Character Sketch Cathy Ames East of Eden Cathy Ames was a very interesting character in the book, East of Eden. She was the antagonist in the book. In my opinion Cathy was a very deceiving person. Also, she manipulated many characters from the beginning to the end of the book. She killed her parents because they were to worried about her life, and set up the scene where they were killed to lead to believe that Cathy was murdered.
women's lives are individually trivial, and their only strength and/or success can come from banding together" (1). Such assertion construes women through male social law and endorses the masculine value system. But, as illustrated in the ironically-named Trifles, where male calumny proved misfortune as the women used domestic intuition and invisibility to supersede the law in the name of justice, Susan Glaspell shows that during this time period, women held a kind of power. This “power” is delicate and one of the key themes in Trifles. Although critics disagree on how the vastly different gender perceptions within the play are used to portray the theme of women’s power within law and justice, all of their arguments tie back to the fact that the women in the story act as a surrogate for the female society of that time, showing them that they have more power than they realize.
Earlier in the life of Aunt Tam, “some man jumped” (186) on her and nearly took away her purity. Women are taken advantage of in a “place [that is] deserted” (186) and cannot defend themselves. Society looks down upon them and gives not respect if the women are sexually attacked unwillingly. The story of Aunt Tam displays the gender stereotype that women are victimized and powerless. After Aunt Tam fought and “resisted with every bone” (186) in her body, she runs away, symbolizing the rise of women.
udged by modern Western standards, the treatment of women by men in Homer's Odyssey can be characterized as sexist. Women in Homer's Odyssey are judged mainly by their looks. If important men and gods consider a woman beautiful, or if her son or husband is a hero or has an important position such as king, the woman is successful. The way women in The Odyssey are treated is based on appearance, the things men want from them, and whether the woman has any power over men. During Odysseus' journey to the underworld he sees many different types of women.
Perhaps, because she saved one life, the rest would have to fall. Her actions led to terrible suffering for Creon and his family; almost like a curse. Haemon, her fiancé, was so in love with her that he actually fought with his father, the King, for her rights. When he could not do anything about Antigone being buried alive, he stabbed himself out of grief for his love with Antigone and anger towards his father. Because of the son’s death, Creon’s wife, too, killed herself out of grief.
This vindictive hatred from Abigail soon prompts a witch hunt involving many innocent people: “Twelve have already hanged for the same crime.” While many panics, John Procter knows this from the start ; “this is a whore’s vengeance”. He tersely identifies the main cause for the witch trials to be directly linked with a spurned lover, who has become disemployed by Procter after having a brief extra-marital affair with her. Still overwhelmed with lustful feelings for John Procter, Abigail decides to manipulate the situation by accusing innocent people of witchcraft, to achieve her own revengeful goal. Abigail is not the only one who takes advantage of the witch trials, to accomplish their revenge. Thomas and Ann Putnam, as a resentful and greedy couple, will take it out on anyone who has caused them trouble.
Lady Macbeth is not satisfied with power, as soon as there is an additional opportunity for abundant power Lady Macbeth is committed to getting that power by any means necessary, moral or immoral. She desires for her husband to gutlessly murder King Duncan and expects him to be mentally stable after the murder. However, she is the one who is driven to complete insanity because of all the killing that Macbeth is doing and all the bloodshed that the pair has caused. This is essentially Lady Macbeths fault as she bestowed her corrupt morals onto Macbeth. She shaped the mindset that it was necessary to murder someone who trusts you for more power and accordingly she changed Macbeth’s way of thinking.
We as a society may change things, such as laws and how we view women in the workforce, but sexism will always be a part of our society because of stereotyping and men will downplay women in any way we see fit to hold them at a lower lever, because they need power. Men want to feel superior. To give a historical example, jobs that were once held by men, but became dominated by women, wages declined as women became more numerous. This devalued the work that women do both in dollar terms and in more subjective perceptions (pg 276). This issue leads to discrimination against men in the workforce, but this type of discrimination is "positive discrimination" as far as modern feminism is concerned.
Feminism These feminist women aim to combat both the overt and hidden discrepancies in opportunities between the genders. This unfairness stems from socially constructed differences involving men and women, which render men superior and women inferior. The greatest challenge facing women is the mindset, of both men and women, that women are condemned to inequality and restricted in their career and lifestyle opportunities. These feminists do not blame men for the predicament of women. As Virginia Woolf explains, “It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole.”(R86).
“A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf explores the concept that the power of patriarchy is an illusion that may be nurtured or destroyed. The patriarchy of Woolf describes has been constructed through men projecting themselves in women. ‘Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.’ Women are complicit in constructing the illusion of the patriarchy because they know and are offered no other way of life. The looking glass is symbolic of the distortion that has been constructed, in which the perceived superiority of men nurtures the inherent patriarchy present in Woolf’s society. Men may have enforced the oppression of the female gender but it could not have been done without the aid of women in upholding the illusion that the patriarchy is based on.