hierarchy with men. The role of women in society, in early 18th century and before, portrays a dismal picture as far as their liberty, social status and gender equality is concerned. Medieval culture, deep rooted in religion, had kept woman at bay from the mainstream economic, political and societal activities. She was a threat to the male chauvinism and was condemned as a weaker, inferior sort of being.
For example, turning down Mr. Collins may demonstrateher as a no-brainer woman among the society at that time. But by rejecting him, this suggests that Elizabeth places her own judgment over social pressures to comfort. In spite of the fact that she has been forced to get married with Mr. Collins by her mother, she persists to her strong position of rejecting his proposal. Plus, although Lady Catherine tries to strong-arm her into rejecting any proposal from Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth gets angry and asks her to get away. Hence, it can be noticed how Austen stresses on the empowerment of women through Elizabeth’s
Bronte may have done this simply to illustrate how Catherine will always have strong emotions towards Heathcliff regardless of their differences in wealth and background. This could be seen as a gothic element as it forebodes an unsuccessful relationship as this would disagree with the social norms at the time. Alternatively this could be seen as Bronte’s authorial voice commenting on the shallowness of society and how two people cannot be
As Victorians viewed pregnancy outside of wedlock, scandalous and the woman’s fault, she was ostracised by society. This belief came from the Christian view that women should be pure and untainted. As the novel transpires from Tess’ point of view, the audience sees her version of events, and in doing so, the rape. Hardy shows us that he disagreed with the biblical view of women, and highlights the fact that society has not taken into account the woman’s view. ‘’Where was Tess’ guardian angel’’ Hardy asks at the scene in the woods, showing that god was not watching over and did not intervene to help Tess.
She praises Rhys for not sacrificing Antoinette, a woman from the colonies as in insane animal. Spivak reads Bronte’s novel as an allegory of the general epistemic violence of imperialism, the construction of the social mission of the colonizer (Gayatri 251). Critics like Gita Ranjan and Radhika Mohanram who opine that Rhys by penning down the prequel, directs “future readers to envisage Victorian Britain as dependent upon her colonies, just as Bronte’s Jane depends upon a colonial inheritance” (49). So not just in the connection of personal level of Antoinette’s stories, Rhys’ novel also goes for the historical exchanges between two nations, namely England and Jamaica, one being colonizer and the other being the colonized respectively.
Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession is a socially introspective and morally thought-provoking play that was written by George Bernard Shaw in 1898. The play reflects on several important themes concerning life in Victorian society. Through the characters of Mrs. Warren, whose fortune turns out throughout the story to be found on the management of high-class brothels, and her daughter Vivie, whose rejection of the gender standards of the Victorian era make her 'unfeminine' by society's standards, one comes to comprehend the gender and economical class structure of this era better. As Shaw himself stated with regard to the play, prostitution is not caused by the depravation of the female or the lust of the male, but simply by "underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together" (Powell 229). In short, Mrs. Warren's Profession is a reflection, through the main characters, on the era's class, gender, and economical structure that together fuel corruption and immorality in society.
Stereotypical Femme Fatale as Depicted in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret The issue regarding how woman is portrayed in literary works such as novel, poetry, or drama has been becoming one of the most interesting topics to be discussed until today. Each work represents its period and how society in that period in seeing woman. Victorian literature has its own way in representing woman. Some of the stereotypical gender roles we can easily found in many Victorian literatures are the portrayal of women as the angel in the house and the fallen angel. The angel in the house is the perfect helpmate as it was presented in Charles Dickens' Agnes Wickfield (David Copperfield) or Esther Summerson (Bleak House).
Carol Nguyen English Literature Q: Explore Carol Ann Duffy's reversal of traditional gender roles in her collection of 'The World's Wife' with a particular focus on the poems 'Little Red Cap', 'Mrs Beast' and 'The Kray Sisters'. Carol Ann Duffy challenges traditional gender roles through the satirical subversion of classical myths in her collection 'The World's Wife.' Duffy employs a critical feminist tone in order to place emphasis upon the female perspective and undermine societal perceptions of women within literature as 'cute but essentially hopeless.' She aims to invert the stereotypical gender roles by reinterpreting the archetypal 'female' through empowering the voices of the female character whom would usually be overshadowed by males. Although, it has been disputed that Duffy's poetry is misandrist due to her dismissive persona towards men.