Marie de France does this to criticize and combat the societal expectations and inherent inequalities in Norman England. The poem begins by Marie immediately introducing and defending herself as a writer. She declares that in her culture, People should praise anyone who wins admiring comments for herself but anywhere there is a man or a woman of great worth, people who envy their good fortune often say evil things about them. (5-10) This introduction reflects the negativity her society has against female writers. Where Marie de France comes from, many people disagree with women having power through literature.
Though, when actually examined, the females portrayed in both literary works do show signs of bravery and rebellious spirit, which represents the actual mind of authors, they are still oppressed by the patriarchal society to a large extent. In Frankenstein, superficially, most female characters are portrayed as “heaven-sent” angels (Shelley, 34). The soul of them is like “a shrine-dedicated lamp” and they are “the living spirits of love to soften and attract” (38), which are fully consistent with the image of women in people’s minds in mainstream society in the 19th century (Sunstein, 4). Nonetheless, the weaknesses of them, which are used by the author to criticize the unfairness of the society, cannot be neglected. The two main female characters in Frankenstein: Caroline and Elizabeth are carefully analyzed in this essay, and from Frankenstein’s narration of them, we can see the author’s deep thinking and criticism about the unfairness of society.
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."
Margaret Atwood’s speech “Spotty Handed Villainesses” explores Patriarchy, feminism and “bad” women in literature. She uses wit and humour to disarm the audience and often uses anti-climatic statements to grab the audience’s attention. Margaret Atwood’s speech resonates through time with her critical study of feminism in a social context and the impact that feminism has had on literature. In the speech Atwood explores the moral dichotomy that exists in Women at the time. She shows how women can only be categorised as either an angel or a whore.
Catherine, ignorant to politics, is dealt another contemporary element of the time. The struggles with modernity extend 200 years in to 1996, the year of publishment of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Bridget is influenced by what she reads, the same as Catherine; and her genre of literature is also contemporary for the age. The struggle with the contemporary for the female heroines can be thus considered universally relatable and a case for Austen’s work’s lasting popularity. Her first work, of course, being Northanger Abbey.
Joel Arpin Prof Karl Anderson English Com & Lit 102-05 March 3, 2013 A Feminist Theme Comparison of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ & ‘Trifles’ This exposition should convince the reader that there are clear underlying feminist themes connecting Trifles and The Yellow Wallpaper. The foremost common themes in these stories address the patriarchal dominance of an earlier -turn of the century- society and the demoralizing effect it has on the lives and emotional wellbeing of the women in the stories. The male characters are portrayed as domineering yet clueless authority figures who maintain their position certainly by virtue of their gender. Being a product of Victorian mores, the men are almost subconsciously dismissive of the female intellect, regarding it as childish and inferior. The women are casualties of a domestic prison, a prison for the mind, created by society and their husbands, who are victims themselves in their own way, of a Gilded Age mindset.
Nevertheless, Elizabeth Barrett Browning advocates that the strength of love can help overcome the obstacles. In contrast, F. Scott Fitzgerald sees the world dissolved in excessive corruption shown through The Great Gatsby as it exemplifies the failure of the American Dream as well as the broken world where love struggles to exist. Love through the two texts is shown to be powerful and necessary for fulfilment. The love presented through the Sonnets from the Portuguese suggests that her life was completely changed as a result of the dominance of love. Prior to this her life was shown as dark and deathly through the personification of the “mystic shape” that moves behind her.
With these lines Olds takes the female body, a subject that has been overly abused by past poets who glorified a woman’s anatomy as a possession and a prize, and contorts the sometimes iconic symbol into a reality: a reality which feels pain, but also gives life. It is this element, which I find my greatest personal connection to the poem, the fact that women are capable of putting their bodies through agony for the life of another. It is inspiring yet terrifying. In addition to my personal connections to “The Language of the Brag,” I believe there exists many elements that prove significant to the lives of all women, as Olds demonstrates the progression of women into developing their own definition, apart from what has been prescribed. The part that left me a bit stunted from this poem was when she mentions names such as “Alan Ginsberg” and “Walt Whitman,”(1280).
Adams continues his onslaught of anti-matriarchal values and sexism by upholding “his commitment to the social hierarchy…based on the belief that women along with other disenfranchised groups must remain subordinate because they lack the capacity for reason, and therefore, for the responsible use of liberty” (Martin 332). His wife, Abigail Adams, resorts to feebly admitting and even pleading, “That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly
Competitiveness within the women seems to push the women to judge what is right and wrong, based on jealousy and envy as much as religious and social morals. We also see this competitive spirit forming moral judgment and actions in Edith Wharton's story, "Roman Fever", where again, the focus is the moral decisions made by women and the male is blameless. As the story unfolds we learn that both ladies, in their youth, loved Delphin Slade, and Mrs. Slade realized this and thought of Mrs. Ansley as a threat. For this, she had always considered Mrs. Ansley an adversary, "Would she never cure herself of envying her?" (Wharton, 1072) The story evolves to paint the picture of a female competition in which Delphin is but a pawn, blameless and controllable by women.