In The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter reverses gothic traditions so that the males become the victims instead of the females. Consider at least two of the stories in the bloody chamber in the light of this view. The gender constructs of passive, young, virginal woman who are victimised by dominant, strong and wealthy males is a common trait throughout gothic tales including many of Angela Carters short stories from “The Bloody Chamber”. However, Carter received the criticism of “[extracting] latent content, conjuring up a new exotic hybrid” in which she challenges the typical stereotypes of gothic conventions, influenced by her feminist nature. These caused the post modern versions of her stories to adopt dualisms of combining sexual desires with naivety and give alternative interpretations that perhaps the male characters suffered victimisation instead.
Fitzgerald openly shows his opinion that women generally have low moral qualities, and demonstrates this by the actions and speech illustrated by the three main female characters in the novel; Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson. His portrayal of them appears to expose a disturbing, misogynistic view of women in the 1920’s. Others would say this is not the case and his approach to how he presents the women has a much deeper meaning therefore implying that Fitzgerald could in fact be a feminist. In my essay I will discuss how I feel that Fitzgerald’s experiences with women are mirrored throughout the novel and undoubtedly display his general ‘underlying hatred’ for the female kind in the Jazz Age through his constant implications of the negative characteristics women possess. Like the central character of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald had an intensely romantic imagination; he once called it "a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life."
Forster’s use of a pastoral setting, poetical language and characterisation of Lucy seem to restrict her as a feminist just as criminally as Cecil’s idealised portrayal of ‘Lucy as a piece of art’, leaving the reader with an unfulfilled and disappointing protagonist. Therefore one would agree with Freida Lawrence’s opinion: ‘your women I don’t understand. You seem to dislike them much’, as well as Rae H. Stoll’s, who finds Forster’s fiction misogynous, as Forster lack of sympathy towards feminism is only too obvious to the 20th century critiques (Lawrence) and to today’s modern critiques (Stoll). ‘A room with a View’ is a novel in which the contextual influence of the emerging feminist movement, such as the Women's Social and Political Union, during the early 20th century is obviously present, revealing Foresters acute awareness of the social change in which he was writing. However despite these feminist influences, Forster is recorded to have been critical of his close friend, Virginia Woolf’s writing, arguing that ‘there are spots of it all over her work, and it was constantly on her mind’.
This sets up the binary opposition of male and female, which helps mold the main tenant of Jane’s interpretation of the wallpaper: there is a woman being held back by complexities. It fits into the binary opposition insofar as the woman is held back by her desires and complexities because the man forces her to repress them. Beauvoir explains that women are confronted with binary oppositions as far as what a woman is. (1266) She says that, “if woman is depicted as the Praying Mantis, the Mandrake, the Demon, then it is most confusing to
A time when the banner of patriarchy flew over the bonnets of subjugated females. A time when you could choose either to conform, or face social rejection. Some women preferred to rebel in their own graceful ways, but most exacerbated their oppression with frivolous attitudes and behaviors. Beginning with the witty opening phrase, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 3), the author perpetuates a note on the status of the one track mind held by the female gender of this time. As exemplified in Pride and Prejudice with characters like Mrs. Bennet and her child, Lydia, many ladies put money above love when it came to the subject of marriage.
All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man. (Brontë 31) 1 Monika Roncová, 2bpAnSv She and her sisters chose sexually neutral pennames (Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell) and Anne was surprised at the harsh criticism or disapproval she received when suspected that she might be a woman. (Senf, 447) Helen’s confrontations Early marriage years Anne presents us modern shocking views of
A View of Women Through Language As in life, individuals have different opinions and react differently in certain situations. This is also true in literature among authors. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both authors have different opinions and sympathies towards women. Miller is not sympathetic towards them, where as Hawthorne is. These different opinions are present in the personalities of the women characters’ personalities and their actions.
By having a female narrator, ‘Atwood turns the traditionally masculine dystopian genre upside down’ Howell sees Offred as a narrator who disrupts and subverts the very genre of fiction she constructs. It is ironic then that within the novel, Offred’s character is restricted with regard to her freedom. This restriction can be seen in relation to her name which the reader discovers is not her own name but one given to her to show her belonging to Fred (Offred being the derivative “of Fred”). Having something as personal as her name changed to indicate male ownership is
Working with Secondary Sources After reading both articles I came to realize they were both very different. The article titled Roman Women written by Gillian Clark was a more broad approach of explaining the life of a Roman women and it clearly explained point of views. The other article titled the position of Women in the Late Roman Republic Part II was very detailed with a lot of names and I found it difficult to follow and understand what was trying to be expressed. To me the article I found helpful for painting the perfect picture of Ancient Roman women was the article titled “Roman Women”. The “Roman Women” to me was a great article to read for getting a better understanding of what it was actually like to be a woman back in ancient
However, Desdemona is also depicted as aggressive and opposing to Shakespeare’s context through Othello’s story. Othello explains that Desdemona has “with a greedy ear, devour[ed] up [his] discourse.” This metaphorical characteristic of Desdemona challenges cultural assumptions about women in Shakespeare’s context. When Desdemona speaks for herself, in a very assertive and intellectual manner she states, “I did love the Moor to live with him”. This statement expands on Desdemona’s sexual nature. Shakespeare has challenged his own context in this scene, providing an opportunity for Orson Wells to also develop a controversial Desdemona – appropriate to his own context.