Year of Wonders “The plague will make heroes of us all, whether we will or no” ‘Year of Wonders’ by Geraldine Brooks explores the fearful and heroic way the villagers in Eyam respond to a crisis. As the plague outbreaks, the villagers are faced with immense challenges, as some are forced to show courage and compassion, whereas others are seen as selfish and uncharitable. Brook contrasts the strength of women and their heroic gestures to the weaknesses of men as the villagers are faced with great tragedies. It is made evident that the women in the novel are the powerful support network of the community. Anna Frith the protagonist of the novel is viewed as heroic as she is “a woman who has faced more terrors than many warriors.” (p.15) Anna is faced with the death of her husband Sam Frith and her children Tom and Jamie as she has “tended so many bodies, people I loved and people I barely knew” (p.8) This shows the beginning Anna’s strengths, as she deals with the bodies of those killed by the plague and shows her willingness and courage to help others.
Virginia Woolf was a person that went through tough times and suffered break downs within her own insanity which were probably caused by her family life. Her Mother Father and Sister all dying within a short space of time, she claimed to be haunted by voices often masculine which would explain her constant attack of the Victorian male culture and imperialistic traits. What Virginia Woolf does so well is convey everyday reality into a form that is unreachable by so many authors. To The Lighthouse is a text in which in all honesty nothing much happens, but the way in which she describes this nothingness is genius and often somewhat offensive to some subcultures. For example her portrayal of Mr Ramsay who relies on his intellectual ability and Edwardian views.
Her change at the end of the play could show that she’s isn’t an outsider, as she now has her own opinion and her own voice like many of the other characters within the play. Her silence at the beginning of the play can be perceived differently by different audiences. An Elizabethan audience would find her silence perfectly normal, as women didn’t have a say in society and were expected only to obey their husbands. Emilia herself knows her role in society as some have said ‘She accepts her social role. But she does not agree with it.’ – Eileen Abrahams.
Sylvia Plath’s first and only novel ‘The Bell Jar’ focuses on the protagonist and narrator Esther Greenwood; The Bell Jar is a story of how Esther descends into a dark and depressive state and how she eventually overcomes the illness, even if it was not permanent. The theme of female oppression is highlighted throughout the rest of the novel. The novel also highlights the idea that the people that surround you can push you to conform, even though you do not want to, for instance Esther’s mother constantly attempts to force Esther into a stereotypically female job such as a short-hander, the idea that women are only suitable for easier, less fulfilling professions. The protagonist, Esther, explains her desire to explore and rebel against the ‘norm’ for woman in the 1950’s society. "The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from.
They try to act professionally like the other Americans, especially the young daughter Lin. Even though the young daughter Lin has failed sometimes, but through it she is being changed her minds and personalities by the struggle of adaptation. The young daughter Lin says, “I understood the message, the Gleasons were not used to Chinese ways, and they were just coping the best they could” (Namioka). Because of the challenge, the young daughter Lin knows that everyone is the same when they try to learn something new. Overcoming the obstacle of adaptation is not as hard as the young daughter Lin’s thoughts because as long as she tries her best, everything is going to be okay.
The main points in Professor Smith's essay are that the female characters are there only to reflect the male characters, and that the Frankenstein family has a weird style of living, which she describes as a "bookkeeping mentality" (Smith 279). Smith begins her essay by looking at the historical factors that may have contributed to this seemingly sexist book. Shelley, writing in the first half of the 19th Century, was in a period in which a woman "was conditioned to think she needed a man's help" (Smith 275). In the novel itself, no women speak directly. The book has three basic narrators: Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein's monster.
The professor sees a problem in her student that Bearing is completely oblivious. She instructs Bearing to go outside and enjoy herself with other people she cares about. As instructed, Bearing makes a valid attempt, but unfortunately, she just cannot relate to other students. Obviously, Bearing’s life started revolving around her studies at a very early age. By the time Bearing is a well-known professor, it’s apparent that wit and intellect are the most important aspects of her life.
In the play A Doll’s House, the main character Nora Helmer is definitely an admirable person. Although she was subservient and flighty in the beginning, she went through a dramatic change during the play. Nora is admirable for having the courage to make a radical change in her life. It shows how she developed into a wiser, more determined woman who learns to respect herself. Because of logical reasons, Nora Helmer was right to abandon her children and she is admirable.
In “Little Women: Alcott’s Civil War” (1979), Judith Fetterly argues that the four sisters of Alcott’s Little Women (1868) are denied their dreams because “Little women marry, however, not only because they lack economic options, but because they lack emotional options as well. Old maidhood obliterates little womanhood and the fear of being an old maid is a motivating force in becoming a little woman” (377). I conclude that these strong women chose their life outcomes due to their own maturation. Maturation is realizing things we wanted before aren’t always what we will want in the end, a trait Meg exhibits when she comes to realization about loving Mr. Brooke. Meg’s dream was to be rich so that she would not have to work, with “a lovely house, full of all sorts of luxurious things; nice food, pretty clothes, handsome furniture, pleasant people, and heaps on money”(140).
She had a different approach to things because of her past. When she was raped, she was afraid all boys would want to have sex with her. Her first real friend, Louise, helped her by letting her act like a girl for once. Marguerite grew stronger, more experienced, and less naïve during the story. She still had a lot to learn, but she lived out her childhood to the fullest and embraced who she was, whereas at the beginning of the story she wanted to be pretty and white.