This reflects the patriarchal society at the time. Therefore, Browning uses literary techniques to reflect and challenge the accepted gender roles in society during the Victorian Era. Similarly, this concept is also explored in “The Professor”. The narrator, William Crimsworth’s condescending tone when describing women, “their dresses were pleasing enough to the eye but their conversation was meaningless”, portrays how he believed they were only physically attractive. He considered them inferior in terms of their intellectual capacities.
Marxists and Functionalists agree with the purpose of religion being a conservative force. Marx and Durkheim share the assumption that religion was a product of society and that it is a conservative force. They both agree that religion is in the interest of the ruling class. The evidence that supports the marxist perspective is that the church of england has traditionally been seen as the 'conservative party at prayer' . Evidence that criticises the marxist perspective states that there are many instances where religious leaders or movements have challenged the established order and help promote change.
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.
Browning contrasts the Duke’s representation of the duchess with the factual representation emphasising the Duke’s manic state and causing the audience to strongly oppose the duke as a person. Men feel the need to retain their pride in relationships which reflects the social attitudes and patriarchal values of the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era was a time of a changing social attitudes and people felt insecure and questioned their dominance with an increased male ego. This is evident in Browning’s portrayal of the Duke in “My Last Duchess”. Browning contrasts the happiness of the duchess with by providing imagery of nature, “Bough of cherries” and “orchard” with the dark, manic mind of the duke.
Atwood’s portrayal of a dystopian society criticizes the present day attitudes towards women and the exaggerations depicted in the novel can be the result of the inequality between men and women today. The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel that covers the backlash of feminism. It depicts how common attitudes towards women are brought down in an extremist way. “In order to offer women “freedom from” they must give up their “freedom to”... the only offered alternatives to rape and exploitation.” (Prattas 5) In the novel, the Pre-Giledean society was considered to be a dystopia for women where they feared physical and emotion violence. The current Giledean society is to protect them from such fear and is actively promoted through re-education centres run by Aunts.
This could be linked to the Marxist idea that would believe that Celie’s circumstances with her father and lack of education is a result of the class she is in, Marxists would believe that her oppression is down to the class she was born into. The oppression between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie could also be linked in with the relationships between men and women within the novel The Colour Purple was made into a film in 1985 with many famous actors and actresses playing the characters, this is an interesting adaptation of the 1982 novel though some critics felt that the director choice of Steven Spielberg was poor for such a complex drama and that the film left out important aspects of the novel, such as the theme of lesbianism. "Well, next time you come you can look at her. She ugly. Don't even look like she kin to Nettie.
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.
His use of the setting relates to and reflects on Tess’s feelings towards Victorian society and their views. During the Victorian era the role of a woman was criticised highly. People in Victorian society viewed women differently than how we do today. It was frowned upon for women to have illegitimate babies thus being secluded to society. This may be the reason why Tess’s natural, simplistic character had later become a victim of society.
Life Without Love or Independence? In Jane Eyre and Hard Times, women are portrayed in a negative light throughout their respected novels; females are represented as being second class citizens to their male counterparts, and are unable to have a thought of their own. The traditional views of Victorian era gender roles are both enforced through the outside portrayal of the women that do not fit the mold of the ideal Victorian women yet is also subverted by the feelings the women feel when they left their bonds, or the consequences of living in the suffering of the gender misogamy they endure over their lifestyle. By expressing the men through traditional Victorian masculine characteristics such as being powerful and dominant to their meek and loyal female counterparts, the novels establish early on the barrier that the protagonists struggle with merely being female. In the novels, women are treated like second class citizens when compared to men and are expected to be content with this Victorian idea of patriarchal domination.
Assignment 1a: Beliefs in Society ”Religion is more a cause of conflict than of harmony in society.” To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view? (33 marks) Feminists agree that religion serves to maintain the status quota, however they believe that means maintaining patriarchy. Feminists most religions as patriarchal, meaning that religion is 'male dominated', they also view religion as actively oppressing women in order to maintain patriarchy. Examples of this include Aldridge's (2007) findings in the Qur'an, noting that women are legally inferior to men and lacking the same rights as their husbands. This example can be seen by feminists as maintaining patriarchy in society so that women have less or different rights to men, meaning that men have more freedom to do what they want, while women are observed much more closely.